arvel, nevertheless Soiaro acquitted
himself so well, that the whole of that work appears as if all by one
and the same hand. In like manner, some little altar-pieces that he has
executed at Vigevano are worthy of considerable praise for their
excellence. Finally, after he had betaken himself to Parma to work in
the Madonna della Steccata, the great niche and the arch that were left
incomplete through the death of Michelagnolo of Siena were finished by
the hands of Soiaro. And to him, from his having acquitted himself well,
the people of Parma have since given the charge of painting the great
tribune that is in the centre of that church, where he is now constantly
occupied in executing in fresco the Assumption of Our Lady, which, it is
hoped, is to prove a most admirable work.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

(_After the panel by =Sofonisba Anguisciola=. Vienna: Imperial Gallery,
109_)

_Bruckmann_]

While Boccaccino was still alive, but old, Cremona had another painter,
called Galeazzo Campo, who painted the Rosary of the Madonna in a large
chapel in the Church of S. Domenico, and the facade at the back of S.
Francesco, with other works and altar-pieces by his hand that are in
Cremona, all passing good. To him were born three sons, Giulio, Antonio,
and Vincenzio; but Giulio, although he learned the first rudiments of
art from his father Galeazzo, nevertheless afterwards followed the
manner of Soiaro, as being better, and studied much from some canvases
executed in colours at Rome by the hand of Francesco Salviati, which
were painted for the weaving of tapestries, and sent to Piacenza to Duke
Pier Luigi Farnese. The first works that this Giulio executed in his
youth at Cremona were four large scenes in the choir of the Church of S.
Agata, containing the martyrdom of that virgin, which proved to be
such, that a well-practised master might perhaps not have done them so
well. Then, after executing some works in S. Margherita, he painted many
facades of palaces in chiaroscuro, with good design. For the Church of
S. Gismondo, without the city, he painted in oils the altar-piece of the
high-altar, which was very beautiful on account of the diversity and
multitude of the figures that he executed in it, in competition with the
many painters who had worked in that place before him. After the
altar-piece he painted there many things in fresco on the vaulting, and
in particular the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apos