Uccello was employed to decorate one of the cloisters of the monastery
of San Miniato, situated without the city of Florence, with subjects
from the lives of the Holy Fathers. While he was engaged on these works,
the monks gave him scarcely anything to eat but cheese, of which the
painter soon became tired, and being shy and timid, he resolved to go no
more to work in the cloister. The prior sent to enquire the cause of his
absence, but when Paolo heard the monks asking for him, he would never
be at home, and if he chanced to meet any of the brothers of that order
in the street, he gave them a wide berth. This extraordinary conduct
excited the curiosity of the monks to such a degree that one day, two of
the brothers, more swift of foot than the rest, gave chase to Paolo, and
having, cornered him, demanded why he did not come to finish the work
according to his agreement, and wherefore he fled at the sight of one of
their body. "Faith," replied the painter, "you have so murdered me, that
I not only run away from you, but dare not stop near the house of any
joiner, or even pass by one; and all this owing to the bad management of
your abbot; for, what with his cheese-pies, and cheese-soup, he has made
me swallow such a mountain of cheese, that I am all turned into cheese
myself, and tremble lest the carpenters should seize me, to make their
glue of me; of a certainty had I stayed any longer with you, I should be
no more Paolo, but a huge lump of cheese." The monks, bursting with
laughter, went their way, and told the story to their abbot, who at
length prevailed on Uccello to return to his work on condition that he
would order him no more dishes made of cheese.