, even in Domenico, the most famous
painter of the day; as may be seen by what happened afterwards. Domenico
used to say that the painting came from his own workshop in order to make
it appear less wonderful. In this little picture, besides the figure of
the Saint, there were many strange forms and monstrosities in the demons;
these Michael Angelo executed with so much care that no part of them was
coloured without reference to the natural object from which it had been
derived. For that purpose he frequented the fish-market and observed the
forms and tints of the scales and fins of fish and the colours of their
eyes and all their other parts, copying them in his picture, which much
conduced to the perfection of that work, exciting the wonder of the world,
and, as I have said, some envy in Grillandaio; this was much more seen one
day when Michael Angelo asked to see his book of drawings in which were
represented shepherds with their flocks and dogs, landscapes, buildings,
ruins, and such like things. Domenico would not lend it to him--indeed, he
had the reputation of being a little envious: for not only was he hardly
courteous to Michael Angelo, but even to his own brother, when he saw that
he was progressing rapidly and having great hopes of himself: he sent him
into France, not so much that it might be to his advantage, as some say,
but that he himself might remain the first artist in Florence. The reason
I have mentioned this is because I have heard it said that the son of
Domenico attributes the excellence and divinity of Michael Angelo in great
part to the training he received from his father: he received absolutely
no assistance from him;(9) nevertheless, Michael Angelo does not complain
of it, nay, even praises Domenico both for his art and his manners. But
this is a slight digression; let us return to our story.

VI. Possibly not less wonderful was another labour of Michael Angelo's
done at this time, perhaps as a jest. Some one lent him a drawing of a
head to copy; he returned his copy to the owner instead of the original
and the deception was not noticed, but the boy talking and laughing about
it with one of his companions it was found out. Many people compared the
two and found no difference in them, for besides the perfection of the
drawing, Michael Angelo had smoked the paper to make it appear of the same
age as the original. This brought him a great reputation.(10)

VII. Now drawing one thing and now another