time, festivals and
sacred representations taking their place. And either before or after
(it matters little which) the performance of the aforesaid Calandra,
which was one of the first plays in the vulgar tongue to be seen or
performed, in the time of Leo X, Baldassarre made two such scenes, which
were marvellous, and opened the way to those who have since made them in
our own day. Nor is it possible to imagine how he found room, in a space
so limited, for so many streets, so many palaces, and so many bizarre
temples, loggie, and various kinds of cornices, all so well executed
that it seemed that they were not counterfeited, but absolutely real,
and that the piazza was not a little thing, and merely painted, but real
and very large. He designed, also, the chandeliers and the lights within
that illuminated the scene, and all the other things that were
necessary, with much judgment, although, as has been related, the drama
had fallen almost completely out of fashion. This kind of spectacle, in
my belief, when it has all its accessories, surpasses any other kind,
however sumptuous and magnificent.

Afterwards, at the election of Pope Clement VII in the year 1524, he
prepared the festivities for his coronation. He finished with
peperino-stone the front of the principal chapel, formerly begun by
Bramante, in S. Pietro; and in the chapel wherein is the bronze tomb of
Pope Sixtus, he painted in chiaroscuro the Apostles that are in the
niches behind the altar, besides making the design of the Tabernacle of
the Sacrament, which is very graceful.

Then in the year 1527, when the cruel sack of Rome took place, our poor
Baldassarre was taken prisoner by the Spaniards, and not only lost all
his possessions, but was also much maltreated and outraged, because he
was grave, noble, and gracious of aspect, and they believed him to be
some great prelate in disguise, or some other man able to pay a fat
ransom. Finally, however, those impious barbarians having found that he
was a painter, one of them, who had borne a great affection to Bourbon,
caused him to make a portrait of that most rascally captain, the enemy
of God and man, either letting Baldassarre see him as he lay dead, or
giving him his likeness in some other way, with drawings or with words.
After this, having slipped from their hands, Baldassarre took ship to go
to Porto Ercole, and thence to Siena; but on the way he was robbed of
everything and stripped to such purpose, that