No long time after the completion of the above, excavations were made at San Piero in Vincula, and among the ruins of the Palace of Titus, with the hope of finding statues, when certain subterranean chambers were discovered, and these were decorated all over with minute grottesche, small figures, stories, and ornaments, executed in stucco of very low relief.[1] These discoveries Raffaello was taken to see, and Giovanni accompanied his master, when they were both seized with astonishment at the freshness, beauty, and excellent manner of these works, seeing that it appeared to them a great marvel to find them in so fair a state of preservation after the lapse of so long a time, but in effect it was not so much to be wondered at, when, we consider that they had never been touched by the air or looked on by the light; which are wont, by means of the changes brought by the seasons, to destroy and consume all things.[2]
These grottesche then (for they were called grottesche because they had first been found in these grottoes or subterranean places), executed with so much care, giving proof of so profound a knowledge in design, and evincing such extraordinary power of fancy, seeing that with those minute ornaments in stucco were mingled portions in colour of the most varied beauty, and exhibiting small figures comprising stories of exquisite grace and sweetness—all these things, I say, did so deeply enter into, and take possession of, the mind and heart of Giovanni, that he devoted himself wholly to the study thereof, and could not satisfy himself with copying the same, neither one time nor twice sufficing him by any means: he succeec^ed therefore so effectually in imitating these works, and reproduced them with so much grace and facility, that nothing more was now wanting to him than the knowledge of the manner in which the stucco, whereof the grottesche were in part formed, was compounded.
Now, it is true that many before his time had cogitated and puzzled over that matter, but had been able to manage nothing better than a stucco made of gypsum, chalk, Greek
