Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/258

250 Bandinelli found, on making his measurements, that neither the height nor the thickness of the block would permit the figures of the model which he had made to be executed. He therefore repaired to Rome, taking with him the measurements, and making it obvious to the Pope, that he was compelled by necessity to abandon his first design and substitute another. Having prepared several designs, therefore, one among them was found to please his Holiness more than all the rest, and that exhibited Hercules, who, having thrown Cacus to the ground, is holding him by the hair, and pressing him to the earth, thus keeping him at his feet in the manner of a captive; this, therefore, it was determined to commence and carry at once into execution.

Baccio, having then returned to Florence, found that Pietro Rosselli had brought the block of marble to the court of the works at Santa Maria del Fiore; and this he had done by means of large beams of walnut, which he had placed lengthwise beneath the mass, and changing them as the marble advanced, he brought those which had first been placed behind to the front, the block itself resting on cylindrical rollers adjusted carefully to the beams, and, being moved by three windlasses; by all which Pietro gradually brought the stone in safety to its destination. The marble thus made ready, Baccio prepared a model in clay, of equal size, and exactly according to that last mentioned, the one which he had previously made in Rome namely; he pursued his work with much diligence, and completed the same in a few months; but despite all his efforts, there were few artists to whom this appeared to present the animation and movement which the action required, and which Bandinelli had imparted to his first model. Commencing then to work in the marble, the artist brought forth the rough forms up to the middle of the figure, of which the lower limbs were made apparent, Baccio proposing ultimately to bring the figures to an exact similitude with those of the large clay model.

About the same time Bandinelli undertook to paint a picture of considerable size for the church of Cestello, and for this he prepared a very beautiful cartoon. The subject chosen was the Dead Christ surrounded by the Maries, with Nicodemus and other figures; but this picture was never painted, for certain reasons which shall be enumerated