and excellent man, but so intent on the studies
of art, that he gave little thought to the other circumstances of his
life. He was a melancholy person, and very solitary; and he died at
about the age of fifty-seven. A request for his portrait was made to
those disciples of his, who had taken it in gesso, and when I was in
Rome last year they promised it to me; but, for all the messages and
letters that I have sent to them, they have refused to give it, thus
showing little affection for their dead master. However, I have been
unwilling to be hindered by that ingratitude on their part, seeing that
Daniello was my friend, and I have included the portrait given above,
which, although it is little like him, must serve as a proof of my
diligence and of the little care and lovingness of Michele degli
Alberti and Feliciano da San Vito.

TADDEO ZUCCHERO

LIFE OF TADDEO ZUCCHERO

PAINTER OF SANT'AGNOLO IN VADO

Francesco Maria being Duke of Urbino, there was born in the township of
Sant'Agnolo in Vado, a place in that State, on the 1st of September in
the year 1529, to the painter Ottaviano Zucchero, a male child to whom
he gave the name of Taddeo; which boy having learned by the age of ten
to read and write passing well, his father took him under his own
discipline and taught him something of design. But, perceiving that his
son had a very beautiful genius and was likely to become a better master
in painting than he believed himself to be, Ottaviano placed him with
Pompeo da Fano, who was very much his friend, but a commonplace painter.
Pompeo's works not pleasing Taddeo, and likewise his ways, he returned
to Sant'Agnolo, and there, as well as in other places, assisted his
father to the best of his power and knowledge. Finally, being well grown
in years and in judgment, and perceiving that he could not make much
progress under the discipline of his father, who was burdened with seven
sons and one daughter, and also that with his own little knowledge he
could not be of as much assistance to his father as he might wish, he
went off all alone, at the age of fourteen, to Rome. There, at first,
not being known by anyone, and himself knowing no one, he suffered some
hardships; and, if he did know one or two persons, he was treated worse
by them than by the others. Thus, having approached Francesco, called
Sant'Agnolo, who was working by the day at grotesques under Perino del
Vaga, he commended himself to him with all