excelling Michelangelo, of whose genius the world was beginning to
talk; and, as adhering to a party was the only way to success in those
days, he became a strong Pallesco, [Footnote: The Palleschi were the
partizans of the Medici, so called because they took as their standard
the Palle, or Balls, the arms of that family.] trusting wholly in the
favour of Madonna Alfonsina.

He even absented himself almost constantly from the studio, which
Baccio shared with him, and worked at the Medici palace, [Footnote:
This break is signified by Baldinucci, _Opere_, vol. iv. p. 84,
and by Vasari, who says that after the exile of Piero he returned to
Baccio.] but, alas! in 1494 this brilliant aspect of his fortunes
changed.

Lorenzo being dead, Piero de' Medici was banished, the great palace
fell into the hands of the republican Signoria, and all the painters
were left without patronage.

Mariotto, very much cast down, bethought himself of a friend who never
failed him, and whose love was not affected by party; and, returning to
the house of Baccio, he set to work, most likely in a renewed spirit of
confidence in the comrade who stood by him when the princes in whom he
trusted failed him. Whatever his frame of mind, he began now to study
earnestly the works of Baccio, who, while he was seeking patronage in
the palace, had been purifying his genius in the Church. Mariotto
imbibed more and more of Baccio's style, till their works so much
resembled one another that indifferent judges could scarcely
distinguish them apart. It would be interesting if we could see those
early pictures done for Madonna Alfonsina, and compare them with the
style formed after this second adherence to Fra Bartolommeo. What his