his house and entertained him with most affectionate
attentions. Finding pleasure in the nature of Morto's art, Andrea also
gave his mind to that vocation, and became an able master, being in time
even more excellent than Morto, and much esteemed in Florence, as will
be told later. And it was through Andrea that Morto came to paint for
Piero Soderini, who was then Gonfalonier, decorations of grotesques in
an apartment of the Palace, which were held to be very beautiful; but in
our own day these have been destroyed in rearranging the apartments of
Duke Cosimo, and repainted. For Maestro Valerio, a Servite friar, Morto
decorated the empty space on a chair-back, which was a most beautiful
work; and for Agnolo Doni, likewise, in a chamber, he executed many
pictures with a variety of bizarre grotesques. And since he also
delighted in figures, he painted Our Lady in some round pictures, in
order to see whether he could become as famous for them as he was (for
his grotesques).

Then, having grown weary of staying in Florence, he betook himself to
Venice; and attaching himself to Giorgione da Castelfranco, who was then
painting the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, he set himself to assist him and
executed the ornamentation of that work. And in this way he remained
many months in that city, attracted by the sensuous pleasures and
delights that he found there.

He then went to execute works in Friuli, but he had not been there long
when, finding that the rulers of Venice were enlisting soldiers, he
entered their service; and before he had had much experience of that
calling he was made Captain of two hundred men. The army of the
Venetians had advanced by that time to Zara in Sclavonia; and one day,
when a brisk skirmish took place, Morto, desiring to win a greater name
in that profession than he had gained in the art of painting, went
bravely forward, and, after fighting in the melee, was left dead on the
field, even as he had always been in name,[13] at the age of forty-five.
But in fame he will never be dead, because those who exercise their
hands in the arts and produce everlasting works, leaving memorials of
themselves after death, are destined never to suffer the death of their
labours, for writers, in their gratitude, bear witness to their talents.
Eagerly, therefore, should our craftsmen spur themselves on with
incessant study to such a goal as will ensure them an undying name both
through their own works and through the writings o