Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/130

122 missal therefore, though with difficulty, he departed and returned to Florence, leaving behind him one who might complete such of his works as he had left unfinished.

It was in the year 1500 that Andrea returned to Florence, and he almost immediately commenced a group in marble representing San Giovanni in the act of baptizing the Saviour; this work was to have been placed over that door of the church of San Giovanni which looks towards the Misericordia, but the master did not finish it, because he was almost compelled to betake himself to Genoa. There he completed two statues in marble, representing Christ or San Giovanni, and the Madonna; these last are truly worthy of commendation; the two previously mentioned as remaining unfinished in Florence, are still there in the same condition, and may be seen in the building occupied by the “wardens of works in the cathedral.

Andrea was next invited to Rome by Pope Julius II. from whom he received a commission to execute two marble tombs in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, one for the cardinal Ascanio Sforza, the other for the cardinal of Recanati, a very near relation of the pope; these works were completed in so perfect a manner by the master that nothing better could be desired, they have the propriety, beauty, and grace of wellexecuted and carefully-finished works, exhibiting all the thoughtful consideration and just proportion of art. There is a figure of Temperance also, by the hand of Sansovino, in this place, which is extolled as one of divine beauty. She is holding an hour-glass, and has in truth not so much the appearance of a work executed in modern times as that of a most perfect specimen from the antique; other figures of the same