ed him to paint
three pictures with similar figures for their altar in the old Duomo of
Verona, containing three little scenes from the life of Our Lady--her
Marriage, the Nativity of Christ, and the story of the Magi.

[Illustration: GIOVAN FRANCESCO CAROTO: ELISABETTA GONZAGA, DUCHESS OF
MANTUA

(_Florence: Uffizi, 1121. Panel_)]

After these works, thinking that he had gained enough credit in Verona,
Giovan Francesco was minded to depart and make trial of other places;
but his friends and relatives, pressing him much, persuaded him to
take to wife a young woman of noble birth, the daughter of Messer
Braliassarti Grandoni, whom he married in 1505. In a short time,
however, after he had had a son by her, she died in child-birth; and
Giovan Francesco, thus left free, departed from Verona and went off to
Milan, where Signor Anton Maria Visconti received him into his house and
caused him to execute many works for its adornment.

Meanwhile there was brought to Milan by a Fleming a head of a young man,
taken from life and painted in oils, which was admired by everyone in
that city; but Giovan Francesco, seeing it, laughed and said: "I am
confident that I can do a better." At which the Fleming mocked him, but
after many words the matter came to this, that Giovan Francesco was to
try his hand, losing his own picture and twenty-five crowns if he lost,
and winning the Fleming's head and likewise twenty-five crowns if he
won. Setting to work, therefore, with all his powers, Giovan Francesco
made a portrait of an aged gentleman with shaven face, with a falcon on
his wrist; but, although this was a good likeness, the head of the
Fleming was judged to be the better. Giovan Francesco did not make a
good choice in executing his portrait, for he took a head that could not
do him honour; whereas, if he had chosen a handsome young man, and had
made as good a likeness of him as he did of the old man, he would at
least have equalled his adversary's picture, even if he had not
surpassed it. But for all this the head of Giovan Francesco did not fail
to win praise, and the Fleming showed him courtesy, for he contented
himself with the head of the shaven old man, and, being a noble and
courteous person, would by no means accept the five-and-twenty crowns.
This picture came after some time into the possession of Madonna
Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, who paid a very good price for
it to the Fleming and placed it as a choice work i