beautiful features, and eyes dark
and merry, and he was very loving, regular in all his actions, and
frugal in eating, but fond of dressing and living in honourable fashion.
He had disciples in plenty, but the best were Giovanni da Lione,
Raffaello dal Colle of Borgo, Benedetto Pagni of Pescia, Figurino da
Faenza, Rinaldo Mantovano, Giovan Battista Mantovano, and Fermo Ghisoni,
who still lives in Mantua and does him honour, being an excellent
painter. And the same may be said for Benedetto, who has executed many
works in his native city of Pescia, and an altar-piece for the Duomo of
Pisa, which is in the Office of Works, and also a picture of Our Lady in
which, with a poetical invention full of grace and beauty, he painted a
figure of Florence presenting to her the dignities of the House of
Medici; which picture is now in the possession of Signor Mondragone, a
Spaniard much in favour with that most illustrious lord the Prince of
Florence.

Giulio died on the day of All Saints in the year 1546, and over his tomb
was placed the following epitaph:

ROMANUS MORIENS SECUM TRES JULIUS ARTES
ABSTULIT, HAUD MIRUM, QUATUOR UNUS ERAT.

FOOTNOTE:

[26] Giuliano Leno.

FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO

LIFE OF FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO

PAINTER

The first profession of Sebastiano, so many declare, was not painting,
but music, since, besides being a singer, he much delighted to play
various kinds of instruments, and particularly the lute, because on that
instrument all the parts can be played, without any accompaniment. This
art made him for a time very dear to the gentlemen of Venice, with whom,
as a man of talent, he always associated on intimate terms. Then, having
been seized while still young with a desire to give his attention to
painting, he learned the first rudiments from Giovanni Bellini, at that
time an old man. And afterwards, when Giorgione da Castelfranco had
established in that city the methods of the modern manner, with its
superior harmony and its brilliancy of colouring, Sebastiano left
Giovanni and placed himself under Giorgione, with whom he stayed so long
that in great measure he acquired his manner. He thus executed in Venice
some portraits from life that were very like; among others, that of the
Frenchman Verdelotto, a most excellent musician, who was then
chapel-master in S. Marco, and in the same picture that of his companion
Uberto, a singer, which picture Verdelo