Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/45

Rh Florence, in the Guardaroba of the Duke. He also painted the portraits of the Duke Lorenzo and of the Duke Giuliano, whom he depicted with that perfection and that grace of colouring which is to be seen in no other than himself, These works belong to the heirs of Ottaviano de’ Medici, and are now in Florence.

The fame of Raphael continued to increase largely, as did the rewards conferred on him; wherefore, desiring to leave a memorial of himself in Rome, he caused a palace to be erected in the Borgo Nuovo, which was decorated with stucco work by Bramante. The renown of this most noble artist having been carried, by the fame of these and other works, into France and Flanders, Albert Dürer, a most admirable German painter, and the engraver of most beautiful copperplates, sent a tribute of respect to Raphael from his own works, a head, namely, which was his own portrait, executed on exceedingly fine linen, which permitted the picture to appear equally on both sides, the lights not produced by the use of whites, but transparent, and the whole painted in water colours. This work was much admired by Raphael, who sent a number of his own drawings to Albert Dürer, by whom they were very highly estimated. The head sent by the German artist, Albert Dürer, to Raphael, was subsequently taken to Mantua among the other possessions inherited from the last named master, by Giulio Romano.