er of whom he made the door of the
sacristy in the Pieve of Prato, and over it a sarcophagus of marble,
with a Madonna three braccia and a half high, and beside her the Child
nude, and two little children that are one on either side of a head in
low-relief of Messer Carlo de' Medici, the natural son of the elder
Cosimo, and once Provost of Prato, whose bones, after having long been
in a tomb of brick, Duke Cosimo has caused to be laid in the above-named
sarcophagus, thus giving him honourable sepulture; although it is true
that the said Madonna and the head in low-relief (which is very
beautiful), being in a bad light, do not show up by a great measure as
they should. The same Vincenzio has since made, in order to adorn the
residence of the Magistrates of the Mint, on the head-wall over the
loggia that is on the River Arno, an escutcheon of the Duke with two
nude figures, larger than life, on either side of it, one representing
Equity and the other Rigour; and from hour to hour he is expecting the
marble to make the statue of the Lord Duke himself, considerably larger
than life, of which he has made a model; and that statue is to be placed
seated over the escutcheon, as a completion to the work, which is to be
built shortly, together with the rest of the facade, which Vasari, who
is the architect of that fabric, is even now superintending. He has also
in hand, and has carried very near completion, a Madonna of marble
larger than life, standing with Jesus, a Child of three months, in her
arms; which will be a very beautiful work. All these works, together
with others, he is executing in the Monastery of the Angeli in
Florence, where he lives quietly in company with these monks, who are
much his friends, in the rooms that were once occupied there by Messer
Benedetto Varchi, of whom the same Vincenzio is making a portrait in
low-relief, which will be very beautiful.

[Illustration: THE BRAZEN SERPENT

(_After the bronze relief by =Vincenzo Danti=. Florence: Museo
Nazionale_)

_Alinari_]

Vincenzio has a brother in the Order of Preaching Friars, called Fra
Ignazio Danti, who is very excellent in matters of cosmography, and of a
rare genius, insomuch that Duke Cosimo de' Medici is causing him to
execute a work than which none greater or more perfect has ever been
done at any time in that profession; which is as follows. His
Excellency, under the direction of Vasari, has built a new hall of some
size expressly as an addi