anding
upon clouds, and beneath are S. Peter, S. John the Baptist, S. Rocco,
and S. Sebastian; and not far away, in a most beautiful landscape, is S.
Francis receiving the Stigmata. This work, indeed, is held by craftsmen
to be not otherwise than good.

[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. ANNE AND SAINTS

(_After the painting by =Giovan Francesco Caroto=. Verona: S. Fermo
Maggiore_)

_Alinari_]

For the Chapel of the Cross in S. Bernardino, a seat of the Frati
Zoccolanti, he painted Christ kneeling on one knee and taking leave of
His Mother. In this work, stirred to emulation by the many notable
pictures by the hands of other masters that are in that place, he strove
to surpass them all; wherefore, in truth, he acquitted himself very
well, and was praised by all who saw it, save only by the Guardian of
that convent, who, like the boorish and solemn fool that he was,
reproved Giovan Francesco with biting words, saying that he had made
Christ show such little reverence to His Mother as to kneel only upon
one knee. To which Giovan Francesco answered by saying: "Father, first
do me the favour of kneeling down and rising up again, and I will then
tell you for what reason I have painted Christ so." The Guardian, after
much persuasion, knelt down, placing on the ground first his right knee
and then his left; and in rising up he raised first the left and then
the right. Which done, Giovan Francesco said: "Did you observe, Father
Guardian, that you neither knelt down nor rose up with both knees
together? I tell you, therefore, that this Christ of mine is right,
because one might say that He is either coming to His knees before His
Mother, or beginning, after having knelt a while, to raise one leg in
order to rise." At which the Guardian had to appear a little appeased,
although he went off muttering under his breath.

Giovan Francesco was very sharp in his answers; and it is also related
of him that once, being told by a priest that his figures were too
seductive for altar-pieces, he replied: "A lusty fellow you must be, if
painted figures so move you. Think how much you are to be trusted in
places where there are living people for you to touch." At Isola, a
place on the Lake of Garda, he painted two panel-pictures for the Church
of the Zoccolanti; and at Malsessino, a township above that same lake,
he painted a very beautiful Madonna over the door of a church, and some
Saints within the church, at the request of Frac