Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/197

Rh Signoria, had at this time to visit Yerona and the other fortified places of that dominion, wherefore he took our artist with him, and Taddeo then copied for his Excellency that picture from the hand of Raffaello which, as we have related in another place, is in the Palace of the Counts of Canossa. He afterwards commenced a very large picture on cloth for his Excellency; the subject of that work is the Conversion of St. Paul, but this he never finished, and it remains still incomplete in the house of Ottaviano his father.

Having then returned to Urbino, Taddeo recommenced the designs for the Chapel. They were scenes from the Life of Our Lady, as may be seen from certain of them, drawn in chiaro-scuro with a pen, which are in the possession of Federigo. But whether it were that the Duke thought our artist too young, or whatever else may have been the cause, certain it is that Taddeo remained with his Excellency two years without doing anything but some few pictures in a writing chamber or study, at Pesaro, with a great Escutcheon of Arms in fresco, which he painted on the front of the Palace, and the Portrait of the Duke, the size of life, in a large picture, all of which works were very fine ones. At length, however, and when his Excellency was on the point of his departure for Rome, there to receive the Baton of Commander for Holy Church from the hands of Pope Julius III., he left directions with Taddeo, to the effect that the latter should proceed with the above-named Chapel, commanding furthermore, that he should be provided with all that he might require for that purpose. But the ministers of the Duke, proceeding as such men usually do, delaying all things and impeding him at every point, that is to say, caused him at length to leave Urbino, after he had lost two years of his time. He then repaired to Rome, where, having found the Duke, he dexterously excused himself without casting censure on any other person, promising his Excellency that he would not fail to complete the undertaking in due time.

In the year 1551, Stefano Yeltroni of Monte Sansavino, having been commanded by the Pope, and directed by Giorgio Vasari, to adorn with grottesche the apartments of the Yigna which had belonged to the Cardinal Poggio, and were situate on the hill without the Porta del Popolo,—Stefano Yeltroni, I say, summoned Taddeo, whom he caused to paint the central picture of his work. This represented a figure