in the Palace of S. Apostolo; and no long time after--namely, in the
year 1484--Innocent VIII, the Genoese, caused him to paint certain
halls and loggie in the Palace of the Belvedere, where, among other
things, by order of that Pope, he painted a loggia full of landscapes,
depicting therein Rome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Naples,
after the manner of the Flemings; and this, being a thing not
customary at that time, gave no little satisfaction. In the same
place, over the principal door of entrance, he painted a Madonna in
fresco. In S. Pietro, in the chapel that contains the Lance which
pierced the side of Christ, he painted a panel in distemper, with the
Madonna larger than life, for the said Innocent VIII; and he painted
two chapels in the Church of S. Maria del Popolo, one for the
aforesaid Domenico della Rovere, Cardinal of San Clemente, who was
afterwards buried therein, and the other for Cardinal Innocenzio Cibo,
wherein he also was afterwards buried; and in each of these chapels he
portrayed the Cardinal who had caused him to paint it. In the Palace
of the Pope he painted certain rooms that look out upon the courtyard
of S. Pietro, the ceilings and paintings of which were renovated a few
years ago by Pope Pius IV. In the same palace Alexander VI caused
Pinturicchio to paint all the rooms that he occupied, together with
the whole of the Borgia Tower, wherein he wrought stories of the
liberal arts in one room, besides decorating all the ceilings with
stucco and gold; but, since they did not then know the method of
stucco-work that is now in use, the aforesaid ornaments are for the
most part ruined. Over the door of an apartment in the said palace he
portrayed the Signora Giulia Farnese in the countenance of a Madonna,
and, in the same picture, the head of Pope Alexander in a figure that
is adoring her.

Bernardino was much given to making gilt ornaments in relief for his
pictures, to satisfy people who had little understanding of his art
with the more showy lustre that this gave them, which is a most
barbarous thing in painting. Having then executed a story of S.
Catherine in the said apartments, he depicted the arches of Rome in
relief and the figures in painting, insomuch that, the figures being
in the foreground and the buildings in the background, the things
that should recede stand out more prominently than those that should
strike the eye as the larger--a very grave heresy in our art.

[Illustra