[279] He is thus named by Baldinucci; but Vasari, in his Life of Razzi, mentions a Girolamo del Pacchia, a rival of Razzi himself; and this person appears to be Pacchiarotto. He also mentions Giomo, or Girolamo del Sodoma, who died young; and whom both Orlandi and Bottari have confounded with Pacchiarotto; when we ought rather to believe that he was a pupil of Razzi, and died while he was yet young.
[280] Mattaccio signifies a buffoon. Tr.
[281] In P. della Valle, in the Supplement to the life of Razzi, See Vasari, edit. of Siena, p. 297. In the following page there is a chronological error. He agrees with Baldinucci that Razzi was born in 1479, and says that his picture of S. Francis was executed in 1490, that is, when the artist was about eleven years of age.
[282] See also Perini, in his Lettera su l' Archicenobio di Monte Oliveto, p. 49, where he defends Razzi from the charge of indecorum made by Vasari, on a view of the grotesques and fancy subjects which he painted in that place.
[283] Tom. iii. p. 243.
[284] I am in doubt as to his native place. The name of one Scalobrinus Pistoriensis, a painter of merit, and belonging to the same age, is found inscribed at the church of S. Francesco, without the Tuscan gate, where he left seven specimens of altar-pieces. Memorie per le belle Arti, tom. ii. p. 190.
[285] See Sig. da Morrona, tom. i. p. 116. Mecherino there painted the Evangelists, and some historical pieces from the life of Moses: Razzi executed in the same place a Descent from the Cross, and an Abraham offering his Son, which are among his last, and not his best works.
[286] The Sienese historians prove this in opposition to Vasari, who makes him by descent a Florentine. See Lett. Sen. tom. iii. p. 178.
[287] For his labours in the cathedral of Siena he had thirty crowns a year; as the architect of S. Peter's, two hundred and fifty. He derived little advantage from private commissions, for people generally took advantage of his modesty, in either not paying him at all, or rewarding him scantily.
[288] I saw one in the possession of Cav. Cavaceppi in Rome, of which this great connoisseur used to say, that it might pass for a Raffaello, if it had been as like in colouring as in every thing else. The Sergardi family at Siena have another, and a Holy Family, by Razzi, as its companion. These are reckoned among their first performances, and are believed to have been painted in competition with each other. In that of Peruzzi one recognizes, even at that time, that elegance of design which he delighted afterwards to exhibit in his figures, especially in the Chigi, now called the Farnese palace.