arras, with others, also very fine, for the upper rooms occupied by the Princess; and of these, four are devoted to the virtues of women, and display histories of Roman, Hebrew, Greek, and Tuscan ladies, taken from the lives of Sabina, Esther, Penelope, and Gualdrada. For ten panels of a Hall wherein is delineated the Life of Man, Giovanni has also made Cartoons, as he has for the five lower rooms, which are occupied by the Prince, and which are decorated with stories from the Lives of David, Solomon, Cyrus, and others.
For the Palace of Poggio-a-Cajano, wherein twenty rooms are to be supplied with arras, now daily making progress, Giovanni has made Cartoons of Hunting-pieces after the invention of the Duke; they exhibit all kinds of animals of the chase, and portray the various modes of fowling and fishing, with the most singular and beautiful fancies. In this work, the variety of animals, birds, fish, landscapes, and vestments, with the hunters, on foot and on horseback, the fowlers in various attitudes, and the nude figures of the fishermen, have proved this Strada to be a truly able man, well skilled in the Italian manner. It is his purpose to live and die at Florence, in the service of his illustrious lords, and in the company of Vasari and the other Academicians.
Another disciple of Vasari, and also an Academician, is the Florentine Jacopo di Maestro Piero Zucca,[1] now about twenty-five or twenty-six years old; having assisted Vasari in the greater part of his works at the palace, but more especially in the ceiling of the Great Hall, by his industry, care, and diligence, he has acquired so much knowledge of design and facility in the handling of colours, that he may be considered among the first of the young painters in our Academy. The works which he executed alone in the obsequies of Michelagnolo, and at the marriage of the Prince, with others for certain of his friends, in all which he has displayed intelligence, boldness, care, grace, and judgment, have made him known as a clever youth and able painter, but still more may yet be hoped from him in the future, when he will doubtless do as much honour to his country as any other of her painters.
Among the younger artists of the Academy, Santi Tidi[2]
