, besides praising the
work, showed him many other favours. This was in the year 1512, when
they had returned to their house and their government. At this same time
there were being executed in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore
certain Apostles of marble, which were to be set up within the marble
tabernacles in those very places in that church where there are the
Apostles painted by the painter Lorenzo di Bicci. At the instance of the
Magnificent Giuliano there was allotted to Baccio a S. Peter, four
braccia and a half in height, which after a long time he brought to
completion; and, although it has not the highest perfection of
sculpture, nevertheless good design may be seen in it. This Apostle
remained in the Office of Works from the year 1513 down to 1565, in
which year Duke Cosimo, in honour of the marriage of Queen Joanna of
Austria, his daughter-in-law, was pleased to have the interior of S.
Maria del Fiore whitewashed, which church had never been touched from
the time of its erection down to that day, and to have four Apostles set
up in their places, among which was the S. Peter mentioned above.

Now in the year 1515, Pope Leo X passing through Florence on his way
to Bologna, the city, in order to do him honour, ordained, among many
other ornaments and festive preparations, that there should be made a
colossal figure of nine braccia and a half, which was to be placed
under an arch of the Loggia in the Piazza near the Palace; and this
was given to Baccio. This colossal figure was a Hercules, and from the
premature words of Baccio men expected that it would surpass the David
of Buonarroti, which stood there near it; but the act did not
correspond to the word, nor the work to the boast, and it robbed
Baccio of much of the estimation in which he had previously been held
by the craftsmen and by the whole city.

Pope Leo had allotted the work of the ornamentation in marble that
surrounds the Chamber of Our Lady at Loreto, with the statues and
scenes, to Maestro Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino, who had already
executed some of these with great credit to himself, and was then
engaged on others. Now at this time Baccio took to Rome, for the Pope,
a very beautiful model of a nude David who was holding Goliath under
him and was cutting off his head; which model he intended to execute
in bronze or in marble for that very spot in the court of the house of
the Medici in Florence where there once stood the David of