Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/414

406

In that city, therefore, the place of his rest, Girolamo was living in much repose of mind, when he was attacked by a most virulent fever, and after having received all the sacraments of the church, he there finished the course of his life, to the infinite grief of his wife and children: this happened on the 11th of July, in the year 1.551, and when Girolamo had attained to his seventy-fifth year. His remains were taken from La Valle to Urbino, where they were honourably inhumed in the episcopal church, and in front of the chapel of San Martino, which had been decorated with paintings by his hand, as we have before related: his death caused much sorrow to his kindred and friends, as well as to all the inhabitants of Urbino.

Girolamo was ever noted as a man of the most upright character, insomuch that a bad action committed by him was never heard of. He was not only a painter, sculptor, and architect, but a good musician also; his powers of conversation were remarkable, and his society was most agreeable and entertaining; he was full of kindness and affection towards his kinsfolk and acquaintance, and what, furthermore, is deserving of no slight commendation, his merits enabled him to become the founder of that house of Genga in Urbino, which derives from him its name, its honour, its position, and its property. Girolamo left two sons, one of whom followed the footsteps of his father, and devoted himself to architecture, in which he would have certainly become most eminent, as his first attempts clearly prove, had not an early death cut short the hopes conceived of him. The second son of Girolamo employs himself with the care of his family interests, and still survives.

A disciple of Genga, as we have before related, was Francesco Menzochi, of Forlì, who first, and when he was but a little child, began to draw of his own accord, copying and imitating a picture in the cathedral of Forli, which had been executed by the hand of Marco Palmegiani, also a native of