visit Venice, where he greatly desired to see me. I was, therefore, compelled to repair thither, but did so all the more willingly, as I wished to see the works of Titian and other masters, which that journey enabled me to do. I also then saw the works of Correggio in Modena and at Parma, with those of Giulio Pomano at Mantua, and the Antiquities of Verona, which I visited on my way to Venice. Finally, having arrived there, I presented two pictures, which I had painted from the Cartoons of Michelagnolo, to Don Diego di Mendoza, who sent me two hundred crowns of gold.
I had not been any long time in Venice before I prepared, at the request of Messer Pietro, the decorations for a festival, which the Signori of the Calza[1] were then about to give, and for the execution of which I had in my company Battista Cungi and Cristofano Gherardi of Borgo San Sepolcro,[2] with the Aretine Bastiano Flori; all able and practised artists, of whom I have spoken sufficiently in other places. I also painted nine pictures in the Palace of Messer Giovanni Cornaro, near San Benedetto; those namely which are in the wainscot work of a certain apartment in that building. These and other works of no small importance being completed, I took my leave of Venice on the 16th of August, 1542, although overwhelmed with commissions, which had come unsought to my hands, and returned to Tuscany.
Here the first thing I did was to paint a picture representing all the Arts connected with, or which depend on, that of Design, in the ceiling of a room which had been constructed by my order in the above-named house of mine. In the centre is a figure of Fame; she is seated on the Globe of the world, and is sounding a golden trumpet, while she casts from her one of fire, which signifies Calumny. Around her figure it is that all the Arts, each holding his appropriate instruments in the hand, are arranged; but as I had not time to complete the entire work, I left eight oval compartments vacant, proposing to execute therein the portraits
- ↑ A Society instituted at Venice, in the commencement of the fifteenth century, by men of rank, who kept the people in good humour by their various festivals, while they also assisted and encouraged many young and able artists. For their ensign, the Calza, whence they took their name, see Martinelli, Del Costume Veneziana, p. 127.
- ↑ In whose Life, which may be considered as the complement to that of Vasari, other works of our author are enumerated. See vol. iv. of the present work.
