The most flourishing epoch of the Ferrarese School dates its commencement from the first decades of the sixteenth century. It traces its source to two brothers named Dossi, and to Benvenuto da Garofolo, or, more correctly perhaps, to Duke Alfonso d'Este, who employed them in his service, so as to retain them in their native place, where they might form pupils worthy of themselves. This prince, whose memory has been embalmed by so many distinguished poets, was peculiarly attached to the fine arts. In his court Titian painted, and Ariosto conferred with him upon the subjects of his pencil, as we learn from Ridolfi in the life of Titian himself. This was subsequent to the year 1514, when Gian Bellini, already old, left in an unfinished state his noble work of the Bacchanals, which has long decorated the Aldobrandini gallery at Rome; and when Titian was called upon to complete it. He likewise conducted various paintings in fresco, which still remain in a small chamber, in the palace of Ferrara; besides others in oil, such as portraits of the duke and duchess, and his celebrated Cristo della Moneta, which we have extolled for one of his most studied productions. Pellegrino da S. Danielle, another pupil of Gian Bellini, but not to compare with Titian, though not inferior to many of the same school, was retained and honoured by the same court, where he left a few works,[58] of which there remains no account, or confounded, perhaps, with those of Dosso, an artist of much celebrity, and of various styles, at the same court, as we now proceed to shew. Footnote 58: See Renaldis, p. 20.