Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/216

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204
lives of the artists.

happens something similar to that which befell the stranger, who, by his laborious efforts to speak like the Athenians, was discovered, by a mere woman of the people, to be no Athenian.[1] Taddeo Zucchero coloured also with much grace, and had a light and easy manner of handling; he was richly aided by Nature, but he would sometimes rely too implicitly on that circumstance. He was so anxious to possess something of his own, that for a long time he would accept whatever offered, for the sake of gain; but among the works thus multiplied, there were many—nay, rather an infinite number, well meriting the highest praise: this painter had always numerous disciples and other artists, working at his undertakings, as indeed was indispensable, for without such aid he could not have fulfilled his engagements. He was of a sanguine temperament, hasty, given to anger, and of a somewhat free life; but his aberrations were of no immoderate character, nor did he permit them to offend the public eye: affectionate towards his friends, he was ever ready to aid them, and spared no pains to do so, whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The work of Taddeo Zucchero, at the Trinità, had not been given to view at the time of his death, and the G-reat Hall of the Farnese Palace also remained unfinished, as did likewise the works of Caprarola; but all these undertakings were left in the hands of Federigo his brother, whom the masters or owners of those places have permitted to complete them, as he may he expected eventually to do; and of a truth Federigo will be no less the heir of the talents than of the property of Taddeo. The latter received sepulture from his brother, in the Ritonda[2] of Rome, near the Tabernacle, wherein is buried his fellow countryman, Raffaello da Urbino; and certainly they are placed well, one beside the other, seeing that as Raphael died at the age of thirty-seven, and on the same day on which he was born, so also did Taddeo depart this life in his thirty-seventh year, having been born on the first of September, in the year 1529, and dying on the second of the same month, in the year 1566. It is the purpose of Federigo to

  1. Our readers will not have forgotten the Lesbian Theophrastus, by referring to whom Vasari proposes to reprove the too servile imitators of Michael Angelo; but it is nevertheless certain that he must himself be reckoned among them.
  2. The Pantheon, that is to say.