Farnese, perceiving himself to be served in a manner so satisfactory by Antonio in these numerous works, was constrained to feel great good-will for him, and as his estimation of him continually increased, he always favoured Antonio in all his undertakings to the utmost of his power.
The Cardinal Alborense, then desiring to leave a memorial of himself in the church of his native city, caused Antonio to construct a marble chapel in the church of San Jacopo degli Spagnuoli, with a tomb for himself. This chapel was afterwards painted, in the intercolumniations that is to say, by Pellegrino da Modena, as I have related: on the altar, likewise, there was placed a very beautiful statue in marble of San Jacopo which was executed by Jacopo Sansovino. The whole work is considered a veijy fine one, the architecture being greatly extolled, more particularly for the marble vaulting, which has octangular compartments of great beauty.
No long time after the completion of this work, Messer Bartolommeo Ferratino, for his own convenience and the enjoyment of his friends, as well as in the hope of leaving an enduring and honourable memorial of himself, caused a palace to be built by Antonio on the Piazza d’Amelia, and this also is a very creditable and beautiful work, from which the architect derived no small reputation as well as advantage.
Now at that time Antonio di Monte, Cardinal of Santa Prassedia, was in Rome, and desired that Antonio should build for him the Palace,[1] in which he afterwards dwelt, and which looks into the Piazza, whereon stands the Statue of Maestro Pasquino.[2] In the centre of that side which is turned to the Piazza, the Cardinal caused a Tower to be erected, and this was adorned from the first to the third story with a beautiful composition of columns and windows, all arranged and completed after the design of Antonio with
- ↑ Which stood where now stands the Palazzo Braschi, built after the design of Morelli, towards the close of the last century.
- ↑ This figure is the upper part of the Statue of Menelaus, and belongs to a celebrated antique group, of which there exist several copies and some repetitions; from these we learn that the hero was represented in the act of supporting Patroclus. It was called Pasquino, because the fragment was discovered near the shop of a free-spoken tailor so called, and was erected before the same. On this figure were afterwards appended the satirical songs and caustic remarks, called from that circumstance “Pasquinades.”
