Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/260

252 which belonged to the Medici family, in the grounds of that villa.

Bandinelli remained at Lucca until the Emperor Charles V. came to Bologna to be crowned, when he caused himself to be admitted to the presence of the Pope, whom he then accompanied to Rome, and there received, as usual, the apartments which he had previously occupied in the Belvedere. While Baccio was thus residing in the palace, his Holiness bethought him of a vow which he had made, while shut up in the castle of Sant’ Angelo, and resolved that it should now be fulfilled. This vow was to place a group of seven large figures in bronze, each six braccia high, on the summit of the round marble tower which is opposite to the bridge of the castle, the whole six represented as cast at the feet of an angel, whom the Pontiff proposed to have erected in the centre of the tower on a column of vari-coloured marble, the figure to be in bronze, with a sword in its hand. By this figure of the angel, Pope Clement proposed to indicate the archangel Michael, the protector and guardian of the castle, by whose favour and assistance it was that he had been liberated and withdrawn from that prison; and by the seven recumbent figures cast down before him, he meant to signify the seven mortal sins, and proposing furthermore to intimate thereby, that with the aid of the conquering Angel, he had overcome and cast to earth the wicked and impious men who were his enemies.

For that work his Holiness now caused a model to be made; and this having pleased him, he commanded that Baccio should begin to execute the figures in terra, and of the colossal size which they were finally to exhibit, intending that they should afterwards be cast in bronze. Bandinelli commenced his labours accordingly, and in one of those rooms at the Belvedere, he completed one of the figures in terra; a work which was very highly applauded. At the same time, partly by way of amusing himself, and partly to try what success he was likely to have in the bronze castings, Baccio executed numerous small figures, two thirds of a braccia high, and in full relief; among these were several statues of Hercules, with many besides of Venus, Apollo, Leda, and others, according to his fancy, all which he caused to be