Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/517

Rh On the remaining space they painted figures of Saints, of which some at least are very good.

Girolamo meanwhile perceived that his association with Maestro Biagio was by no means advantageous to him, nay, was likely to prove his utter ruin; he therefore determined to separate himself from his company, which he did when the undertaking above-mentioned was completed, and then began to work alone. The first picture which he executed entirely by himself was one for the chapel of San Sebastiano in the church of San Salvadore, a performance wherein he acquitted himself exceedingly well; but having shortly afterwards received intelligence of the death of his father, Girolamo returned to Ferrara, where he for that time did little besides taking a few portraits and other works of but slight importance.

Meanwhile Titiano Yercellio had been invited to Ferrara, as will be mentioned in his life, there to execute certain paintings in a small room or study for the Duke Alfonso, wherein Giovan Bellino had previously performed certain works, and where Dosso had painted a Procession of Bacchanals, ! the figures of which are so fine that he would well merit the name of a good painter for that work only, had he never produced any other; when Girolamo profited by the arrival of Tizian, and by his means, with the intervention of some other persons also, he began to obtain access to the court of the Duke. He now, as it were to give a specimen of what he could do, copied the head of Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, from a painting by the hand of Titian, and this he did so well that it appeared to be exactly the same as the original, for which reason it was sent into France as a work of great merit.