Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/202

190 the money for his outfit and expenses having been deposited in a bank for that purpose, if the wars which immediately succeeded had not broken out in France, and if that Duke himself had not died very soon afterwards. Taddeo then returned to the work of Frangipane in San Marcello, but was not able to continue it without interruption for any long time, because the Emperor Charles V. having also died, and orders having been given for the solemnization of magnificent funeral rites in Rome (that Monarch being Emperor of the Romans), Taddeo was called on to paint stories from the Life of Charles, with numerous trophies and other ornaments, all which, executed with great beauty and decorum, our artist completed in the space of twenty-five days. For this labour, therefore, and for that of Federigo and the other assistants whom he had employed, Taddeo received the sum of 600 golden crowns.

No long time after these things, Taddeo painted two large chambers at Bracciano for the Signor Paolo Giordano Orsini; they were richly decorated in gold and stucco-work, and the subjects of the pictures executed by our artist were the Loves of Cupid and Psyche in one room, and in the other Stories from the Life of Alexander the Great. These last had been commenced by other artists; but of those which remained to be done, he caused Federigo his brother to take charge; and the latter acquitted himself therein to his great credit. For the Signor Stefano del Bufalo, Taddeo then painted certain frescoes in a garden near the fountain of Trevi, the Mount Parnassus namely, with the Muses around the Fountain of Castaly; this work also was considered a very fine one.

Now, the Superintendents of Works to the Cathedral of Orvieto, had caused certain Chapels to be constructed in the Nave of their Church, as we have related in the Life of Simone Mosca, with ornaments of marble and stucco-work: they had besides commissioned Girolamo Mosciano of Brescia to paint some pictures therein, being induced thereto by the intervention of friends; but having now heard of the reputation of Taddeo Zucchero, they invited him to Orvieto, whither he repaired accordingly, taking with him Federigo. Having commenced his labours in that city, therefore, our artist executed two colossal figures; one representing Life in Action, the other Life in Contemplation; both executed