ves no little praise for the many
stones worked with the bevel-square, which slant away obliquely by
reason of the hall being awry; and as for diligence and excellence in
the working, laying, and joining together of the stones, nothing
better could be seen or done. But the whole work would have succeeded
much better if Baccio, who never held architecture in any account, had
availed himself of some judgment more able than that of Giuliano, who,
although he was a good master in wood and had some knowledge of
architecture, was yet not the sort of man to be suitable for such a
work as that was, as experience has proved. For this reason the work
was pursued over a period of many years, without much more than half
being built. Baccio finished and placed in the smaller niches the
statue of Signor Giovanni and that of Duke Alessandro, both in the
principal facade, and on a pedestal of bricks in the great niche the
statue of Pope Clement; and he also brought to completion the statue
of Duke Cosimo. In the last he took no little pains with the head, but
for all this the Duke and the gentlemen of the Court said that it did
not resemble him in the least. Wherefore Baccio, having already made
one of marble, which is now in one of the upper apartments in the same
Palace, and which looked very well and was the best head that he ever
made, defended himself and sought to cover up the defects and
worthlessness of the new head with the excellence of the old. However,
hearing that head censured by everyone, one day in a rage he knocked
it off, with the intention of making another and fixing it in its
place; but in the end he never made it at all. It was a custom of
Baccio's to add pieces of marble both small and large to the statues
that he executed, feeling no annoyance in doing this, and making light
of it. He did this with one of the heads of Cerberus in the group of
Orpheus; in the S. Peter that is in S. Maria del Fiore he let in a
piece of drapery; in the case of the Giant of the Piazza, as may be
seen, he joined two pieces--a shoulder and a leg--to the Cacus, and
in many other works he did the same, holding to such ways as generally
damn a sculptor completely.

Having finished these statues, he set his hand to the statue of Pope
Leo for this work, and carried it well forward. Then, perceiving that
the work was proving very long, that he was now never likely to attain
to the completion of his original design for the facades right roun