from which he died in a few
days, at the age of forty-five. He was buried in S. Piero Maggiore,
in that city.

There are some drawings by the hand of this master in our book,
executed with the pen and in chiaroscuro, which are very good;
particularly a spiral staircase, drawn with great ingenuity in
perspective, of which he had a good knowledge.

Mariotto had many disciples; among others, Giuliano Bugiardini and
Franciabigio, both Florentines, and Innocenzio da Imola, of whom we
will speak in the proper place. Visino, a painter of Florence, was
likewise his disciple, and excelled all these others in drawing,
colouring, and industry, showing, also, a better manner in the works
that he made, which he executed with great diligence. A few of them
are still in Florence; and one can study his work at the present day
in the house of Giovan Battista d' Agnol Doni, in a mirror[17]--picture
painted in oils after the manner of a miniature, wherein are Adam and
Eve naked, eating the apple, a work executed with great care; and from
another picture, of Christ being taken down from the Cross, together
with the Thieves, in which there is a beautifully contrived
complication of ladders, with some men aiding each other to take down
the body of Christ, and others bearing one of the Thieves on their
shoulders to burial, and all the figures in varied and fantastic
attitudes, suited to that subject, and proving that he was an able
man. The same master was brought by some Florentine merchants to
Hungary, where he executed many works and gained great renown. But the
poor man was soon in danger of coming to an evil end, because, being
of a frank and free-spoken nature, he was not able to endure the
wearisome persistence of some Hungarians, who kept tormenting him all
day long with praises of their own country, as if there were no
pleasure or happiness in anything except eating and drinking in their
stifling rooms, and no grandeur or nobility save in their King and his
Court, all the rest of the world being rubbish. It seemed to him (and
indeed it is true) that in Italy there was another kind of excellence,
culture, and beauty; and one day, being weary of their nonsense, and
chancing to be a little merry, he let slip the opinion that a flask of
Trebbiano and a berlingozzo[18] were worth all the Kings and Queens
that had ever reigned in those regions. And if the matter had not
happened to fall into the hands of a Bishop, who was a gentleman an