n her study, in which
she had a vast number of very beautiful coins, pictures, works in
marble, and castings.

After completing his work for Visconti, Giovan Francesco, being invited
by Guglielmo, Marquis of Montferrat, went willingly to serve him, as
Visconti straitly besought him to do. On his arrival, a fine provision
was assigned to him; and, setting to work, he painted for that noble at
Casale, in a chapel where he heard Mass, as many pictures as were
necessary to fill it and adorn it on every side, with subjects from the
Old Testament and the New, which were executed by him with supreme
diligence, as was also the chief altar-piece. He then executed many
works throughout the apartments of that Castle, which brought him very
great fame. And in S. Domenico, by order of that Marquis, he painted the
whole of the principal chapel for the adornment of the tomb wherein he
was to be laid to rest; in which work Giovan Francesco acquitted himself
so well, that he was rightly rewarded with honourable gifts by the
liberality of his patron, who also favoured him by making him one of his
own chamberlains, as may be seen from an instrument that is in the
possession of his heirs at Verona. He made portraits of that lord and of
his wife, with many pictures that they sent to France, and also the
portrait of Guglielmo, their eldest child, who was then a boy, and
likewise portraits of their daughters and of all the ladies who were in
the service of the Marchioness.

On the death of the Marquis Guglielmo, Giovan Francesco departed from
Casale, after first selling all the property that he had in those parts,
and made his way to Verona, where he so arranged his affairs and those
of his son, to whom he gave a wife, that in a short time he found
himself in possession of more than seven thousand ducats. But he did not
therefore abandon his painting; indeed, having a quiet mind, and not
being obliged to rack his brain for a livelihood, he gave more attention
to it than ever. It is true that either from envy or for some other
reason he was accused of being a painter who could do nothing but little
figures; wherefore, in executing the altar-piece of the Chapel of the
Madonna in S. Fermo, a convent of Friars of S. Francis, wishing to show
that the accusation was a calumny, he painted the figures larger than
life, and so well, that they were the best that he had ever done. In the
air is Our Lady seated in the lap of S. Anne, with some Angels st