Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/35

Rh with flowers in rich abundance—jasmine, roses, See., the whole furthermore embellished with diflerent kinds of animals and birds of varied plumage.

Pope Leo then determining to cause the Hall on the ground floor, wherein the Guard of the Lansquenets hold their watch, to be painted, Giovanni, in addition to the friezes which he executed around the same, and which consisted of the Papal Arms, with lions, children, and grottesche, made a species of ornament for the walls, resembling the ancient incrustations used by the Romans for their temples, baths, and similar edifices, as may be seen in the Ritonda, in the Portico of San Piero and in other places, the incrustation made by Giovanni being an imitation of marbles and fine stones of various kinds.

In a Hall near that above-named, and which was used as a waiting-room by the chamberlains, Raflaello da Urbino had painted many beautiful figures of the Apostles, the size of life, standing within certain tabernacles; and over the cornices of that work Giovanni executed numerous animals and birds of the parrot kind, all painted from nature and exhibiting various colours, the originals of those birds being in the possession of His Holiness: he added figures of apes and monkeys also, with civet-cats and other strange creatures. But this work had only a short life, 'seeing that Pope Paul lY., choosing to make little cabinets and nooks wherein to hide himself, fairly ruined the apartment, and deprived the Palace of a very remarkable work, a thing which would not have been done by that holy man had he been gifted with taste for the arts of design. Giovanni likewise prepared the. cartoons for the hangings and arras required for various purposes, and which were afterwards woven of silk and gold in Flanders; the subjects chosen were figures of children sporting amidst festoons of flowers, whereunto are suspended the devices of Pope Leo, with the addition of various animals all copied from nature. He also made the cartoons for certain pieces of arras covered with grottesche, and which are in the first rooms of the Consistory.

While Giovanni was occupied with this work, there was a palace in process of erection for Messer Giovanni Battista deir Aquila, at the end of the Borgo Nuovo, and near the