ling in the Great
Hall of Poggio a Caiano, a palatial villa of the Medici family, situated
between Pistoia and Florence, the charge of arranging for that work and
of paying out the money was given to the Magnificent Ottaviano de'
Medici, as to a person who, not falling short of the standard of his
ancestors, was well informed in such matters and a loving friend to all
the masters of our arts, and delighted more than any other man to have
his dwellings adorned with the works of the most excellent. Ottaviano
ordained, therefore, although the commission for the whole work had
already been given to Franciabigio, that he should have only a third,
Andrea another, and Jacopo da Pontormo the last. But it was found
impossible, for all the efforts that the Magnificent Ottaviano made to
urge them on, and for all the money that he offered and even paid to
them, to get the work brought to completion; and Andrea alone finished
with great diligence a scene on one wall, representing Caesar being
presented with tribute of all kinds of animals. The drawing for this
work is in our book, with many others by his hand; it is in chiaroscuro,
and is the most finished that he ever made. In this picture Andrea, in
order to surpass Franciabigio and Jacopo, subjected himself to
unexampled labour, drawing in it a magnificent perspective-view and a
very masterly flight of steps, which formed the ascent to the throne of
Caesar. And these steps he adorned with very well-designed statues, not
being content with having proved the beauty of his genius in the variety
of figures that are carrying on their backs all those different animals,
such as the figure of an Indian who is wearing a yellow coat, and
carrying on his shoulders a cage drawn in perspective with some parrots
both within it and without, the whole being rarely beautiful; and such,
also, as some who are leading Indian goats, lions, giraffes, panthers,
lynxes, and apes, with Moors and other lovely things of fancy, all
grouped in a beautiful manner and executed divinely well in fresco. On
these steps, also, he made a dwarf seated and holding a box containing a
chameleon, which is so well executed in all the deformity of its
fantastic shape, that it is impossible to imagine more beautiful
proportions than those that he gave it. But, as has been said, this work
remained unfinished, on account of the death of Pope Leo; and although
Duke Alessandro de' Medici had a great desire that Jacopo da Pontorm