been uncovered; and, being a zealous student of
the manner and works of that master, he gazed at it very gladly, and in
infinite admiration made drawings of it all. And then, having resolved
to remain in Rome, at the commission of Cardinal Francesco Cornaro--who
had rebuilt the palace that he occupied beside S. Pietro, which looks
out on the portico in the direction of the Camposanto--he painted over
the stucco a loggia that looks towards the Piazza, making there a kind
of grotesques all full of little scenes and figures; which work,
executed with much labour and diligence, was held to be very beautiful.

About the same time, which was the year 1538, Francesco Salviati, having
painted a scene in fresco in the Company of the Misericordia, was to
give it the final completion and to set his hand to others, which many
private citizens desired to have painted; but, by reason of the rivalry
that there was between him and Jacopo del Conte, nothing more was done;
which hearing, Battista sought to obtain by this means an opportunity to
prove himself superior to Francesco and the best master in Rome; and he
so went to work, employing his friends and other means, that Monsignor
della Casa, after seeing a design by his hand, allotted the work to him.
Thereupon, setting his hand to it, he painted there in fresco S. John
the Baptist taken at the command of Herod and cast into prison. But,
although this picture was executed with much labour, it was not held to
be equal by a great measure to that of Salviati, from its having been
painted with very great effort and in a manner crude and melancholy,
while it had no order in the composition, nor in a single part any of
that grace and charm of colouring which Francesco's work possessed. And
from this it may be concluded that those men are deceived who, in
pursuing this art, give all their attention to executing well and with
a good knowledge of muscles a torso, an arm, a leg, or other member,
believing that a good grasp of that part is the whole secret; for the
reason that the part of a work is not the whole, and only he carries it
to perfect completion, in a good and beautiful manner, who, after
executing the parts well, knows how to make them fit in due proportion
into the whole, and who, moreover, so contrives that the composition of
the figures expresses and produces well and without confusion the effect
that it should produce. And, above all, care must be taken to make the
heads vivaci