Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/181

Rh preferring, on the contrary, and with good reason, always to do little and well. In addition to the favour of the Cardinal, Daniello enjoyed that of the Signor Annibale Caro, who laboured so earnestly on his behalf with the Signori Farnesi his lords, that they were ever ready to afford him protection and to give him their aid.

For Madama Margherita of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor Charles Y., Daniello executed certain decorations in the Palazzo de’ Medici at Navona; these were in that Study or Library of which we have made mention in the Life of Indaco, and consisted of eight stories from the acts of Charles V., which Daniello painted in eight compartments of that room, completing them with so much diligence and success that, for a work of that character, one could scarcely find a more advantageous example. In the year 1547, and when Perino del Vaga had died, leaving unfinished the Hall of the Kings—which, as we have said, is in the Papal Palace near the Sistine and Pauline chapels—Daniello, by the intervention of certain nobles and friends of his. Michelagnolo more especially, was appointed by Paul III. to fill Perino’s place, with a stipend similar to that which had been received by the latter, and was commanded first to commence those ornaments of the walls which were to be executed in stucco, with certain figures in full relief, that were to be placed on the summit of some gables belonging to the same apartments.

Now the walls of this great Hall are broken by six large doors, three on each side, and it has but one end remaining free from interruption. Daniello, therefore, contrived a sort ' of Tabernacle over each of these doors; this he constructed in stucco-work of great beauty; and within them all he proposed to paint figures of those Kings by whom the faith of Christ has been defended, one in each tabernacle. He then designed to depict stories on the walls, all relating to such monarchs as had benefited the Apostolic Church by victories or tributes. There were thus to be six pictures, and six tabernacles or niches. All these niches being finished, Daniello then, with the aid of others, completed the rich decorations in stucco-work, which are seen in other parts of that hall, while he was also preparing and studying the Cartoons for such paintings as he designed to delineate therein. This being done, he commenced the execution of