account, are said to have been commenced by Primaticcio, who decorated many apartments in that manner, with Halls and Loggie also, for the French Monarch.
King Francis, being much pleased with the conduct and proceedings of our artist, sent him, in the year 1540, to Rome,[1] there to attempt the purchase of some antiques in marble, and herein Primaticcio served the King so diligently that what with heads, trunks, and entire figures, he bought in no long time one hundred and twenty-five pieces. At the same period Francesco caused Barozzi da Vignola and others to copy the Bronze Horse of the Capitol; the greater part of the rilievi on the Column,[2] the Statue of Commodus, the Venus, the Laocoon, the Tiber, the Nile, and the Statue of Cleopatra, which are in the Belvedere, and all which were afterwards to be cast in bronze.
Meanwhile, II Rosso having died in France, and a long gallery, which had been commenced after his designs, and adorned with paintings and stucco-work, remaining unfinished, Primaticcio was recalled to Paris; wherefore, having embarked with the marbles above-mentioned and his casts from the antique, he returned accordingly. But before attending to any other occupation, Primaticcio caused the greater part of those antiques to be cast, when all succeeded so well that they might be taken for veritable works of anti quity, as may still be seen in the Queen’s garden at Fontainebleau, where they were placed, to the great satisfaction of King Francis, who may be said to have there made another Rome. And here I must not omit to mention that Francesco had masters in casting of such excellence, as to have his works brought to a degree of perfection which rendered polishing almost needless.
These castings completed, Primaticcio undertook the gallery left unfinished by Rossi, which he decorated in a short time with paintings and stuccoes in greater number than had ever before been executed for any one place.[3] The
- ↑ Malvasia accuses Rosso of having caused Primaticcio to be sent to Rome, that he might rid himself of a rival. Benvenuto Cellini, on the contrary, declares that Primaticcio had put the wish to possess antiques into the king’s head, in the hope of thereby depreciating his (Benvenuto’s) works.”
- ↑ The Column of Trajan that is.
- ↑ For details respecting these works, see Caima, Lettere d'un vago Italiano, vol. iv. See also the Tresors des Marveilles de la maison royale de Fontainebleau, Paris, 1642.
