Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/110

102 acquitted himself exceedingly well on this occasion: carefully observing the outlines and manner of Perino, and shading the work with extreme delicacy, he did his utmost to impart to the engraving that grace and facility which the master had displayed in his designs.

While Rome had thus been ruined and destroyed by the siege, very many of the inhabitants had departed. The Pope himself had retired to Orvieto, and few persons remained in the city, where there was absolutely no work of any kind in progress, when Niccolo Veneziano, a distinguished, nay, rather, unrivalled master in embroidery, and a servant oi Prince Doria, arrived in Rome. There had long been much friendship between Niccolo and Perino, for which reason, and because he had always favoured and wished well to the men of our art, Niccolo persuaded Perino to depart from amidst that wretchedness, and set off to Genoa, promising to use in his favour the influence which he possessed with Prince Doria, who was a great lover of art, and, delighting more particularly in painting, would certainly employ him in the execution of important works. Niccolo remarked, moreover, that his Excellency had frequently spoken with him respecting a wish he had to cause a range of rooms in his palace to be richly adorned; wherefore, Perino, not requiring much persuasion, oppressed as he was by want, and feeling besides the most earnest desire to leave Rome, Perino, I say, determined to accompany Niccolo: having then placed his wife and little girl where they would be well cared for by their connections in Rome, and arranged all his affairs, he departed accordingly, and proceeded to Genoa.

Arrived in that city, he was instantly made known to the Prince by means of Niccolo, when it was found that nothing could have been more welcome to that sovereign than such an arrival, whom it pleased more than anything of a similar kind that had ever happened to him in his life. Having been received with the most gracious cordiality therefore, and with many marks of favour, much discourse and many conversations ensued, when Perino was at length commissioned to begin his labours. The work with which they finally determined to commence, was the erection of a palace, to be adorned with stucco-work, pictures in fresco, paintings in oil, and decorations of every other kind, which