to the friezes of children, lions, Papal arms, and
grotesques that are round that hall, made some divisions on the walls
with imitations of variegated marbles of different kinds, similar to the
incrustations that the ancient Romans used to make on their baths,
temples, and other buildings, such as may be seen in the Ritonda and in
the portico of S. Pietro. In another hall beside that one, which was
used by the Chamberlains, Raffaello da Urbino painted in certain
tabernacles some Apostles in chiaroscuro, large as life and very
beautiful; and over the cornices of that work Giovanni portrayed from
life many parrots of various colours which his Holiness had at that
time, and also baboons, marmosets, civet-cats, and other strange
creatures. But this work had a short life, for the reason that Pope Paul
IV destroyed that apartment in order to make certain small closets and
little places of retirement, and thus deprived the Palace of a very rare
work; which that holy man would not have done if he had possessed any
taste for the arts of design. Giovanni painted the cartoons for those
hangings and chamber-tapestries that were afterwards woven in silk and
gold in Flanders, in which are certain little boys that are sporting
around various festoons, and as ornaments the devices of Pope Leo and
various animals copied from life. These tapestries, which are very rare
works, are still in the Palace at the present day. He also executed the
cartoons for some tapestries full of grotesques, which are in the first
rooms of the Consistory.

[Illustration: ARABESQUES

(_After the fresco by =Giovanni da Udine=. Rome: The Vatican, Loggia_)

_Anderson_]

While Giovanni was labouring at those works, the Palace of M. Giovan
Battista dall'Aquila, which had been erected at the head of the Borgo
Nuovo, near the Piazza di S. Pietro, had the greater part of the facade
decorated in stucco by the hand of the same master, which was held to be
a remarkable work. The same Giovanni executed the paintings and all the
stucco-work in the loggia of the villa that Cardinal Giulio de' Medici
caused to be built under Monte Mario, wherein are animals, grotesques,
festoons, and friezes of such beauty, that it appears as if in that work
Giovanni had sought to outstrip and surpass his own self. Wherefore he
won from that Cardinal, who much loved his genius, in addition to many
benefits that he received for his relatives, the gift of a canonicate
for himself at Civit