ncy wrote in reply that on his return he should bring him in
his company. And Bandinelli, having therefore arrived in Florence, so
haunted the Duke in his audacity, making promises and showing him
designs and models, that the tomb of the above-named Signor Giovanni,
which was to have been made by Tribolo, was allotted to him; and so,
taking some pieces of marble of Michelagnolo's, which were in the Via
Mozza in Florence, he hacked them about without scruple and began the
work. Wherefore Tribolo, on returning from Carrara, found that in
consequence of his being too leisurely and good-natured, the
commission had been taken away from him.

In the year when bonds of kinship were formed between the Lord Duke
Cosimo and the Lord Don Pedro di Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, at
that time Viceroy of Naples, the Lord Duke taking Don Pedro's
daughter, Signora Leonora, to wife, preparations were made in Florence
for the nuptials, and Tribolo was given the charge of constructing a
triumphal arch at the Porta al Prato, through which the bride, coming
from Poggio, was to enter; which arch he made a thing of beauty, very
ornate with columns, pilasters, architraves, great cornices, and
pediments. That arch was to be all covered with figures and scenes, in
addition to the statues by the hand of Tribolo; and all those
paintings were executed by Battista Franco of Venice, Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo, and Michele, his disciple. Now the principal figure that
Tribolo made for this work, which was placed at the highest point in
the centre of the pediment, on a dado wrought in relief, was a woman
five braccia high, representing Fecundity, with five little boys,
three clinging to her legs, one on her lap, and another in her arms;
and beside her, where the pediment sloped away, were two figures of
the same size, one on either side. Of these figures, which were lying
down, one was Security, leaning on a column with a light wand in her
hand, and the other was Eternity, with a globe in her arms, and below
her feet a white-haired old man representing Time, and holding in his
arms the Sun and Moon. I shall say nothing as to the works of painting
that were on that arch, because everyone may read about them for
himself in the description of the festive preparations for those
nuptials. And since Tribolo had particular charge of all decorations
for the Palace of the Medici, he caused many devices to be executed in
the lunettes of the vaulting of the court, with m