citizens by every means in
their power.

[Illustration: HERCULES AND CACUS

(_After the marble by =Baccio Bandinelli=. Florence: Piazza della
Signoria_)

_Alinari_]

At this time, after the war of Hungary, Pope Clement and the Emperor
Charles held a conference at Bologna, whither there went Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici and Duke Alessandro; and it occurred to Baccio to
go and kiss the feet of his Holiness. He took with him a panel, one
braccio high and one and a half wide, of Christ being scourged at the
Column by two nude figures, which was in half-relief and very well
executed; and he gave this panel to the Pope, together with a
portrait-medal of his Holiness, which he had caused to be made by
Francesco dal Prato, his familiar friend, the reverse of the medal
being the Flagellation of Christ. This gift was very acceptable to his
Holiness, to whom Baccio described the annoyances and impediments that
he had experienced in the execution of his Hercules, praying him that
he should prevail upon the Duke to give him the means to carry it to
completion. He added that he was envied and hated in that city; and,
being a very devil with his wit and his tongue, he persuaded the Pope
to induce the Duke to see that his work should be brought to
completion and set up in its place in the Piazza.

Death had now snatched away the goldsmith Michelagnolo, the father of
Baccio, who during his lifetime had undertaken to make for the Wardens
of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, by order of the Pope, a very large
cross of silver, all covered with scenes in low-relief of the Passion
of Christ. This cross, for which Baccio had made the figures and
scenes in wax, to be afterwards cast in silver, Michelagnolo had left
unfinished at his death; and Baccio, having the work in his hands,
together with many libbre of silver, sought to persuade his Holiness
to have it finished by Francesco dal Prato, who had gone with him to
Bologna. But the Pope, perceiving that Baccio wished not only to
withdraw from his father's engagements, but also to make something out
of the labours of Francesco, gave Baccio orders that the silver and
the scenes, those merely begun as well as those finished, should be
given to the Wardens of Works, that the account should be settled, and
that the Wardens should melt all the silver of that cross, in order to
make use of it for the necessities of the church, which had been
stripped of its ornaments at the time of the siege; and