compelled to labour except at such times and for such persons as he pleases; and if his interests be affected by whatever refusals he shall make, that is his affair. As to the solitude in which Jacopo delighted, I have ever heard that solitude is most favourable to the progress of study, but even though it were not so, I see no great reason that there is for censuring him, who, without offending the laws of God or his neighbour, is disposed to live after his own manner; dwelling in such fashion and arranging his hours after such sort as shall best accord with his disposition and character. But enough of these considerations, which we will now leave, and will return to the works of Jacopo Puntormo.
The villa Careggi, which had been erected by Cosimo deMedici the Elder, at the distance of about two miles from Florence, had been partially restored by the Duke Alessandro who had caused the decorations of the Fountains, with the labyrinth, to which the visitor is conducted through two Loggie, to be completed, and when that was done, his Excellency commanded that the Loggie should be painted by Jacopo, but that he should have company in the work, not only to the end that it might be more rapidly accomplished, but also that Puntormo, being kept cheerful and in good heart by conversation, should have the less temptation to running after whimsies, and might labour in peace without racking his brains to no purpose; nay, the Duke himself having sent for Jacopo, begged him to bring the work to conclusion as soon as he could possibly contrive to do so.
Puntormo thereupon summoned Bronzino and directed him to paint five figures in five compartments of the ceiling, these were Fortune, Justice, Victory, Peace, and Fame; but as there are six compartments in that ceiling Jacopo himself took the sixth, and there painted a figure of Love with his own hand. He next prepared designs for a group of children, to adorn the oviform centre of the same vaulting; these children are all holding animals of various kinds in their hands: there is much able foreshortening in this part of the work, which, with the exception of one figure, was painted entirely by
addressing to the poor Jacopo, for that he had been pleased to reward with his beautiful productions the labours of those rt inferior and plebeian” persons who had done him honest service.
