women know so well how to produce
living men, what marvel is it that those who wish are also so well able
to create them in painting?
But to return to Giulio Campo, of whom I have said that those young
women are the disciples; besides other works, a painting on cloth that
he has made as a cover for the organ in the Cathedral Church, is
executed with much study in distemper, with a great number of figures
representing the stories of Esther and Ahasuerus and the Crucifixion of
Haman. And in the same church there is a graceful altar-piece by his
hand on the altar of S. Michael; but since Giulio is still alive, I
shall say no more for the present about his works. Of Cremona, likewise,
were the sculptor Geremia, who was mentioned by us in the Life of
Filarete,[2] and who has executed a large work in marble in S. Lorenzo,
a seat of the Monks of Monte Oliveto; and Giovanni Pedoni, who has done
many works at Cremona and Brescia, and in particular many things in the
house of Signor Eliseo Raimondo, which are beautiful and worthy of
praise.
[Footnote 2: Really in the Life of Filippo Brunelleschi, p.
236, Vol. II.]
[Illustration: THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN
(_After the painting by =Alessandro Bonvicino [Il Moretto _or_ Moretto
da Brescia]=. Brescia: SS. Nazaro e Celso_)
_Alinari_]
In Brescia, also, there have been, and still are, persons most
excellent in the arts of design, and, among others, Girolamo Romanino
has executed innumerable works in that city. The altar-piece on the
high-altar of S. Francesco, which is a passing good picture, is by his
hand, and so also the little shutters that enclose it, which are painted
in distemper both within and without; and his work, likewise, is another
altar-piece executed in oils that is very beautiful, wherein may be seen
masterly imitations of natural objects. But more able than that Girolamo
was Alessandro Moretto, who painted in fresco, under the arch of the
Porta Brusciata, the Translation of the bodies of SS. Faustino and
Jovita, with some groups of figures that are accompanying those bodies,
all very well done. For S. Nazzaro, also in Brescia, he executed certain
works, and others for S. Celso, which are passing good, and an
altar-piece for S. Piero in Oliveto, which is full of charm. At Milan,
in the house of the Mint, there is a picture by the hand of that same
Alessandro with the Conversion of S. Paul, and other heads that are very
natural, with bea
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