g
it to Girolamo, who did it very well, adorning it as much as is possible
in that district, which suffers from a great dearth of stone wherewith
to make carvings and ornaments; for which he well deserved to be always
held dear by that lord, who rewarded him liberally for his labours.
Finally, after having executed these and many other works, Girolamo died
in the year 1556, at the age of fifty-five, and was buried in the Church
of the Angeli, beside his wife. He left two daughters, and also three
sons, Giulio, Annibale, and another.

Girolamo was a blithe spirit, very sweet and pleasing in his
conversation, and in his work somewhat slow and dilatory. He was of
middle stature, and he delighted beyond measure in music, and more in
the pleasures of love than was perhaps expedient. The buildings of his
patrons have been carried on since his death by the Ferrarese architect
Galasso, a man of the most beautiful genius, and of such judgment in
matters of architecture, that, in so far as may be seen from the
ordering of his designs, he would have demonstrated his worth much more
than he has done, if he had been employed in works of importance.

An excellent sculptor, and likewise a Ferrarese, has been Maestro
Girolamo, who, living at Recanati, has executed many works in marble at
Loreto after his master, Andrea Contucci, and has made many of the
ornaments round that Chapel or House of the Madonna. This master--since
the departure from that place of Tribolo, who was the last there, after
he had finished the largest scene in marble, which is at the back of the
chapel, wherein are the Angels carrying that house from Sclavonia into
the forest of Loreto--has laboured there continually from 1534 to the
year 1560, executing many works. The first of these was a seated figure
of a Prophet of three braccia and a half, which, being good and
beautiful, was placed in a niche that is turned towards the west; which
statue, having given satisfaction, was the reason that he afterwards
made all the other Prophets, with the exception of one, that facing
towards the east on the outer side, over against the altar, which is by
the hand of Simone Cioli of Settignano, likewise a disciple of Andrea
Sansovino. The rest of those Prophets, I say, are by the hand of Maestro
Girolamo, and are executed with much diligence and study and good skill
of hand. For the Chapel of the Sacrament the same master has made the
candelabra of bronze about three braccia i