at he should do better in them. But
Baccio, having already drawn all the money, entered into negotiations
with Messer Giovan Battista da Ricasoli, Bishop of Cortona, who was in
Rome on business of Duke Cosimo's, to depart from Rome and go to
Florence in order to serve Cosimo in the matter of the fountains of
his villa of Castello and the tomb of his father, Signor Giovanni.
The Duke having answered that Baccio should come, he set off for
Florence without a word, leaving the work of the tombs unfinished and
the statues in the hands of two assistants. The Cardinals, hearing of
this, allotted those two statues of the Popes, which still remained to
be finished, to two sculptors, one of whom was Raffaello da Montelupo,
who received the statue of Pope Leo, and the other Giovanni di Baccio,
to whom was given the statue of Clement. They then gave orders that
the masonry and all that was prepared should be put together, and the
work was erected; but the statues and scenes were in many parts
neither pumiced nor polished, so that they brought Baccio more
discredit than fame.

Arriving in Florence, Baccio found that the Duke had sent the sculptor
Tribolo to Carrara to quarry the marble for the fountains of Castello
and the tomb of Signor Giovanni; and he so wrought upon the Duke that
he wrested the tomb of Signor Giovanni from the hands of Tribolo,
demonstrating to his Excellency that the marbles for such a work were
already in great measure in Florence. Thus, little by little, he
penetrated into the confidence of the Duke, insomuch that both for
this reason and for his arrogance everyone was afraid of him. He then
proposed to the Duke that the tomb of Signor Giovanni should be
erected in the Chapel of the Neroni, a narrow, confined, and mean
place, in S. Lorenzo, being too ignorant or not wishing to suggest
that for so great a Prince it was proper that a new chapel should be
built on purpose. He also prevailed on the Duke to demand from
Michelagnolo, on Baccio's behalf, many pieces of marble that he had in
Florence; and when the Duke had obtained them from Michelagnolo, and
Baccio from the Duke, among those marbles being some blocked out
figures and a statue carried well on towards completion by
Michelagnolo, Bandinelli, taking them all over, hacked and broke to
pieces everything that he could find, thinking that by so doing he was
avenging himself on Michelagnolo and causing him displeasure. He
found, moreover, in the same room