most noble craftsman, by reason of the aforesaid works and
many others, having passed into France and Flanders, Albrecht Duerer,
a most marvellous German painter, and an engraver of very beautiful
copperplates, rendered tribute to Raffaello out of his own works,
and sent to him a portrait of himself, a head, executed by him in
gouache on a cloth of fine linen, which showed the same on either
side, the lights being transparent and obtained without lead-white,
while the only grounding and colouring was done with water-colours,
the white of the cloth serving for the ground of the bright parts.
This work seemed to Raffaello to be marvellous, and he sent him,
therefore, many drawings executed by his own hand, which were
received very gladly by Albrecht. That head was among the
possessions of Giulio Romano, the heir of Raffaello, in Mantua.

Raffaello, having thus seen the manner of the engravings of Albrecht
Duerer, and desiring on his own behalf to show what could be done
with his work by such an art, caused Marc' Antonio Bolognese to make
a very thorough study of the method; and that master became so
excellent, that Raffaello commissioned him to make prints of his
first works, such as the drawing of the Innocents, a Last Supper,
the Neptune, and the S. Cecilia being boiled in oil. Marc' Antonio
afterwards made for Raffaello a number of other engravings, which
Raffaello finally gave to Baviera, his assistant, who had charge of
a mistress whom Raffaello loved to the day of his death. Of her he
made a very beautiful portrait, wherein she seemed wholly alive: and
this is now in Florence, in the possession of that most gentle of
men, Matteo Botti, a Florentine merchant, and an intimate friend of
every able person, and particularly of painters, who treasures it
as a relic, on account of the love that he bears to art, and above
all to Raffaello. And no less esteem is shown to the works of our
arts and to the craftsmen by his brother, Simon Botti, who, besides
being held by us all to be one of the most loving spirits that show
favour to the men of our professions, is held in estimation by me in
particular as the best and greatest friend that ever man loved after
a long experience; not to mention the good judgment that he has and
shows in matters of art.

But to return to the engravings; the favour shown by Raffaello to
Baviera was the reason that there afterwards sprang up Marco da
Ravenna and a host of others, insomuch that th