Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/409

Rh himself on that subject, and which are now in the possession of his heirs.

About this time Duke Guido died, when Francesco Maria, the third Duke of Urbino, succeeded him, and that Prince recalled Girolamo from Rome; he was therefore compelled to return, which he did at the time when Francesco Maria took for his wife and brought home to his states, Leonora Gonzaga, daughter of the Marquis of Mantua. On that occasion, Girolamo Genga was employed by his Excellency to erect triumphal arches, and decorations of various kinds, as also to prepare the scenic apparatus for dramatic representations, which were all so well arranged and put in order, that Urbino might safely be compared to a Rome triumphant, a success from which the artist derived great glory and honour.

At a subsequent period, and when the Duke, being driven for the last time from his states, repaired to Mantua, Girolamo Genga followed him, as he had done when the Prince had previously been exiled, and so, constantly sharing the fortunes of his master, he now took refuge with his family in Cesena, where he painted a picture in oil for the high altar of the church of Sant’ Agostino. In the upper part of this work is an Annunciation, and beneath is the figure of the Almighty Father, with that of the Madonna, holding the divine Child in her arms, and surrounded by the Doctors of the church, in the lowermost portion: a truly beautiful work, and one which well merits to be much esteemed.

Girolamo afterwards painted a fresco in one of the chapels of the church of San Francesco at Forli, that namely to the right as you enter the church; the subject of this work is the Assumption of the Virgin, who has numerous angels and other figures, of prophets and apostles that is to say, around her. Here too the artist gave evidence of the admirable genius wherewith he had been endowed, the work being considered an exceedingly fine one. In the same place