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Chap. XII. PIERO DI COSIMO. 421 sickness with the happy and speedy one of the criminal who goes to his end in fresh air, surrounded by the sym pathy, and comforted by the prayers, of the people. 1 Piero’s life, however, has a much higher interest for the historian than that which may be created by the nar rative of his foibles. He was the elder companion of Fra Bartolommeo and Marfotto Albertinelli, in the atelier of Cosimo Rosselli; and the master of Andrea del Sarto. The income-paper of his father, Lorenzo di Piero, drawn up in 1480, enables us to correct Vasari’s chronology, and describes Piero as born in 1462, and as an assistant with out pay in the shop of Cosimo Rosselli. 2 Cosimo, having about this time been called to Rome by orders from Sixtus the Fourth, was accompanied by Piero who helped him in the portraits and landscapes of his frescos. 3 In February 1485, Rosselli had returned to Florence, and was in the employ of the nuns of S. Ambrogio with the future Fra Bartolommeo, a mere child, as apprentice. 4 It is not improbable that Piero was then chief journey man to Cosimo, for Vasari leads us to believe that the connection lasted till Rosselli’s death (1506); and Piero, at all events, continued the art of his teacher. 5 He may therefore be considered as partner in the authorship of several altarpieces in S. Spirito at Florence, in which the styles of Ghirlandaio and Filippino are mingled with that of Cosimo Rosselli, 1 ’ in a Virgin and saints at S. Ainbro- 1 Vas. VII. 112 and follg. 2 Portata al Catasto, in Tav. al- fab. ub. sup. art. Piero. We are indebted to Signor Gaetano Milanesi for the following in addi tion respecting Piero’s family. Antonio begets Piero. Piero be gets Lorenzo Cliimenti, painter, b. 1436, registered in Florentine guild (Gualandi, ser. VI. ub. sup. ]). 180), and Baldo, registered in the same guild, in 1450 (ib. ib. ib.). Lorenzo begets Piero (di Cosimo), Giovanni b. 1464, Francesco b. 1474, Raffaello b. 1475, and Bas- tiano b. 1478. 3 Vas. V. 32, and VII, 113. 4 See, postea, tlie documents in support of these statements. 5 Piero was one of those who gave opinions as to the place of Michael Angelo’s David in 1503 (Gaye, Carteggio( II. 455). ' 6 1. S. Spirito. 27 lh chapel in the left transept. Virgin, child, and two angels between SS. Tho mas and Peter (Fantozzi, Guida ub. sup. p. 687, catalogued this, in the school of the Ghirlandai). In the predella are a Christ on the Mount, the Annunciation, and a Miracle. On the step of the throne is the date: “MCCCCLXXXII”. 2. Same church. 30 lh chapel, in
