without regarding the contract into which he had entered with the Aretines, and leaving their commission, for which he had already received a hundred and fifty scudi, unfulfilled; nor did he in any way trouble himself with the injury which he was doing to Giovan Antonio, who had become security for him.
Taking the road by Pesaro, our artist repaired to Venice, and there, being entertained by Messer Pietro of Arezzo, he made a drawing for Messer Pietro, on a sheet of paper, which was afterwards engraved, and wherein he represented Mars sleeping; with Venus, the Loves and the Graces, who despoil the God of his arms and are bearing olf his cuirass. Leaving Venice, Rosso then proceeded to France, where he was received with many marks of friendship by those of the Florentine people abiding there. Here, having painted certain pictures, which were afterwards placed in the gallery at Fontainebleau, he presented the same to the King Francis, whom they pleased infinitely, but still more acceptable to that monarch were the appearance, manners, and discourse of Rosso, who was tall and majestic in person, of a ruddy complexion, as was expressed by his name, and in all his actions of a grave, commanding, and thoughtful presence, giving evidence at all times of much judgment and ability.[1]
The King at once appointed him a stipend of four hundred crowns per annum, and also presented him with a house in Paris, but this he did not often occupy, remaining for the greater part of his time at Fontainebleau. There he had apartments in the palace, and lived in the manner of a gentleman, the King having made him chief and superintendent over all the buildings, paintings, and other decorations of that place, where Rosso commenced the construction of a gallery over the lower court. This he did not finish with a vaulting, but with a ceiling, or rather wood-work, very beautifully divided into compartments. The side-walls of the gallery he decorated entirely in stucco-work, with new and fanciful methods of dividing the spaces, and with cornices richly and variously carved. The piers were adorned with figures of the size of life, and on the entire space beneath the
- ↑ A compatriot of our author remarks, that “the quarrel of Rosso with the priests, and his abandonment of his friend, do but poorly accord with this description of a thoughtful and judicious person.”
