and Ippolito, Cardinal de’ Medici took him in his train to Rome, where he kept him about his person, as he did many other men of ability, both sculptors and painters. Among other things, the Cardinal commissioned him to make a copy from a very fine antique, representing the Emperor Vitellius, and which has ever been greatly renowned; this Alfonso did in a manner which confirmed the opinion entertained of him by Cardinal Ippolito, and which had begun to be shared by all* Rome; he therefore received a command from the same cardinal to execute a bust in marble of Clement YIL, the portrait being taken from the life, with one of Giuliano de’ Medici, father of the above-named cardinal; but this last was not entirely finished. These heads were afterwards sold in Rome, and were purchased by myself, together with certain pictures, in obedience to the commands of the illustrious Ottaviano de’ Medici, and the Signor Duke Cosimo has now caused them to be placed in the new apartments of his palace; they are in that hall namely which I have myself adorned with paintings, both on the ceiling and walls, representing events from the life of Pope Leo X. They have been placed, I say, in the above-named hall, and are over the doors made of that red marble which is found in the neighbourhood of Florence, and where those heads are accompanied by the busts of other illustrious men of the house of Medici.[1]
But to return to Alfonso; this artist continued in the favour of the Cardinal Ippolito, for whom he executed numerous works, but they were of no great importance and are for the most part lost. Then succeeded the death of Pope Clement YII.; when the sepulchral monument of that Pontiff* having to be constructed, as also had that of Pope Leo, the work was entrusted by the Cardinal de’ Medici to Alfonso.[2] The latter, therefore, having prepared certain models with figures in wax, after sketches made by Michelangelo,[3] and which were considered to be exceedingly beautiful,
- ↑ The bust of Pope Clement remains over one of the doors here indicated, but that of Vitellius has disappeared.
- ↑ Cardinal Ippolito is supposed to have been poisoned; he died at Itri, on his way to a conference with the emperor Charles V., with whom he had proposed to mediate in favour of the Florentine exiles.—Bottari.
- ↑ Cittadella accuses Vasari of seeking to exalt Michael Angelo by this
