thought that he expected to have it as a present.  The French alliance was a matter of the highest importance to Florence, and at this time the Republic was heavily indebted to the French crown.  Soderini, therefore, decided to comply with the Marshal’s request, and on the 12th of August 1502 Michelangelo undertook to model a David of two cubits and a quarter within six months.  In the bronze-casting he was assisted by a special master, Benedetto da Rovezzano.  During the next two years a brisk correspondence was kept up between the envoys and the Signory about the statue, showing the Marshal’s impatience.  Meanwhile De Rohan became Duke of Nemours in 1503 by his marriage with a sister of Louis d’Armagnac, and shortly afterwards he fell into disgrace.  Nothing more was to be expected from him at the court of Blois.  But the statue was in progress, and the question arose to whom it should be given.  The choice of the Signory fell on Florimond Robertet, secretary of finance, whose favour would be useful to the Florentines in their pecuniary transactions with the King.  A long letter from the envoy, Francesco Pandolfini, in September 1505, shows that Robertet’s mind had been sounded on the subject; and we gather from a minute of the Signory, dated November 6, 1508, that at last the bronze David, weighing about 800 pounds, had been “packed in the name of God” and sent to Signa on its way to Leghorn.  Robertet received it in due course, and placed it in the courtyard of his chateau of Bury, near Blois.  Here it remained for more than a century, when it was removed to the chateau of Villeroy.  There it disappeared.  We possess, however, a fine pen-and-ink drawing by the hand of Michelangelo, which may well have been a design for this second David.  The muscular and naked youth, not a mere lad like the colossal statue, stands firmly posed upon his left leg with the trunk thrown boldly back.  His right foot rests on the gigantic head of Goliath, and his left hand, twisted back upon the buttock, holds what seems meant for the sling.  We see here what Michelangelo’s conception of an ideal David would have been when working under conditions more favourable than the damaged block afforded.  On the margin of the page the following words may be clearly traced:  “Davicte cholla fromba e io chollarcho Michelagniolo,”—­David with the sling, and I with the bow.

Meanwhile Michelangelo received a still more important commission on the 24th of April 1503.  The Consuls of the Arte della Lana and the Operai of the Duomo ordered twelve Apostles, each 4-1/4 cubits high, to be carved out of Carrara marble and placed inside the church.  The sculptor undertook to furnish one each year, the Board of Works defraying all expenses, supplying the costs of Michelangelo’s living and his assistants, and paying him two golden florins a month.  Besides this, they had a house built for him in the Borgo Pinti after Il Cronaca’s design.  He occupied this house free of charges while he was in Florence, until it became manifest that the contract of 1503 would never be carried out.  Later on, in March 1508, the tenement was let on lease to him and his heirs.  But he only held it a few months; for on the 15th of June the lease was cancelled, and the house transferred to Sigismondo Martelli.