econd at Rimini and Florence, can declare this with
certainty. But of all those who have assisted the Abbot Primaticcio,
none has done him more honour than Niccolo da Modena, of whom mention
has been made on another occasion, for by the excellence of his art
this master has surpassed all the others. Thus he executed with his
own hand, after the designs of the Abbot, a hall called the Ball-room,
with such a vast number of figures, that it appears scarcely possible
that they could be counted, and all as large as life and coloured in
so bright a manner, that in the harmony of the fresco-colours they
appear like work in oils. After this work he painted in the Great
Gallery, likewise from the designs of the Abbot, sixty stories of the
life and actions of Ulysses, but with a colouring much darker than the
pictures in the Ball-room. This came about because he used no other
colours but the earths in the pure state in which they are produced by
Nature, without mixing with them, it may be said, any white, and so
heavily loaded with darks in the deep parts, that these have
extraordinary relief and force; besides which, he executed the whole
work with such harmony, that it appears almost as if painted in one
and the same day. Wherefore he merits extraordinary praise,
particularly because he executed it in fresco, without ever retouching
it "a secco," as many at the present day are accustomed to do. The
vaulting of this gallery, likewise, is all wrought in stucco and
painting, executed with much diligence by the men mentioned above and
other young painters, but still after the designs of the Abbot; as is
also the old Hall, and likewise a lower gallery that is over the pond,
which is most beautiful and better adorned with lovely works than any
other part of that place; but to attempt to speak of it at any length
would make too long a story.

[Illustration: DECORATIVE PANEL

(_After the painting by =Primaticcio=. Fontainebleau: Escalier du
Roi_)

_Mansell_]

At Meudon the same Abbot Primaticcio has made innumerable decorations
for the Cardinal of Lorraine in a vast palace belonging to him, called
the Grotto, a place so extraordinary in size, that, after the likeness
of similar edifices of the ancients, it might be called the Thermae,
by reason of the vast number and grandeur of the loggie, staircases,
and apartments, both public and private, that are there; and, to say
nothing of other particulars, most beautiful is a room called