" The prominent citizens who escaped,
including Michael Angelo, were outlawed and their property confiscated.
Many who remained in the city were imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded.
Michael Angelo hid himself, the Senator Filippo Buonarroti says, in the
bell-tower of San Nicolo beyond Arno.(140) After the fury was over and
Clement's anger abated, Michael Angelo, hearing a message of peace from
the Pope, came forth from his hiding-place and resumed work on the statues
at San Lorenzo, moved thereto more by fear of the Pope than by love of the
Medici. During November or December his pension of fifty crowns a month
was renewed, the Pope's agent in Florence being Battista Figiovanni, Prior
of San Lorenzo.
In 1528 a block of marble had been assigned to Michael Angelo, from which
he determined to extract a heroic group of Hercules and Cacus. There is a
small wax model of this composition at South Kensington, attributed to
Michael Angelo, which may be for this design. The Medici Government handed
over the blocks to the craven Baccio Bandinelli, who produced the horrible
work, representing the same subject, now in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
The Leda for the Duke of Ferrara,(141) but presented by Michael Angelo to
his pupil Mini, was painted during the siege. It was probably a design
from some antique gem in the Duke's cabinet. The original, and a copy by
Benedetto Bene, were taken to Paris by Antonio Mini, where they passed
into the possession of the King.
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