affection, seeing that they loved him as a father, from having all been born and brought up while he was an inmate of their house. II Moro was a man of much personal address; in his younger days he was very brave, and used all kinds of arms with great dexterity. He was most faithfully attached to his friends and patrons, and evinced a decided elevation of spirit in all his actions. Among his more particular friends, were the architect, Messer Michele San Michele, Danese da Carrara, the excellent sculptor,[1] and the very reverend and most learned Fra Marco de’ Medici, who would frequently pay a visit to II Moro after he had finished his studies for the day, watching him while at his work, and conversing with him by way of unbending his thoughts, when he had become wearied by long-continued research.
The disciple and son-in-law of Il Moro, who had two daughters, was Battista d’Agnolo, who was afterwards called Battista del Moro; he has had no little trouble with the affairs which his father-in-law had left to his care in a state of much confusion, but has nevertheless executed numerous works which are not without considerable merit. This artist painted a figure of San Giovanni Battista, in the church of the Nuns of San Giuseppe,[2] at Verona; and in the church of Sant’ Eufemia, he painted a fresco in the middle aisle. This is over the altar of San Paolo, and the subject is the history of that Saint, showing him when, being converted by Christ, he presents himself to Ananias, and, although the artist was then very young, the work is much extolled.[3] For the Counts Canossi, Battista painted two chambers, and in one of the halls of their palace he executed a frieze, battlepieces namely, which are very beautiful, and are highly commended by all who see them. In Venice he painted the façade of a house near the Carmine, not a work of great extent, but much admired. He there depicted a figure of Venice, crowned and seated on a Lion, the device of that republic. For Camillo Trevisano he painted the façade of
- ↑ Of whom mention is made at greater length in the Life of Jacopo Sansovino, which follows.
- ↑ The Convent was suppressed, and the place is now an institution for the education of poor children. Of the picture nothing is now known. — Masselli.
- ↑ The church having been altered, this work has been removed with great care, and is now over the door of the building.—Ibid.
