ted in oils, on a canvas, Christ praying in the
Garden and the Angel showing to Him the Chalice of the Passion and
comforting Him, which was certainly a work of no little beauty and
excellence. And for the Nuns of S. Benedetto, of the Order of Camaldoli,
at Arezzo, on an arch above a door by which one enters the convent, he
painted the Madonna, S. Benedict, and S. Catharine, a work which was
afterwards thrown to the ground in order to enlarge the church.

In the township of Marciano in Valdichiana, where he passed much of his
time, living partly on the revenues that he had in that place and partly
on what he could earn there, Niccolo began an altar-piece of the Dead
Christ and many other works, with which he occupied himself for a time.
And meanwhile, having with him the above-mentioned Domenico Giuntalodi
of Prato, whom he loved as a son and kept in his house, he strove to
make him excellent in the matters of art, teaching him so well how to
draw in perspective, to copy from nature, and to make designs, that he
was already becoming very able in all these respects, showing a good and
beautiful genius. And this Niccolo did, besides being moved by the love
and affection that he bore to that young man, in the hope of having one
who might help him now that he was nearing old age, and might give him
some return in his last years for so much labour and lovingness. Niccolo
was in truth most loving with every man, true by nature, and much the
friend of those who laboured in order to attain to something in the
world of art; and what he knew he taught to them with extraordinary
willingness.

No long time after this, when Niccolo had returned from Marciano to
Arezzo and Domenico had left him, the men of the Company of the Corpo di
Cristo, in that city, had a commission to give for the painting of an
altar-piece for the high-altar of the Church of S. Domenico. Now,
Niccolo desiring to paint it, and likewise Giorgio Vasari, then a mere
lad, the former did something which probably not many of the men of our
art would do at the present day, which was as follows: Niccolo, who was
one of the members of the above-mentioned Company, perceiving that many
were disposed to have it painted by Giorgio, in order to bring him
forward, and that the young man had a very great desire for it,
resolved, after remarking Giorgio's zeal, to lay aside his own desire
and need and to have the picture allotted by his companions to Giorgio,
thinking more of