attributed to the diligence and care of the artist, or to the assistance of Michelagnolo, this figure proved to be the best ever executed bj the Frate among all that he produced in his whole life, and is without doubt entirely worthv of the place assigned to it.[1]
Buonarroti, being freed from his engagements at San Lorenzo by the death of the Pontiff, now turned histhoughts towards the fulfilment of that which he had contracted for the sepulchral monument of Julius II.; but knowing that he should have need of assistance in his work, he sent for the Frate, who did not however proceed to Pome until he had first entirely completed the figure of the Duke Alessandro in the Nunziata. This he executed in a very beautiful manner, and one altogether different from that adopted by those artists who had previously treated the same subject; he has represented the Duke in his armour that is to say, and kneeling on a casque of the Burgundian fashion, as if in the act of recommending himself to the protection of the Madonna, beside whom he is placed. Having finished this work the monk then went to Pome, where his assistance was the utmost value to Michelagnolo, in the preparation of that sepulchral monument for Pope Julius alluded to above.
The Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici was meanwhile given to understand that Cardinal Tournon was desirous of taking with him a sculptor required at that time for the service of the King of France, and therefore proposed to him the Frate Giovann’ Agnolo, who being earnestly advised by Michelagnolo with many arguments to accept the appointment, did accordingly consent to accompany the Cardinal de Tournon to Paris. Arrived in that city, he was introduced to the King, and very favourably received by that monarch, who very soon afterwards assigned him a pension in addition to his stipend, with orders that he should at once commence the execution of four large statues. But of these the Frate had not yet finished the models, when the King, being at a distance, and occupied on the borders of his kingdom, in wars with the English, he found the treasurers disposed to refuse him his pension; in effect, he could neither obtain his
- ↑ The work is still in its place.
engraving of the work in the Storia della Scultura, plate lxv. See also tomo ii. p. 309.
