meos in relief and gems in
intaglio in so beautiful a manner, as well as dies of steel in incavo,
and has used the burin with such supreme diligence and with such mastery
over the most delicate refinements of his art, that nothing better could
be imagined. Whoever wishes to be amazed by his miraculous powers,
should study a medal that he made for Pope Paul III, with his portrait
on one side, which has all the appearance of life, and on the reverse
Alexander the Great, who has thrown himself at the feet of the
High-Priest of Jerusalem, and is doing him homage--figures which are so
marvellous that it would not be possible to do anything better. And
Michelagnolo Buonarroti himself, looking at them in the presence of
Giorgio Vasari, said that the hour of death had come upon the art, for
nothing better could ever be seen. This Alessandro made the medal of
Pope Julius III for the holy year of 1550, with a reverse showing the
prisoners that were released in the days of the ancients at times of
jubilee, which was a rare and truly beautiful medal; with many other
dies and portraits for the Mint of Rome, which he kept busily employed
for many years. He executed portraits of Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of
Castro, and his son, Duke Ottavio; and he made a portrait of Cardinal
Farnese in a medal, a very choice work, the head being of gold and the
ground of silver. The same master engraved for Cardinal Farnese in
intaglio, on a cornelian larger than a giulio, a head of King Henry of
France, which has been considered in point of design, grace, excellence,
and perfection of finish, one of the best modern intagli that have ever
been seen. There may also be seen many other stones engraved by his
hand, in the form of cameos; truly perfect is a nude woman wrought with
great art, and another in which is a lion, and likewise one of a boy,
with many small ones, of which there is no need to speak; but that which
surpassed all the others was the head of the Athenian Phocion, which is
marvellous, and the most beautiful cameo that is to be seen.

A master who gives his attention to cameos at the present day is
Giovanni Antonio de' Rossi, an excellent craftsman of Milan, who, in
addition to the various beautiful works that he has engraved in relief
and in intaglio, has executed for the most illustrious Duke Cosimo de'
Medici a very large cameo, one-third of a braccio in height and the same
in width, in which he has cut two figures from the waist
upwar