Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/146

134 cuted, as we have related in the Life of Genga, by Francesco da FuiTi; but that octangle is not only beyond all comparison the most beautiful of those pictures, but is, indeed, the most exquisite painting in all Venice. Francesco subsequently executed certain small figures in fresco, some nude and others draped, in a room wherein Giovanni Ricamatore, of Udine, had produced numerous works in stucco, and these frescoes are also very graceful.

In a picture executed by Francesco, for the Nuns of the Corpus Domini, at Venice, he delineated the figure of Our Saviour Christ, lying dead, with the Maries around him, and an Angel in the air above, who is holding the Mysteries of the Passion. He also painted the Portrait of the Poet, Messer Pietro Aretino, who sent that likeness, as being a very beautiful production, to Francis King of France, accompanying the same with certain verses in praise of him who had produced the portrait. For the Nuns of Santa Cristina, at Bologna, who are of the Order of Camaldoli, Salviati painted a very beautiful picture, comprising many figures; this he did at the request of Don Giovanfrancesco da Bagno, Confessor of those Nuns, in the Church of whose Convent this truly exquisite work has been placed.

His abode in Venice having subsequently become distasteful to Francesco, as to one who remembered what it was to dwell in Rome, and the place appearing to him not well suited to the men of design, he departed, with intention to return to Rome; in his way he made a round by Verona and Mantua, visiting the numerous antiquities to be found in the one, and in the other the works of Giulio Romano; he then proceeded to Rome by the route of the Romagna, and reached that city in the year 1541. Here, having rested