ill bet with him, I will put
down the money for him; but with me you shall have no bet for any money
in the world, seeing that, if I were to beat you, it would do me no
honour, and if I were to lose, it would be the greatest possible
disgrace." And, saying to Messer Baldo that he should give the work to
Niccolo, because he would execute it in such a manner as would please
the folk that went to market, he returned to Florence.

There he was commissioned to paint a panel for Pisa, divided into five
pictures, which were afterwards placed round the Madonna of S. Agnese,
beside the walls of that city, between the old Citadel and the Duomo.
Making one figure, then, in each picture, he painted in two of them S.
John the Baptist and S. Peter, one on either side of the Madonna that
works miracles; and in the others are S. Catharine the Martyr, S.
Agnese, and S. Margaret, each a figure by itself, and all so beautiful
as to fill with marvel anyone who beholds them, and considered to be the
most gracious and lovely women that he ever painted.

M. Jacopo, a Servite friar, in releasing and absolving a woman from a
vow, had told her that she must have a figure of Our Lady painted over
the outer side of that lateral door of the Nunziata which leads into the
cloister; and therefore, finding Andrea, he said to him that he had this
money to spend, and that although it was not much it seemed to him
right, since the other works executed by Andrea in that place had
brought him such fame, that he and no other should paint this one as
well. Andrea, who was nothing if not an amiable man, moved by the
persuasions of the friar and by his own desire for profit and glory,
answered that he would do it willingly; and shortly afterwards, putting
his hand to the work, he painted in fresco a most beautiful Madonna
seated with her Son in her arms, and S. Joseph leaning on a sack, with
his eyes fixed upon an open book. And of such a kind was this work, in
draughtsmanship, grace, and beauty of colouring, as well as in vivacity
and relief, that it proved that he outstripped and surpassed by a great
measure all the painters who had worked up to that time. Such, indeed,
is this picture, that by its own merit and without praise from any other
quarter it makes itself clearly known as amazing and most rare.

There was wanting only one scene in the cloister of the Scalzo for it to
be completely finished; wherefore Andrea, who had added grandeur to his
manner af