ed by Cardinal Cibo and Duke
Alessandro, he went there, and, working with some assistants,
proceeded to carry the statue forward. The Prince had himself informed
every day as to how much Baccio was doing; wherefore, receiving a
report that the statue was not of that excellence which had been
promised, he gave Baccio to understand that, if he did not serve him
well, he would make him smart for it. Baccio, hearing this, spoke very
ill of the Prince; which having come to the Prince's ears, he
determined to get him into his hands at all costs, and to take
vengeance upon him by putting him in wholesome fear of the galleys.
Whereupon Baccio, seeing certain persons spying and keeping a watch
upon him, became suspicious, and, being a shrewd and resolute man,
left the work as it was and returned to Florence.

About this time a son was born to Baccio from a woman whom he kept in
his house, and to this son, Pope Clement having died in those days, he
gave the name of Clemente, in memory of that Pontiff, who had always
loved and favoured him. After the death of Pope Clement, he heard that
Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, Cardinal Innocenzio Cibo, Cardinal
Giovanni Salviati, and Cardinal Niccolo Ridolfi, together with Messer
Baldassarre Turini da Pescia, being the executors of the Pope's will,
had commissions to give for the two marble tombs of Leo and Clement,
which were to be placed in the Minerva. For these tombs Baccio in the
past had already made the models; but the work had been promised
recently to the Ferrarese sculptor Alfonso Lombardi through the favour
of Cardinal de' Medici, whose servant he was. This Alfonso, by the
advice of Michelagnolo, had changed the design of the tombs, and he
had already made the models for them, but without any contract for the
commission, relying wholly on promises, and expecting every day to
have to go to Carrara to quarry the marble. While the time was
slipping away in this manner, it happened that Cardinal Ippolito died
of poison on his way to meet Charles V. Baccio, hearing this, went
without wasting any time to Rome, where he was first received by the
sister of Pope Leo, Madonna Lucrezia Salviati de' Medici, to whom he
strove to prove that no one could do greater honour to the remains of
those great Pontiffs than himself, with his ability in art, adding
that Alfonso was a sculptor without power of design and without skill
and judgment in the handling of marble, and that he was not able to
exe