as at the spirit with which he had set his hand to a work so
vast, and he so young and so small.

Baccio, indeed, having more love for sculpture than for goldsmith's
work, gave many proofs of this; and when he went to Pinzirimonte, a
villa bought by his father, he would often plant himself before the
naked labourers and draw them with great eagerness, and he did the
same with the cattle on the farm. At this time he continued for many
days to go in the morning to Prato, which was near the villa, where he
stayed the whole day drawing in the Chapel of the Pieve from the work
of Fra Filippo Lippi, and he did not cease until he had drawn it all,
imitating the draperies of that master, who did them very well. And
already he handled with great skill the style and the pen, and also
chalk both red and black, which last is a soft stone that comes from
the mountains of France, and with it, when cut to a point, drawings
can be executed with great delicacy.

These things making clear to Michelagnolo the mind and inclination of
his son, he also changed his intention, like the boy himself, and,
being likewise advised by his friends, placed him under the care of
Giovan Francesco Rustici, one of the best sculptors in the city, whose
workshop was still constantly frequented by Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo, seeing the drawings of Baccio and being pleased with them,
exhorted him to persevere and to take to working in relief; and he
recommended strongly to him the works of Donato, saying also that he
should execute something in marble, such as a head or a low-relief.
Baccio, encouraged by the comforting advice of Leonardo, set himself
to copy in marble an antique head of a woman, of which he had shaped a
model from one that is in the house of the Medici. This, for his first
work, he executed passing well, and it was held very dear by Andrea
Carnesecchi, who received it as a present from Baccio's father and
placed it in his house in the Via Larga, over that door in the centre
of the court which leads into the garden. Now, Baccio continuing to
make other models of figures in clay in the round, his father, wishing
not to fail in his duty towards the praiseworthy zeal of his son, sent
for some blocks of marble from Carrara, and caused to be built for
him, at the end of his house at Pinti, a room with lights arranged for
working, which looked out upon the Via Fiesolana. Whereupon he set
himself to block out various figures in those marbles, and