This same Giovanni Battista has made Domenico Brusasorci[1] paint a picture in oil after his design, in Santa Barbara, the church of the ducal palace, which is indeed a work most truly deserving of praise; the subject is the Martyrdom of Santa Barbara.[2] Having studied Vitruvius, moreover, this Giovanni Battista has written and published a work on the Ionic Volute, following the precepts of the above-named author, and showing how the volute should be turned.[3]}; He has also erected at the principal entrance of his own house in Mantua, a column of stone, whereon are marked all the admeasurements and dimensions of the said Ionic order, comprising the ancient palm, inch, foot, and braccio, with the other orders figured plainly, to the end that all who desire to do so, may examine whether the measures thus given be correct or not.
The architect Bertano has likewise caused pictures to be executed by various masters in the church of San Piero, which is the cathedral church of Mantua, and may be called the work and architecture of Giulio Bomano, since he, restoring that edifice, gave it a new and modern form: here then, Giovanni Battista has caused a painting to be executed for each chapel, two of them being painted after his own design, by Fermo Guisoni. The subject of one is a Santa Lucia, [4] and that of the other San Giovanni Evangelista.
Another of similar character, Bertoni caused to be executed by the Mantuan painter Ippolito Costa.[5] The subject of this last-mentioned work is Sant’ Agata,[6] with her hands tied and placed between two soldiers, by whom she is cruelly mutilated.[7] In the same cathedral a picture
- ↑ Domenico Riccio, called Brusasorci (Burn the Mice), from hi3 father, who having invented a method of destroying those animals, obtained the soubriquet of Brusasorci.
- ↑ For the legend of this saint see Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 103, et seq.
- ↑ The MS. of this work is in the possession of the Earl of Burlington.
- ↑ See Mrs. Jameson, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 234, et seq.
- ↑ According to Orlandi, Ippolito Costa was a disciple of Girolamo da Carpi, but Bandinelli considers him to have made his principal acquirements under Giulio Romano.
- ↑ For the legend of this saint also, the reader is referred to Mrs. Jameson, as above cited, vol. ii. p. 229, et seq.
- ↑ According to Lanzi, this picture, which was after the design of Bertano, has more of the style of Giulio Romano than have any of those painted by Ippolito, after his own designs.
