crystal, with the War of Tunis in another; and for the same cathedral he furthermore engraved the Birth of Christ, the Prayer of Our Saviour in the Carden, his seizure by the Jews, his appearance before Annas, Herod, and Pilate, his Scourging, and the being Crowned with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucitixion, and finally, the glorious Pesurrection. And not only were all these things very beautiful, but they were executed by Griovanni with a degree of rapidity by which every one was astonished.
Now, Michelagnolo had made a design for the before-mentioned Cardinal de’ Medici (which I forgot to mention above), the subject being Tityus, whose heart is being devoured by a Vulture; and this Griovanni engraved admirably well in crystal, as he did another design of Buonarroti; a Phaeton namely, who, unable to guide the horses of the Sun, is falling headlong into the river Po, where his weeping sisters are becoming transformed into trees.[1]
Giovanni likewise executed the portrait of Madonna Margherita of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor Charles V., who had been the wife of the Duke Alessandro de’ Medici, and was then the consort of the Duke Ottavio Farnese; this work he performed in competition with Valerio Vicentino.[2] For all these labours executed for the Cardinal Farnese, Giovanni received from that prelate as his reward, the office of a Janissary, which brought him in a good sum of money; he was besides so much beloved by the Cardinal that he obtained many other favours at his hands, and the latter never passed through Faenza, where Giovanni had built himself a most commodious house, that he did not go to take up his abode with the artist. Having settled himself, therefore, at Faenza, with the purpose of seeking retirement from the toils of the world, after having performed many labours therein, he
- ↑ Maffei, Gemme, tom. iv. p. 151, gives an engraving of the Phaeton.
- ↑ The portrait of Margaret of Austria is believed to have been taken to England in the middle of the last century. It was in the possession of the English consul Smith, in whose work, the Dactyliotheca Smithiana, there is a copper-plate engraving of it. The reader will also find a large mass of interesting information relating to distinguished engravers of gems in this work, with a sketch of the History of Engraving on Stone in the third part.
whose Traitè des pierres gravees, 1750, and Description Sommaire des pierres gravees, &c., may he consulted with advantage.
