ce and Siena, my master, and of her serene
Highness Queen Joanna of Austria, on account of which I had been much
occupied for two years on the ceiling of the principal hall of their
Palace, I resolved, without sparing any expense or fatigue, to revisit
Rome, Tuscany, part of the March, Umbria, Romagna, Lombardy, and Venice
with all her domain, in order to re-examine the old works and to see the
many that have been executed from the year 1542 onward. And so, having
made a record of the works that were most notable and most worthy to be
put down in writing, in order not to do wrong to the talents of many
craftsmen or depart from that sincere truthfulness which is expected
from those who write history of any kind, I shall proceed without bias
of mind to write down all that is wanting in any part of what has been
already written, without disturbing the order of the story, and then to
give an account of the works of some who are still living, and have
worked or are still working excellently well; for it appears to me that
so much is demanded by the merits of many rare and noble craftsmen.

Let me begin, then, with the men of Ferrara. Benvenuto Garofalo was born
at Ferrara in the year 1481, to Piero Tisi, whose elders had their
origin in Padua. He was born, I say, so inclined to painting, that, when
still but a little boy, while going to school to learn reading, he would
do nothing but draw; from which exercise his father, who looked on
painting as a folly, sought to divert him, but was never able. Wherefore
that father, having seen that he must second the inclination of that son
of his, who would never do anything day and night but draw, finally
placed him with Domenico Panetti, a painter of some repute at that time,
although his manner was dry and laboured, in Ferrara. With that Domenico
Benvenuto had been some little time, when, going once to Cremona, he
happened to see in the principal chapel of the Duomo in that city, among
other works by the hand of Boccaccio Boccaccino, a painter of Cremona,
who had painted the tribune there in fresco, a Christ seated on a throne
surrounded by four Saints, and giving the Benediction. Whereupon, that
work having pleased him, he placed himself by means of some friends
under Boccaccino, who was at that time executing in the same church,
likewise in fresco, some stories of the Madonna, as has been said in his
Life, in competition with the painter Altobello, who was painting in the
same chur