Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/288

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Baccio afterwards commenced the figure of the Dead Christ, but this also, not succeeding as he had expected, he left it unfinished after he had brought the work to a considerable degree of forwardness. He then took another piece of marble and began a second figure in a different attitude, nor did he give himself repose until he had completed the same, with the Angel who sustains the head of Christ with his knee, while he holds the arm of the Saviour in one hand. Arrangements were then made for placing that work on the altar, but the group was found to be so large in proportion to the space reserved for it, that no place remained for the priest to perform his ministrations, and although the statue of Christ was a very good one, nay, one of the best ever executed by Bandinelli, the people, priests as well as others, were never weary of speaking ill of it, and not unfrequently carried off pieces of the work.

Baccio well knew that the public display of an unfinished performance tends to injure the reputation of the artist in the judgment of all those who do not belong to his vocation or do not understand the subject, and have not seen the models thereof; he proceeded to complete the altar therefore, by the addition of a figure representing the Almighty Father, for which a most beautiful piece of marble had been brought from Carrara. This he had already brought to a forward state of advancement, making it partially nude, after the manner of the statues of Jupiter, when, finding that it did not please the Duke, and perceiving himself that there were certain defects in the work, he left it as it was in the house of the Wardens of works, where it still remains.

Bandinelli concerned himself but little with the strictures of the people, and was much more occupied with the effort to make himself rich and the increase of his possessions: he bought a beautiful estate called the Spinello, on the heights of Fiesole, and in the plain above San Salvi on the bank of the river Affrico, he purchased another, with a very handsome dwelling called the Cantone. He bought a large house in the Via de’ Ginori likewise, a purchase wherein he was assisted by the moneys and favours of the Duke.