rlains, Esquires, and Grooms of the
Chamber are seated in due order in their places, as is the custom in
the chapel, all in their robes and portrayed from life, among them
being Giannozzo Pandolfini, Bishop of Troia, a close friend of
Raffaello, with many others who were distinguished at that time.
Near the King is a little boy kneeling, who is holding the royal
crown--a portrait of Ippolito de' Medici, who afterwards became
Cardinal and Vice-Chancellor, a man of great repute, and much the
friend not only of this art, but of all others, to whose blessed
memory I acknowledge a vast obligation, seeing that my first steps,
such as they were, were taken under his auspices.

It is not possible to write of every detail in the works of this
craftsman, wherein every least thing, although dumb, appears to have
speech: save only of the bases executed below these pictures, with
various figures of defenders and benefactors of the Church, and
various terminal figures on either side of them, the whole being
wrought in such a manner that everything reveals spirit, feeling,
and thought, and with such a harmony and unity of colouring that
nothing better can be conceived. And since the ceiling of that
apartment had been painted by Pietro Perugino, his master, Raffaello
would not destroy it, moved by respect for his memory and by the
love that he bore to the man who had been the origin of the rank
that he held in his art.

Such was the greatness of this master, that he kept designers all
over Italy, at Pozzuolo, and even in Greece; and he was for ever
searching out everything of the good that might help his art.

Now, continuing his work, he also painted a hall, wherein were some
figures of the Apostles and other saints in tabernacles, executed in
terretta; and there he caused to be made by Giovanni da Udine, his
disciple, who has no equal in the painting of animals, all the
animals that Pope Leo possessed, such as the chameleon, the
civet-cats, the apes, the parrots, the lions, the elephants, and
other beasts even more strange. And besides embellishing the Palace
greatly with grotesques and varied pavements, he also gave the
designs for the Papal staircases, as well as for the loggie begun by
the architect Bramante, but left unfinished on account of his death,
and afterwards carried out with the new design and architecture of
Raffaello, who made for this a model of wood with better proportion
and adornment than had been accomplished