Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/418

406 importance, for the Fugger Palace; the payment for these was three thousand crowns; and in the same city he executed a large and beautiful picture, wherein he exemplified all the five rules of architecture, in a building painted in perspective, for the Priners, who are great men in that place, and for whom he also painted a cabinet picture, which is now in the possession of the Cardinal of Augsburg. At St. Augustine, in Crema, this artist painted two pictures, in one of which is the portrait of the Signor Griulio Manfrone, who is fully armed, and represents St. George. The same painter has executed many works, which are much praised at Civitale di Belluno, more particularly a figure of Santa Maria, and one of St. Joseph, which are greatly admired. He sent the Portrait of Signor Ottaviano Grimaldo, the size of life, to Genoa, with a picture of the same size, representing a female figure.

Proceeding at a later period to Milan, Bordone painted a picture for the Church of San Celso in that city; it represents certain figures in the air, wfith a most beautiful landscape beneath them. This he is said to have done at the request of the Signor Carlo da Roma, in whose Palace he also painted two large pictures in oil; the first representing Mars and Venus in the net of Vulcan; the second. King David looking at Bathsheba, who with her Maids is bathing at the fountain. He also painted the Portrait of the Signor Carlo, with the likeness of his Consort, the Signora Paula Visconti, and some Landscapes; these last are of no great size, but are exceedingly beautiful. About the same time our artist painted several of Ovid’s Fables, for the Marquis Astorga, by whom these pictures were taken into Spain; he also executed many works for the Signor Tommaso Marini, but these require no further mention. This then shall sufi3.ce me to say of Paris Bordone, who being now seventy-five years old, lives quietly in his own house, working only at the request of princes, or others of his friends, avoiding all rivalry, and those vain ambitions which do but disturb the repose of man, and seeking, as he says, to avoid having the serene tranquillity of his life invaded by those who, proceeding by dubious paths, do not seek truth, but rather malignity, and are totally devoid of charitable purpose. He, on the contrary,