a good
knowledge of design, devoted himself to painting; and since he was a
person who mixed little with others, and did not care to have it known
more than was inevitable that he was giving his attention to painting,
he executed many works by himself. Meanwhile, as was related at the
beginning, Francesco Salviati came to Florence, and he worked at the
picture for M. Alamanno in the rooms that the other Francesco occupied
in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore; wherefore with that
opportunity, seeing Salviati's method of working, he applied himself to
painting with much more zeal than he had done up to that time, and
executed a very beautiful picture of the Conversion of S. Paul, which is
now in the possession of Guglielmo del Tovaglia. And after that, in a
picture of the same size, he painted the Serpents raining down on the
Hebrew people, and in another he painted Jesus Christ delivering the
Holy Fathers from the Limbo of Hell; which two last-named pictures, both
very beautiful, now belong to Filippo Spini, a gentleman who much
delights in our arts. Besides many other little works that Francesco dal
Prato executed, he drew much and well, as may be seen from some designs
by his hand that are in our book of drawings. He died in the year 1562,
and his death much grieved the whole Academy, because, besides his
having been an able master in art, there was never a more excellent man
than Francesco.

[Illustration: THE RECONCILIATION OF POPE ALEXANDER III AND FREDERICK
BARBAROSSA

(_After the fresco by =Giuseppe del Salviati [Giuseppe Porta]=. Rome:
The Vatican, Sala Regia_)

_Anderson_]

Another pupil of Francesco Salviati was Giuseppe Porta of Castelnuovo
della Garfagnana, who, out of respect for his master, was also called
Giuseppe Salviati. This Giuseppe, having been taken to Rome as a boy, in
the year 1535, by an uncle, the secretary of Monsignor Onofrio
Bartolini, Archbishop of Pisa, was placed with Salviati, under whom he
learned in a short time not only to draw very finely, but also to use
colour excellently well. He then went with his master to Venice, where
he formed so many connections with noble persons, that, being left there
by Francesco, he made up his mind that he would choose that city as his
home; and so, having taken a wife there, he has lived there ever since,
and he has worked in few other places but Venice. He painted long ago
the facade of the house of the Loredani on the Campo di S. Stefano