ll that it is a thing to marvel at; and I who saw her, a very gentle
and gracious girl, and her works, which are most beautiful, was struck
with amazement.

Nor will I omit to say that in S. Benedetto, a very celebrated monastery
of Black Friars at Mantua, renovated by Giulio Romano after a most
beautiful design, are many works executed by the above-named craftsmen
of Mantua and other Lombards, in addition to those described in the Life
of the same Giulio. There are, then, works by Fermo Ghisoni, such as a
Nativity of Christ, two altar-pieces by Girolamo Mazzuoli, three by
Lattanzio Gambara of Brescia, and three others by Paolo Veronese, which
are the best. In the same place, at the head of the refectory, by the
hand of a certain Fra Girolamo, a lay-brother of S. Dominic, as has been
related elsewhere, is a picture in oils which is a copy of the very
beautiful Last Supper that Leonardo painted in S. Maria delle Grazie at
Milan, and copied so well, that I was amazed by it. Of which
circumstance I make mention again very willingly, having seen Leonardo's
original in Milan, this year of 1566, reduced to such a condition, that
there is nothing to be seen but a mass of confusion; wherefore the piety
of that good father will always bear testimony in that respect to the
genius of Leonardo da Vinci. By the hand of the same monk I have seen in
the above-named house of the Mint, at Milan, a picture copied from one
by Leonardo, in which are a woman that is smiling and S. John the
Baptist as a boy, counterfeited very well.

[Illustration: THE PURIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN

(_After the fresco by =Giulio Campi=. Cremona: S. Margherita_)

_Alinari_]

Cremona, as was said in the Life of Lorenzo di Credi and in other
places, has had at various times men who have executed in painting works
worthy of the highest praise. And we have already related that when
Boccaccio Boccaccino was painting the great recess of the Duomo at
Cremona and the stories of Our Lady throughout the church, Bonifazio
Bembi was also a good painter, and Altobello executed in fresco many
stories of Jesus Christ with much more design than have those of
Boccaccino. After these works Altobello painted in fresco a chapel in S.
Agostino of the same city, in a manner full of beauty and grace, as may
be seen by everyone. At Milan, in the Corte Vecchia--that is, the
courtyard, or rather, piazza of the Palace--he painted a standing figure
armed in the ancient fashion, much b