Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/213

Rh ture of great force, and has moreover a very graceful aspect; this bridge is, in short, an exceedingly beautiful work.

No long time before this was accomplished, the Duke formed the intention of erecting a sepulchral monument to the Signor Giovanni de’ Medici, his father; and being desirous that Tribolo should construct the same, that artist prepared a very beautiful model accordingly, in competition with Raffaello da Monte Lupo, who was favoured by Francesco di Sandro, Master of Arms to his Excellency, and had also made a model. But it was that of Tribolo which the Duke commanded to be put in execution, and the artist repaired to Carrara, for the purpose of having the marbles excavated; while there he also procured marble for the two basins of the fountains in the Loggie at Castello, with a table and many other pieces of marble.

Meanwhile Messer Giovan-Battista da Ricasoli, who is now Bishop of Pistoja, having gone to Borne for certain of the Duke’s affairs, was there sought out by Baccio Bandinelli, who, having just then completed the sepulchral monuments of Pope Leo X. and Pope Clement VII., which were erected in the church of the Minerva, requested Messer GiovanBattista to procure for him the favour of his Excellency the Duke; Messer Giovanni, therefore, wrote to the latter, informing him that Baccio Bandinelli desired to have an opportunity for entering his service; to which his Excellency wrote in reply that Messer Giovanni should bring Baccio with him: when, having arrived in Florence, Bandinelli was so importunate in his audacity with the Duke, and made so much display with his models and so many promises, that the tomb of the Signor Giovanni, which was to have been executed by Tribolo, was given to him instead. Baccio then took certain blocks of marble of Michelagnolo’s, which were in the Yia Mozza, broke them to pieces without any consideration, and forthwith commenced the work. On Tribolo’s return from Carrara he thus found that the monument had been taken from him because he was too yielding and too dilatory.

In the year when bonds of relationship were formed between the Signor Duke Cosimo and the Signor Don Pietro di Toledo, Marquis of Villa Franca, who was then Viceroy of