Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/527

Rh Satyrs namely, giving drink to the god Bacchus, with a Leda drawing the arrows from the quiver of Cupid, Susannah in the Bath, and many others, some taken from the designs of Rosso, and some from those of Francesco Bologna Primaticcio, now Abbot of San Martino in France. To the latter belong the Judgment of Paris, Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac, Our Saviour Christ espousing Santa Caterina, Jupiter changing Calisto into a Bear, the Council of the Gods, Penelope weaving and surrounded by her women, and a vast number of other subjects, some in wood-cuts, and some on copper-plates. So large an amount of practice had the effect of sharpening the wits of engravers to such an extent, that smaller figures were executed in a manner more delicate than words could express, insomuch that it would not be possible to bring them to a higher pefection of finish. Who, for example, could behold without surprise and admiration, the works of Francesco Marcolini of Forli? His book, entitled “The Garden of Thoughts,” among others, with engravings on wood, and the Globe of the Heavens, with his own portrait, after a design by Guiseppe Porta da Castelnuovo della Garfagnana: in this book many fanciful objects are represented, such as Fate, Envy, Calumny, Timidity, Praise, and many other of similar kind, which have been held to be very fine. Neither are the figures which Gabriel Giolito, the printer of books, inserted in the Orlando Furioso, to be considered unworthy of commendation, seeing that they were executed in a very good manner of engraving; as were also the eleven large plates of anatomical studies which Andrea Vessalio engraved after the designs of Giovanni di Calcare, a most excellent