Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/36

28 ancient statues; among others was formerly a Jupiter of great value, hut this was afterwards sent by the Farnese family, with many other beautiful statues, to the King Francis of France. In addition to those statues, the Loggia in question is also richly adorned with stucco-work, the walls and ceilings being likewise decorated with arabesques and grottesche by the hand of Giovanni da Udine. And at the head of the same is a fresco painted by Giulio himself, and representing Poliphemus, a figure of immense size, with a vast number of children and little satyrs sporting around him. The master obtained high commendation for this group, as he did indeed for all the works designed and executed by him at that palace, which he adorned with fountains, grottoes, groves, fish-ponds, ornamental pavements, and other decorations of similar kind, all executed with the most perfect order and judgment.

It is indeed true, that on the death of Pope Leo, the work was discontinued for the time, seeing that when Pope Adrian had been chosen Pontiff, and the Cardinal de’ Medici returned to Florence, this fabric was left neglected, with all the other public buildings commenced by Adrian's predecessor. But Giulio, in the meantime, employed himself, with GiovanFrancesco, in the completion of different works left unfinished by Raphael, and those artists prepared themselves to execute a portion of the Cartoons, which their master had designed for the great hall of the palace, and wherein he had himself commenced the painting of four stories from the life of the Emperor Constantine; nay, at the moment when he died, Raffaello had covered one side of the hall with the proper groundwork for painting on it in oil. The two disciples, nevertheless, soon perceived that Adrian, as a man who cared neither for paintings, sculptures, nor any other good work, had no mind to see these pictures finished, and they were discouraged almost to desperation, seeing that they themselves, with Perino del Vaga, Giovanni da Udine, Bastiano Veniziano, and many other excellent artists, were all, during the life of Adrian, but little better than dying with hunger.

But as it pleased God, while all the court, accustomed to the