d figures, he made therein
with basanite, in low-relief, a canopy in imitation of black cloth, with
so much grace and such beautiful finish and lustre, that the stone
appears to be exquisite black satin rather than basanite. And, to put it
in a few words, for all that the hand of Benedetto did in this work
there is no praise that would not seem too little.

And since he also gave his attention to architecture, there was restored
from the design of Benedetto a house near S. Apostolo in Florence,
belonging to Messer Oddo Altoviti, Patron and Prior of that church.
There Benedetto made the principal door in marble, and, over the door of
the house, the arms of the Altoviti in grey-stone, with the wolf, lean,
excoriated, and carved in such strong relief, that it seems to be almost
separate from the shield; and some pendant ornaments carved in open-work
with such delicacy, that they appear to be not of stone, but of the
finest paper. In the same church, above the two chapels of Messer Bindo
Altoviti, for which Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo painted the panel-picture
of the Conception in oils, Benedetto made a marble tomb for the said
Messer Oddo, surrounded by an ornament full of most masterly foliage,
with a sarcophagus, likewise very beautiful.

Benedetto also executed, in competition with Jacopo Sansovino and Baccio
Bandinelli, as has been related, one of the Apostles, four and a half
braccia in height, for S. Maria del Fiore--namely, a S. John the
Evangelist, which is a passing good figure, wrought with fine design and
skill. This figure is in the Office of Works, in company with the
others.

Next, in the year 1515, the chiefs and heads of the Order of
Vallombrosa, wishing to transfer the body of S. Giovanni Gualberto from
the Abbey of Passignano to the Church of S. Trinita, an abbey of the
same Order, in Florence, commissioned Benedetto to make a design, upon
which he was to set to work, for a chapel and tomb combined, with a vast
number of lifesize figures in the round, which were to be suitably
distributed over that work in some niches separated by pilasters filled
with ornaments and friezes and with delicately carved grotesques. And
below this whole work there was to be a base one braccio and a half in
height, wherein were to be scenes from the life of the said S. Giovanni
Gualberto; while endless numbers of other ornaments were to be round the
sarcophagus, and as a crown to the work. On this tomb, then, Benedetto,
assist