e form of a
triumphal arch, and above the columns that supported the cornice was a
marble tablet three braccia in height and four braccia and a half in
width, in which was a scene in half-relief. In the scene above the
statue of Pope Leo, which statue had on either side of it in the
niches S. Peter and S. Paul, was his Conference with King Francis at
Bologna, and this story of Leo in the middle, above the columns, was
accompanied by two smaller scenes, in one of which, that above S.
Peter, was the Saint restoring a dead man to life, and in the other,
that above S. Paul, that Saint preaching to the people. In the scene
above Pope Clement, which corresponded to that mentioned above, was
that Pontiff crowning the Emperor Charles at Bologna, and on either
side of it are two smaller scenes, in one of which is S. John the
Baptist preaching to the people, and in the other S. John the
Evangelist raising Drusiana from the dead; and these have below them
in the niches the same Saints, four braccia high, standing on either
side of the statue of Pope Clement, as with that of Leo.

In this structure Baccio showed either too little religion or too much
adulation, or both together, in that he thought fit that the first
founders--after Christ--of our religion, men deified and most dear to
God, should give way to our Popes, and placed them in positions
unworthy of them and inferior to those of Leo and Clement. Certain it
is that this design of his, even as it was displeasing to God and to
the Saints, so likewise gave no pleasure to the Popes or to any other
man, for the reason, it appears to me, that religion--and I mean our
own, the true religion--should be placed by mankind before all other
interests and considerations. And, on the other hand, he who wishes to
exalt and honour any other person, should, I think, be temperate and
restrained, and confine himself within certain limits, so that his
praise and honour may not become another thing--I mean senseless
adulation, which first disgraces the praiser, and also gives no
pleasure to the person praised, if he has any proper feeling, but does
quite the contrary. Baccio, in doing what I have described, made known
to everyone that he had much goodwill and affection indeed towards the
Popes, but little judgment in exalting and honouring them in their
sepulchres.

The models described above were taken by Baccio to the garden of
Cardinal Ridolfi at S. Agata on Monte Cavallo, where his lords