ied from life, painted in a good manner and with much
profit to himself.

Then, recognizing that if he wished to make greater proficience in his
art he must take his leave of Arezzo, he determined, after the plague
had ceased entirely in Rome, to go to that city, where he knew that
Perino, Rosso, and many others of his friends had already returned and
were employed in a number of important works. While of this mind, a
convenient occasion of going there presented itself to him, for there
arrived in Arezzo M. Paolo Valdambrini, the Secretary of Pope Clement
VII, who, in returning from France in great haste, passed through Arezzo
in order to see his brothers and nephews; and when Giovanni Antonio had
gone to visit him, M. Paolo, who was desirous that there should be in
his native city of Arezzo men distinguished in all the arts, who might
demonstrate the genius which that air and that sky give to those who are
born there, exhorted him, although there was not much need for
exhortation, that he should go in his company to Rome, where he would
obtain for him every convenience to enable him to attend to the studies
of his art. Having therefore gone with M. Paolo to Rome, he found there
Perino, Rosso, and others of his friends; and besides this he was able
by means of M. Paolo to make the acquaintance of Giulio Romano,
Sebastiano Viniziano, and Francesco Mazzuoli of Parma, who arrived in
Rome about that time. This Francesco, delighting to play the lute, and
therefore conceiving a very great affection for Giovanni Antonio and
consorting continually with him, brought it about that Lappoli set
himself with great zeal to draw and paint and to profit by the good
fortune that he enjoyed in being the friend of the best painters that
there were in Rome at that time. And he had already carried almost to
completion a picture containing a Madonna of the size of life, which M.
Paolo wished to present to Pope Clement in order to make Lappoli known
to him, when, as Fortune would have it, who often sets herself in
opposition to the designs of mankind, there took place on the 6th of
May, in the year 1527, the accursed sack of Rome. On that miserable day
M. Paolo galloped on horseback, and Giovanni Antonio with him, to the
Porta di S. Spirito in the Trastevere, in order to prevent the soldiers
of Bourbon for a time from entering by that gate; and there M. Paolo was
killed and Lappoli was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. And in a short
time, eve