egan to put them into
execution in colours; but for some reason, whatever it may have been,
they remained unfinished. There are some drawings by his hand in our
book, made with much patience and very great judgment, among which are
certain heads of women, beautiful in expression and in the adornment of
the hair, which Leonardo da Vinci was ever imitating for their beauty.
In our book, also, are two horses with the due measures and protractors
for reproducing them on a larger scale from a smaller, so that there may
be no errors in their proportions; and there is in my possession a
horse's head of terra-cotta in relief, copied from the antique, which is
a rare work. The Very Reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini has some of his
drawings in his book, of which we have spoken above; among others, a
design for a tomb made by him in Venice for a Doge, a scene of the
Adoration of Christ by the Magi, and the head of a woman painted on
paper with the utmost delicacy. He also made for Lorenzo de' Medici,
for the fountain of his Villa at Careggi, a boy of bronze squeezing a
fish, which the Lord Duke Cosimo has caused to be placed, as may be seen
at the present day, on the fountain that is in the courtyard of his
Palace; which boy is truly marvellous.

[Illustration: CORNER AND FOOT OF THE MEDICI SARCOPHAGUS

(_Detail, after =Andrea Verrocchio=. Florence: S. Lorenzo_)

_Alinari_]

Afterwards, the building of the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore having been
finished, it was resolved, after much discussion, that there should be
made the copper ball which, according to the instructions left by
Filippo Brunelleschi, was to be placed on the summit of that edifice.
Whereupon the task was given to Andrea, who made the ball four braccia
high, and, placing it on a knob, secured it in such a manner that
afterwards the cross could be safely erected upon it; and the whole
work, when finished, was put into position with very great rejoicing and
delight among the people. Truly great were the ingenuity and diligence
that had to be used in making it, to the end that it might be possible,
as it is, to enter it from below, and also in securing it with good
fastenings, lest the winds might do it damage.

Andrea was never at rest, but was ever labouring at some work either in
painting or in sculpture; and sometimes he would change from one to
another, in order to avoid growing weary of working always at the same
thing, as many do. Wherefore, although he did