Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/206

194 new ceilings by which the old ones, ruined by time, had been replaced. In this certainly great and important work, Tederigo, to whom his brother confided almost the entire charge of the same, acquitted himself exceedingly well, but he incurred a great danger in the execution thereof, for, while he was painting grottesche in the above-mentioned Loggia, he fell from a scaffold, and was for some time in danger of losing his life.

No long time after this, the Cardinal Emulio, to whom the Pope had entrusted the care of the matter, commissioned numerous young artists, to the end that the work might be rapidly accomplished, to paint the small Palazzo which is in the wood of the Belvedere, and which was commenced under the Pontificate of Paul lY., being adorned with many ancient Statues and a beautiful Fountain; the architecture and design by Pirro Ligorio. The young men who worked (to their great honour) in that place, were Federigo Barocci of Urbino, a youth of the highest hopes, with Lionardo Cungi and Durante del Nero, both of Borgo San Sepulcro, who executed the paintings in the rooms of the first floor. The Florentine painter Santi Titi, painted the first room above the spiral staircase, acquitting himself admirably well, and the principal apartment, which is near that just mentioned, was painted by the above-named Federigo Zucchero the brother of Taddeo; one beyond it being entrusted to the Sclavonian, Griovanni dal Carso, an excellent master of grottesche.

But although each of the above-named artists acquitted himself exceedingly well, they were nevertheless all surpassed by Federigo Zucchero in certain Stories which he painted from the Life of Christ; the Transfiguration for example, the Marriage of Cana in Galilee, and the Centurion kneeling before Christ. There were still two Stories remaining, and these were executed, the one by Orazio Sammacchini, a Bolognese painter, and the other by Lorenzo Costa of Mantua. The small Loggia, above the Fish-pond in the same place, was painted by Federigo Zucchero, and he afterwards executed a Frieze in the principal Hall of the Belvedere, that namely which is attained by the spiral staircase, and which exhibits stories of Moses and Pharaoh, which are really beautiful. Of this work Federigo, no long time since, gave the design, drawn and painted by his own