s building, had the key
of the door counterfeited, and, obtaining entrance during a moment
of tumult, destroyed the picture. The reasons given are: (1, and a
very poor one) that he desired to own the pieces; (2) that he wished
to deprive other and rival students of the advantage of copying it;
(3) that he wanted Leonardo to be the only painter of the Palazzo to
be considered; and (4, and sufficient) that he hated Michelangelo. At
this time Bandinelli could not have been more than eighteen. Vasari's
story is uncorroborated.

Leonardo's battle merely perished, being done in some fugitive medium;
and the walls are now covered with the works of Vasari himself
and his pupils and do not matter, while the ceiling is a muddle
of undistinguished paint. There are many statues which also do not
matter; but at the raised end is Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent,
and the first Medici Pope, and at the other a colossal modern statue
of Savonarola, who was in person the dominating influence here for
the years between 1494 and 1497; who is to many the central figure
in the history of this building; and whose last night on earth was
spent with his companions in this very room. But to him we come in
the chapter on S. Marco.

Many rooms in the Palazzo are to be seen only on special occasions,
but the great hall is always accessible. Certain rooms upstairs,
mostly with rich red and yellow floors, are also visible daily, all
interesting; but most notable is the Salle de Lys, with its lovely blue
walls of lilies, its glorious ceiling of gold and roses, Ghirlandaio's
fresco of S. Zenobius, and the perfect marble doorway containing
the wooden doors of Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano, with the heads
of Dante and Petrarch in intarsia. Note the figures of Charity and
Temperance in the doorway and the charming youthful Baptist.

In Eleanor of Toledo's dining-room there are some rich and elaborate
green jugs which I remember very clearly and also the ceiling of her
workroom with its choice of Penelope as the presiding genius. Both
Eleanor's chapel and that in which Savonarola prayed before his
execution are shown.

But the most popular room of all with visitors--and quite naturally--is
the little boudoiresque study of Francis I, with its voluptuous
ladies on the ceiling and the secret treasure-room leading from it,
while on the way, just outside the door, is a convenient oubliette
into which to push any inconvenient visitor.

The loggia,