Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/213

Rh that he would gladly have remained there several months. He then saw the arrangements and preparations of Vasari for the decoration of the above-mentioned Hall; forty-four large pictures namely, of four, six, seven, and ten braccia each, and in which Giorgio was executing figures, the greater part whereof were six and eight braccia high, all of them executed in less than a year; although he had no other aid than that of the Yleraing Giovanni Strada and Jacopi Zucchi, who were his disciples, with the exception of some which he obtained from Battista Naldini, and these works being thus seen by Taddeo gave him great pleasure, and inspired him with new courage. He then returned to Borne and set hand to the Chapel of the Trinità, with the determination to surpass himself in the Stories of Our Lady, which were to be painted there, as we shall’ presently relate.

Now Federigo, although much entreated to leave Venice and return to Rome, could not refuse himself the pleasure of passing the Carnival then approaching, in the first-mentioned city, and in company with the architect Andrea Palladio. The latter had just completed an uncovered Theatre in woo, after the manner of the Colosseum, for the Signori of the Company of the Calza, and wherein there was to be performed a tragic drama; Palladio therefore caused Federigo to prepare twelve large pictures, each of seven feet and a half square, for the scenic decoration of the same; these pictures exhibited numerous events from the Life of Hyrcanus. King of Jerusalem, as the subject of the drama demanded, and in this work Federigo acquired great credit for the rapidity with which he had executed his work, as well as for the excellence of the same. At a later period, and when Palladio had gone into Friuli, there to found the Palace of Civitale, of which he had already prepared the model, Federigo also journeyed thither, for the purpose of visiting that district; in which he copied or designed many of the works which had pleased him.

Finally, and after having seen many things in Verona, as well as in other cities of Lombardy, Federigo came to Florence, arriving exactly at the time when the richest and most beautiful works were in progress, as a preparation for the arrival of the Queen Joanna of Austria. It was then the pleasure of the Signor Duke that he should paint a