t for by Buonarroti to help him to paint that work
in fresco after the cartoons that he himself had prepared. It is true
that Michelagnolo, being dissatisfied with the manner and method of
every one of his assistants, afterwards found means to make them all
return to Florence without dismissing them, by closing the door on them
all and not allowing himself to be seen.

In Florence Granacci painted for Pier Francesco Borgherini a scene in
oils on the head-board of a couch which stood in an apartment wherein
Jacopo da Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, and Francesco Ubertini had painted
many stories from the life of Joseph, in Pier Francesco's house in Borgo
Sant' Apostolo; and in this scene were little figures representing a
story of the same Joseph, executed with extraordinary finish and with
great charm and beauty of colouring, and a building in perspective,
wherein he depicted Joseph ministering to Pharaoh, which could not be
more beautiful in any part. For the same man, also, he painted a round
picture, likewise in oils, of the Trinity, or rather, God the Father
supporting a Christ Crucified. And in the Church of S. Piero Maggiore
there is a picture of the Assumption by his hand, with many Angels and a
S. Thomas, to whom the Madonna is giving the Girdle. The figure of S.
Thomas is very graceful, turning to one side in a beautiful attitude
worthy of the hand of Michelagnolo, and such, also, is that of Our Lady.
The drawing for these two figures by the hand of Granacci is in our
book, together with others likewise by him. On either side of this
picture are figures of S. Paul, S. Laurence, S. James, and S. John,
which are all so beautiful that the work is held to be the best that
Francesco ever painted; and in truth this work alone, even if he had
never executed another, would ensure his being considered to be, as
indeed he was, an excellent painter.

For the Church of S. Gallo, without the Gate of the same name, and
formerly a seat of the Eremite Friars of S. Augustine, he painted an
altar-piece with the Madonna and two children, S. Zanobi, Bishop of
Florence, and S. Francis. This altar-piece, which was in the Chapel of
the Girolami, to which family that S. Zanobi belonged, is now in S.
Jacopo tra Fossi at Florence.

Michelagnolo Buonarroti, having a niece who was a nun in S. Apollonia at
Florence, had therefore executed an ornament for the high-altar of that
church, and a design for the altar-piece; and Granacci painted th