t of the Piazza, wherein there is now the Volto Santo. For the same
patrons he drew the design for a panel-picture to be painted by his
hand, containing a Madonna with a multitude under her cloak, which was
to be set up in the same place; and this design, which was not put into
execution, is in our book, together with many other most beautiful
drawings by the hand of the same master.

But to return to the work that he was to execute in the Madonna delle
Lagrime: there came forward as his security for this work Giovanni
Antonio Lappoli of Arezzo, his most faithful friend, who gave him proofs
of loving kindness with every sort of service. But in the year 1530,
when Florence was being besieged, the Aretines, having been restored to
liberty by the small judgment of Papo Altoviti, attacked the citadel and
razed it to the ground. And because that people looked with little
favour on Florentines, Rosso would not trust himself to them, and went
off to Borgo a San Sepolcro, leaving the cartoons and designs for his
work hidden away in the citadel.

Now those who had given him the commission for the panel at Castello,
wished him to finish it; but he, on account of the illness that he had
suffered at Castello, would not return to that city. He finished their
panel, therefore, at Borgo a San Sepolcro; nor would he ever give them
the pleasure of a glance at it. In it he depicted a multitude, with
Christ in the sky being adored by four figures, and he painted Moors,
Gypsies, and the strangest things in the world; but, with the exception
of the figures, which are perfect in their excellence, the composition
is concerned with anything rather than the wishes of those who ordered
the picture of him. At the same time that he was engaged on that work,
he disinterred dead bodies in the Vescovado, where he was living, and
made a most beautiful anatomical model. Rosso was, in truth, an ardent
student of all things relating to art, and few days passed without his
drawing some nude from life.

He had always had the idea of finishing his life in France, and of thus
delivering himself from that misery and poverty which are the lot of men
who work in Tuscany, or in the country where they were born; and he
resolved to depart. And with a view to appearing more competent in all
matters, and to being ignorant of none, he had just learned the Latin
tongue; when there came upon him a reason for further hastening his
departure. For one Holy Thursday, on