chelagnolo and the works of
Raffaello da Urbino had been thrown open in Rome, Domenico, who desired
nothing so much as to learn, and knew that he was losing his time in
Siena, took leave of Lorenzo Beccafumi, from whom he acquired the family
name of Beccafumi, and made his way to Rome. There he placed himself
under a painter, who gave him board and lodging, and executed many works
in company with him, giving his attention at the same time to studying
the works of Michelagnolo, Raffaello, and other eminent masters, and the
marvellous statues and sarcophagi of antiquity. No long time passed,
therefore, before he became a bold draughtsman, fertile in invention,
and a very pleasing colourist; but during this period, which did not
exceed two years, he did nothing worthy of record save a facade in the
Borgo with an escutcheon of Pope Julius II in colour.

Meanwhile, there had been brought to Siena by a merchant of the
Spannocchi family, as will be related in the proper place, the painter
Giovanni Antonio of Vercelli, a young man of passing good ability, who
was much employed, particularly in making portraits from life, by the
gentlemen of that city, which has always been the friend and patron of
all men of talent. Domenico, who was very desirous of returning to his
own country, having heard this news, made his way back to Siena; and
when he saw that Giovanni Antonio was very well grounded in drawing,
which he knew to be the essence of the excellence of a craftsman, not
resting content with what he had done in Rome, he set himself with the
utmost zeal to follow him, devoting himself much to anatomy and to
drawing nudes; which helped him so much, that in a short time he began
to be greatly esteemed in that most noble city. Nor was he beloved less
for his goodness and his character than for his art, for the reason
that, whereas Giovanni Antonio was coarse, licentious, and eccentric,
being called Il Sodoma because he always mixed and lived with beardless
boys, and answering willingly enough to that name, Domenico, on the
other hand, was a pattern of good conduct and uprightness, living like a
Christian and keeping very much to himself. But such persons as are
called merry fellows and good companions are very often more esteemed by
men than the virtuous and orderly, and most of the young men of Siena
followed Sodoma, extolling him as a man of originality. And this
Sodoma, being an eccentric, and wishing to please the common herd,