archives of Santa Maria testify to the intelligence and anxiety
which the Florentines display in art administration. The
names of members of the commission to investigate every-
thing in connexion with the David are preserved. They are
those of the most eminent artists of the day: Leonardo da
Vinci, Perugino, Filippino Lippi, Ghirlandaio. There is no
trace of interference by incompetent authority,―opinions
were divided; some wanted to set up the David under the
Loggia dei Lanzi, others in its present position,' on the left of
the entrance gate of the Palace of the Signory. Michel-
angelo was summoned on the proposal of Lippi to give his
opinion, being the man who had made the statue. The
Gonfaloniere Soderini came to see him at work touching up
some parts, and took it into his head to criticize the nose of
the David. It was too large. The artist made cruel jest of
him. He mounted the scaffolding, taking up with him a
handful of marble dust, which he sprinkled over his critic,
while he all the while pretended to be altering the nose with
his chisel. Then he came back to the Gonfaloniere.
"Well,
what do you think of it now?"
"Admirable !" replied
Soderini; "you have given it life." Michelangelo came
'down laughing at the magistrate, "like so many other clever
connoisseurs, who speak without knowing what they are
talking about."

While he was employed on the David in marble, in 1502, Soderini commissioned Michelangelo, on behalf of the State of Florence to execute another statue of David, but in bronze, which was to be sent to Marshal de Gié. This, in the course of events, was handed over to the treasurer, Robertet, in 1508. If it be not destroyed, it should be still in France, but

1 The "David" is now under a glass roof in one of the courts of the "Academy of the Fine Arts."

no one knows absolutely what has become of it. It would be therefore useless to speak of it, if it had not been the cause of much anxiety to Michelangelo, and if the documents preserved in the archives of Florence did not give us some curious accounts of the relations which existed at that time between the Florentine Republic and France. We gather from these documents that proceedings, which we vulgarly call pots-de-vin, were employed at that time, and in a way which would, no doubt, seem very childish now-a-days! Pierre de Rohan, Marshal de Gié, was not only the important political personage whom we know. After having served Louis XI. and Charles VIII. in war and government, he had preserved the favour of Louis XII., and during his Italian campaigns at the head of the French armies, his taste for art had developed. He willingly supported the Florentine ambassadors in their difficulties with France, and already, in 1499, the Signory of Florence has recognized his services by sending him twelve busts, which had probably served to adorn his house, "the Grove." During one of his visits to Florence, the Marshal had noticed Donatello's statue of David, now in the Uffizi. He wanted one like it, and the ambassadors from Florence wrote the following letter upon the point to the government of the Republic.

"Marshal de Gié seems well disposed towards our city, and earnestly entreats us to inform your lordships how glad he would be if you would have a bronze statue of David cast for him, like the one which he has seen in the palace court. He says that he will pay all expenses; but we are sure that , at the bottom of his heart he is reckoning upon its being given to him as a present."

The magistrates seem to accede to the marshal's wishes readily. "We have tried," they write, "to find a man who

can execute a statue of David like the one which you want for Marshal de Gié, but there is a dearth of good masters. However, we will not fail to do our utmost." The Marshal is impatient, he begs the ambassadors to remind their lordships that he is most anxious to have this statue. The latter add "that he is so well disposed, that he is deserving of much more." Its execution is entrusted to Michelangelo, and by the end of 1502 it is already far advanced.

The Gonfaloniere writes again to the embassy that it is being pushed on as fast as possible; "but in the matter of painting and sculpture, it is impossible to make definite promises;" that it will be ready by Midsummer, if Michelangelo keeps his promise, "upon which it won't do to reckon too confidently, remembering the flightiness of those sort of people." It is certain that after setting himself with the greatest earnestness to this figure, Michelangelo seems to have neglected it for the cartoon of the Battle of Pisa and for the twelve statues which had been ordered for Santa Maria, and he deserves the hard words which his friend Soderini did not spare. At last, the Marshal having offended Queen Anne, fell into disgrace, and thus Michelangelo got some respite.

The correspondence is, however, resumed in 1505, upon the following occasion. The Republic of Florence owed France a somewhat considerable sum of money, of which the treasurer, Robertet, demanded immediate payment. The ambassador Pandolfini at first endeaveured to treat directly with the King, but he soon perceived that it was necessary to have recourse to some intermediate person. "The King," says he, "will take no trouble, he allows himself to be governed entirely by others, and with four words uttered at the right moment he is made to do what they want. He said this very morning, 'The Florentines must be made to pay the money