About the same time there was a painter in Venice called Bazzacco,[1] who was a creature of the Casa Grimani and by especial favour, this artist, after he had been many years in Rome, received commission to paint the ceiling of the large Hall of the Cai[2] of Ten; but conscious that he could not complete the work himself, and would have need of aid, Bazzacco took for his companions Paolo da Verona, and Battista Zelotti,[3] dividing among them and himself nine pictures in oil, which were to be executed for that place, four compartments of an oval form in the angles that is to say, four oblong squares, and a larger oval in the centre. This last, together with three of the squares, Bazzacco gave to Paolo Veronese, who represented Jove launching his thunderbolts at the Vices, with other figures therein; and two of the smaller ovals, with one square, Bazzacco kept for himself; the two remaining ovals he gave to Battista. In one of these compartments is Neptune, the God of the Sea, the others have each two figures, symbolical of the grandeur and repose then enjoyed by Venice.
Now all these artists acquitted themselves very well in that work, but the best of them was Paolo Veronese; for which cause he received a commission from the Signori to paint the ceiling of a chamber which is beside the abovementioned Hall.[4] Here he depicted a figure of San Marco floating in the air, in the lowermost part is Venice surrounded by Faith, Hope, and Charity; the painting is in oil, and Paolo had for his assistant therein the above-named Battista Zelotti. But though a beautiful picture, this work is not equal to that executed by Paolo in the Hall first-
- ↑ This artist was a native of Castel Franco, and consequently, a compatriot of Giorgione. Bottari corrects Vasari, who, in his first or second edition called him Brazacco, but Lanzi, quoting the Padre Federici, declares our author, Bottari, Ridolfi, Zanetti, and Guarienti to be all equally wrong, affirming his true name to have been Ponchio. In despair for the loss of his wife, this artist became a monk on her death, and never touched pencil more.
- ↑ Cai, Venetian for Capi, or Chiefs.
- ↑ Called in early editions of our author, Farinato; but by the authority of Ridolfi and other competent writers, Bottari corrected this error in his edition of our author, Rome, 1759, and later commentators have given their assent to that emendation.
- ↑ This is the ceiling of the Hall called Della Bussula. —Ed. Venet.
