od thus for some months without
setting his hand to the work. But at last, after being pressed, he said
that he would only do it in fresco, and that painting in oils was an art
for women and for leisurely and idle people like Fra Sebastiano. And so,
after the incrustation laid on by order of the friar had been stripped
off, and the whole surface had been covered with rough-cast in a manner
suitable for working in fresco, Michelagnolo set his hand to the work;
but he never forgot the affront that he considered himself to have
received from Fra Sebastiano, against whom he felt hatred almost to the
day of the friar's death.

Finally, after Fra Sebastiano had come to such a state that he would not
work or do any other thing but attend to the duties of his office as
Friar of the Piombo, and enjoy the pleasures of life, at the age of
sixty-two he fell sick of a most acute fever, which, being a ruddy
person and of a full habit of body, threw him into such a heat that he
rendered up his soul to God in a few days, after making a will and
directing that his body should be carried to the tomb without any
ceremony of priests or friars, or expenditure on lights, and that all
that would have been spent thus should be distributed to poor persons,
for the love of God; and so it was done. He was buried in the Church of
the Popolo, in the month of June of the year 1547. Art suffered no great
loss in his death, seeing that, as soon as he assumed the habit of Friar
of the Piombo, he might have been numbered among those lost to her;
although it is true that he was regretted for his pleasant conversation
by many friends as well as craftsmen.

Many young men worked under Sebastiano at various times in order to
learn art, but they made little proficience, for from his example they
learned little but the art of good living, excepting only Tommaso
Laureti, a Sicilian, who, besides many other works, has executed a
picture full of grace at Bologna, of a very beautiful Venus, with Love
embracing and kissing her, which picture is in the house of M. Francesco
Bolognetti. He has also painted a portrait of Signor Bernardino Savelli,
which is much extolled, and some other works of which there is no need
to make mention.

PERINO DEL VAGA

LIFE OF PERINO DEL VAGA

PAINTER OF FLORENCE

A truly great gift is art, who, paying no regard to abundance of riches,
to high estate, or to nobility of blood, embraces, protects, and uplifts
from