At the same time the painter Messer Biagio[1] was working in Bologna, and this artist perceiving that Girolamo was getting into credit, began to fear that he would pass before himself and deprive him of all his gains; he therefore watched his opportunities, and succeeded in establishing a friendship with Girolamo, whom he then laboured to retard in his progress, attaching himself so closely to his society, and becoming so intimate with Girolamo, that after a time they began to work in company, and so continued for some time.
Now this arrangement was not only detrimental to Girolamo in the matter of gain, but was also highly injurious to his progress in art, seeing that he now followed the practice of Maestro Biagio, who worked by mere facility of hand, and took all his pictures from the designs now of one master and now of another, in a manner which, being also pursued by Girolamo, the latter now gave no further care or study to his paintings.
There was at that time a certain Fra Antonio, a Monk of the Monastery of San Michele in Bosco, which is situate immediately outside of Bologna, and this Frate had painted a figure of San Sebastiano, the size of life, in his own convent, with a picture in oil for a convent of that same order of Monte Oliveto which was situate at Scaricalasino, and some figures in fresco at the chapel of the garden of Santa Scolastica at Monte Oliveto Maggiore. The Monk Antonio having done these things, it was determined by the Abbot Ghiacciro, who had detained him during that year at Bologna, that he should paint the New Sacristry of the church: but the Frate Antonio, who did not feel equal to undertake so great a work, or who did not care perchance to undergo much labour and fatigue, as is frequently the case with that kind of people,—Frate Antonio, I say, so contrived that the work was entrusted to Girolamo and Maestro Biagio, who accordingly painted the whole chapel in fresco. In the compartments of the ceiling these artists depicted Children and Angels, and on the principal wall they represented the Story of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the figures of which are very large: the design for this picture was taken from that executed in Rome by Raffaello da Urbino for San Pietro in Montorio.
- ↑ Biagio Pupini, called Maestro Biagio delle Lame. See vol. iii. p. 326, where there is also mention of this artist.
