had a habit of buying small caged birds in order to set them free),
and two or three dining clubs, the members of which vied with each
other in devising curious and exotic dishes. Andrea del Sarto, for
example, once brought as his contribution to the feast a model of this
very church we are studying, the Baptistery, of which the floor was
constructed of jelly, the pillars of sausages, and the choir desk of
cold veal, while the choristers were roast thrushes. Rustici further
paved the way to a life free from care by appointing a steward of his
estate whose duty it was to see that his money-box, to which he went
whenever he wanted anything, always had money in it. This box he never
locked, having learned that he need fear no robbery by once leaving
his cloak for two days under a bush and then finding it again. "This
world," he exclaimed, "is too good: it will not last." Among his pets
were a porcupine trained to prick the legs of his guests under the
table "so that they drew them in quickly"; a raven that spoke like a
human being; an eagle, and many snakes. He also studied necromancy,
the better to frighten his apprentices. He left Florence in 1528,
after the Medici expulsion, and, like Leonardo, took service with
Francis the First. He died at the age of eighty.

I had an hour and more exactly opposite the Rustici group, on the same
level, while waiting for the Scoppio del Carro, and I find it easy
to believe that Leonardo himself had a hand in the work. The figure
of the Baptist is superb, the attitude of his listeners masterly.



CHAPTER V

The Riccardi Palace and the Medici