nown, he did
not wish to compete with craftsmen of such rare excellence. In truth,
the greatest wisdom and prudence that a man can possess is to know
himself, and to refrain from exalting himself beyond his true worth.
And, finally, having acquired much by constant work, for one who was not
endowed by nature with much boldness of invention or with any powers
but those that he had gained by long study, he died in the year 1524 at
the age of forty-two.

One of Francia's disciples was his brother Agnolo, who died after having
painted a frieze that is in the cloister of S. Pancrazio, and a few
other works. The same Agnolo painted for the perfumer Ciano, an
eccentric man, but respected after his kind, a sign for his shop,
containing a gipsy woman telling the fortune of a lady in a very
graceful manner, which was the idea of Ciano, and not without mystic
meaning. Another who learnt to paint from the same master was Antonio di
Donnino Mazzieri, who was a bold draughtsman, and showed much invention
in making horses and landscapes. He painted in chiaroscuro the cloister
of S. Agostino at Monte Sansovino, executing therein scenes from the Old
Testament, which were much extolled. In the Vescovado of Arezzo he
painted the Chapel of S. Matteo, with a scene, among other things,
showing that Saint baptizing a King, in which he made a portrait of a
German, so good that it seems to be alive. For Francesco del Giocondo he
executed the story of the Martyrs in a chapel behind the choir of the
Servite Church in Florence; but in this he acquitted himself so badly,
that he lost all his credit and was reduced to undertaking any sort of
work.

Francia taught his art also to a young man named Visino, who, to judge
from what we see of him, would have become an excellent painter, if he
had not died young, as he did; and to many others, of whom I shall make
no further mention. He was buried by the Company of S. Giobbe in S.
Pancrazio, opposite to his own house, in the year 1525; and his death
was truly a great grief to all good craftsmen, seeing that he had been a
talented and skilful master, and very modest in his every action.

FOOTNOTE:

[12] Francesco Ubertini, called Il Bacchiacca.

MORTO DA FELTRO AND ANDREA DI COSIMO FELTRINI

LIVES OF MORTO DA FELTRO AND OF ANDREA DI COSIMO FELTRINI

PAINTERS

The painter Morto da Feltro, who was as original in his life as he was
in his brain and in the new fashion of grotesques that