oved her much, and wished to honour her in
death to the utmost of his power, entrusted the making of a tomb for her
to Andrea, who carved on a slab over a sarcophagus of marble the lady
herself, her delivery, and her passing to the other life; and beside
this he made three figures of Virtues, which were held very beautiful,
for the first work that he had executed in marble; and this tomb was set
up in the Minerva.

Having then returned to Florence with money, fame, and honour, he was
commissioned to make a David of bronze, two braccia and a half in
height, which, when finished, was placed in the Palace, with great
credit to himself, at the head of the staircase, where the Catena was.
The while that he was executing the said statue, he also made that
Madonna of marble which is over the tomb of Messer Lionardo Bruni of
Arezzo in S. Croce; this he wrought, when still quite young, for
Bernardo Rossellino, architect and sculptor, who executed the whole of
that work in marble, as has been said. The same Andrea made a
half-length Madonna in half-relief, with the Child in her arms, in a
marble panel, which was formerly in the house of the Medici, and is now
placed, as a very beautiful thing, over a door in the apartment of the
Duchess of Florence. He also made two heads of metal, likewise in
half-relief; one of Alexander the Great, in profile, and the other a
fanciful portrait of Darius; each being a separate work by itself, with
variety in the crests, armour, and everything else. Both these heads
were sent to Hungary by the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent,
to King Matthias Corvinus, together with many other things, as will be
told in the proper place.

Having acquired the name of an excellent master by means of these works,
above all through many works in metal, in which he took much delight, he
made a tomb of bronze in S. Lorenzo, wholly in the round, for Giovanni
and Pietro di Cosimo de' Medici, with a sarcophagus of porphyry
supported by four corner-pieces of bronze, with twisted foliage very
well wrought and finished with the greatest diligence. This tomb stands
between the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Sacristy, and no work could
be better done, whether wrought in bronze or cast; above all since at
the same time he showed therein his talent in architecture, for he
placed the said tomb within the embrasure of a window which is about
five braccia in breadth and ten in height, and set it on a base that
divides