ve it, and Francesco was not rewarded for it, as he certainly would
have been. This picture, having afterwards fallen into the hands of
Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, was presented by him to the Cardinal of
Mantua; and it is now in the guardaroba of the Duke of that city, with
many other most noble and beautiful pictures.

After having been so many years out of his native place, as we have
related, during which he had gained much experience in art, without
accumulating any store of riches, but only of friends, Francesco, in
order to satisfy his many friends and relatives, finally returned to
Parma. Arriving there, he was straightway commissioned to paint in
fresco a vault of some size in the Church of S. Maria della Steccata;
but since in front of that vault there was a flat arch which followed
the curve of the vaulting, making a sort of facade, he set to work first
on the arch, as being the easier, and painted therein six very beautiful
figures, two in colour and four in chiaroscuro. Between one figure and
another he made some most beautiful ornaments, surrounding certain
rosettes in relief, which he took it into his head to execute by himself
in copper, taking extraordinary pains over them.

At this same time he painted for the Chevalier Baiardo, a gentleman of
Parma and his intimate friend, a picture of a Cupid, who is fashioning
a bow with his own hand, and at his feet are seated two little boys,
one of whom catches the other by the arm and laughingly urges him to
touch Cupid with his finger, but he will not touch him, and shows by his
tears that he is afraid of burning himself at the fire of Love. This
picture, which is charming in colour, ingenious in invention, and
executed in that graceful manner of Francesco's that has been much
studied and imitated, as it still is, by craftsmen and by all who
delight in art, is now in the study of Signor Marc' Antonio Cavalca,
heir to the Chevalier Baiardo, together with many drawings of every kind
by the hand of the same master, all most beautiful and highly finished,
which he has collected. Even such are the many drawings, also by the
hand of Francesco, that are in our book; and particularly that of the
Beheading of S. Peter and S. Paul, of which, as has been related, he
published copper-plate engravings and woodcuts, while living in Bologna.
For the Church of S. Maria de' Servi he painted a panel-picture of Our
Lady with the Child asleep in her arms, and on one side some Ang