Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/36

24 Piazza di San Pietro; for the front of this building Giovanni was commissioned to prepare decorations in stucco, and he executed the greater part of the same; a very fine work it was considered to be. This artist likewise painted the Loggia of the Yigna, which Giulio, Cardinal de’ Medici, caused to be constructed under Monte Mario, and made all the ornaments in stucco for that Loggia, wherein there are animals, grottesche, festoons, and arabesques, which are so beautiful that Giovanni may be supposed to have been desirous of surpassing himself on that occasion; the Cardinal, who highly estimated his abilities, not only conferred many benefits on the kinsmen of Giovanni, but also gave him a canonicate for himself. This benefice was situate at Civitale in Friuli, and was subsequently given by Giovanni to one of his brothers.

Having at a later period been commissioned to construct a fountain for the same Cardinal at the above-mentioned Vigna, and to make the water flow from the mouth of an elephant’s head in marble, Giovanni took for his model in all parts and for every particular the Temple of Neptune, a hall which had been discovered a short time previously, among the ancient ruins of the great palace, and which was decorated all over with stucco work, marine monsters and other products of the sea, copied from nature and executed with the utmost perfection. But in certain respects Giovanni nevertheless did far surpass this ancient hall, seeing that, to a great variety of those animals admirably well done, he added shells and other things of similar kind in vast numbers, and arranged with very great ability.