servant
being laden with wild geese, ringdoves, wild ducks, and other creatures
such as are to be found in those marshy places. Giovanni, so many
declare, was the inventor of the ox painted on canvas that is made for
using in that pursuit, so as to fire off the fusil without being seen by
the wild creatures; and on account of those exercises of hunting and
fowling he always delighted to keep dogs and to train them by himself.

Giovanni, who deserves to be extolled among the greatest masters of his
profession, chose to be buried in the Ritonda, near his master Raffaello
da Urbino, in order not to be divided in death from him to whom in life
his spirit was always attached; and since, as has been told, each of
them was an excellent Christian, it may be believed that they are still
together in eternal blessedness.

BATTISTA FRANCO

LIFE OF BATTISTA FRANCO

PAINTER OF VENICE

Battista Franco of Venice, having given his attention in his early
childhood to design, went off at the age of twenty, as one who aimed at
perfection in that art, to Rome, where, after he had devoted himself for
some time with much study to design, and had seen the manner of various
masters, he resolved that he would not study or seek to imitate any
other works but the drawings, paintings, and sculptures of Michelagnolo;
wherefore, having set himself to make research, there remained no
sketch, study, or even any thing copied by Michelagnolo that he had not
drawn. Wherefore no long time passed before he became one of the first
draughtsmen who frequented the Chapel of Michelagnolo; and, what was
more, he would not for a time set himself to paint or to do any other
thing but draw. But in the year 1536, festive preparations of a grand
and sumptuous kind being arranged by Antonio da San Gallo for the coming
of the Emperor Charles V, in which, as has been related in another
place, all the craftsmen, good and bad, were employed, Raffaello da
Montelupo, who had to execute the decorations of the Ponte S. Angelo
with the ten statues that were placed upon it, having seen that Battista
was a young man of good parts and a finished draughtsman, resolved to
bring it about that he also should be employed, and by hook or by crook
to have some work given to him to do. And so, having spoken of this to
San Gallo, he so contrived that Battista was commissioned to execute in
fresco four large scenes in chiaroscuro on the front of the Porta
Capena, now cal