ng and acquiring more and
more fame and honour among his companions of the Academy.

Of the same family of the Lorenzi of Settignano is Battista, called
Battista del Cavaliere from his having been a disciple of the Chevalier
Baccio Bandinelli; who has executed in marble three statues of the size
of life, which Bastiano del Pace, a citizen of Florence, has caused him
to make for the Guadagni, who live in France, and who have placed them
in a garden that belongs to them. These are a nude Spring, a Summer, and
a Winter, which are to be accompanied by an Autumn; which statues have
been held by many who have seen them, to be beautiful and executed with
no ordinary excellence. Wherefore Battista has well deserved to be
chosen by the Lord Duke to make the sarcophagus, with the ornaments, and
one of the three statues that are to be on the tomb of Michelagnolo
Buonarroti, which his Excellency and Leonardo Buonarroti are carrying
out after the design of Giorgio Vasari; which work, as may be seen,
Battista is carrying to completion excellently well, with certain little
boys, and the figure of Buonarroti himself from the breast upwards.

The second of these three figures that are to be on that sepulchre,
which are to be Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, has been allotted
to Giovanni di Benedetto of Castello, a disciple of Baccio Bandinelli
and an Academician, who is executing for the Wardens of S. Maria del
Fiore the works in low-relief that are going round the choir, which is
now near completion. In these he is closely imitating his master, and
acquitting himself in such a manner that an excellent result is expected
of him; nor will it fall out otherwise, seeing that he is very assiduous
in his work and in the studies of his profession.

The third figure has been allotted to Valerio Cioli of Settignano, a
sculptor and Academician, for the reason that the other works that he
has executed up to the present have been such, that it is thought that
the said figure must prove to be so good as to be not otherwise than
worthy to be placed on the tomb of so great a man. Valerio, who is a
young man twenty-six years of age, has restored many antique statues of
marble in the garden of the Cardinal of Ferrara at Monte Cavallo in
Rome, making for some of them new arms, for some new feet, and for
others other parts that were wanting; and he has since done the same for
many statues in the Pitti Palace, which the Duke has conveyed there for