eir brushes, and guided by himself and
by the hand of nature, he set himself boldly to colouring, and acquired
a very pleasing manner, very similar to that of the new Apelles, his
compatriot, although he had seen nothing by his hand save a few works at
Bologna. Thereupon, after executing some works on panel and on walls
with very good results, guided by his own good intellect and judgment,
and believing that in comparison with other painters he had succeeded
very well in everything, he pursued the studies of painting with great
ardour, and to such purpose, that in course of time he found that he had
gained a firm footing in his art, and was held in good repute and vast
expectation by all the world.

Having then returned to his own country, now a man twenty-six years of
age, he stayed there for some months, giving excellent proofs of his
knowledge. Thus he executed, to begin with, the altar-piece of the
Madonna for the altar of S. Croce in the Duomo, containing, besides the
Virgin, S. Crescenzio and S. Vitale; and there is a little Angel seated
on the ground, playing on a viola with a grace truly angelic and a
childlike simplicity expressed with art and judgment. Afterwards he
painted another altar-piece for the high-altar of the Church of the
Trinita, together with a S. Apollonia on the left hand of that altar.

By means of these works and certain others, of which there is no need to
make mention, the name and fame of Timoteo spread abroad, and he was
invited with great insistence by Raffaello to Rome; whither having gone
with the greatest willingness, he was received with that loving kindness
that was as peculiar to Raffaello as was his excellence in art. Working,
then, with Raffaello, in little more than a year he made a great
advance, not only in art, but also in prosperity, for in that time he
sent home a good sum of money. While working with his master in the
Church of S. Maria della Pace, he made with his own hand and invention
the Sibyls that are in the lunettes on the right hand, so much esteemed
by all painters. That they are his is maintained by some who still
remember having seen them painted; and we have also testimony in the
cartoons which are still to be found in the possession of his
successors. On his own account, likewise, he afterwards painted the bier
and the dead body contained therein, with the other things, so highly
extolled, that are around it, in the Scuola of S. Caterina da Siena; and
although