while Eve, with great vivacity, rises to her
feet with the hands clasped and receives the benediction of her Maker,
the figure of whom is depicted grave in aspect and sublime in majesty,
standing with many draperies about Him, which curve round His nude form
with their borders. On one side, on the right hand, are two Evangelists,
S. Mark and S. John, the first of whom Perino finished entirely, and
also the second with the exception of the head and a naked arm. Between
these two Evangelists, by way of ornament, he made two little boys
embracing a candelabrum, which are truly of living flesh; and the
Evangelists, likewise, in the heads, the draperies, the arms, and all
that he painted in them with his own hand, are very beautiful.

While he was executing this work, he suffered many interruptions from
illness and from other misfortunes, such as happen every day to all who
live in this world; besides which, it is said that the men of the
Company also ran short of money. And so long did this business drag on,
that in the year 1527 there came upon them the ruin of Rome, when that
city was given over to sack, many craftsmen were killed, and many works
destroyed or carried away. Whereupon Perino, caught in that turmoil, and
having a wife and a baby girl, ran from place to place in Rome with the
child in his arms, seeking to save her, and finally, poor wretch, was
taken prisoner and reduced to paying a ransom, which hit him so hard
that he was like to go out of his mind. When the fury of the sack had
abated, he was so crushed down by the fear that still possessed him,
that all thought of art was worlds away from him, but nevertheless he
painted canvases in gouache and other fantasies for certain Spanish
soldiers; and after regaining his composure, he lived like the rest in
some poor fashion. Alone among so many, Baviera, who had the engravings
of Raffaello, had not lost much; wherefore, moved by the friendship that
he had with Perino, and wishing to employ him, he commissioned him to
draw some of the stories of the Gods transforming themselves in order to
achieve the consummation of their loves. These were engraved on copper
by Jacopo Caraglio, an excellent engraver of prints, who acquitted
himself so well in the matter of these designs, that, preserving the
outlines and manner of Perino, and hatching the work with beautiful
facility, he sought also to impart to the engravings that grace and that
delicacy which Perino had given t