ana, some substance white in colour;
whereupon, after making trial of various materials, he caused chips of
travertine to be pounded, and found that it answered passing well, but
that still the work was of a livid rather than a pure white, and also
rough and granular. But finally, having caused chips of the whitest
marble that could be found to be pounded and reduced to a fine powder,
and then sifted, he mixed it with white lime of travertine, and
discovered that thus he had succeeded without any doubt in making the
true stucco of the ancients, with all the properties that he had desired
therein. At which rejoicing greatly, he showed to Raffaello what he had
done; wherefore he, who was then executing by order of Pope Leo X, as
has been related, the Loggie of the Papal Palace, caused Giovanni to
decorate all the vaulting there in stucco, with most beautiful ornaments
bordered by grotesques similar to the antique, and with very lovely and
fantastic inventions, all full of the most varied and extravagant things
that could possibly be imagined. Having executed the whole of that
ornamentation in half-relief and low-relief, he then divided it up with
little scenes, landscapes, foliage, and various friezes, in which he
touched the highest level, as it were, that art can reach in that field.

In all this he not only equalled the ancients, but also, in so far as
one can judge from the remains that we have seen, surpassed them, for
the reason that these works of Giovanni's, in beauty of design, in the
invention of figures, and in colouring, whether executed in stucco or
painted, are beyond all comparison superior to those of the ancients
that are to be seen in the Colosseum, and to the paintings in the Baths
of Diocletian and in other places. In what other place are there to be
seen birds painted that are more lifelike and natural, so to speak, in
colouring, in the plumage, and in all other respects, than those that
are in the friezes and pilasters of the Loggie? And they are there in as
many varieties as Nature herself has been able to create, some in one
manner and some in another; and many are perched on bunches, ears, and
panicles, not only of corn, millet, and buckwheat, but of all the kinds
of cereals, vegetables, and fruits that earth has produced from the
beginning of time for the sustenance and nourishment of birds. As for
the fishes, likewise, the sea-monsters, and all the other creatures of
the water that Giovanni depic