e Shepherds, and King David singing to
his psaltery, DOMINUS DIXIT AD ME, etc. And I finished likewise the
twenty-four pictures mentioned above and some for M. Tommaso Cambi,
which were all sent to Naples; which done, I painted five pictures of
the Passion of Christ for Raffaello Acciaiuoli, who took them to Spain.
In the same year, Cardinal Farnese being minded to cause the Hall of the
Cancelleria, in the Palace of S. Giorgio, to be painted, Monsignor
Giovio, desiring that it should be done by my hands, commissioned me to
make many designs with various inventions, which in the end were not
carried into execution. Nevertheless the Cardinal finally resolved that
it should be painted in fresco, and with the greatest rapidity that
might be possible, so that he might be able to use it at a certain time
determined by himself. That hall is a little more than a hundred palms
in length, fifty in breadth, and the same in height. On each end-wall,
fifty palms broad, was painted a great scene, and two on one of the long
walls, but on the other, from its being broken by windows, it was not
possible to paint scenes, and therefore there was made a pendant after
the likeness of the head-wall opposite. And not wishing to make a base,
as had been the custom up to that time with the craftsmen in all their
scenes, in order to introduce variety and do something new I caused
flights of steps to rise from the floor to a height of at least nine
palms, made in various ways, one to each scene; and upon these, then,
there begin to ascend figures that I painted in keeping with the
subject, little by little, until they come to the level where the scene
begins. It would be a long and perhaps tedious task to describe all the
particulars and minute details of those scenes, and therefore I shall
touch only on the principal things, and that briefly. In all of them,
then, are stories of the actions of Pope Paul III, and in each is his
portrait from life. In the first, wherein are the Dispatchings, so to
speak, of the Court of Rome, may be seen upon the Tiber various
embassies of various nations (with many portraits from life) that are
come to seek favours from the Pope and to offer him divers tributes;
and, in addition, two great figures in great niches placed over the
doors, which are on either side of the scene. One of these represents
Eloquence, and has above it two Victories that uphold the head of Julius
Caesar, and the other represents Justice, with