as much attention to painting a banner for a procession as to composing
an altar-piece. He had a great many assistants, whom he called on for
help in various undertakings. They assisted him to prepare the Medici
Halls for the reception of Pope Leo X., and later for the marriages of
Giuliano and Lorenzo, not disdaining to paint scenes for the dramas
which were then given. He painted banners, and designed costumes for
the processions of the "potenze," a festive company, the origin of
which is uncertain, but dating certainly from the Middle Ages. Each
quarter of the city had an emperor, lords, and dignitaries, each of
whom carried his banner or emblazonment. Grand processions,
tournaments, and feasts were held once a year, on S. John's Day, by the
potenze.

Having assisted at the triumphs and marriages of the Medici princes, he
also furnished the funeral pomp and magnificence on the deaths of the
brothers, that of Giuliano occurring in 1516, of Lorenzo 1519.

Lucratively it answered his purpose; the Medici gave him great honour;
he was well paid by them, and got the commission to decorate the Chapel
of the Palazzo Vecchio--a very good specimen of his fresco painting, in
which he never reached his father's excellence, although in oil he far
surpassed him. The chapel is small; the groined roof is covered with
emblematical designs on a blue ground, a Trinity in the midst with
angels bearing symbols of the passions around. The apostles and
evangelists surround this, and the principal wall has a larger fresco
of the _Annunciation_--a rather conventional rendering.

Commissions flowed in on him to such a degree, that although he had
fifteen children, he lived to amass money and lands, to see his
daughters well married, and his sons prosperous merchants trading to