beautiful figures on the ceiling of a chamber in the house of Messer Antonio del Tiene. He lias also painted a room, with admirable invention, and in a very beautiful manner, for the Count Girolamo da Canossa.[1]
The painter, Eliodoro Forbicini,[2] a youth of a very fine genius, is also much extolled, possessing great facility in all kinds of painting; he is more particularly distinguished as a painter of grottesclie, as may be seen in the two chambers above described as well as in other places where he has laboured.
In like manner Battista da Verona,[3] who is called thus, and no otherwise, out of his own country, well deserves to be mentioned here; he was instructed in the first principles of painting by an uncle of his own in Verona, and. subsequently placed himself with the excellent Titian in Venice, under whose discipline he became a most excellent painter.
While yet very young he painted a Hall in the Palace of Portesco, the Paymaster of the Forces, the building is at Tiene in the Vicentine territory, and the work was executed by Battista in company with Paulino; they having painted a vast number of figures, by which they both acquired credit and reputation. Battista executed numerous frescos in company with the above-named Paulino at the Palace of Soranza in Castel Franco, both being despatched thither by Michele San Michele, who loved them as his sons. These two artists also painted the façade of the house of Messer Antonio Cappella, which is situate on the Grand Canal in Venice, and at a later period, still working in company, they decorated the ceiling, or rather the entire wainscot of the Hall of the Council of Ten, dividing the pictures between them.
No long time after having finished the above, Battista was invited to Vicenza, where he executed numerous works, both in and around the city, and in these last days he has painted the front of the Monte di Pieta, where he has
- ↑ Bernardino painted two rooms in the Palazzo Canossa.—Masselli.
- ↑ Lanzi calls Forbicini “an assistant of India, and of many other artists,” .doubtless meaning that he was employed by them to execute the grottesche, in the production of which, as Vasari observes, his ability principally consisted.
- ↑ Battista Fontana of Verona, who, according to Lanzi, was much engaged at the Imperial Court of Vienna: other authorities speak of him as a good engraver.
