ear the Condotta,
portraits from nature of three captains who had fled with the
pay-chests, depicted as hanging by one foot--Benvenuto, summoned by
the Pope, went to Rome to kiss the feet of his Holiness, and was
placed by him in charge of the Belvedere, with an honourable salary.
In that office, having often conversations with the Pope, Benvenuto,
when the occasion arose, did not fail to extol Tribolo as an excellent
sculptor and to recommend him warmly; insomuch that, the siege
finished, Clement made use of him. For, designing to give completion
to the Chapel of Our Lady at Loreto, which had been begun by Leo and
then abandoned on account of the death of Andrea Contucci of Monte
Sansovino, he ordained that Antonio da San Gallo, who had the charge
of executing that fabric, should summon Tribolo and set him to
complete some of those scenes that Maestro Andrea had left unfinished.
Tribolo, then, thus summoned by San Gallo by order of Clement, went
with all his family to Loreto, whither there likewise went Simone,
called Mosca, a very rare carver of marble, Raffaello da Montelupo,
Francesco da San Gallo the younger, Girolamo Ferrarese the sculptor, a
disciple of Maestro Andrea, Simone Cioli, Ranieri da Pietrasanta, and
Francesco del Tadda, all invited in order to finish that work. And to
Tribolo, in the distribution of the labours, there fell, as the work
of the greatest importance, a scene in which Maestro Andrea had
represented the Marriage of Our Lady.

Thereupon Tribolo made an addition to that scene, and had the notion
of placing among the many figures that are standing watching the
Marriage of the Virgin, one who in great fury is breaking his rod,
because it had not blossomed; and in this he succeeded so well, that
the suitor could not display with greater animation the rage that he
feels at not having had the good fortune that he desired. Which work
finished, and also that of the others, with great perfection, Tribolo
had already made many models of wax with a view to executing some of
those Prophets that were to go in the niches of that chapel, which was
now built and completely finished, when Pope Clement, after seeing
those works and praising them much, and particularly that of Tribolo,
determined that they should all return without loss of time to
Florence, in order to finish under the discipline of Michelagnolo
Buonarroti all those figures that were wanting in the sacristy and
library of S. Lorenzo, and the r