Opposite to him, beneath another figure by the hand of Taddeo, is written this—

QUEMADMODUM NEGOCII, SIC ET OCII RATIO HABENDA.

Beneath another may be read—

OCIUM CUM DIGNITATE, NEGOCIUM SINE PERICULO.

And opposite to that, under another figure, is this motto—

VIRTUTIS ET LIBERÆ VITÆ OPTIMA MAGISTRA SOLITUDO.

Beneath another—

PLUS AGUNT QUI NIHIL AGERE VIDENTUR.

And under the last—

QUI AGIT PLURIMA, PLURIMUM PECCAT.

To put it briefly, this room is very ornate with beautiful figures, and likewise very rich in stucco and gold. But to return to Vignuola; how excellent he is in matters of architecture, the works that he has written and published and still continues to write, in addition to his marvellous buildings, bear ample testimony, and in the Life of Michelagnolo we shall say all that it may be expedient for us to say in this connection.

Taddeo, in addition to the works described above, executed many others of which there is no need to make mention; but in particular a chapel in the Church of the Goldsmiths in the Strada Giulia, a façade in chiaroscuro at S. Gieronimo, and the Chapel of the High-altar in S. Sabina. And his brother Federigo is painting for the Chapel of S. Lorenzo, which is all wrought in stucco, in S. Lorenzo in Damaso, an altar-piece with that Saint on the gridiron and Paradise all open; which altar-piece is expected to prove a very beautiful work. And, in order not to omit anything that may be useful, pleasing, or helpful to anyone who may read these my labours, I shall add this as well. While Taddeo was working, as has been related, at the Vigna of Pope Julius and at the façade of Mattiuolo, the Master of the Post, he executed for Monsignor Innocenzio, the most reverend and illustrious Cardinal di Monte, two painted pictures of no great size; and one of them, which is beautiful enough, is now in the guardaroba of that Cardinal (who has given the other away), in company with a vast number of things ancient and modern, all truly of the rarest, among which, I must not omit to mention, there is a painted picture as fantastic as any work of which we have spoken hitherto. In this picture, which is about two braccia and a half in height, there is nothing to be seen by him who looks at it from the ordinary point of view, from the front, save some letters on a flesh-coloured ground, and in the centre the Moon, which goes gradually increasing or diminishing according to the lines of the writing. And yet, if you go below the picture and look in a sphere or mirror that is placed over the picture in the manner of a little baldachin, you see in that mirror, which receives the image from the picture, a most lifelike portrait in painting of King Henry II of France, somewhat larger than life, with these words about it—HENRY II, ROY DE FRANCE. You can see the same portrait by lowering the picture, placing your brow on the upper part of the frame, and looking down; but it is true that whoever looks at it in that manner, sees it turned the other way from what it is in the mirror. That portrait, I say, cannot be seen save by looking at it as described above, because it is painted on twenty-eight ridges, too low to be perceived, which are between the lines of the words given below, in which, besides the ordinary meaning, there may be read, by looking at both ends of the lines and in the centre, certain letters somewhat larger than the others, which run thus—

HENRICUS VALESIUS DEI GRATIA GALLORUM REX INVICTISSIMUS.

It is true, indeed, that the Roman M. Alessandro Taddei, the secretary of that Cardinal, and Don Silvano Razzi, my dearest friend, who have given me information about this picture and about many other things, do not know by whose hand it is, but only that it was presented by the above-named King Henry to Cardinal Caraffa, when he was in France, and then by Caraffa to the most illustrious Cardinal di Monte, who treasured it as a very rare thing, which in truth it is. The words painted in the picture, which alone are to be seen by him who looks at it from the ordinary point of view, as one looks at other pictures, are these—

HEus tu quid viDes nil ut reoR
Nisi lunam crEscentem et E
Regione posItam quæ eX
Intervallo GRadatim utI
Crescit nos Admonet ut iN
Una spe fide eT charitate tV
Simul et ego Illuminat I
Verbo dei crescAmus, doneC
Ab ejusdem Gratia fiaT
Lux in nobis Amplissima quI
ESt æternus iLLe dator luciS
In quo et a quO mortales omneS
Veram lucem Recipere sI
Speramus in vanUM non sperabiMUS

In the same guardaroba is a most beautiful portrait of Signora Sofonisba Anguisciuola by her own hand, once presented by her to Pope Julius III. And there is another thing of great value, a very ancient book with the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the Æneid of Virgil, in characters so old, that it has been judged by many men of learning in Rome and in other places that it was written in the very time of Cæsar Augustus, or little after; wherefore it is no marvel that it should be held by the Cardinal in the greatest veneration.

And let this be the end of the Life of the painter Taddeo Zucchero.

INDEX

INDEX OF NAMES OF THE CRAFTSMEN MENTIONED IN VOLUME VIII