Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/161

Painters and sculptors were admitted into the family circle of the Palace in the Via Larga, and numbered among Cosimo's most intimate friends. Michelozzo followed him in his exile to Venice, and Donatello begged that he might be buried close to his patron's tomb in S. Lorenzo, in order that he might be near him in death as he had been in life. Cosimo's eldest son Piero il Gottoso—the Gouty—shared his father's love of art, and, in spite of continual ill-health, took a keen interest in the painters whom he employed, and personally superintended the decoration of the Medici Palace. It was to him that Domenico Veneziano, in April 1438, wrote the following letter from Perugia, where he was engaged in painting the figures of twenty-five illustrious soldiers and scholars in the hall of the Casa Baglioni.

"Most Illustrious and Generous Friend,—With all due respect I am glad to inform you that I am well, and hope that you too are well and happy. Many a time have I inquired for news of you, but could hear nothing until the other day Manno Donati told me that you had gone to Ferrara, and were very well in health, which afforded me great consolation. And had I known where you were, I would have written to you before, as much for my own satisfaction as out of the duty I owe you. For although in my humble condition I have no right to address your gentilezza, the perfect and true love which I bear to you, and all of yours, gives me boldness to write this, knowing how much I owe to you. I hear that Cosimo is going to have an altar-piece painted, and desires it to be a magnificent work. The idea pleases me greatly, and would please me still more if I might be allowed to paint the picture; and if this could be, I believe I could show you marvellous things.