that Messer Giovan Andrea dall’ Anguillara,[1] a man who had,, distinguished himself greatly by a certain sort of poesies, had formed a society composed of men possessing fine genius in various walks, and was causing exceedingly rich scenic ornaments and other decorations to be prepared in the large Hall of Sant’ Apostolo, where he proposed to arrange the performance of dramas by different authors before the gentlemen, nobles, and other distinguished personages of the city. There were to be places for spectators of different degrees, but for the Cardinals and other great Prelates certain rooms were prepared where, by means of gratings and jealousies, or blinds, those churchmen could see all that was done without being seen.
In the Society, or Company, were painters, architects, sculptors, and men who had to recite the dramas, as well as to perform.other offices; wherefore to Battista Franco and Ammannato, who had also been elected members of the Company, there was given in charge the arrangement of the scenic decorations, with stories and ornaments of pictures which Battista executed so well, with the aid of some statues by Ammannato, that he was very highly extolled. But it was found that the great cost of that place exceeded the means of the Society, wherefore Messer Giovanni Andrea and the other members were compelled to remove the scenes and other decorations from Sant’ Apostolo, and take them to the Strada Giulia, where Battista re-arranged everything in the new Church of San Biagio; when that being done, several dramas were performed, to the inexpressible satisfaction of the people and courtiers of Rome. From this commencement it was that the Dramatic Companies, called the “Zanni,”[2] who go about reciting comedies, took their rise.
After these things, in the year 1550 that is to say, Battista Franco, with Girolamo Sicciolante, of Sermoneta,[3] received a commission from the Cardinal di Cesis, to paint the Arms of Pope Julius III., who had been newly created High Pontiff, on the façade of his Palace; they added to
- ↑ Anguillara translated Ovid’s Metamorphoses into the Ottava-rima.—Ibid.
- ↑ The contraction of Giovanni in the Bergamasco dialect. The Zanni in comedy is always a stupid, blundering Bergamese servant.—Masselli.
- ↑ There is further mention of Sicciolante at the close of the work, where Vasari speaks of certain artists then living.
