accio da Montelupo, made an arch covered with historical scenes.
Giuliano del Tasso made another at S. Felice in Piazza, with some
statues and the obelisk of Romulus at S. Trinita, and Trajan's Column in
the Mercato Nuovo. In the Piazza de' Signori, Antonio, the brother of
Giuliano da San Gallo, erected an octagonal temple, and Baccio
Bandinelli made a Giant for the Loggia. Between the Badia and the Palace
of the Podesta there was an arch erected by Granaccio and Aristotele da
San Gallo, and Il Rosso made another on the Canto de' Bischeri with a
very beautiful design and a variety of figures. But what was admired
more than everything else was the facade of S. Maria del Fiore, made of
wood, and so well decorated with various scenes in chiaroscuro by our
Andrea, that nothing more could have been desired. The architecture of
this work was by Jacopo Sansovino, as were some scenes in low-relief and
many figures carved in the round; and it was declared by the Pope that
this structure--which was designed by Lorenzo de' Medici, father of that
Pontiff, when he was alive--could not have been more beautiful, even if
it had been of marble. The same Jacopo made a horse similar to the one
in Rome, which was held to be a miracle of beauty, on the Piazza di S.
Maria Novella. An endless number of ornaments, also, were executed for
the Sala del Papa in the Via della Scala, and that street was half
filled with most beautiful scenes wrought by the hands of many
craftsmen, but designed for the most part by Baccio Bandinelli.
Wherefore, when Leo entered Florence, on the third day of September in
the same year, this spectacle was pronounced to be the grandest that had
ever been devised, and the most beautiful.

But to return now to Andrea: being again requested to make another
picture for the King of France, in a short time he finished one wherein
he painted a very beautiful Madonna, which was sent off immediately, the
merchants receiving for it four times as much as they had paid. Now at
that very time Pier Francesco Borgherini had caused to be made by Baccio
d' Agnolo some panelling, chests, chairs, and a bed, all carved in
walnut-wood, for the furnishing of an apartment; wherefore, to the end
that the paintings therein might be equal in excellence to the rest of
the work, he commissioned Andrea to paint part of the scenes on these
with figures of no great size, representing the acts of Joseph the son
of Jacob, in competition with some of gr