ts, each ten braccia wide in
one direction and eight braccia in the other; and, with a width equal
to that of the niches of four braccia, there was a frieze which ran
right round the cornice, while in a line with the niches there came in
the middle of all the spaces a compartment three braccia square. These
compartments were in all twenty-three, without counting one of double
size that was above the stage, which brought the number up to
twenty-four; and in them were the Hours, twelve of the night, namely,
and twelve of the day. In the first of the compartments ten braccia in
length, which was above the stage, was Time, who was arranging the
Hours in their places, accompanied by AEolus, God of the Winds, by
Juno, and by Iris. In another compartment, at the door of entrance,
was the Car of Aurora, who, rising from the arms of Tithonus, was
scattering roses, while the Car itself was being drawn by some Cocks.
In the third was the Chariot of the Sun; and in the fourth was the
Chariot of Night, drawn by Owls, and Night had the Moon upon her head,
some Bats in front of her, and all around her darkness.

Of these pictures Cristofano executed the greater part, and he
acquitted himself so well, that everyone stood marvelling at them:
particularly in the Chariot of Night, wherein he did in the way of
oil-sketches that which was, in a manner of speaking, not possible.
And in the picture of Adria, likewise, he painted those monsters of
the sea with such beauty and variety, that whoever looked at them was
struck with astonishment that a craftsman of his rank should have
shown such knowledge. In short, in all this work he bore himself
beyond all expectation like an able and well-practised painter, and
particularly in the foliage and grotesques.

After finishing the preparations for that festival, Vasari and
Cristofano stayed some months in Venice, painting for the Magnificent
Messer Giovanni Cornaro the ceiling, or rather, soffit, of an
apartment, into which there went nine large pictures in oils. Vasari
being then entreated by the Veronese architect, Michele San Michele,
to stay in Venice, he might perhaps have consented to remain there for
a year or two; but Cristofano always dissuaded him from it, saying
that it was not a good thing to stay in Venice, where no account was
taken of design, nor did the painters in that city make any use of it,
not to mention that those painters themselves were the reason that no
attention was paid