helped my father and our household. About that time there came to
Florence a sculptor named Piero Torrigiani; [1] he arrived from England,
where he had resided many years; and being intimate with my master, he
daily visited his house; and when he saw my drawings and the things
which I was making, he said: "I have come to Florence to enlist as many
young men as I can; for I have undertaken to execute a great work of my
king, and want some of my own Florentines to help me. Now your method of
working and your designs are worthy rather of a sculptor than a
goldsmith; and since I have to turn out a great piece of bronze, I will
at the same time turn you into a rich and able artist." This man had a
splendid person and a most arrogant spirit, with the air of a great
soldier more than a sculptor, especially in regard to his vehement
gestures and his resonant voice, together with a habit he had of
knitting his brows, enough to frighten any man of courage. He kept
talking every day about his gallant feats among those beasts of
Englishmen.

In course of conversation he happened to mention Michel Agnolo
Buonarroti, led thereto by a drawing I had made from a cartoon of that
divinest painter. [2] This cartoon was the first masterpiece which
Michel Agnolo exhibited, in proof of his stupendous talents. He produced
it in competition with another painter, Lionardo da Vinci, who also made
a cartoon; and both were intended for the council-hall in the palace of
the Signory. They represented the taking of Pisa by the Florentines; and
our admirable Lionardo had chosen to depict a battle of horses, with the
capture of some standards, in as divine a style as could possibly be
imagined. Michel Agnolo in his cartoon portrayed a number of
foot-soldiers, who, the season being summer, had gone to bathe in Arno.
He drew them at the very moment the alarm is sounded, and the men all
naked run to arms; so splendid in their action that nothing survives of