ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Christ, have a Peruginesque grace, rare in his works. 

 Albertinelli's residence at the Convent seems to have 

 been the cause of considerable annoyance to the 

 monks. He had brought with him a band of noisy 

 scholars, who played tricks on the Carthusians, and, 

 dissatisfied with the fare provided for them, stole the 

 monks' suppers and created general confusion, until 

 the brothers, to be rid of their tormentors, agreed to 

 double their rations, if only they would finish the work 

 as speedily as possible, which, accordingly, Vasari 

 says, was " effected with much merriment and many 

 a joyous laugh." 



Another artist, whose gentle nature was more con- 

 genial to the place, Jacopo di Pontormo, the best of 

 Andrea del Sarto's pupils, spent many months at the 

 Certosa, where he adorned the Great Cloister with 

 a whole series of scenes from the life of Christ. 

 Poor Pontormo ! it was his precocious genius that 

 made Michael Angelo say, " If this boy lives to grow 

 up, he will surpass us all." But, alas ! for youthful 

 promise, his after-career failed utterly to fulfil this 

 prophecy. Not content with the portraits which he 

 could paint in so masterly a manner, he was seized 

 with an unlucky wish to emulate the Sistina, and threw 

 away years of his life in an attempt to cover the in- 

 terior of St. Lorenzo with gigantic frescoes, destined 



to be the wonder of the world. The results proved 



228 



