e himself, determined to return to Bologna; and, having arrived in
Florence, he presented to Duke Alessandro a most beautiful head in
marble of the Emperor Charles V, which is now in Carrara, whither it was
sent by Cardinal Cibo, who removed it after the death of Duke Alessandro
from the guardaroba of that Prince. The Duke, when Alfonso arrived in
Florence, was in the humour to have his portrait taken; for it had
already been done on medals by Domenico di Polo, a gem-engraver, and by
Francesco di Girolamo dal Prato, for the coinage by Benvenuto Cellini,
and in painting by Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo and Jacopo da Pontormo, and
he wished that Alfonso should likewise portray him. Wherefore he made a
very beautiful portrait of him in relief, much better than the one
executed by Danese da Carrara, and then, since he was wholly set on
going to Bologna, he was given the means to make one there in marble,
after the model. And so, having received many gifts and favours from
Duke Alessandro, Alfonso returned to Bologna, where, being still far
from content on account of the death of the Cardinal, and sorely vexed
by the loss of the tombs, there came upon him a pestilent and incurable
disease of the skin, which wasted him away little by little, until,
having reached the age of forty-nine, he passed to a better life, never
ceasing to rail at Fortune, which had robbed him of a patron to whom he
might have looked for all the blessings which could make him happy in
this life, and saying that she should have closed his own eyes, since
she had reduced him to such misery, rather than those of Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici. Alfonso died in the year 1536.

[Illustration: TOMB OF ADRIAN VI

(_After_ Michelagnolo da Siena. _Rome: S. Maria dell' Anima_)

_Anderson_]

Michelagnolo, a sculptor of Siena, after he had spent the best years of
his life in Sclavonia with other excellent sculptors, made his way to
Rome on the following occasion. After the death of Pope Adrian, Cardinal
Hincfort, who had been the friend and favourite of that Pontiff,
determined, as one not ungrateful for the benefits received from him, to
erect to him a tomb of marble; and he gave the charge of this to
Baldassarre Peruzzi, the painter of Siena. And that master, having made
the model, desired that the sculptor Michelagnolo, his friend and
compatriot, should undertake the work on his own account. Michelagnolo,
therefore, made on that tomb a lifesize figure of Pope Adrian