dings, portraits, and other
suchlike things, which render the work very ornate. In the second is a
tempest of the sea, and S. Mark, likewise in the air, delivering another
of his votaries; but that scene is by no means executed with the same
diligence as that already described. In the third is a storm of rain,
with the dead body of another of S. Mark's votaries, and his soul
ascending into Heaven; and there, also, is a composition of passing good
figures. In the fourth, wherein an evil spirit is being exorcised, he
counterfeited in perspective a great loggia, and at the end of it a fire
that illumines it with many reflections. And in addition to those scenes
there is on the altar a S. Mark by the same hand, which is a passing
good picture.

These works, then, and many others that are here passed over, it being
enough to have made mention of the best, have been executed by
Tintoretto with such rapidity, that, when it was thought that he had
scarcely begun, he had finished. And it is a notable thing that with the
most extravagant ways in the world, he has always work to do, for the
reason that when his friendships and other means are not enough to
obtain for him any particular work, even if he had to do it, I do not
say at a low price, but without payment or by force, in one way or
another, do it he would. And it is not long since, Tintoretto having
executed the Passion of Christ in a large picture in oils and on canvas
for the Scuola of S. Rocco, the men of that Company resolved to have
some honourable and magnificent work painted on the ceiling above it,
and therefore to allot that commission to that one among the painters
that there were in Venice who should make the best and most beautiful
design. Having therefore summoned Joseffo Salviati, Federigo Zucchero,
who was in Venice at that time, Paolo Veronese, and Jacopo Tintoretto,
they ordained that each of them should make a design, promising the work
to him who should acquit himself best in this. While the others, then,
were engaged with all possible diligence in making their designs,
Tintoretto, having taken measurements of the size that the work was to
be, sketched a great canvas and painted it with his usual rapidity,
without anyone knowing about it, and then placed it where it was to
stand. Whereupon, the men of the Company having assembled one morning to
see the designs and to make their award, they found that Tintoretto had
completely finished the work and had p