iate to sleep, it would be a subject not very customary and
different from those of the other rooms, and would give you an
occasion of executing rare and beautiful works in your art, since the
strong lights and dark shadows that go into such a subject are wont to
give no little grace and relief to the figures; and it would please me
to have the time of this Night close upon the dawn, to the end that
the things represented there may be visible without improbability. And
to come to the details and to their disposition, it is necessary that
we come to an understanding first about the situation and the
distribution of the chamber. Let us say, then, that it is divided, as
indeed it is, into vaulting and walls, or facades, as we wish to call
them. The vaulting has a sunk oval in the centre and four great
spandrels at the corners, which, drawing together little by little and
continuing one with the other along the facades, embrace the
above-mentioned oval. The walls, also, are four, and between the
spandrels they form four lunettes.

"Now, let us give names to all these parts, with the divisions that we
shall make in the whole chamber, and we shall thus be able to
distinguish each part on every side, all the way round. Dividing it
into five sections, then, the first shall be the 'head'; and this I
presume to be next to the garden. The second, which must be that
opposite to the first, we shall call the 'foot'; the third, on the
right hand, we shall call the 'right'; the fourth, on the left hand,
the 'left'; and the fifth, situated in the midst of the others, shall
be named the 'centre.' Thus, distinguishing all the parts with these
names, we shall speak, for example, of the lunette at the head, the
facade at the foot, the concavity on the left, the horn on the right,
and so with any other part that it may be necessary to name; and to
the spandrels that are at the corners, each between two of these
boundaries, we shall give the name both of the one and of the other.
And thus, also, we shall determine on the pavement below the situation
of the bed, which, in my opinion, must be along the facade at the
foot, with the head turned to the left-hand facade.

"Now, all the parts having received a name, let us turn to give a form
to them all in general, and then to each by itself. First of all, the
concavity of the vaulting, or rather, the oval, shall be
represented--so the Cardinal has judiciously determined--as being all
heaven. The