and having arrived, a good provision was at once assigned to him. He commenced his work immediately, and in Casale he painted a chapel for Guglielmo, that namely wherein it was the custom of the Signor Marquis to hear mass, executing as many pictures for the same as sufficed to adorn it on all sides, and fill it entirely. The subjects chosen were stories from the Old and New Testaments, all painted with the utmost care, and this commendation may be extended to the altar-piece which Giovan Francesco likewise painted. For the apartments of the Castle also our artist afterwards painted many pictures which acquired him very great renown and in the church of San Domenico he painted the whole of the principal chapel, by command of the same Signor; those decorations being intended for the adornment of the sepulchre wherein the Marquis was ultimately to be laid. In this work Giovan Francesco acquitted himself in such a manner that his merits were acknowledged and remunerated by the liberality of the Marquis with the most honourable rewards: nay, furthermore, that noble conferred on our artist the office of chamberlain to himself, as may be seen by an instrument to that effect now in the possession of the painter’s heirs in Verona. Giovan Francesco took the portrait of the Marquis Guglielmo with that of his consort, and painted a vast number of pictures which were sent into France: he executed the portrait of their first-born son Guglielmo likewise, he being then but a child, with those of their daughters, and of all the ladies who were in the service of the Marchioness.[1]
On the death of the Marquis Guglielmo, Giovan Francesco sold all his possessions in those parts and left Casale to return to Verona, where he arranged his affairs and those of his son, to whom he then gave a wife, and it was then found that his riches amounted to more than seven thousand ducats: but not for this did he abandon painting; nay, rather, he devoted himself thereto with more devotion than ever, having his mind at peace, and not being compelled to distract his thoughts with cares for his subsistence. It is true, that either from envy or some other cause, he was reproached as being an artist who was capable of executing
- ↑ Of all the works here enumerated there os now not one to be found in Casale.—Della Valle.
