Guido, when in embarrassment from his habit of gaming and extravagance,
is related by Malvasia, his well-informed biographer, to have sold his
time at a stipulated sum per hour, to certain dealers, one of whom
tasked the painter so rigidly, as to stand by him, with watch in hand,
while he worked. Thus were produced numbers of heads and half figures,
which, though executed with the facility of a master, had little else to
recommend them. Malvasia relates, that such works were sometimes begun
and finished in three hours, and even less time.