rs, so those
of Summer were painted with an infinite number of fruits and cereals,
those of Autumn were of leaves and bunches of the grape, and those of
Winter were of onions, turnips, radishes, carrots, parsnips, and dried
leaves, not to mention that in the central picture, in which is the
Car of Ops, he coloured so beautifully in oils four lions that are
drawing the Car, that nothing better could be done; and, in truth, in
painting animals he had no equal.

Then in the Chamber of Ceres, which is beside the last-named, he
executed in certain angles some little boys and festoons that are
beautiful to a marvel. And in the central picture, where Vasari had
painted Ceres seeking for Proserpine with a lighted pine torch, upon a
car drawn by two serpents, Cristofano carried many things to
completion with his own hand, because Vasari was ill at that time and
had left that picture, among other things, unfinished.

Finally, when it came to decorating a terrace that is beyond the
Chamber of Jove and beside that of Ops, it was decided that all the
history of Juno should be painted there; and so, after all the
ornamentation in stucco had been finished, with very rich carvings and
various compositions of figures, wrought after the cartoons of Vasari,
the same Vasari ordained that Cristofano should execute that work by
himself in fresco, desiring, since it was a work to be seen from near,
and of figures not higher than one braccio, that Gherardi should do
something beautiful in this, which was his peculiar profession.
Cristofano, then, executed in an oval on the vaulting a Marriage with
Juno in the sky, and in a picture on one side Hebe, Goddess of Youth,
and on the other Iris, who is pointing to the rainbow in the heavens.
On the same vaulting he painted three other quadrangular pictures, two
to match the others, and a larger one in a line with the oval in which
is the Marriage, and in the last-named picture is Juno seated in a car
drawn by peacocks. In one of the other two, which are on either side
of that one, is the Goddess of Power, and in the other Abundance with
the Cornucopia at her feet. And in two other pictures on the walls
below, over the openings of two doors, are two other stories of
Juno--the Transformation of Io, the daughter of the River Inachus,
into a Cow, and of Callisto into a Bear.

During the execution of that work his Excellency conceived a very
great affection for Cristofano, seeing him zealous and dilige