It had on its back a figure of Justice, now in the Museo
Civico. He also says that Sebastiano Schiavone did these tarsie, but he
died in 1505. Various initials appear here and there through the work;
on each side of the figure of S. Mark are U.F.Q. and M.S.R. in
cartouches, Charity and Justice have N. and P. at the sides, and
Prudence has P.S.S. and S.S.C. attached to her. The panels of ornament
seem to be of the same period as the figure of Charity.

[Illustration: Plate 33.--_Panel from S. Mark's, Venice._

_To face page 68._]

Fra Damiano of Bergamo, Fra Giovanni's fellow-pupil, attained, if
possible, even greater reputation. He was considered the finest artist
in tarsia of his time, he having, "with his woods, coloured to a marvel,
raised the art to the rank of real painting." His family name was
Zambello, he is thought to have been born about 1490, and he became a
Dominican monk. An anonymous MS. of the 16th century, published by
Morelli, calls him a pupil of a Slavonian, that is, Illyrian, brother of
Venice, Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno. He passed the greater part of his
life at Bologna, in the Dominican cloister there, into which he was
admitted in 1528. In the records of the convent for that year occurs the
note, "Frater Damianus de Bergomo, homo peritissimus, singularissimus,
et unicus in l'arte della tarsia, conversus, receptatus fuit in filium
conventus." At S. Domenico the choir stalls were his first work; he did
seven, containing fourteen subjects and seven heads of saints. These
were finished in 1530, and in consequence of their success he was
commissioned to complete the choir. He carried the tinting of the wood
farther than Fra Giovanni did, using solutions of sublimate of mercury,
of arsenic, and what they called oil of sulphur. He is said to have had
Vignola's designs for the architectural parts.

Charles the Fifth was in Bologna with Clement VII., and was crowned
Emperor in S. Petronio on December 5, 1529. One day he was in S.
Domenico admiring the works of art, and, doubting that the tarsie were
made of tinted wood, as he was told, drew his rapier and cut a bit out
of one of the panels, which has always remained in the state in which he
left it in memory of his act. Desiring to see how the work was done he
determined to visit Fra Damiano's studio. Accordingly, on March 7, 1530,
he took with him Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and several princes of
his escort, and went to the convent, when, being c