Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/518

510 pretending to dispute the prize of singing and compete with the Muses, were changed into crows.

Baviera afterwards procured from Rosso the designs for twenty figures of the gods placed in niches, with their appropriate attributes, which it was his purpose to use for a certain book, when these were engraved in a. very fine manner, and with much grace by Gian-Jacopo Caraglio, and when at no long distance of time the Transformations of these Gods also appeared, the engravings were in like manner executed by Caraglio. The whole of these last-named plates were not designed by Rosso, who had prepared two only, when he fell into a dispute with Baviera; the latter thereupon caused the ten required for the completion of the number demanded, to be designed by Perino del Vaga. The two by Rosso were the Rape of Proserpine, and Philyra transformed into a Horse; the whole of the twelve plates were engraved by Caraglio with so much care that they have ever been held in the highest estimation. Gian-Jacopo afterwards commenced the Rape of the Sabines for Rosso, and this would without doubt have proved an admirable work, but, the plunder of Rome supervening, it could not be finished, Rosso having left the city, and all the plates having been lost. It is true that the painting has since fallen into the hands of the copper-plate engravers, but the result is but a poor affair, having been executed by such as did not understand the subject and thought only of making money.

Caraglio likewise engraved a plate of the Marriage of the Virgin for Francesco Parmigiano, and executed other works by commission for the same master. For Tiziano Vecelli he also engraved a picture, the Nativity of Christ namely, which had formerly been painted by Titian and was a most beautiful thing. In this manner Gian-Jacopo had produced numerous engravings on copper, when, being a very ingenious person, he turned his attention to the engraving of cameos and crystals, wherein he succeeded no less perfectly •