re; and his works have
therefore been able to resist the damp and to preserve their colour very
well without suffering any change. With the same mixture he worked on
peperino-stone, white and variegated marble, porphyry, and slabs of
other very hard kinds of stone, materials on which paintings can last a
very long time; not to mention that this has shown how one may paint on
silver, copper, tin, and other metals.

This man found so much pleasure in cogitating and discoursing, that he
would spend whole days without working; and when he did force himself to
work, it was evident that he was suffering greatly in his mind, which
was the chief reason that he was of the opinion that no price was large
enough to pay for his works. For Cardinal Rangoni he painted a picture
of a nude and very beautiful S. Agatha being tortured in the breasts,
which was an exquisite work, and this picture is now in the guardaroba
of Signor Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, and is in no way inferior to the
many other most beautiful pictures that are there, by the hands of
Raffaello da Urbino, Tiziano, and others. He also made a portrait from
life of Signor Piero Gonzaga, painted in oils on stone, which was a very
fine work; but he toiled for three years over finishing it.

Now, when Michelagnolo was in Florence in the time of Pope Clement,
engaged in the work of the new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, Giuliano
Bugiardini wished to paint for Baccio Valori a picture with the head of
Pope Clement and that of Baccio himself, and another for Messer
Ottaviano de' Medici of the same Pontiff and the Archbishop of Capua.
Michelagnolo therefore sent to Sebastiano to ask him to despatch from
Rome a head of the Pope painted in oils with his own hand; and
Sebastiano painted one, which proved to be very beautiful, and sent it
to him. After Giuliano had made use of the head and had finished his
pictures, Michelagnolo, who was a close companion of the said Messer
Ottaviano, made him a present of it; and of a truth, among the many
heads that Fra Sebastiano executed, this is the most beautiful of all
and the best likeness, as may be seen in the house of the heirs of
Messer Ottaviano. The same master also took the portrait of Pope Paul
Farnese, as soon as he was elected Supreme Pontiff; and he began one of
the Duke of Castro, his son, but left it unfinished, as he did with many
other works with which he had made a beginning.

Fra Sebastiano had a passing good house which he had