He was a boy in his early teens when he entered his first master's bottega.
Michael Angelo was not yet, neither had Raphael appeared from the Umbrian bottega with his charm of grace and youth.
It was in Cosimo's bottega that he made acquaintance with Mariotto Albertinelli, who became his intimate friend and fellow-worker.
The Pope found him at work in his bottega on the tomb of Julius; for the "tragedy of the mausoleum" still dragged on.
There he stayed for a little while, until one day Titian came across, in his bottega, some 113 drawings that showed promise.
Simone kept a bottega (or shop), undertaking any ornamental work, and his gains were large.
He had his bottega on the Piazza S. Giovanni and lived with his brother in a house hard by.
All these men, whose work is so full of splendour, came under the influence of Giorgione after passing through Bellini's bottega.
