in comfort for the rest of his life. Thereupon he returned to Florence;
but, after he had finished some little things, a sort of giddiness,
which even in England had begun to affect his eyes, and other troubles
caused, so it was said, by standing too long over the fire in the
founding of metals, or by some other reasons, in a short time robbed him
completely of the sight of his eyes; wherefore he ceased to work about
the year 1550, and to live a few years after that. Benedetto endured
that blindness during the last years of his life with the patience of a
good Christian, thanking God that He had first enabled him, by means of
his labours, to live an honourable life.

Benedetto was a courteous gentleman, and he always delighted in the
society of men of culture. His portrait was copied from one made, when
he was a young man, by Agnolo di Donnino. This original is in our book
of drawings, wherein there are also some drawings very well executed by
the hand of Benedetto, who deserves, on account of all those works, to
be numbered among our most excellent craftsmen.

[Illustration: TOMB OF PIETRO SODERINI

(_After_ Benedetto da Rovezzano. _Florence: S. Maria del Carmine_)

_Alinari_]

BACCIO DA MONTELUPO AND RAFFAELLO, HIS SON

LIVES OF BACCIO DA MONTELUPO

SCULPTOR

AND OF RAFFAELLO, HIS SON

So strong is the belief of mankind that those who are negligent in the
arts which they profess to practise can never arrive at any perfection
in them, that it was in the face of the judgment of many that Baccio da
Montelupo learnt the art of sculpture; and this happened to him because
in his youth, led astray by pleasures, he would scarcely ever study,
and, although he was exhorted and upbraided by many, he thought little
or nothing of art. But having come to years of discretion, which bring
sense with them, he was forced straightway to learn how far he was from
the good way. Whereupon, seeing with shame that others were going ahead
of him in that art, he resolved with a stout heart to follow and
practise with all possible zeal that which in his idleness he had
hitherto shunned. This resolution was the reason that he produced in
sculpture such fruits as the opinions of many no longer expected from
him.

Having thus devoted himself with all his powers to his art, and
practising it continually, he became a rare and excellent master. And of
this he gave a proof in a work in hard-stone, wrought with the chisel,
on