These were conveyed to Giulio by Messer Nino Nini of Cortona, Secretary to the above-mentioned Cardinal of Mantua, and were beyond measure welcome to the artist, not only for themselves, and as being what they were, but also because he had at that time to paint a chapel in the palace for the aforesaid Cardinal, and these works served to awaken in his mind the idea of greater and higher things than he had before conceived the thought of producing. Giving all his powers, therefore, to the preparation of the cartoon, and using the utmost diligence, for that work he composed a very finely-imagined picture of Peter and Andrew called by Christ from their nets, and preparing to follow him, to the end that they might no longer be seekers of fishes, but might become fishers of men. This cartoon, which proved to be the most beautiful one ever prepared by Giulio, was afterwards executed by the painter Fermo Gusoni, then the disciple of Giulio, and now an excellent master.[1]
No long time after these things, the superintendents to the building of San Petronio in Bologna, desiring to commence the principal front of that church, contrived, after great efforts, to prevail on Giulio Romano to repair thither, and the master went accordingly, in company with a Milanese architect, called Tofano Lombardino, a man greatly esteemed at that time in Lombardy, for the many buildings there to be seen from his hand. These masters, therefore, having made numerous designs, those of the Sienese Baldassare Peruzzi having been lost; one among them, which had been prepared by Giulio, was found to be so beautiful and well-ordered that it received, as it well merited, the highest commendations from that people, and the master received very liberal presents on his return to Mantua.
Now in those days the architect Antonio Sangallo died in Rome, and the superintendents of San Pietro found themselves in no small embarrassment, not knowing towards whom to turn themselves, or on what master they might devolve
- ↑ Of this picture, which afterwards passed into the cathedral of Mantua, there is now a modem copy only, by Felice Canapi, in that church. The original was taken to Paris in 1797, and has never been returned. A diminished copy made during Giulio’s life is now in the possession of the Signor Gaetano Susani of Mantua,—Count D’Arco, Vita di Giulio Romano.
