After an extended stay in Città di Castello in the mid 1490s, the artist went on to execute a large commission at the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, south of Siena, decorating the main cloister with the "Legend of St. Benedict".
Imagine a city where Jacques-Louis David insisted on working to execute a momentous commission from the French king; where a 21-year-old aspiring artist from Philadelphia named Benjamin West was taken to meet the pope; where Fragonard, Piranesi, Antonio Canova, Angelika Kauffmann and Jean-Antoine Houdon lived, dined, traded ideas and drank coffee together.
As I was about leaving the room, one of the persons we had met with at the coffee-house, asked me if I would be kind enough to execute a similar commission for him; I answered Yes, willingly, and he took a note-case from his pocket, in which there was a 5l.
This was a commission executed at warp speed, barely 18 months from start to finish.
He had arrived with a commission to execute a series of etchings for the Fine Art Society.
He was rejected in various competitions for monuments to be erected in London and Paris, but finally he received a commission to execute a statue for City Hall in Paris.
Basically, the custodian would locate trades through exchanges or other brokers based on buy or sell instructions provided by the adviser client, execute those trades and collect a commission or spread.
Most traders in brokerages act as middlemen between traders in banks, pension funds, hedge funds and so on, executing their orders and taking a commission.
Such a commission was usually executed as part of a triptych, or later as a more affordable diptych.
That same year he was commissioned to execute a tomb in St. Peter's to Pope Clement XIII.
