h as the two torsi of Marsyas, the heads over the windows, and
those of the Emperors over the doors, are still in the same place.

By studying these antiquities, Mariotto made great proficience in
drawing; and he entered into the service of the mother of Duke
Lorenzo, Madonna Alfonsina, who, desiring that he should devote
himself to becoming an able master, offered him all possible
assistance. Dividing his time, therefore, between drawing and
colouring, he became a passing good craftsman, as is proved by some
pictures that he executed for that lady, which were sent by her to
Rome, for Carlo and Giordano Orsini, and which afterwards came into
the hands of Caesar Borgia. He made a very good portrait of Madonna
Alfonsina from the life; and it seemed to him, on account of his
friendship with her, that his fortune was made, when, in the year
1494, Piero de' Medici was banished, and her assistance and favour
failed him. Whereupon he returned to the workshop of Baccio, where
he set himself with even greater zeal to make models of clay and to
increase his knowledge, labouring at the study of nature, and
imitating the works of Baccio, so that in a few years he became a
sound and practised master. And then, seeing his work succeeding so
well, he so grew in courage, that, imitating the manner and method
of his companion, the hand of Mariotto was taken by many for that of
Fra Bartolommeo.

[Illustration: THE MADONNA ENTHRONED, WITH SAINTS

(_After the panel by =Mariotto Albertinelli=. Florence: Accademia,
167_)

_Alinari_]

But when he heard that Baccio had gone off to become a monk,
Mariotto was almost overwhelmed and out of his mind; and so strange
did the news seem to him, that he was in despair, and nothing could
cheer him. If it had not been, indeed, that Mariotto could not then
endure having anything to do with monks, against whom he was ever
railing, and belonged to the party that was opposed to the faction
of Fra Girolamo of Ferrara, his love for Baccio would have wrought
upon him so strongly, that it would have forced him to don the cowl
in the same convent as his companion. However, he was besought by
Gerozzo Dini, who had given the commission for the Judgment that
Baccio had left unfinished in the Ossa, that he, having a manner
similar to Baccio's, should undertake to finish it; whereupon, being
also moved by the circumstance that the cartoon completed by the
hand of Baccio and other drawings were there, and by th