red by a vulture; and Giovanni engraved this beautifully on
crystal. And he did the same with another drawing by Buonarroti, in
which Phaethon, not being able to manage the chariot of the Sun, has
fallen into the Po, and his weeping sisters are transformed into trees.

Giovanni executed a portrait of Madama Margherita of Austria, daughter
of the Emperor Charles V, who had been the wife of Duke Alessandro de'
Medici, and was then the consort of Duke Ottavio Farnese; and this he
did in competition with Valerio Vicentino. For these works executed for
Cardinal Farnese, he received from that lord a reward in the form of the
office of Giannizzero, from which he drew a good sum of money; and, in
addition, he was so beloved by that Cardinal that he obtained a great
number of other favours from him, nor did the Cardinal ever pass through
Faenza, where Giovanni had built a most commodious house, without going
to take up his quarters with him. Having thus settled at Faenza, in
order to rest after a life of much labour in the world, Giovanni
remained there ever afterwards; and his first wife, by whom he had not
had children, being dead, he took a second. By her he had two sons and a
daughter; and with them he lived in contentment, being well provided
with landed property and other revenues, which yielded him more than
four hundred crowns, until he came to the age of sixty, when he rendered
up his soul to God on the day of Pentecost, in the year 1555.

Matteo dal Nassaro, who was born in Verona, and was the son of Jacopo
dal Nassaro, a shoemaker, gave much attention in his early childhood not
only to design, but also to music, in which he became excellent, having
had as his masters in that study Marco Carra and Il Tromboncino, both
Veronese, who were then in the service of the Marquis of Mantua. In
matters of intaglio he was much assisted by two Veronese of honourable
family, with whom he was continually associated. One of these was
Niccolo Avanzi, who, working privately in Rome, executed cameos,
cornelians, and other stones, which were taken to various Princes; and
there are persons who remember to have seen a lapis-lazuli by his hand,
three fingers in breadth, containing the Nativity of Christ, with many
figures, which was sold as a choice work to the Duchess of Urbino. The
other was Galeazzo Mondella, who, besides engraving gems, drew very
beautifully.

After Matteo had learned from these two masters all that they knew, it
chan