Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/187

Rh to Rome, and having tnere learned to work admirably well in stucco, afterwards laboured with many others in the service of Giorgio Vasari, whom this Lionardo aided in the works then executing for the Palace of the Duke.

The return of Daniello to Rome, took place at the time when Pope Paul IV., offended by the nude figures in the Last Judgment of Michelagnolo, was on the point of having that work utterly destroyed; but being assured by certain of the Cardinals, and other men of judgment, that it would be a pity to deface them, he consented to their employing Daniello, who contrived to make a sort of slight covering for the figures, finishing that work under Pope Pius IV., when he likewise altered the figures of Santa Caterina and San Biagio, the defects of which, as to the particular now in question, were more especially conspicuous.

Meanwhile, the Statues for the Cardinal of Montepulciano were commenced, as was also that of San Michele, for the Great Gate; but Daniello did not proceed with the rapidity which he could and ought to have evinced, he being one whose mind was ever vacillating between project and project. At this time, Henry the King of Prance having been killed in a tournament, and Caterina de’ Medici having become Regent of that kingdom, the Signor Ruberto Strozzi came into Italy and to Rome, where he set himself to fulfil the desire of Caterina, for some befitting monument which she proposed to have erected in memory of her husband, and to that end she had commanded Ruberto to confer with Buonarroti. Arrived in Rome, therefore, Ruberto conversed long of that matter with Michelagnolo, who, being then old, could not take such an undertaking on himself, but counselled Strozzi to give the commission to Daniello, whom he promised to aid by his advice and assistance in all things connected with the work.

This last offer being greatly prized by Strozzi, the subject was deliberated maturely, and it was finally resolved that Daniello should cast a Bronze Horse, all in one piece, though the height was to be of twenty palms, and the length about forty: on this horse was then to be placed the figure of Henry, fully armed, and also of bronze. That determined, Daniello made a small model in clay, according to the suggestions and with the advice of Michelagnolo, when the group gave