Sala del Gran Consiglio; for
Albertini, in his _Memoriale_, or Guide-Book to Florence, printed in
1510, speaks of both "the works of Lionardo da Vinci and the designs
of Michelangelo" as then existing in that hall. Vasari asserts that it
was taken to the house of the Medici, and placed in the great upper
hall, but gives no date. This may have taken place on the return of
the princely family in 1512. Cellini confirms this view, since he
declares that when he was copying the Cartoon, which could hardly have
happened before 1513, the Battle of Pisa was at the Palace of the
Medici, and the Battle of Anghiari at the Sala del Papa. The way in
which it finally disappeared is involved in some obscurity, owing to
Vasari's spite and mendacity. In the first, or 1550, edition of the
"Lives of the Painters," he wrote as follows: "Having become a regular
object of study to artists, the Cartoon was carried to the house of
the Medici, into the great upper hall; and this was the reason that it
came with too little safeguard into the hands of those said artists:
inasmuch as, during the illness of the Duke Giuliano, when no one
attended to such matters, it was torn in pieces by them and scattered
abroad, so that fragments may be found in many places, as is proved by
those existing now in the house of Uberto Strozzi, a gentleman of
Mantua, who holds them in great respect." When Vasari published his
second edition, in 1568, he repeated this story of the destruction of
the Cartoon, but with a very significant alteration. Instead of saying
"it was torn in pieces _by them_" he now printed "it was torn in
pieces, _as hath been told elsewhere_." Now Bandinelli, Vasari's
mortal enemy, and the scapegoat for all the sins of his generation
among artists, died in 1559, and Vasari felt that he might safely
defame his memory. Accordingly he introduced a Life of Bandinelli into
the second edition of his work, containing the following passage:
"Baccio was in the habit of frequenting the place where the Cartoon
stood more than any other artists, and had in his possession a false
key; what follows happened at the time when Piero Soderini was deposed
in 1512, and the Medici returned. Well, then, while the palace was in
tumult and confusion through this revolution, Baccio went alone, and
tore the Cartoon into a thousand fragments. Why he did so was not
known; but some surmised that he wanted to keep certain pieces of it
by him for his own use; some, that he w