not
being able, because he was old, to accept that undertaking himself,
advised Signor Ruberto to give it to Daniello, saying that he would not
fail to give him all the counsel and assistance that he could. To that
offer Strozzi attached great importance, and, after they had considered
with much deliberation what should be done, it was resolved that
Daniello should make a horse of bronze all in one piece, twenty palms
high from the head to the feet, and about forty in length, and that upon
it there should then be placed the statue of King Henry in armour,
likewise of bronze. Daniello having then made a little model of clay
after the advice and judgment of Michelagnolo, which much pleased Signor
Ruberto, an account of everything was written to France, and in the end
an agreement was made between him and Daniello as to the method of
executing that work, the time, the price, and every other thing.
Whereupon Daniello, setting to work with much study on the horse, made
it in clay exactly as it was to be, without ever doing any other work;
and then, having made the mould, he was proceeding to prepare to cast
it, and, the work being of such importance, was taking advice from many
founders as to the method that he ought to pursue, to the end that it
might come out well, when Pius IV, who had been elected Pontiff after
the death of Paul, gave Daniello to understand that he desired, as has
been related in the Life of Salviati, that the work of the Hall of Kings
should be finished, and that therefore every other thing was to be put
on one side. To which Daniello answered that he was fully occupied and
pledged to the Queen of France, but would make the cartoons and have the
work carried forward by his young men, and, in addition, would also do
his own part in it. The Pope, not liking that answer, began to think of
allotting the whole to Salviati; wherefore Daniello, seized with
jealousy, so went to work with the help of the Cardinal of Carpi and
Michelagnolo, that the half of that Hall was given to him to paint, and
the other half, as we have related, to Salviati, although Daniello did
his utmost to obtain the whole, in order to proceed with it at his
leisure and convenience, without competition. But in the end the matter
of that work was handled in such a manner, that Daniello did not do
there one thing more than what he had done before, and Salviati did not
finish the little that he had begun, and even that little was thrown to
t