not put the aforesaid
cartoons into execution, yet he did paint certain pictures; among
others, a panel for the Nuns of S. Domenico in Florence, wherein it
appeared to him that he had acquitted himself very well; whence, no long
time after, he painted another in S. Salvi for the Monks of Vallombrosa,
containing the Baptism of Christ by S. John. In this work he was
assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple, then quite young, who
painted therein an angel with his own hand, which was much better than
the other parts of the work; and for that reason Andrea resolved never
again to touch a brush, since Leonardo, young as he was, had acquitted
himself in that art much better than he had done.

Now Cosimo de' Medici, having received many antiquities from Rome, had
caused to be set up within the door of his garden, or rather, courtyard,
which opens on the Via de' Ginori, a very beautiful Marsyas of white
marble, bound to a tree-trunk and ready to be flayed; and his grandson
Lorenzo, into whose hands there had come the torso and head of another
Marsyas, made of red stone, very ancient, and much more beautiful than
the first, wished to set it beside the other, but could not, because it
was so imperfect. Thereupon he gave it to Andrea to be restored and
completed, and he made the legs, thighs, and arms that were lacking in
this figure out of pieces of red marble, so well that Lorenzo was highly
satisfied and had it placed opposite to the other, on the other side of
the door. This ancient torso, made to represent a flayed Marsyas, was
wrought with such care and judgment that certain delicate white veins,
which were in the red stone, were carved by the craftsman exactly in the
right places, so as to appear to be little nerves, such as are seen in
real bodies when they have been flayed; which must have given to that
work, when it had its original finish, a most life-like appearance.

The Venetians, meanwhile, wishing to honour the great valour of
Bartolommeo da Bergamo, thanks to whom they had gained many victories,
in order to encourage others, and having heard the fame of Andrea,
summoned him to Venice, where he was commissioned to make an equestrian
statue of that captain in bronze, to be placed on the Piazza di SS.
Giovanni e Polo. Andrea, then, having made the model of the horse, had
already begun to get it ready for casting in bronze, when, thanks to the
favour of certain gentlemen, it was determined that Vellano da Padova
s