the
Pavilion, for it is all adorned with compartments and mouldings of
stucco that are wrought with a view to being seen from below, and
filled with a number of figures foreshortened in the same manner,
which are very beautiful. Beneath this, then, is a large room with
some fountains wrought in stucco, and full of figures in the round and
compartments formed of shells and other products of the sea and
natural objects, which are marvellous things and beautiful beyond
measure; and the vaulting, likewise, is all most excellently wrought
in stucco by the hand of Domenico del Barbiere, a Florentine painter,
who is excellent not only in this kind of relief, but also in design,
so that in some works that he has coloured he has given proofs of the
rarest ability. In the same place, also, many figures of stucco in the
round have been executed by a sculptor likewise of our country, called
Ponzio, who has acquitted himself very well. But, since the works that
have been executed in those places in the service of those lords are
innumerable in their variety, I must touch only on the principal works
of the Abbot, in order to show how rare he is in painting, in design,
and in matters of architecture; although, in truth, it would not
appear to me an excessive labour to enlarge on the particular works,
if I had some true and clear information about them, as I have about
works here. With regard to design, Primaticcio has been and still is
most excellent, as may be seen from a drawing by his hand painted with
the signs of the heavens, which is in our book, sent to me by
Francesco himself; and I, both for love of him and because it is a
thing of absolute perfection, hold it very dear.

King Francis being dead, the Abbot remained in the same place and rank
with King Henry, and served him as long as he lived; and afterwards he
was created by King Francis II Commissary-General over all the
buildings of the whole kingdom, in which office, one of great honour
and much repute, there had previously acted the father of Cardinal
della Bordagiera and Monseigneur de Villeroy. Since the death of
Francis II, he has continued in the same office, serving the present
King, by whose order and that of the Queen-Mother Primaticcio has made
a beginning with the tomb of the above-named King Henry, making in the
centre of a six-sided chapel the sepulchre of the King himself, and at
four sides the sepulchres of his four children; while at one of the
other two