ged to him. Now it happened that Giorgio Vasari had to go to
Rome with the Cardinal, the son of the Duke, when he went to receive
his hat, and Ammanati gave to Vasari a little model of wax showing the
shape in which he desired to carve that figure from the marble, and a
piece of wood reproducing the exact proportions--the length, breadth,
thickness, and inclination from the straight--of the marble, to the
end that Giorgio might show them in Rome to Michelagnolo Buonarroti
and persuade him to declare his opinion in the matter, and so move the
Duke to give him the marble. All this Giorgio did most willingly, and
it was the reason that the Duke gave orders that an arch should be
partitioned off in the Loggia of the Piazza, and that Ammanati should
make a great model as large as the giant was to be. Having heard this.
Benvenuto rode in a great fury to Pisa, where the Duke was, and said
to him that he could not suffer that his genius should be trampled
underfoot by one who was inferior to himself, and that he desired to
make a great model in competition with Ammanati, in the same place;
and the Duke, wishing to pacify him, granted him leave to have another
arch of the Loggia partitioned off, and caused to be given to him
materials for making, as he desired, a large model in competition with
Ammanati.

While these masters were engaged in making their models, after having
made fast their enclosures in such a manner that neither the one nor
the other could see what his rival was doing, although these
enclosures were attached to each other, there rose up the Flemish
sculptor Maestro Giovan Bologna, a young man not inferior in ability
or in spirit to either of the others. This master, being in the
service of the Lord Don Francesco, Prince of Florence, asked his
Excellency to enable him to make a giant which might serve as a model,
of the same size as the marble; and the Prince granted him this
favour. Maestro Giovan Bologna had as yet no thought of having the
giant to execute in marble, but he wished at least to display his
ability and to make himself known for what he was worth; and, having
received permission from the Prince, he, also, began a model in the
Convent of S. Croce. Nor was Vincenzio Danti, the sculptor of Perugia,
a younger man than any of the others, willing to fail to compete with
these three masters, not in the hope of obtaining the marble, but in
order to demonstrate his spirit and genius. And so, having set to