Girolamo da Trevisi[1] had already appeared in that city, for the purpose of painting certain pictures whereof he was even then depicting some, on a façade which looks into the garden namely, while Perino was beginning to prepare the cartoon for the shipwreck described above. This he did much at his leisure, because frequently engaged in looking about him in Genoa and seeing the city, insomuch that he was seldom or never at the cartoon; a great part was nevertheless finished in time on different sheets, and after various manners, those nude figures of which we have spoken above being all designed, some in chiaro-scuro, some in charcoal, others in black chalk, some shaded, and some merely outlined, but many also with the high lights added, and somewhat carefully finished.
But while Perino was proceeding thus, and delayed to commence the execution of the work, Girolamo da Trevisi murmured against him, and exclaimed, “Cartoons, and nothing but cartoons! for my part, I carry my art at the point of my pencil.” This remark, with others of similar character, at length reached the ears of Perino, who being much angered thereby, instantly caused the cartoon to be fixed to the ceiling, in the place where the painting was to be executed, and then commanded that the planks which formed the floor of his scaffolding should be withdrawn in several places, to the end that those who were in the gallery below might see the vaulting. That done, he opened the Hall, and the report of the circumstance had no sooner got about than all Genoa hurried to see the work, when, astonished at the grand design of Perino, they praised his painting to the skies. Among the rest went Girolamo da Trevisi, who, beholding more than ever he had expected to see from the hand of Perino, and alarmed by the beauty of the production before him, set off from Genoa, without asking permission from Prince Doria, and returned to his dwelling in Bologna.
Perino remained in the service of the Prince, and finished the decoration of that Hall, the walls of which he painted in oil, a work which has been ever held to be, as it certainly is, most extraordinary in its beauty, the ceiling being decorated entirely around, and even to the lunettes, with rich stucco works, as I have said. In the other Hall, which
- ↑ For the life of this master see vol. i.
