who wrote the "Annali di Mantova," says
that the want of nobility and purity in his style, and his "gallant
inventions, were conformable to his own sensual life, and that he did
not disdain to prostitute himself to the infamies of Aretino."

His great architectural work in Mantua is the Palazzo del T, or Te,
as it is now written. It was first called Palazzo del T, from the
convergence of roads there in the form of that letter; and the modern
Mantuans call it Del Te, from the superstition, transmitted to us by
the Custode of the Ducal Palace, that the Gonzagas merely used it
on pleasant afternoons to take tea in! so curiously has latter-day
guidemanship interpreted the jolly purpose expressed by the Duke to
Giulio. I say nothing to control the reader's choice between T and Te,
and merely adhere to the elder style out of reverence for the past.
It is certain that the air of the plain on which the palace stands
is most unwholesome; and it may have been true that the dukes never
passed the night there. Federico did not intend to build more than
a lodge in this place; but fascinated with the design offered him
by Giulio, he caused the artist to go on, and contrive him a palace
instead. It stands, as Vasari says, about a good bow-shot from one of
the city's gates; and going out to see the palace on our second day
in Mantua, we crossed a drawbridge guarded by Austrian soldiers. Below
languished a bed of sullen ooze, tangled and thickly grown with long,
villainous grasses, and sending up a damp and deathly stench, which
made all the faces we saw look feverish and sallow. Already at that
early season the air was foul and heavy, and the sun, faintly making
himself seen through the dun sky of the dull spring day, seemed sick
to look upon the place, where indeed the only happy and lively things
were the clouds of gnats that danced before us, and welcomed us to the
Palazzo del T. Damp ditches surround the palace, in which these gnats
seemed to have peculiar pleasure; and they took possession of the
portico of the stately entrance of the edifice as we went in, and held
it faithfully till we returned.

In one of the first large rooms are the life-size portraits of the
six finest horses of the Gonzaga stud, painted by the pupils of Giulio
Romano, after the master's designs. The paintings attest the beauty of
the Mantuan horses, and the pride and fondness of their ducal owners;
and trustworthy critics have praised their eminent truth.