Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/41

Rh troubles of the Pontiff having in a great measure ceased, while the affairs of Pome were also brought into a state of repose, Griovanni was despatched by His Holiness, with many promises of favour, to Florence, there to execute the decorations for the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, which had been adorned with the admirable sculptures of Michelagnolo, and the tribune of which is covered with deeply sunken squares, diminishing as they approach the central point.

Giovanni put hand to the work accordingly, and completed it to admiration, with the aid of his numerous assistants, adorning the same with rosettes, foliage, and other ornaments in stucco and gold. But in one respect he betrayed a defect of judgment; in the plane or level bordering which forms the ribs of the vaulting namely, and in those which cross the same, and serve to enclose the squares, he painted birds, foliage, masks, and figures of various kinds, which are indeed exceedingly beautiful in themselves, but which, being painted on grounds of different colours, are not to be clearly distinguished from below, by reason of the distance, whereas if he had simply coloured the figures themselves on a plain ground, and without any other addition, they could have been seen, and the whole work would have produced a more cheerful and pleasing effect.

There now remained to complete only so much of this undertaking as might have been effected in about fifteen days, with some retouching in certain parts—when the news of Pope Clement’s death reached Giovanni, who thereupon lost all hope; more particularly in relation to the reward which he was expecting for the work in question. He then perceived, although too late, that the trust of those who put their faith in Courts is too frequently betrayed, and was compelled to acknowledge the constant liability to disappointment of those whose hopes are built on the lives of princes.

Giovanni then returned to Pome, and there indeed he might have lived on the revenues of his offices and other sources of income; he might also have entered the service of the new Pontiff Paul III., or that of the Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici, but he determined to reinstate himself in his native place of Udine, and repaired thither accordingly.