he prepared numerous designs for buildings belonging to different private persons, but also served in this particular the Cardinal of Ferrara, Ippolito de’ Medici, who, having bought the garden at Montecavallo in Rome, which had previously belonged to the Cardinal of Naples, with several vineyards belonging to other persons which surrounded it, invited Girolamo to Rome, to the end that this master might serve him, not in the buildings only, but also in the truly regal decorations of wood work, &c., which adorn that garden;[1] and in this work he acquitted himself so well, that all who beheld it were amazed; nor, indeed, do I know any one who has done better in wood-work (afterwards covered with the most exquisite foliage) than Girolamo da Carpi, or who has produced a richer variety of graceful forms, such as temples of different characters, wherein may now be seen arranged many of the finest antique statues to be found in Rome, part of the latter being complete, and part having been restored by the Florentine Valerio Cioli[2] and other sculptors.
By all these labours Girolamo da Carpi, having got himself into very good credit at Rome, was preferred, in the year 1550, by the above-named Cardinal, his lord, who loved him very greatly, to the service of Pope Julius III., who made him architect of the works then in course of erection at the Belvidere, giving him rooms there, with a good stipend. But as that Pontiff was never to be contented in matters of that kind, (more particularly at the commencements, and when, understanding nothing of design, he constantly became dissatisfied at night with that which had pleased him in the morning,) and as besides Girolamo had to be perpetually contending with certain old architects, to whom it seemed a wonderful thing that a new and unknown person should be placed before them,—Girolamo, I say, clearly perceiving the envy and probable malignity of these men, resolved to retire, and this he did the more readily because
- ↑ Where the pontifical Palace now stands. —Bottari. The Palace of the Quirinal that is to say; the Quirinal Hill is still popularly called Monte Cavallo, from the antique horses which, as most of our readers will remember, form the glorious ornament of that place.
- ↑ Valerio Cioli of Settignano was the son of the sculptor Simone Cioli, and a disciple of Tribolo. There is further mention of Valerio in the Life of Michael Angelo.'—Ed. Flor.} 1832-8.
