uncertain the judgments of men. How this may happen is seen in
Raffaellino, since it appeared that in him nature and art did their
utmost to set out from extraordinary beginnings, the middle stage of
which was below mediocrity, and the end almost nothing.

In his youth he drew as much as any painter who has ever exercised
himself in drawing in order to become perfect; wherefore there may
still be seen, throughout the world of art, a great number of his
drawings, which have been dispersed by a son of his for ridiculous
prices, partly drawn with the style, partly with the pen or in
water-colours, but all on tinted paper, heightened with lead-white,
and executed with marvellous boldness and mastery; and there are
many of them in our book, drawn in a most beautiful manner. Besides
this, he learnt to paint so well in distemper and in fresco, that
his first works were executed with an incredible patience and
diligence, as has been related.

In the Minerva, round the tomb of Cardinal Caraffa, he painted the
vaulted ceiling, with such delicacy, that it seems like the work of
an illuminator; wherefore it was held in great estimation by
craftsmen at that time. His master, Filippo, regarded him in some
respects as a much better painter than himself; and Raffaellino had
acquired Filippo's manner so well, that there were few who could
distinguish the one from the other. Later, after having left his
master, he gave much more delicacy to that manner in the draperies,
and greater softness to hair and to the expressions of the heads;
and he was held in such expectation by craftsmen, that, while he
followed this manner, he was considered the first of the young
painters of his day. Now the family of the Capponi, having built a
chapel that is called the Paradiso, on the hill below the Church of
S. Bartolommeo a Monte Oliveto, without the Porta a S. Friano,
wished to have the panel executed by Raffaellino, and gave him the
commission; whereupon he painted in oils the Resurrection of Christ,
with some soldiers who have fallen, as if dead, round the Sepulchre.
These figures are very spirited and beautiful, and they have the
most graceful heads that it is possible to see; among which, in the
head of a young man, is a marvellous portrait of Niccola Capponi,
while, in like manner, the head of one who is crying out because the
stone covering of the tomb has fallen upon him, is most beautiful
and bizarre. Wherefore the Capponi, having seen that