was executed, as we have before related, by the Veronese Battista d’Agnolo del Moro;[1] this is at the Altar of Santa Maria Maddalena, while that for the Altar of Santa Thecla was undertaken by Jeronimo Parmigiano. The Veronese Paolo Farinato,[2] received commission for the picture of the Altar of San Martino, as did Domenico Brusasorci for that of Santa Margherita, while the Cremonese Giulio Campo,[3] painted the picture for the Altar of San Jeronimo. But the best of all, though they are all beautiful, was that, the subject of which is Sant’ Antonio the Abbot beset by a Demon, who tempts him in the form of a woman, and this was by the hand of Paolo Veronese.
But as regards the Mantuan artists, it is certain that the city has never had a more able master in painting than Rinaldo, who was a disciple of Giulio Romano, and by whose hand there is a picture in the Church of Sant’ Agnese in Mantua, of which the figures are most beautiful. The subject of the work is Our Lady in the air, with Sant’ Agostino and San Girolamo; but this artist was prematurely removed from the world by death.
In a very fine studio and “antiquarium” which the Signor Cesare Gonzaga has caused to be made, and which he has filled with antique statues and busts in marble, that Signor has furthermore commissioned Fermo Guisoni to execute paintings for the greater embellishment thereof: these consist principally of the genealogy of the Gonzaga family, and the artist has acquitted himself to admiration in every particular, but more especially in the expression of the faces. The Signor Cesare has also deposited certain pictures besides in that place, some of which are without doubt exceedingly precious, as for example, that of the Madonna with the Cat, which was executed by Raffaello da Urbino,[4] with another, in which Our Lady, a figure of most exquisite grace, is represented as washing the Infant Christ.[5]
The same noble has had a second large study set apart
- ↑ So called because he was the disciple of Francesco Torbido, called II Moro: see vol. iii. of the present work, p. 410.
- ↑ An excellent painter, and a disciple of Niccolò Giolfino. See the Cremonese artists, p. 527, et seq. of the present vol.
- ↑ Of whom we have more hereafter.
- ↑ This is now at Naples, in the Museo Borbonico namely.—Förster.
- ↑ Now in the Gallery of Dresden, but according to the authority just cited, it is not the work of Raphael, but of Giulio Romano.
