laced it in position. At which
being angered against him, they said that they had called for designs
and had not commissioned him to execute the work; but he answered them
that this was his method of making designs, that he did not know how to
proceed in any other manner, and that designs and models of works should
always be after that fashion, so as to deceive no one, and that,
finally, if they would not pay him for the work and for his labour, he
would make them a present of it. And after these words, although he had
many contradictions, he so contrived that the work is still in the same
place. In this canvas, then, there is painted a Heaven with God the
Father descending with many Angels to embrace S. Rocco, and in the
lowest part are many figures that signify, or rather, represent the
other principal Scuole of Venice, such as the Carita, S. Giovanni
Evangelista, the Misericordia, S. Marco, and S. Teodoro, all executed
after his usual manner. But since it would be too long a task to
enumerate all the pictures of Tintoretto, let it be enough to have
spoken of the above-named works of that master, who is a truly able man
and a painter worthy to be praised.
[Illustration: THE APOTHEOSIS OF S. ROCCO
(_After the painting by =Jacopo Tintoretto=. Venice: Scuola di S.
Rocco_)
_Anderson_]
There was in Venice about this same time a painter called Brazzacco, a
protege of the house of Grimani, who had been many years in Rome; and he
was commissioned by favour to paint the ceiling in the Great Hall of the
Chiefs of the Council of Ten. But this master, knowing that he was not
able to do it by himself and that he had need of assistance, took as
companions Paolo Veronese and Battista Farinato, dividing between
himself and them nine pictures in oils that were destined for that
place--namely, four ovals at the corners, four oblong pictures, and a
larger oval in the centre. Giving the last-named oval, with three of the
oblong pictures, to Paolo Veronese, who painted therein a Jove who is
hurling his thunderbolts against the Vices, and other figures, he took
for himself two of the smaller ovals, with one of the oblong pictures,
and gave two ovals to Battista. In one of these pictures is Neptune, the
God of the Sea, and in each of the others two figures demonstrating the
greatness and the tranquil and peaceful condition of Venice. Now,
although all three of them acquitted themselves well, Paolo Veronese
succeeded better than the
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