at the same time to get forward with and complete the work.
But as Baccio had meanwhile received all the money for the whole undertaking, he now entered into negotiations with Messer Giovan Battista da Ricasoli, Bishop of Cortona,[1] who wras then in Rome on affairs committed to his care by Duke Cosimo, to leave Rome and go to Florence, where he washed to be received into the service of Duke Cosimo, whom he would fain have employ him for the fountains of his villa at Castello, and for the tomb of his father the Signor Giovanni.[2] To this the Duke replying that Baccio might come, the sculptor set off at once to Florence without saying a word of his intention, leaving the monuments unfinished, and the two statues in the hands of two assistants.[3] Finding what was done, the Cardinals then gave commissions for those figures to two sculptors then in Rome, confiding that of Leo to Raffaello da Montelupo, and that of Clement to Giovanni di Baccio; they commanded, furthermore, that such hewn stone and other parts of the work as were ready should be put together and the monuments erected; but the statues and stories were in many parts not complete and left unpolished, insomuch that they brought Baccio more censure than fame.[4]
Arrived in Florence, Baccio found that the sculptor Tribolo had been despatched to Carrara to procure the marbles required for the fountains of Castello, as well as for the sepulchral monument of the Signor Giovanni; but he gave himself no rest until he had prevailed on the Duke to take these works from the hands of Tribolo, declaring to his Excellency that there were marbles enough already in Florence for the greater part of those undertakings; and thus by degrees he contrived to render himself so acceptable to the Duke, and so completely to obtain his confidence, that this circumstance and the haughtiness he displayed, caused every
- ↑ Ricasoli, called here the Bishop of Cortona, is, in the Life of Tribolo, called Bishop of Pistoja, as he was, until translated to the first-named see in the year 1560.
- ↑ Giovanni d'invitto, Commander of the Bande Nere.
- ↑ For various details respecting the execution of these monuments, see Gaye, Carteggio inedito.
- ↑ The monuments are still to be seen in the choir of the Church of the Minerva in Rome.
