ide, Baccio had
placed, directly under the centre of that arch, the Tree of the Fall,
round the trunk of which was wound the Ancient Serpent with a human
face, and two nude figures were about the Tree, one being Adam and the
other Eve. On the outer side of the choir, to which those figures had
their faces turned, there ran lengthways along the base a space about
three braccia long, which was to contain the story of their Creation,
either in marble or in bronze; and this was to be pursued along the
faces of the base of the whole work, to the number of twenty-one
stories, all from the Old Testament. And for the further enrichment of
this base he had made for each of the socles upon which stood the
columns and pilasters, a figure of some Prophet, either draped or
nude, to be afterwards executed in marble--a great work, truly, and a
marvellous opportunity, likely to reveal all the art and genius of a
perfect master, whose memory should never be extinguished by any lapse
of time. This model was shown to the Duke, and also a double series of
designs made by Baccio, which, both from their variety and their
number, and likewise from their beauty--for the reason that Baccio
worked boldly in wax and drew very well--pleased his Excellency, and
he ordained that the masonry-work should be straightway taken in hand,
devoting to it all the expenditure administered by the Office of
Works, and giving orders that a great quantity of marble should be
brought from Carrara.

Baccio, on his part, also set to work to make a beginning with the
statues; and among the first was an Adam who was raising one arm, and
was about four braccia in height. This figure was finished by Baccio,
but, since it proved to be narrow in the flanks and somewhat defective
in other parts, he changed it into a Bacchus, and afterwards gave it
to the Duke, who kept it in his Palace many years, in his chamber; and
not long ago it was placed in a niche in the ground-floor apartments
which his Excellency occupies in summer. He had also made a seated
figure of Eve of the same size, which he had half finished: but it was
abandoned on account of the Adam, which it was to have accompanied.
For, having made a beginning with another Adam, in a different form
and attitude, it became necessary for him to change also the Eve, and
the original seated figure was converted by him into a Ceres, which he
gave to the most illustrious Duchess Leonora, together with an Apollo,
which was