the cloister, there should be erected, as was done,
a catafalque of a rectangular form, twenty-eight braccia high, eleven
braccia long, and nine broad, with a figure of Fame on the summit. On
the base of the catafalque, which rose two braccia from the ground, on
the part looking towards the principal door of the church, there were
placed two most beautiful recumbent figures of Rivers, one
representing the Arno and the other the Tiber. Arno had a horn of
plenty, full of flowers and fruits, signifying thereby the fruits that
have come to these professions from the city of Florence, which have
been of such a kind and so many that they have filled the world, and
particularly Rome, with extraordinary beauty. This was demonstrated
excellently well by the other River, representing, as has been said,
the Tiber, in that, extending one arm, it had the hands full of
flowers and fruits received from the horn of plenty of the Arno, which
lay beside it, face to face; and it served also to demonstrate, by
enjoying the fruits of Arno, that Michelagnolo had lived a great part
of his life in Rome, and had executed there those marvels that cause
amazement to the world. Arno had for a sign the Lion, and Tiber the
She-Wolf, with the infants Romulus and Remus; and they were both
colossal figures of extraordinary grandeur and beauty, in the likeness
of marble. One, the Tiber, was by the hand of Giovanni di Benedetto of
Castello, a pupil of Bandinelli, and the other by Battista di
Benedetto, a pupil of Ammanati; both excellent young men of the
highest promise.

From this level rose facades of five braccia and a half, with the
proper cornices above and below, and also at the corners, leaving
space for four pictures, one in the centre of each. In the first of
these, which was on the facade where the two Rivers were, there was
painted in chiaroscuro (as were also all the other pictures of this
structure) the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici, the Elder, receiving
Michelagnolo as a boy in his garden, of which there has been an
account in another place, after he had seen certain specimens of his
handiwork, which foreshadowed, as early flowers, the fruits that
afterwards issued in abundance from the living force and grandeur of
his genius. Such, then, was the story contained in that picture, which
was painted by Mirabello and Girolamo del Crocifissaio, so called,
who, as very dear friends and companions, undertook to do the work
together. In it were