Death in
combat with some on horseback. For the Office of the Cross he has made
Christ Crucified, and opposite is Moses with the rain of serpents, and
the same Moses placing on high the serpent of brass. For that of the
Holy Spirit is that same Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles, and
opposite is the Building of the Tower of Nimrod.

That work was executed by Don Giulio in a period of nine years with so
much study and labour, that in a manner of speaking it would never be
possible to pay for the work with no matter what price; nor is one
able to see any more strange and beautiful variety than there is in
all the scenes, of bizarre ornaments and various movements and
postures of nudes both male and female, studied and well detailed in
every part, and placed appropriately all around in those borders, in
order to enrich the work. Which diversity of things infuses such
beauty into that whole work, that it appears a thing divine and not
human, and above all because with his colours and his manner of
painting he has made the figures, the buildings and the landscapes
recede and fade into the distance with all those considerations that
perspective requires, and with the greatest perfection that is
possible, insomuch that, whether near or far, they cause everyone to
marvel; not to speak of the thousand different kinds of trees, wrought
so well that they appear as if grown in Paradise. In the stories and
inventions may be seen design, in the composition order and variety,
and richness in the vestments, which are executed with such beauty and
grace of manner, that it seems impossible that they could have been
fashioned by the hand of man. Wherefore we may say, as we said at the
beginning, that Don Giulio has surpassed in this field both ancients
and moderns, and that he has been in our times a new, if smaller,
Michelagnolo.

The same master once executed a small picture with little figures for
the Cardinal of Trent, so pleasing and so beautiful, that that lord
made a present of it to the Emperor Charles V; and afterwards, for the
same lord, he painted another of Our Lady, and with it the portrait of
King Philip, which were very beautiful and therefore presented to the
said Catholic King. For the above-named Cardinal Farnese he painted a
little picture of Our Lady with her Son in her arms, S. Elizabeth, a
young S. John, and other figures, which was sent to Ruy Gomez in
Spain. In another, which the above-named Cardinal now h