ustrious
Excellency has just caused to be completely finished.

Having thus been engaged on these and some other works in the service of
the Duke, until the time when he took to wife the Lady Donna Leonora of
Toledo, Battista was next employed in the festive preparations for those
nuptials, on the triumphal arch at the Porta al Prato, where Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo caused him to execute some scenes of the actions of Signor
Giovanni, father of Duke Cosimo. In one of these that lord could be seen
passing the Rivers Po and Adda, in the presence of Cardinal Giulio de'
Medici, who became Pope Clement VII, Signor Prospero Colonna, and other
lords; and in another was the scene of the delivering of San Secondo. On
the other side Battista painted in another scene the city of Milan, and
around it the Camp of the League, which, on departing, the above-named
Signor Giovanni leaves there. On the right flank of the arch he painted
on one side a picture of Opportunity, who, having her tresses all
unbound, was offering them with one hand to Signor Giovanni, and on the
other side Mars, who was likewise offering him his sword. In another
scene under the arch, by the hand of Battista, was Signor Giovanni
fighting between the Tesino and Biegrassa upon the Ponte Rozzo,
defending it, as it were like another Horatius, with incredible bravery.
Opposite to this was the Taking of Caravaggio, and in the centre of the
battle Signor Giovanni, who was passing fearlessly through fire and
sword in the midst of the hostile army. Between the columns, on the
right hand, there was in an oval Garlasso, taken by the same lord with a
single company of soldiers, and on the left hand, between the two other
columns, the bastion of Milan, likewise taken from the enemy. On the
fronton, which was at the back of anyone entering, was the same Signor
Giovanni on horseback under the walls of Milan, when, tilting in single
combat with a knight, he ran him through from side to side with his
lance. Above the great cornice, which reached out to the other cornice,
on which the pediment rested, in another large scene executed by
Battista with much diligence, there was in the centre the Emperor
Charles V, who, crowned with laurel, was seated on a rock, with the
sceptre in his hand; at his feet lay the River Betis with a vase that
poured water from two mouths, and beside that figure was the River
Danube, which, with seven mouths, was pouring its waters into the sea. I
shall not ma