Giulio Romano’s frescoes in the Sala dei Giganti of the Palazzo Te have received

much attention from visitors and scholars at least since Charles V’s tours of the

building in 1530 – before they were begun, when he might have seen the

cartoons – and 1532 – while they were in progress, with essentially just the

ceiling complete – and Giorgio Vasari’s visit in 1541 – approximately five years

after their completion. Vasari, who had the privilege of visiting the room with the

artist – five years before Giulio’s death – provides invaluable information about

the pains Giulio took within the room to sustain their remarkable illusionism.

Certain assumptions about the way in which artists and architects are

presumed to collaborate have tended to structure the ways in which frescoes