altar-piece at Faenza in all its parts, and that of S. Michele in Bosco; to say nothing of his Madonnas and his Holy Families, interspersed throughout the Bolognese collections, and in the adjacent cities. He is preferred to Francia and to Bagnacavallo, in all that relates to erudition, majesty, and correctness. I am not aware that he executed compositions very new, or subjects requiring fire and vigour, nor would they have been consistent with his genius, which is described as of a gentle and tranquil cast. The fame of the two masters, just celebrated, did not then extend far beyond their native districts, being eclipsed by the celebrity of many contemporaries, who swayed the regions of the art; in the list of whom was Giulio Romano. His reputation drew to Mantua Francesco Primaticcio, instructed in design by Innocenzio, and by Bagnacavallo in colouring. Under Giulio he afterwards became a painter on a great scale, and a very copious composer of large histories, as well as a decorator in wood and stucco in a magnificent style suitable only for a palace. In this way, having studied six years in Mantua, he was sent by Giulio to the court of the French king Francis, and there, though Rosso the Florentine had arrived a year before, and executed a variety of works, yet we learn that "the first stuccos and the first works in fresco of any consideration in France, took their rise from Primaticcio," in the words of Vasari. Nor has he omitted to mention, that the king bestowed upon this artist the abbey of St. Martin, though he did not add that it brought him an annual income of eight thousand crowns, while Rosso possessed only a canonship worth one thousand. In regard to this last omission he is severely taxed with malice by Malvasia, with what reason the reader will best judge for himself. We farther learn from Vasari that this artist employed himself, as well as his young assistants, in decorating a number of the halls and chambers at Fontainebleau, that he supplied the court with many ancient marbles, and many moulds of excellent sculpture, from which he had casts afterwards taken in bronze; in a word, that he was like another Giulio, if not in architecture, at least in every other kind of knowledge appertaining to the arts. The works conducted by him in France have been described by Felibien, and from the same pen is that appropriate eulogy--"that the geniuses of France are indebted to Primaticcio and to M. Niccolo, (dell'Abate) for many exquisite productions, and that they are entitled to the fame of having been the first who introduced Roman taste into France, with all the beau ideal of ancient painting and sculpture." At the Te of Mantua there remains the frieze of stuccos, so highly commended by Vasari, from Primaticcio's own hand, as well as a few pictures, which last, however, are not so assuredly his. His pictures indeed are objects of the utmost rarity in Italy, and in Bologna itself.