to the former city, having been much employed in the service of that Pope, at an earlier period. He was at once appointed to prepare a rich and beautiful ornament, which was to be erected over the steps of San Pietro, for the ceremony of the Coronation of Clement, and it was subsequently commanded that he and Perino del Vaga should paint certain pictures in the vaulted ceiling of the Old Hall; that, namely, which stands opposite to those lower rooms previously decorated by Griovanni, as we have said, and which lead from the Loggia to the rooms of the Torre Borgia. Our artist now therefore, made a beautiful series of divisions in stucco work, with numerous grottesche, and animals of various kinds; while Perino painted the seven planets within the square compartments, formed by those works in stucco.[1]
The same two artists were also commissioned to paint the walls of that Hall, wherein Griotto, according to that which has been written by Platina, in the Lives of the Pontiffs, did long ago paint figures of certain Popes, who had been put to death for the faith of Christ, and for which cause, that room was once called the Hall of the Martyrs; but scarcely had they completed the ceiling, before that most unhappy sack of Rome took place, and the work could proceed no further; seeing that Giovanni, who had suffered greatly, both in his person and property, had again retired to Udine, with the intention of making a long stay there.
His purpose in that matter was nevertheless interrupted, since Pope Clement VII. having returned to Pome from Bologna, after he had there crowned the Emperor Charles V. caused Giovanni to return thither also; he then made him paint anew the Standards of the Castello Sant’ Angelo, and afterwards commanded him to decorate the ceiling of the great Chapel of San Pietro, which is the principal one in that Church, and where the Altar of the Saint is erected.[2] Meanwhile, Fra Marino, who held the office of the leaden seal, being dead, that office was given to Sebastiano Veneziano, a painter of great, name; but a pension of eighty ducats on the same was assigned to Giovanni da Udine,[3] and the
