Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/262

254 to leave the Hercules and Cacus, choosing instead the figure of Sampson holding two Philistines whom he has vanquished, beneath his feet. One of these is already dead, the other is still living, but Sampson is in the act of dealing him a blow with the jaw-bone of the ass, which cannot fail to cause his death.

But as it frequently happens that the human thought promises itself certain things, whereof the contrary has been determined by the wisdom of G-od, so did it happen now, for the war against Florence breaking out, Michelagnolo had to consider other matters besides polishing marbles, and was ultimately compelled to withdraw himself from the city; but when the war being at an end, peace was concluded, Pope Clement caused Michelagnolo to return to Florence, with orders to complete the Sacristy of San Lorenzo; his Holiness sent Baccio thither also, commanding him to take measures for bringing the colossal figure to conclusion.

Now while Baccio was busied with this work, he took up his abode in the apartments of the Medici palace, and to give himself the appearance of an extraordinary devotion to the Pope, he wrote every week to his Holiness; but not confining himself to details respecting art, he entered into particulars with relation to the citizens and the acts of those who administered the government, officiously supplying intelligence to the injury of many, and thereby awakening a more bitter hatred against himself than had even previously existed; insomuch that when the Duke Alessandro returned to Florence from the court of his Majesty, the treacherous proceedings of Baccio against them were made known by the citizens to the Duke, and the former likewise did all that they could, to retard and throw impediments in his way as regarded his work of the giant.

At this time and after the close of the war in Hungary, Pope Clement and the Emperor Charles V. held a conference in Bologna, when the Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici and the Duke Alessandro also repaired thither. Then Baccio likewise thought fit to go and kiss the feet of his Holiness: he took with him a work in mezzo-rilievo one braccio high and one and a half wide; the subject, Christ bound to the Column and scourged by two nude figures, and the execution exceedingly fine. This relief he presented to Pope Clement,