JOHN

(_After the altar-piece_ by Girolamo Santa Croce. _Naples: Monte
Oliveto_)

_Alinari_]

Old as he was, Giovanni da Nola, who was a well-practised sculptor, as
may be seen from many works made by him at Naples with good skill of
hand, but not with much design, still remained alive. Him Don Pedro di
Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, and at that time Viceroy of Naples,
commissioned to execute a tomb of marble for himself and his wife; and
therein Giovanni made a great number of scenes of the victories obtained
by that lord over the Turks, with many statues for the same work, which
stands quite by itself, and was executed with much diligence. This tomb
was to have been taken to Spain; but, since that nobleman did not do
this while he was alive, it remained in Naples. Giovanni died at the age
of seventy, and was buried in Naples, in the year 1558.

About the same time that Heaven presented to Ferrara, or rather, to the
world, the divine Lodovico Ariosto, there was born in the same city the
painter Dosso, who, although he was not as rare among painters as
Ariosto among poets, nevertheless acquitted himself in his art in such a
manner, that, besides the great esteem wherein his works were held in
Ferrara, his merits caused the learned poet, his intimate friend, to
honour his memory by mentioning him in his most celebrated writings; so
that the pen of Messer Lodovico has given more renown to the name of
Dosso than did all the brushes and colours that he used in the whole of
his life. Wherefore I, for my part, declare that there could be no
greater good-fortune than that of those who are celebrated by such great
men, since the might of the pen forces most of mankind to accept their
fame, even though they may not wholly deserve it.

Dosso was much beloved by Duke Alfonso of Ferrara: first for his good
abilities in the art of painting, and then because he was a very
pleasant and amiable person--a manner of man in whom the Duke greatly
delighted. Dosso had the reputation in Lombardy of executing landscapes
better than any other painter engaged in that branch of the profession,
whether in mural painting, in oils, or in gouache; and all the more
after the German manner became known. In Ferrara, for the Cathedral
Church, he executed a panel-picture with figures in oils, which was held
to be passing beautiful; and in the Duke's Palace he painted many rooms,
in company with a brother of his, called Battista. These two were alw