nobles and gentlemen of his own country. Some of these are still to be
seen, white in colour and made of wax or stucco, and bear witness to the
fine intellect and judgment that he possessed; such as those of Prince
Doria, of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, of Clement VII, of the Emperor
Charles V, of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, of Bembo, of Ariosto, and of
other suchlike personages. Finding himself in Bologna at the coronation
of Charles V, he executed the decorations of the door of S. Petronio as
a part of the preparations for that festival; and he had come into such
repute through being the first to introduce the good method of making
portraits from life in the form of medals, as has been related, that
there was not a single man of distinction in those Courts for whom he
did not execute some work, to his own great profit and honour. But, not
being content with the gain and the glory that came to him from making
works in clay, in wax, and in stucco, he set himself to work in marble;
and such was the proficience that he showed in some things that he made,
although these were of little importance, that he was commissioned to
execute the tomb of Ramazzotto, which brought him very great fame and
honour, in S. Michele in Bosco, without Bologna. After that work he made
some little scenes of marble in half-relief on the predella of the
altar at the tomb of S. Dominic, in the same city. And for the door of
S. Petronio, also, on the left hand of the entrance into the church, he
executed some little scenes in marble, containing a very beautiful
Resurrection of Christ. But what pleased the people of Bologna most of
all was the Death of Our Lady, wrought with a very hard mixture of clay
and stucco, with figures in full-relief, in an upper room of the Della
Vita Hospital; and marvellous, among other things in that work, is the
Jew who leaves his hands fixed to the bier of the Madonna. With the same
mixture, also, he made a large Hercules with the dead Hydra under his
feet, for the upper room of the Governor in the Palazzo Pubblico of that
city; which statue was executed in competition with Zaccaria da
Volterra, who was greatly surpassed by the ability and excellence of
Alfonso. For the Madonna del Baracane the same master made two Angels in
stucco, who are upholding a canopy in half-relief; and in some
medallions in the middle aisle of S. Giuseppe, between one arch and
another, he made the twelve Apostles from the waist upwards, of
terra-