Raphael had painted in the rooms of the papal palace, the Knowledge of all things, namely. Calliope with the lute in her hand. Providence and Justice. Afterwards there followed the engraving of a small copy from the picture which Raphael had painted in the same apartment, the Mount Parnassus that is to say, with Apollo, the Muses and the Poets, with that of Eneas bearing his father Anchises on his back from the flames of Troy, and this was taken from a design which Raphael had made, proposing to execute a small picture of the subject.
They next engraved the Galatea of Raphael, she is on a car drawn upon the sea by Dolphins, and followed by Tritons who have carried off a nymph. These being finished, Marcantonio engraved many separate figures, also designs of Raphael, on copper plates: an Apollo with the lyre in his hand; a Goddess of Peace, to whom Love offers an olive branch; the three Theological Virtues and the four Moral Virtues, with a plate of similar size to those last named, representing our Saviour with the twelve Apostles. On a half folio plate he likewise engraved the Virgin, which Raphael had painted in the picture of Ara Coeli, with that also which was sent to Naples, for the church of San Domenico in that city, and wherein are the Madonna, San Jeronimo and the angel Raphael with Tobias: Marcantonio likewise engraved a small picture of the Madonna seated on a low stool and embracing the Infant Christ, which is but partially draped, and many others of the Madonna which Raphael has painted in different pictures.
After these things Marcantonio engraved a copper plate of San Giovanni Battista in the wilderness, represented as a youth, and seated; with the picture which Raphael painted for the church of San Giovanni in Monte, the Santa Cecilia, with other saints, that is to say, a plate which was considered to be a very fine one. When Raphael had prepared all the cartoons for the tapestries of the papal chapel, with subjects from the lives of San Piero, San Paolo, and San Stefano, and which were afterwards woven in cloth of silk and gold, Marcantonio engraved certain portions of the same, the preaching of St. Paul namely, the lapidation of St. Stephen, and the restoration of sight to the blind, all works which were so beautiful, the invention of Raphael, the grace of the
