King, therefore, perceiving that he had been well served during the eight years that Primaticcio had been with him, appointed the painter to be one of his chamberlains; and shortly after, in 1544 that is to say, his Majesty made him Abbot of San Martino. Yet Francesco has not ceased to labour in painting and stucco for his sovereign, nor for King Francis only, but for the other monarchs who have since governed France. In this he has had many assistants, Bolognese and others; Griambattista, the son of Bartolommeo Bagnacavallo for example, who, in the many works which he has executed for Primaticcio, has proved himself no less able than was his father.
Ruggieri of Bologna,[1] has also been for some time with Primaticcio, and is said to be still in his service, as was Prospero Fontana,[2] whom Francesco invited to leave Bologna for that purpose, but he fell sick shortly after his arrival, and was compelled to return home. These ärtists are truly able men; and I, who have not unfrequently employed them both, Bagnacavallo at Rome, and Fontana at Rimini and Florence, can safely affirm them to be so. But among all those who have served the Abbot Primaticcio, none have done him more honour than Niccolò da Modena, of whom we have made mention before;[3] he has indeed surpassed all others, having decorated a hall called the Ball-room entirely with his own hand, after the designs of the Abbot. The figures are as large as life, and so numerous that they can hardly be counted; they are painted in a light and graceful manner, the colouring exhibiting so much harmony that they might be taken for oil-paintings. Niccolò has also painted sixty pictures in the G-reat Gallery, all after the designs of the Abbot, the subjects taken from the Life of Ulysses; but the colouring of these works is much darker than that of the Ball-room, and this comes perhaps from the fact that he has here used no other colouring than earths, which he has taken pure as they are presented by Nature, scarcely mingling any white with them; he has charged the darker parts with shadow to such an extent that the figures have much force and relief, and they are painted with so much
