g the Dragon with his lance--a
very spirited figure. This he executed in chiaroscuro, in oils, a
method that he much delighted to use for all his works, sketching
them in the manner of a cartoon, with ink or with bitumen, before
colouring them; as may still be seen from many beginnings of
pictures and panels, which he left unfinished on account of his
death, and as may also be perceived from many drawings by his hand,
executed in chiaroscuro, of which the greater part are now in the
Monastery of S. Caterina da Siena on the Piazza di S. Marco, in
the possession of a nun who paints, and of whom record will be made
in the proper place; while many made in the same way adorn our book
of drawings, honouring his memory, and some are in the hands of
Messer Francesco del Garbo, a most excellent physician.

Fra Bartolommeo always liked to have living objects before him when
he was working; and in order to be able to draw draperies, armour,
and other suchlike things, he caused a life-size figure of wood to be
made, which moved at the joints; and this he clothed with real
draperies, from which he painted most beautiful things, being able
to keep them in position as long as he pleased, until he had brought
his work to perfection. This figure, worm-eaten and ruined as it is,
is in our possession, treasured in memory of him.

At Arezzo, for the Abbey of the Black Friars, he made a head of
Christ in dark tints--a very beautiful work. He painted, also, the
panel of the Company of the Contemplanti, which was preserved in the
house of the Magnificent Messer Ottaviano de' Medici, and has now
been placed in a chapel of that house, with many ornaments, by his
son Messer Alessandro, who holds it very dear in memory of Fra
Bartolommeo, and also because he takes vast pleasure in painting. In
the chapel of the Noviciate of S. Marco there is a panel-picture of
the Purification, very lovely, which he executed with good
draughtsmanship and high finish. At S. Maria Maddalena, a seat of
the Friars of his Order, without Florence, while staying there for
his own pleasure, he made a Christ and a Magdalene; and he also
painted certain things in fresco in that convent. In like manner, he
wrought in fresco an arch over the strangers' apartment in S. Marco,
in which he painted Christ with Cleophas and Luke, and made a
portrait of Fra Niccolo della Magna, who was then a young man, and
who afterwards became Archbishop of Capua, and finally a Cardinal.
He b