udiments
of art, he was forced, in order to save his life from a pestilence that
had fallen upon his native place, to take to flight; and thus, passing
many months in the surrounding country, he executed various works in
fresco for a number of peasants, gaining at their expense experience of
using colour on plaster. Wherefore, since the surest and best method of
learning is practice and a sufficiency of work, it came to pass that he
became a well-practised and judicious master of that kind of painting,
and learned to make colours produce the desired effect when used in a
fluid state, which is done on account of the white, which dries the
plaster and produces a brightness that ruins all softness. And so,
having mastered the nature of colours, and having learnt by long
practice to work very well in fresco, he returned to Udine, where he
painted for the altar of the Nunziata, in the Convent of S. Pietro
Martire, a panel-picture in oils containing the Madonna at the moment of
receiving the Salutation from the Angel Gabriel; and in the sky he made
a God the Father surrounded by many little boys, who is sending down the
Holy Spirit. This work, which is executed with good drawing, grace,
vivacity, and relief, is held by all craftsmen of judgment to be the
best that he ever painted.

In the Duomo of the same city, on the balustrade of the organ, below the
doors already painted by Pellegrino, he painted a story of S. Ermacora
and Fortunatus, also in oils, graceful and well designed. In the same
city, in order to gain the friendship of the Signori Tinghi, he painted
in fresco the facade of their palace; in which work, wishing to make
himself known and to prove what a master he was of architectural
invention and of working in fresco, he made a series of compartments and
groups of varied ornaments full of figures in niches; and in three great
spaces in the centre of the work he painted scenes with figures in
colours, two spaces, high and narrow, being on either side, and one
square in shape in the middle; and in the latter he painted a Corinthian
column planted with its base in the sea, with a Siren on the right hand,
holding the column upright, and a nude Neptune on the left supporting it
on the other side; while above the capital of the column there is a
Cardinal's hat, the device, so it is said, of Pompeo Colonna, who was
much the friend of the owners of that palace. In one of the two other
spaces are the Giants being slain with