magnificence of Leo, was all in
dismay, and all the best craftsmen, perceiving that no art was prized
any longer, were beginning to consider where they might take refuge,
Adrian died, and Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was elected Supreme Pontiff
under the name of Clement VII; and with him all the arts of design,
together with the other arts, were restored to life in one day. Giulio
and Giovan Francesco, full of joy, set themselves straightway by order
of the Pope to finish the above-mentioned Hall of Constantine, and threw
to the ground the preparation that had been laid on one wall for
painting in oils; but they left untouched two figures that they had
painted previously in oils, which serve as adornments to certain Popes;
and these were a Justice and another similar figure.

The distribution of this Hall, which is low, had been designed with much
judgment by Raffaello, who had placed at the corners, over all the
doors, large niches with ornaments in the form of little boys holding
various devices of Leo, such as lilies, diamonds, plumes, and other
emblems of the House of Medici. In the niches were seated some Popes in
pontificals, each with a canopy in his niche; and round those Popes were
some little boys in the form of little angels, holding books and other
appropriate things in their hands. And each Pope had on either side of
him a Virtue, chosen according to his merits; thus, the Apostle Peter
had Religion on one side and Charity, or rather Piety, on the other, and
so all the others had similar Virtues; and the said Popes were Damasus
I, Alexander I, Leo III, Gregory, Sylvester, and some others. All these
figures were so well placed in position and executed by Giulio, who
painted all the best parts of this work in fresco, that it is clear that
he endured much labour and took great pains with them; as may also be
seen from a drawing of S. Sylvester, which was designed very well by his
own hand, and is perhaps a much more graceful work than the painted
figure. It may be affirmed, indeed, that Giulio always expressed his
conceptions better in drawings than in finished work or in paintings,
for in the former may be seen more vivacity, boldness, and feeling; and
this may have happened because he made a drawing in an hour, in all the
heat and glow of working, whereas on paintings he spent months, and even
years, so that, growing weary of them, and losing that keen and ardent
love that one has at the beginning of a work, it