iata, and the silver
lamps of the chapel, which were all destroyed in the siege of the city
in the year 1529. Tommaso was the first who invented and put into
execution those ornaments worn on the head by the girls of Florence,
which are called ghirlande;[23] whence he gained the name of
Ghirlandajo, not only because he was their first inventor, but also
because he made an infinite number of them, of a beauty so rare that
none appeared to please save such as came out of his shop.

Being thus apprenticed to the goldsmith's art, but taking no pleasure
therein, he was ever occupied in drawing. Endowed by nature with a
perfect spirit and with an admirable and judicious taste in painting,
although he was a goldsmith in his boyhood, yet, by devoting himself
ever to design, he became so quick, so ready, and so facile, that many
say that while he was working as a goldsmith he would draw a portrait of
all who passed the shop, producing a likeness in a second; and of this
we still have proof in an infinite number of portraits in his works,
which show a most lifelike resemblance.

His first pictures were in the Chapel of the Vespucci in Ognissanti,
where there is a Dead Christ with some saints, and a Misericordia over
an arch, in which is the portrait of Amerigo Vespucci, who made the
voyages to the Indies; and in the refectory of that place he painted a
Last Supper in fresco. In S. Croce, on the right hand of the entrance
into the church, he painted the Story of S. Paulino; wherefore, having
acquired very great fame and coming into much credit, he painted a
chapel in S. Trinita for Francesco Sassetti, with stories of S. Francis.
This work was admirably executed by him, and wrought with grace,
lovingness, and a high finish; and he counterfeited and portrayed
therein the Ponte a S. Trinita, with the Palace of the Spini. On the
first wall he depicted the story of S. Francis appearing in the air and
restoring the child to life; and here, in those women who see him being
restored to life--after their sorrow for his death as they bear him to
the grave--there are seen gladness and marvel at his resurrection. He
also counterfeited the friars issuing from the church behind the Cross,
together with some grave-diggers, to bury him, all wrought very
naturally; and there are likewise other figures marvelling at that event
which give no little pleasure to the eye, among which are portraits of
Maso degli Albizzi, Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli, and M