Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/455

Rh the latter singing. At the altar of the sacrament, Girolamo painted three small pictures in miniature within the ornament or frame-work executed by Fra Giovanni da Verona. That in the centre is a Deposition from the Cross, with two Angels, and in those of each side are six Martyrs, three in each picture that is to say, all kneeling with their faces towards the sacrament, and all being saints whose remains have been deposited within the altar itself. The first three are Canzio, Canziano, and Canzianello, who were nephews of the Emperor Diocletian; the three others are Protos, Grisogonos, and Anastasius, who sutfered martyrdom at a place near Aquileia, called ad aquas gradatas; all these figures are in miniature as we have said, and are very beautiful, Girolamo being distinguished in that branch of art above all of his time in Lombardy and the State of Venice.

This artist illuminated many books for the Monks of Monte Scaglioso in the Kingdom of Naples, with some for the church of Santa Giustina in Padua, and many others for the Abbey of Praia in the territory of Padua. He likewise executed some few at Candiana, a very rich monastery belonging to the Canons Regular of San Salvadore, to whose house he went in person for the purposes of his labour, a thing which he would never do for any other place. While Girolamo was at that monastery, Don Giulio Clovio, who was one of the monks thereof, acquired the first principles of that art in which he afterwards became what he now is, the greatest miniaturist in Italy. At Candiana Girolamo illuminated a leaf with a Kyrie, which is a very extraordinary work, and for the same Monks he executed the first leaf of a Psalter to be used in the choir. In Verona likewise he produced various works of this kind for Santa Maria-in-Organo, and for the Monks of San Giorgio. For the Black Friars of San Nazzaro in Verona he executed many beautiful miniatures in like manner.