"When the works of the chapel before mentioned, were completed, the
bishop ordered Buonamico--either for a jest, or for some other cause--to
paint, on one of the walls of his palace, an eagle on the back of a
lion, which the bird had killed. The crafty painter, having promised to
do all that the bishop desired, caused a stout scaffolding and screen of
wood-work to be made before the building, saying that he could not be
seen to paint such a thing. Thus prepared, and shut up alone within his
screen, Buonamico painted the direct contrary of what the bishop had
required--a lion, namely, tearing an eagle to pieces; and, having
painted the picture, he requested permission from the bishop to repair
to Florence, for the purpose of seeking certain colors needful to his
work. He then locked up the scaffold, and departed to Florence,
resolving to return no more to the bishop. But the latter, after waiting
some time, and finding that the painter did not reappear, caused the
scaffolding to be taken down, and discovered that Buonamico had been
making a jest of him. Furious at this affront, Guido condemned the
artist to banishment for life from his dominions; which, when Buonamico
learnt, he sent word to the bishop that he might do his worst,
whereupon the bishop threatened him with fearful consequences. Yet
considering afterwards that he had been tricked, only because he had
intended to put an affront upon the painter, Bishop Guido forgave him,
and even rewarded him liberally for his labors. Nay, Buffalmacco was
again invited to Arezzo, no long time after, by the same prelate, who
always treated him as a valued servant and familiar friend, confiding
many works in the old cathedral to his care, all of which, unhappily,
are now destroyed. Buonamico also painted the apsis of the principal
chapel in the church of San Giustino in Arezzo."
In the notes of the Roman and other earlier editions of Vasari, we are
told that the lion being the insignia of Florence, and the eagle, that
of Arezzo, the bishop designed to assert his own superiority over the
former city, he being lord of Arezzo; but later commentators affirm,
that Guido, being a furious Ghibelline, intended rather to offer an
affront to the Guelfs, by exalting the eagle, which was the emblem of
his party, over the lion, that of the Guelfs.