Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/518

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510
lives of the artists.


At a later period, and when Girolamo had taken a wife and become the father of a family, perhaps somewhat earlier than he ought to have done, he painted the Four Evangelists in fresco, in the angles of the ceiling in the church of San Francesco at Ferrara. These were tolerably good figures, and in the same church he painted a frieze which passed entirely around the building, a work of very great extent, and comprising numerous figures in half length, with little children most charmingly intermingled and linked together.[1] In a picture which he was commissioned to execute, also for the church of San Francesco, Girolamo painted the figure of Sant’ Antonio of Padua with other Saints; and in a second picture he represented Our Lady in the air with two Angels, this last being placed on the Altar by the Signora Giulia Muzzarella, whose portrait the artist depicted therein with very great success.

In Rovigo Girolamo da Carpi executed a work for the Church of San Francesco, the subject chosen was the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Tongues of Fire; this was a performance worthy of the highest commendation, for the excellence of the composition as well as for the beauty of the heads. For the church of San Martino in Bologna likewise he painted a picture representing the three Magi, both the figures and heads of which are exceedingly beautiful.[2]

At Ferrara the works performed by Girolamo were the fa§ade of a house for the Signor Battista Muzzarelli, which he painted in company with Benvenuto Garofalo, as we have said, with that of the palace of Copara, a villa belonging to the Duke, and situate at the distance of about twelve miles from Ferrara. In the last-mentioned city itself he also painted the fa$ade of the house of Pietro Soncini, which is on the Piazza and near the Fish Market, depicting there the taking of Goletta by the Emperor Charles V. At San Polo, which is a church in the same city belonging to the Carmelite Monks, our artist painted a picture in oil representing San Girolamo with two other Saints, all of the size of life.[3]

  1. The frieze is still in existence, as are the figures of the Evangelists, but some of these have been restored. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
  2. It is in the first chapel, and almost at the entrance to the church. Lanzi, Storia Pittorica, declares this work to unite the beauties of the Roman and Lombard schools.
  3. Still in its place.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.