Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/521

Rh he was himself rather lukewarm of disposition than otherwise.

Taking the prudent part, therefore, our artist returned to Montecavallo and to the service of the Cardinal, a step for which he was much commended by many who thought that it was indeed too desperate a life to be every day and all day long contending about each trifling arrangement with this person and that: then, as he well said, it is better to have quiet of mind, though with only bread and water, than to sigh and break one’s heart in the midst of greatness and honours. When, therefore, Girolamo had executed a very beautiful picture for that prelate, his lord,—with which I, who have seen it, was very greatly pleased,—being now weary and exhausted, he returned with his said lord to Ferrara, thereto enjoy the repose of life in his own home with his wife and children, leaving the hopes and schemes of fortune in the hands of his adversaries, who obtained from the Pontiff just what he had received himself, and nothing more or better.

While Girolamo was thus residing at Ferrara, the palace took fire, by some accident, I know not what, when the Duke Ercole charged our artist with the care of restoring it; an office which he performed exceedingly well, adorning the fabric as he best could in that country, where they suffer a great dearth of stone for making polished ornaments; he acquitted himself so well indeed, as to secure the favour of the Duke, who remunerated his labours most liberally.

Finally, having completed this work and many others, Girolamo died at the age of fifty-five, and in the year 1558, when he was buried beside his wife in the church of the Angeli. He left two daughters and three sons, Giulio, Annibale, and another, that is to say.

Girolamo was a man of a cheerful character, very agreeable in conversation, in his works somewhat leisurely and slow, of middle stature, an immoderate lover of music, and perhaps rather more earnestly devoted to the pleasures of sense than was altogether desirable. After his death the works of his lords were carried on by the Ferrarese architect Galasso, a man