y times by
Mariotto before he could bring it to completion. He was for ever
changing the colouring, making it now lighter, now darker, and
sometimes more lively and glowing, sometimes less; but, never being
completely satisfied, and never persuaded that he had done justice
with his hand to the thoughts of his intellect, he wished to find a
white that should be more brilliant than lead-white, and set
himself, therefore, to clarify the latter, in order to be able to
heighten the highest light to his own satisfaction. However, having
recognized that he was not able to express by means of art all that
the intelligence of the human brain grasps and comprehends, he
contented himself with what he had achieved, since he could not
attain to what it was not possible to reach. This work brought
Mariotto praise and honour among craftsmen, but by no means as much
profit as he hoped to gain from his patrons in return for his
labours, since a dispute arose between him and those who had
commissioned him to paint it. But Pietro Perugino, then an old man,
Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, and Francesco Granacci valued it, and settled
the price of the work by common consent.

For S. Pancrazio, in Florence, Mariotto painted a semicircular
picture of the Visitation of Our Lady. For S. Trinita, likewise, he
executed with diligence a panel-picture of Our Lady, S. Jerome, and
S. Zanobi, at the commission of Zanobi del Maestro; and for the
Church of the Congregation of the Priests of S. Martino, he painted
a picture on panel of the Visitation, which is much extolled. He was
invited to the Convent of La Quercia, without Viterbo; but after
having begun a panel there, he conceived a desire to see Rome.
Having made his way to that city, therefore, he executed to
perfection for the Chapel of Fra Mariano Fetti in S. Silvestro di
Monte Cavallo, a panel-picture in oils of S. Dominic, S. Catherine
of Siena, with Christ marrying her, and Our Lady, in a delicate
manner. He then returned to La Quercia, where he had a mistress, to
whom, on account of the desire that he had felt while he was in Rome
and could not enjoy her love, he sought to show that he was valiant
in the lists; wherefore he exerted himself so much, that, being no
longer young and so stalwart in such efforts, he was forced to take
to his bed. And laying the blame for this on the air of the place,
he had himself carried to Florence in a litter; but no expedients or
remedies availed him in his sickness,