one, and some others were made, which are held in vast
veneration in Florence.

In this manner, then, Andrea passed without danger the time of the
plague, and those nuns received from the genius of that great man such a
work as can bear comparison with the most excellent pictures that have
been painted in our day; wherefore it is no marvel that Ramazzotto, the
captain of mercenaries of Scaricalasino, sought to obtain it on several
occasions during the siege of Florence, in order to send it to his
chapel in S. Michele in Bosco at Bologna.

On his return to Florence, Andrea executed for Beccuccio da Gambassi,
the glass-blower, who was very much his friend, a panel-picture of Our
Lady in the sky with the Child in her arms, and four figures below, S.
John the Baptist, S. Mary Magdalene, S. Sebastian, and S. Rocco; and in
the predella he made portraits from nature, which are most lifelike, of
Beccuccio and his wife. This panel is now at Gambassi, a township in
Valdelsa, between Volterra and Florence. For a chapel in the villa of
Zanobi Bracci at Rovezzano, he painted a most beautiful picture of Our
Lady suckling a Child, with a Joseph, all executed with such diligence
that they stand out from the panel, so strong is the relief; and this
picture is now in the house of M. Antonio Bracci, the son of that
Zanobi. About the same time, also, and in the above-mentioned cloister
of the Scalzo, Andrea painted two other scenes, in one of which he
depicted Zacharias offering sacrifice and being made dumb by the Angel
appearing to him, while in the other is the Visitation of Our Lady,
beautiful to a marvel.

Now Federigo II, Duke of Mantua, in passing through Florence on his way
to make obeisance to Clement VII, saw over a door in the house of the
Medici that portrait of Pope Leo between Cardinal Giulio de' Medici and
Cardinal de' Rossi, which the most excellent Raffaello da Urbino had
formerly painted; and being extraordinarily pleased with it, he
resolved, being a man who delighted in pictures of such beauty, to make
it his own. And so, when he was in Rome and the moment seemed to him to
have come, he asked for it as a present from Pope Clement, who
courteously granted his request. Thereupon orders were sent to Florence
to Ottaviano de' Medici, under whose care and government were Ippolito
and Alessandro, that he should have it packed up and taken to Mantua.
This matter was very displeasing to the Magnificent Ottaviano, who would