Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/558

546 architect to the Palace: but the roof was so low that all the rooms wanted elevation, and had altogether a poor and stunted appearance. To raise the rafters would, nevertheless, have been a long operation; and I therefore advised the Duke to introduce a decoration formed in wood-work above the cross beams of the ceilings, with compartments two braccia and a half in extent, supported on corbels, which gave an elevation in the whole of nearly two braccia above the beams, as these last were first laid: that proposal pleased the Duke much, and he gave orders for its being instantly put into execution, commanding Tasso to prepare the wood carvings and frame-work, within which, in the square compartments that is to say, there was to be painted the Genealogy of the Gods, a subject afterwards to be continued in the succeeding apartments.

While these things were thus in preparation, I therefore, having had permission from the Duke, went to pass two months between Cortona and Arezzo, partly to complete the arrangement of certain of my affairs, and partly to finish a work in fresco commenced at Cortona on the Parade and ceiling of the house belonging to the Company of Jesus; where I painted stories from the Life of Christ, with others representing the Sacrifices described in the Old Testament, as offered to God from Cain and Abel, down to the time of the Prophet Nehemiah. At the same time I also arranged the designs and models for the edifice of the Madonna Nuova, constructed outside of that city. The works for the Brotherhood being completed, I then repaired to Florence with all my family; and in the year 1555, commenced my labours in the service of Duke Cosimo.

I then began and finished the paintings on the walls and ceiling of the before-mentioned Hall, called the Hall of the Elements, depicting therein eleven pictures, which represent the wrongs done to Uranus by the Titans. And in the ceiling of a room adjacent, I painted the Histories of Saturn and Ops, with that of Ceres and Proserpine on the ceiling of a large chamber. In a still more extensive apartment near this, I then painted Stories of the Goddess Berecenthia, and of Cibele, in triumph, with the four Seasons, on a ceiling, which is exceedingly rich. On the walls beneath, I furthermore delineated the twelve Months. In the ceiling of a room, which is not so richly decorated, I then painted the Birth of