“ He stayed fifteen months with Giovanni Baldini in Rome, acquiring a solid style of draughtsmanship, and was two years with Lorenzo Costa at Mantua. He then entered the service of the marquis Francesco Gonzaga. Afterwards he went to Ferrara, and worked there four years. Attracted by Raphael’s fame, and invited by a Ferrarese gentleman, Geronimo Sagrato, he again removed to Rome, and found the great painter very amicable; here he stayed two years, rendering some assistance in the Vatican frescoes. From Rome family affairs recalled him to Ferrara ”

“ A certain archaism of style, with a strong glow of colour, suffices to distinguish from the true method of Raphael even those pictures in which he most closely resembles the great master—this sometimes very closely ”