ve braccia in height and three in breadth, from which Vinci, who had
once seen some sketches by Michelagnolo of Samson slaying a Philistine
with the jawbone of an ass, proposed to make two figures of five
braccia from his own fancy, after that subject. Whereupon, while the
marble was on its way, he set himself to make several models, all
varying one from another, and then fixed on one of them; and after the
block had arrived he began to carve it, and carried it well on,
imitating Michelagnolo in cutting his conception and design little
by little out of the stone, without spoiling it or making any sort of
error. He executed all the perforation in this work, whether undercut
or at an easy angle, with great facility, laborious as it was, and the
manner of the whole work was very delicate. But since the labour was
very fatiguing, he sought to distract himself with other studies and
works of less importance; and thus he executed during the same time a
little tablet of marble in low-relief, in which he represented Our
Lady with Christ, S. John, and S. Elizabeth, which was held, as it
still is, to be a rare work. This came into the hands of the most
illustrious Duchess, and it is now among the choice things in the
study of the Duke.

He then set his hand to a scene of marble, one braccio high and one
and a half wide, partly in half-relief and partly in low-relief, in
which he represented the restoration of Pisa by the Duke, who is in
the work present in person at the restoration of that city, which is
being pressed forward by his presence. Round the Duke are figures of
his virtues; in particular a Minerva representing his wisdom and also
the arts revived by him in that city of Pisa, who is surrounded by
many evils and natural defects of the site, which besiege her on every
side, and afflict her in the manner of enemies; but from all these
that city has since been delivered by the above-mentioned virtues of
the Duke. All these virtues round the Duke, with all the evils round
Pisa, were portrayed by Vinci in his scene with most beautiful
gestures and attitudes; but he left it unfinished, to the great regret
of those who saw it, on account of the perfection of the things in it
that were completed.

The fame of Vinci having grown and spread abroad by reason of these
works, the heirs of Messer Baldassarre Turini da Pescia besought him
that he should make a model of a marble tomb for Messer Baldassarre;
which finished, it pleased