iful works in figures and landscapes, and at Orvieto,
in the principal Church of S. Maria, he has painted two altar-pieces in
oils and some Prophets in fresco, which are good works; and the drawings
by his hand that are published in engraving, are executed with good
design. But, since he also is alive, serving Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in
the buildings and restorations that he is carrying out in Rome, in
Tivoli, and in other places, I shall say no more about him at present.

There has returned recently from Germany Francesco Ricchino, likewise a
painter of Brescia, who, besides many other pictures that he has painted
in various places, has executed some works of painting in oils in the
above-named S. Piero in Oliveto at Brescia, which are done with much
study and diligence.

[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

(_After the painting by =Gian Girolamo Bresciano [Savoldo]=. Brescia:
Palazzo Martinengo_)

_Alinari_]

The brothers Cristofano and Stefano, painters of Brescia, have a great
name among craftsmen for their facility in drawing in perspective; and,
among other works in Venice, they have counterfeited in painting on the
flat ceiling of S. Maria dell'Orto a corridor of double twisted columns,
similar to those of the Porta Santa in S. Pietro at Rome, which,
resting on certain great consoles that project outwards, form a superb
corridor with groined vaulting right round that church. This work,
when seen from the centre of the church, displays most beautiful
foreshortenings, which fill with astonishment everyone who sees them,
and make the ceiling, which is flat, appear to be vaulted; besides that
it is accompanied by a beautiful variety of mouldings, masks, festoons,
and some figures, which make a very rich adornment to the work, which
deserves to be vastly extolled by everyone, both for its novelty and for
its having been carried to completion excellently well and with great
diligence. And, since this method gave much satisfaction to that most
illustrious Senate, there was entrusted to the same masters another
ceiling, similar, but small, in the Library of S. Marco, which, for a
work of that kind, was very highly extolled. Finally, those brothers
have been summoned to their native city of Brescia to do the same with a
magnificent hall which was begun on the Piazza many years ago, at vast
expense, and erected over a theatre of large columns, under which is a
promenade. This hall is sixty-two full paces lo