act, and this was Carpi, of whom I shall now proceed to treat. It is uncertain whether the proper title of Girolamo be da Carpi, as stated by Vasari, or de' Carpi, as is supposed by Superbi; questions wholly frivolous, inasmuch as his friend Vasari did not call him a native of Carpi, but of Ferrara; and Giraldi, in the edition of his _Orbecche_ and of his _Egle_, premised that the painter of the scene was Mes. Girolamo Carpi, from Ferrara. And in this city he was instructed by Garofolo, whose young attendant, in the parchment before cited, he is said to have been in 1520. He afterwards went to Bologna, where he was a good deal employed in portrait painting; until happening to meet with a small picture by Coreggio, he became attached to that style, copying every piece he could meet with, both at Modena and Parma, by the same hand. From Vasari's account we are to conclude that he was never acquainted with Coreggio, Raffaello, and Parmigianino, whatever other writers may have said. It is true he imitated them; and from the latter, more particularly, he derived those very gracefully clasped and fringed garments; and those airs of heads, which, however, appear rather more solid and less attractive. On removing to Bologna, in addition to what he conducted in company with Pupini, he singly executed a Madonna with S. Rocco and other saints, for S. Salvatore; and an Epiphany, with smaller figures, full of grace, and partaking of the best Roman and Lombard manner, for the church of S. Martino. Returning at length to Ferrara, he conducted, along with his master, several pictures in fresco, particularly in the ducal Palazzina, and in the church of the Olivetani, where Baruffaldi clearly recognised his style, invariably more loaded with shadow than that of Benvenuto. In 1534 he himself represented, in a loggia of the ducal palace of Copario, the sixteen princes of Este; twelve of whom with the title of marquis, the rest as dukes, had swayed the sceptre of Ferrara. The last was Ercole II., who committed that work to Girolamo, honourable to him for the animation and propriety of the portraits, for the decoration of the termini, of the landscape, and of the perspective, with which he adorned that loggia. Titian himself had raised Carpi in that prince's consideration; not at the time when he came to Ferrara to continue the work of Bellini, since Girolamo was then only a child, but when he returned at another period; and this I mention in order to correct one of Vasari's mistaken dates.