Mantua, Ducal Palace, Gallery of the Months:
the Fourth Vault from East

The fourth sector of the vault (starting from the western extremity) houses a central roundel, of which the days of execution of the fresco are clearly visible, with the image of four putti in foreshortening, engaged in playing some musical instruments: two percussion  including the tambourine, and a flute-like aerophone. In the north lunette there are frescoes of two putti perhaps engaged in a game (both raising their arms), while the south lunette, heavily damaged, depicts two putti, the first of which is probably in the act of running away from the second, again in a context of play. The stucco relief towards the north represents figures indoors: a couple, perhaps a man and a woman, kneeled in front of a seated man, who places his hand on the head of the nearest figure. The relief facing south again shows men in front of a seated figure, perhaps the same general or leader depicted in the first stucco, in front of the same curtain. The two reliefs are in a poor state of conservation but, like those visible in the sectors of the part added to the original loggia, they distinguish themselves from Giulio Romano's stuccos by particularly slender and elongated figures.