and
painted pictures wrought excellently well. His Holiness having then
determined that the facade of S. Lorenzo should be executed in marble,
the while that Raffaello da Urbino and Buonarroti were expected from
Rome, Sansovino, by order of the Pope, made a design for it; which
giving much satisfaction, Baccio d'Agnolo was commissioned to make a
model of it in wood, which proved very beautiful. Meanwhile,
Buonarroti had made another, and he and Sansovino were ordered to go
to Pietrasanta; where, finding much marble, but difficult to
transport, they lost so much time, that when they returned to
Florence they found the Pope departed for Rome. Whereupon, both
following after him with their models, each by himself, Jacopo arrived
at the very moment when Buonarroti's model was being shown to his
Holiness in the Torre Borgia; but he did not succeed in obtaining what
he hoped, because, whereas he believed that he would at least make
under Michelagnolo part of the statues that were going into that work,
the Pope having spoken of it to him and Michelagnolo having given him
so to understand, he perceived on arriving in Rome that Buonarroti
wished to be alone in the work. Nevertheless, having made his way to
Rome and not wishing to return to Florence without any result, he
resolved to remain in Rome and there give his attention to sculpture
and architecture. And so, having undertaken to execute for the
Florentine Giovan Francesco Martelli a Madonna in marble larger than
life, he made her most beautiful, with the Child in her arms; and this
was placed upon an altar within the principal door of S. Agostino, on
the right hand as one enters. The clay model of this statue he
presented to the Priore de' Salviati, in Rome, who placed it in a
chapel in his palace on the corner of the Piazza di S. Pietro, at the
beginning of the Borgo Nuovo. After no long lapse of time he made for
the altar of the chapel that the very reverend Cardinal Alborense had
caused to be built in the Church of the Spaniards in Rome, a statue in
marble of four braccia, worthy of no ordinary measure of praise, of a
S. James, which has a movement full of grace and is executed with
judgment and perfect art, so that it won him very great fame. And the
while that he was executing these statues, he made the ground-plan and
model, and then began the building, of the Church of S. Marcello for
the Servite Friars, a work of truly great beauty. Continuing to be
employed in mat