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 
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