great pains to discover the true method of
making mosaic, but that he never succeeded in anything that he wanted to
do, until at length he came across a German who was going to Rome to
obtain some indulgences. This man he took into his house, and he gained
from him a complete knowledge of the method and the rules for executing
mosaic, insomuch that afterwards, having set himself boldly to work, he
made some angels holding the head of Christ over the bronze doors of S.
Giovanni, in the arches on the inner side. His good method of working
becoming known by reason of this work, he was commissioned by the
Consuls of the Guild of Merchants to clean and renovate all the vaulting
of that church, which had been wrought, as has been said, by Andrea
Tafi; for it had been spoilt in many places, and was in need of being
renewed and restored. This he did with love and diligence, availing
himself for that purpose of a wooden staging made for him by Cecca, who
was the best architect of that age. Alesso taught the craft of mosaic to
Domenico Ghirlandajo, who portrayed him afterwards near himself in the
Chapel of the Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, in the scene where Joachim
is driven from the Temple, in the form of a clean-shaven old man with a
red cap on his head.

Alesso lived eighty years, and when he began to draw near to old age, as
one who wished to be able to attend with a quiet mind to the studies of
his profession, he retired into the Hospital of S. Paolo, as many men
are wont to do. And perhaps to the end that he might be received more
willingly and better treated (or it may have been by chance), he had a
great chest carried into his rooms in the said hospital, giving out that
it contained a good sum of money. Wherefore the Director and the other
officials of the hospital, believing this to be true, and knowing that
he had bequeathed to the hospital all that might be found after his
death, showed him all the attention in the world. But on the death of
Alesso, there was nothing found in it save drawings, portraits on paper,
and a little book that explained the preparation of the stones and
stucco for mosaic and the method of using them. Nor was it any marvel,
so men said, that no money was found there, because he was so
open-handed that he had nothing that did not belong as much to his
friends as to himself.

A disciple of Alesso was the Florentine Graffione, who wrought in
fresco, over the door of the Innocenti, that figure