ind of
base, are two most beautiful women in chiaroscuro, painted in imitation
of marble, who appear to be supporting those scenes. And under the first
arch, on the front side, he painted on the flat surface, standing
upright, two figures as large as life, a S. Francesco di Paola, the head
of the Order that administers the above-named church, and a S. Jerome
robed as a Cardinal, which are two very good figures, even as are those
of the whole work, which Daniello executed in seven years, with
incalculable labour and study.

But, since pictures that are executed in that way have always a certain
hard and laboured quality, the work is wanting in the grace and facility
that give most pleasure to the eye. Wherefore Daniello, himself
confessing the fatigue that he had endured in the work, and fearing the
fate that did come upon him (namely, that he would be censured), made
below the feet of those two Saints, to please himself, and as it were in
his own defence, two little scenes of stucco in low-relief, in which he
sought to show that, although he worked slowly and with effort,
nevertheless, since Michelagnolo Buonarroti and Fra Sebastiano del
Piombo were his friends, and he was always imitating their works and
observing their precepts, his imitation of those two men should be
enough to defend him from the biting words of envious and malignant
persons, whose evil nature must perforce be revealed, although they may
not think it. In one of these scenes, then, he made many figures of
Satyrs that are weighing legs, arms, and other members of figures with a
steelyard, in order to put on one side those that are correct in weight
and satisfactory, and to give those that are bad to Michelagnolo and Fra
Sebastiano, who are holding conference over them; and in the other is
Michelagnolo looking at himself in a mirror, the significance of which
is clear enough. At two angles of the arch, likewise, on the outer side,
he painted two nudes in chiaroscuro, which are of the same excellence as
the other figures in that work. When it was all uncovered, which was
after a very long time, it was much extolled, and held to be a very
beautiful work and a triumph over difficulties, and the painter a most
excellent master.

After that chapel, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese caused him to execute in
a room in his Palace--namely, at the corner, under one of those very
rich ceilings made under the direction of Maestro Antonio da San Gallo
for three large c