mmission for a statue of marble six braccia high, which was to be a
Neptune in the likeness of Prince Doria, to be set up on the Piazza in
memory of the virtues of that Prince and of the extraordinary benefits
that his native country of Genoa had received from him. This statue
was allotted to Baccio at the price of a thousand florins, of which he
received five hundred at that time; and he went straightway to Carrara
to block it out at the quarry of Polvaccio.

While the popular government was ruling Florence, after the departure
of the Medici, Michelagnolo Buonarroti was employed on the
fortifications of the city; and there was shown to him the marble that
Baccio had blocked out, together with the model of the Hercules and
Cacus, the intention being that if the marble had not been cut away
too much Michelagnolo should take it and carve from it two figures
after his own design. Michelagnolo, having examined the block, thought
of a different subject; and, abandoning the Hercules and Cacus, he
chose the subject of Samson holding beneath him two Philistines whom
he had cast down, one being already dead, and the other still alive,
against whom he was aiming a blow with the jawbone of an ass, seeking
to kill him. But even as it often happens that the minds of men
promise themselves at times certain things the opposite of which is
determined by the wisdom of God, so it came to pass then, for, war
having arisen against the city of Florence, Michelagnolo had other
things to think about than polishing marble, and was obliged from fear
of the citizens to withdraw from the city. Afterwards, the war being
finished and peace made, Pope Clement caused Michelagnolo to return to
Florence in order to finish the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, and sent
Baccio to see to the completion of the giant. Baccio, while engaged in
this, took up his abode in the Palace of the Medici; and, writing
almost every week to his Holiness in order to make a show of devotion,
he entered, besides dealing with matters of art, into particulars
relating to the citizens and those who were administering the
government, with an odious officiousness likely to bring upon him even
more ill-will than he had awakened before. Whereupon, when Duke
Alessandro returned from the Court of his Majesty to Florence, the
citizens made known to him the sinister policy that Baccio was
pursuing against them; from which it followed that his work of the
giant was hindered and retarded by the