as Cosimo's Peter than by his own patronymic of Chimenti. He was at
this time twenty-two years of age, his registry in the Florentine Guild
proves his birth in 1462, as the son of Lorenzo, son of Piero, son of
Antonio, Chimenti.

Being the eldest of five brothers, it is difficult to conceive how a
member of a large family grew up developing such eccentricities as are
usually the fruit of isolation.

In the studio Piero was industrious and steady, working earnestly,
whether he was assisting his master's designs or carrying out his own
fancies of monsters, old myths, and classic fairy stories. No doubt the
two boys, Mariotto and Baccio, found little companionship in this
abstracted young man always dreaming over his own ideas. If they told
him an anecdote, he would look up vacantly at the end not having heard
a word; at other times every little noise or burst of laughter would
annoy him, and he would be immoderately angry with the flies and
mosquitos.

Piero had already been to Rome, and had assisted Cosimo in his fresco
of _Christ preaching on Lake Tiberias_; indeed most judges thought
his landscape the best part of that work, and the talent he showed
obtained him several commissions. He took the portraits of Virginio
Orsini, Ruberto Sanseverino and Duke Valentino, son of Pope Alessandro
VI. He was much esteemed as a portrait painter also in Florence, and
from his love of classical subjects, and extreme finish of execution,
he ranked as one of the best painters of "cassoni," or bridal-linen
chests.

This fashion excited the indignation of Savonarola, who in one of his