which Raphael had made the design, with intent to depict the same in the papal Loggie. Ugo da Carpi likewise executed many other works in the same manner, among which was a Venus, with a crowd of little Loves sporting around her.
But as Ugo was a painter, as I have before remarked, I will not omit to mention, that he painted in oil without using a pencil, but with his finger and other strange instruments of his own fancy and invention, and, using such contrivances, he painted a picture which is on the altar of the Volto Santo,[1] in Rome. Now it happened one morning that I was hearing mass with Michelagnolo at that altar, and seeing on this picture an inscription to the effect that Ugo da Carpi had painted it without a pencil, I showed the same laughing to Michelagnolo, who, laughing also, replied, that it would have been better if he had used a pencil, since he might then have done it in a better manner. The method of executing wood-cuts with two blocks and the imitation of chiaro-scuro thus invented by Ugo da Carpi, was adopted by many who, following in his footsteps, have given existence to large numbers of very beautiful works.
Among those who succeeded Ugo in this manner was the Sienese painter Baldassare Peruzzi, who produced a plate in chiaro-scuro of similar kind, representing Hercules driving Avarice, a figure loaded with vases of gold and silver, from Mount Parnassus, where the Muses are seen in beautiful and varied attitudes; an admirable and much commended work. Francesco Parmigiano also engraved a figure of Diogenes on a royal folio laid open, and this was a much more beautiful print than any ever executed by Ugo.[2]
It was from the same Parmigiano that Antonio of Trent acquired the method of executing prints from three blocks, and for Parmigiano Antonio then engraved a large plate of the Martyrdom of San Pietro and San Paolo in chiaro-scuro;
- ↑ Volto Santo, the Holy Countenance. Our readers will remember that this is said to be the true image, Vero Icon, of our Blessed Lord impressed on the veil or napkin which had been presented to him by the compassionate Veronica on his way to Calvary, for the purpose of wiping the drops of agony from his brow. This image is exhibited, as all who are acquainted with Rome will remember, among the relics brought forth on high solemnities in St. Peter’s.
- ↑ This Diogenes is by Ugo himself, and not by Parmigiano.
