ute, one to Zaccheria
Zacchi of Volterra, who had likewise returned to Florence the same
year, another to Baccio Bandinelli, and yet another to Sansovino; and
when these were placed in comparison, the honour and the work were
given by Lorenzo di Credi, an excellent painter and a person of
judgment and probity, and likewise by the other judges, craftsmen, and
connoisseurs, to Sansovino. But, although the work was therefore
allotted to him, nevertheless so much delay was caused in procuring
and conveying the marble for him, by the envious machinations of
Averardo da Filicaia, who greatly favoured Bandinelli and hated
Sansovino, that he was ordered by certain other citizens, having
perceived that delay, to make one of the large Apostles in marble
that were going into the Church of S. Maria del Fiore. Wherefore,
having made the model of a S. James (which model, when the work was
finished, came into the possession of Messer Bindo Altoviti), he began
that figure and, continuing to work at it with all diligence and
study, he carried it to completion so perfectly, that it is a
miraculous figure and shows in all its parts that it was wrought with
incredible study and care, the draperies, arms, and hands being
undercut and executed with such art and such grace, that there is
nothing better in marble to be seen. Thus, Sansovino showed in what
way undercut draperies should be executed, having made these so
delicate and so natural, that in some places he reduced the marble to
the thickness that is seen in real folds and in the edges and hems of
the borders of draperies; a difficult method, and one demanding much
time and patience if you wish that it should so succeed as to display
the perfection of art. That figure remained in the Office of Works
from the time when it was finished by Sansovino until the year 1565,
at which time, in the month of December, it was placed in the Church
of S. Maria del Fiore to do honour to the coming of Queen Joanna of
Austria, the wife of Don Francesco de' Medici, Prince of Florence and
Siena. And there it is kept as a very rare work, together with the
other Apostles, likewise in marble, executed in competition by other
craftsmen, as has been related in their Lives.

[Illustration: BACCHUS

(_After =Jacopo Sansovino=. Florence: Museo Nazionale_)

_Alinari_]

At this same time he made for Messer Giovanni Gaddi a Venus of marble
on a shell, of great beauty, as was also the model, which was in the
h