the man who before any other taught him the method of using tints and
colours in gum and in distemper.

[Illustration: THE DEPOSITION

(_After the painting upon parchment by =Giulio Clovio=. Florence:
Pitti, No. 241_)

_Mansell_]

Among the first works that Clovio coloured was a Madonna, which, as a
man of ingenious and beautiful spirit, he copied from the book of the
Life of the Virgin; which Madonna was printed in wood-engraving among
the first sheets of Albrecht Duerer. Whereupon, having acquitted
himself well in that his first work, he made his way by means of
Signor Alberto da Carpi, who was then serving in Hungary, into the
service of King Louis and of Queen Maria, the sister of Charles V; for
which King he executed a Judgment of Paris in chiaroscuro, which much
pleased him, and for the Queen the Roman Lucretia killing herself,
with some other things, which were held to be very beautiful. The
death of that King then ensuing, and the ruin of everything in
Hungary, Giorgio Giulio was forced to return to Italy; where he had no
sooner arrived than the old Cardinal Campeggio took him into his
service. Thereupon, being settled to his liking, he executed a Madonna
in miniature for that lord, and some other little things, and disposed
himself to attend at all costs with greater study to the matters of
art; and so he set himself to draw, and to seek with every effort to
imitate the works of Michelagnolo. But this fine resolution was
interrupted by the unhappy sack of Rome in the year 1527, when the
poor man, finding himself the prisoner of the Spaniards and
maltreated, in his great misery had recourse to divine assistance,
making a vow that if he escaped safely from that miserable ruin and
out of the hands of those new Pharisees, he would straightway become a
friar. Wherefore, having escaped by the grace of God and made his way
to Mantua, he became a monk in the Monastery of S. Ruffino, a seat of
the Order of Canons Regular of Scopeto; having been promised, besides
peace and quiet of mind and tranquil leisure in the service of God,
that he would have facilities for attending at times, as it were by
way of pastime, to the work of miniature. Having thus taken the habit
and the name of Don Giulio, at the end of a year he made his
profession; and then for a period of three years he stayed peacefully
enough among those fathers, changing from one monastery to another
according to his pleasure, as has been related elsewher