anati, having been chosen of the
company, were given the charge of preparing the scenery, with some
stories and ornaments in painting, which Battista executed so well
(together with some statues that Ammanati made), that he was very highly
extolled for them. But the great expenses of that place exceeded the
means available, so that M. Giovanni Andrea and the others were forced
to remove the prospect-scene and the other ornaments from S. Apostolo
and to convey them into the new Temple of S. Biagio, in the Strada
Giulia. There, Battista having once more arranged everything, many
comedies were performed with extraordinary satisfaction to the people
and courtiers of Rome; and from this origin there sprang in time the
players who travel around, called the Zanni.

After these things, having come to the year 1550, Battista executed in
company with Girolamo Siciolante of Sermoneta, for Cardinal di Cesis, on
the facade of his palace, the coat of arms of Pope Julius III, who had
been newly elected Pontiff, with three figures and some little boys,
which were much extolled. That finished, he painted in the Minerva, in a
chapel built by a Canon of S. Pietro and all adorned with stucco, some
stories of the Madonna and of Jesus Christ in the compartments of the
vaulting, which were the best works that he had ever executed up to that
time. On one of the two walls he painted the Nativity of Jesus Christ,
with some Shepherds, and Angels that are singing over the hut, and on
the other the Resurrection of Christ, with many soldiers in various
attitudes about the Sepulchre; and above each of those scenes, in
certain lunettes, he executed some large Prophets. And finally, on the
altar-wall, he painted Christ Crucified, Our Lady, S. John, S. Dominic,
and some other Saints in the niches; in all which he acquitted himself
very well and like an excellent master.

But since his earnings were scanty and the expenses of Rome very great,
after having executed some works on cloth, which had not much success,
he returned to his native country of Venice, thinking by a change of
country to change also his fortune. There, by reason of his fine manner
of drawing, he was judged to be an able man, and a few days afterwards
he was commissioned to execute an altar-piece in oils for the Chapel of
Mons. Barbaro, Patriarch-elect of Aquileia, in the Church of S.
Francesco della Vigna; in which he painted S. John baptizing Christ in
the Jordan, in the air God the