S. Maria in Organo, for the Monks of Monte
Oliveto, he painted the panel of the high-altar, which is most
beautiful, and likewise that of S. Zeno. And among other things that he
wrought while living in Verona and sent to various places, one, which
came into the hands of an Abbot of the Abbey of Fiesole, his friend and
relative, was a picture containing a half-length Madonna with the Child
in her arms, and certain heads of angels singing, wrought with admirable
grace; which picture, now to be seen in the library of that place, has
been held from that time to our own to be a rare thing.

Now, the while that he lived in Mantua, he had laboured much in the
service of the Marquis Lodovico Gonzaga, and that lord, who always
showed no little esteem and favour towards the talent of Andrea, caused
him to paint a little panel for the Chapel of the Castle of Mantua; in
which panel there are scenes with figures not very large but most
beautiful. In the same place are many figures foreshortened from below
upwards, which are greatly extolled, for although his treatment of the
draperies was somewhat hard and precise, and his manner rather dry, yet
everything there is seen to have been wrought with much art and
diligence. For the same Marquis, in a hall of the Palace of S.
Sebastiano in Mantua, he painted the Triumph of Caesar, which is the best
thing that he ever executed. In this work we see, grouped with most
beautiful design in the triumph, the ornate and lovely car, the man
who is vituperating the triumphant Caesar, and the relatives, the
perfumes, the incense, the sacrifices, the priests, the bulls crowned
for the sacrifice, the prisoners, the booty won by the soldiers, the
ranks of the squadrons, the elephants, the spoils, the victories, the
cities and fortresses counterfeited in various cars, with an infinity of
trophies borne on spears, and a variety of helmets and body-armour,
head-dresses, and ornaments and vases innumerable; and in the multitude
of spectators is a woman holding the hand of a boy, who, having pierced
his foot with a thorn, is showing it, weeping, to his mother, in a
graceful and very lifelike manner. Andrea, as I may have pointed out
elsewhere, had a good and beautiful idea in this scene, for, having set
the plane on which the figures stood higher than the level of the eye,
he placed the feet of the foremost on the outer edge and outline of that
plane, making the others recede inwards little by little, so th