Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/261

Rh cast in bronze by the Florentine, Maestro Jacopo della Barba, when they were found to succeed to admiration. These works he afterwards presented to his Holiness, and to different nobles; some of them are now in the study of Duke Cosimo, among works from the antique to the number of more than a hundred, and all of great beauty: some others there are besides of modern workmanship.

About this time Baccio had executed a story in basso and mezzo-rilievo, the subject a Deposition from the Cross, and the figures small; this work was one of extraordinary merit, and having caused it to be cast in bronze with great care, Baccio presented it when finished to the Emperor Charles V., who was then in Genoa. The gift was highly acceptable to his Majesty, who gave proof of his satisfaction by presenting Bandinelli with a Commandery of St. James, and conferred on him the honour of Knighthood. He received many courtesies from Prince Doria also, and the republic of Genoa commissioned him to execute a marble statue six braccia high, representing Neptune, but exhibiting the portrait of Prince Doria himself, and this was to be placed on the piazza as a memorial of the excellencies of that Prince, and in commemoration of the many important benefits which his country had received at his hands. The price to be paid to Baccio for this statue was a thousand florins, of which he at once received five hundred, when he departed instantly to Carrara for the purpose of having the marble hewn from the quarry of Polvaccio, and of roughly sketching his work on the spot.

After the departure of the Medici from Florence, and while the popular government was in power, Michelagnolo was occupied with the fortifications of the city, and he was then shown the piece of marble which Baccio had diminished for his Hercules and Cacus, together with the model made by Bandinelli, and this was done with the intention that, if this block of marble were not found to have been too much lessened, Michelagnolo should take it for the execution of two figures of his own invention. The master therefore examined the stone, and adopting another subject, determined