ship will be able to have them; and you may rest
assured that you will be well and quickly served." Alberti, we may
conjecture, was one of Daniele's men alluded to by Jacopo del Duca. It
is probable that just at this time they were making several _replicas_
from their deceased master's model, in order to dispose of them at an
advantage while Michelangelo's memory was still fresh. Lionardo grew
more and more impatient. He appealed again to Diomede Leoni, who
replied from San Quirico upon the 4th of June: "The two heads were in
existence when I left Rome, but not finished up. I imagine you have
given orders to have them delivered over to yourself. As for the work
of chasing them, if you can wait till my return, we might intrust them
to a man who succeeded very well with my own copy." Three years later,
on September 17, 1569, Diomede wrote once again about his copy of Da
Volterra's model: "I enjoy the continual contemplation of his effigy
in bronze, which is now perfectly finished and set up in my garden,
where you will see it, if good fortune favours me with a visit from
you."

The net result of this correspondence seems to be that certainly three
bronze heads, and probably more, remained unfinished in Daniele da
Volterra's workshop after his death, and that these were gradually
cleaned and polished by different craftsmen, according to the pleasure
of their purchasers. The strong resemblance of the eight bronze heads
at present known to us, in combination with their different states of
surface-finish, correspond entirely to this conclusion. Mr. Fortnum,
in his classification, describes four as being not chased, one as
"rudely and broadly chased," three as "more or less chased."

Of these variants upon the model common to them all, we can only trace
one with relative certainty. It is the bust at present in the Bargello
Palace, whither it came from the Grand Ducal villa of Poggio
Imperiale. By the marriage of the heiress of the ducal house of Della
Rovere with a Duke of Tuscany, this work of art passed, with other art
treasures, notably with a statuette of Michelangelo's Moses, into the
possession of the Medici. A letter written in 1570 to the Duke of
Urbino by Buonarroti's house-servant, Antonio del Franzese of Castel
Durante, throws light upon the matter. He begins by saying that he is
glad to hear the Duke will accept the little Moses, though the object
is too slight in value to deserve his notice. Then he adds: "The he