ong gallery therefore
remaining unfinished which had been begun after his designs and in
great part adorned with stucco-work and pictures, Primaticcio was
recalled from Rome; whereupon he took ship with the above-mentioned
marbles and moulds of antique figures, and returned to France. There,
before any other thing, he cast according to those moulds and forms a
great part of those antique figures, which came out so well, that they
might be the originals; as may be seen in the Queen's garden at
Fontainebleau, where they were placed, to the vast satisfaction of
that King, who made in that place, one might say, another Rome. I will
not omit to say that Primaticcio, in executing those statues, employed
masters so excellent in the art of casting, that those works came out
not only light, but with a surface so smooth, that it was hardly
necessary to polish them.

This work done, Primaticcio was commissioned to give completion to the
gallery that Rosso had left unfinished; whereupon he set his hand to
it, and in a short time delivered it finished with as many works in
stucco and painting as have ever been executed in any place. Wherefore
the King, finding that he had been well served in the period of eight
years that this master had worked for him, had him placed among the
number of his chamberlains; and a short time afterwards, which was in
the year 1544, he made him Abbot of S. Martin, considering that
Francesco deserved no less. But for all this Francesco has never
ceased to have many works in stucco and in painting executed in the
service of his King and of the others who have governed that kingdom
after Francis I. Among others who have assisted him in this, he has
been served, to say nothing of many of his fellow-Bolognese, by Giovan
Battista, the son of Bartolommeo Bagnacavallo, who has proved not less
able than his father in many scenes and other works of Primaticcio's
that he has carried into execution. Another who has served him for a
considerable time is one Ruggieri da Bologna, who is still with him.
In like manner, Prospero Fontana, a painter of Bologna, was summoned
to France not long since by Primaticcio, who intended to make use of
him; but, having fallen ill to the danger of his life immediately
after his arrival, he returned to Bologna. To tell the truth, these
two, Bagnacavallo and Fontana, are able men, and I, who have made
considerable use both of the one and of the other, of the first at
Rome, and of the s