Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/75

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guglielmo da marcilla
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gence, and knowing the excellence of Gnglielmo, easily induced him by money and fair promises to leave his brethren of the cloister: nor was it difficult indeed to separate him from those monks, seeing that the discourtesies which he had experienced at their hands, and the envious jeers which are constantly in action among them, had rendered him more desirous to depart than Maestro Claudio was to remove him thence.[1] They repaired to Rome accordingly, and there the habit oF San Domenico was changed for that of San Piero.

Bramante had at that time caused two windows to be constructed in the stone called Travertine, for the palace of the Pope: they were in the hall which is before the chapel,[2] and which is now embellished by the erection of a vaulted ceiling, and by the addition of admirable works in stucco, the first by Antonio da San Gallo, the second by the Florentine Perino del Vaga.[3] These windows were then decorated by Maestro Claudio and Guglielmo, but were afterwards taken to pieces, during the sack of Rome that is to say, and to the end that the lead might be made into musket balls. Many other windows beside these were executed by the same artists * for the papal chambers, but they had a similar fate with those cited above, there is nevertheless one of their works still remaining, that namely which is in the room over the Torre Borgia, wherein is represented the Conflagration painted by Raphael;[4] on this are depicted Angels who support the escutcheon of Leo X. They likewise painted two windows for the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo; these are in the chapel behind the Madonna, and exhibit historical events from the life of Our Lady[5] They are greatly extolled by

    Die Glasmalerei in Frankreich, and Le Vieil, Art de la Peinture sur verre. See also Langlois, Essai Historique et Descriptive sur la Peinture sur verre, and Lastevrie, Histoire de la Peinture sur verre.

  1. Monsignore Bottari thinks it desirable that onr author should be reproved for having spoken thus indiscriminately of the regular clergy, without limit or modification; our readers will consequently be pleased to administer such reproof as each, in foro conscientiae, shall find him to merit.
  2. The Sala Regia namely.
  3. Whose life follows.
  4. The burning of the Borgo.
  5. Each window contains six separate events: those on the first relate to the childhood of Christ, the pictures on the second to events in the life oi the Virgin. — Ed. Flor. 1832-8.