Among the first works that Clovio coloured was a Madonna, which, as a man of ingenious and beautiful spirit, he copied from the book of the Life of the Virgin; which Madonna was printed in wood-engraving among the first sheets of Albrecht Dürer. Whereupon, having acquitted himself well in that his first work, he made his way by means of Signor Alberto da Carpi, who was then serving in Hungary, into the service of King Louis and of Queen Maria, the sister of Charles V; for which King he executed a Judgment of Paris in chiaroscuro, which much pleased him, and for the Queen the Roman Lucretia killing herself, with some other things, which were held to be very beautiful. The death of that King then ensuing, and the ruin of everything in Hungary, Giorgio Giulio was forced to return to Italy; where he had no sooner arrived than the old Cardinal Campeggio took him into his service. Thereupon, being settled to his liking, he executed a Madonna in miniature for that lord, and some other little things, and disposed himself to attend at all costs with greater study to the matters of art; and so he set himself to draw, and to seek with every effort to imitate the works of Michelagnolo. But this fine resolution was interrupted by the unhappy sack of Rome in the year 1527, when the poor man, finding himself the prisoner of the Spaniards and maltreated, in his great misery had recourse to divine assistance, making a vow that if he escaped safely from that miserable ruin and out of the hands of those new Pharisees, he would straightway become a friar. Wherefore, having escaped by the grace of God and made his way to Mantua, he became a monk in the Monastery of S. Ruffino, a seat of the Order of Canons Regular of Scopeto; having been promised, besides peace and quiet of mind and tranquil leisure in the service of God, that he would have facilities for attending at times, as it were by way of pastime, to the work of miniature. Having thus taken the habit and the name of Don Giulio, at the end of a year he made his profession; and then for a period of three years he stayed peacefully enough among those fathers, changing from one monastery to another according to his pleasure, as has been related elsewhere, and always working at something. During that time he completed a great choir-book with delicate illuminations and most beautiful borderings, making in it, among other things, a Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the form of a gardener, which was held to be a rare thing. Wherefore, growing in courage, he depicted--but in figures much larger--the Adulterous Woman accused by the Jews before Christ, with a good number of figures; all which he copied from a picture that had been executed in those days by Tiziano Vecelli, that most excellent painter.