IN the meantime I brought my silver Jupiter to completion, together with
its gilded pedestal, which I placed upon a wooden plinth that only
showed a very little; upon the plinth I introduced four little round
balls of hard wood, more than half hidden in their sockets, like the nut
of a crossbow. They were so nicely arranged that a child could push the
statue forward and backwards, or turn it round with ease. Having
arranged it thus to my mind, I went with it to Fountainebleau, where the
King was then residing.
At that time, Bologna, of whom I have already said so much, had brought
from Rome his statues, and had cast them very carefully in bronze. I
knew nothing about this, partly because he kept his doings very dark,
and also because Fontainebleau is forty miles distant from Paris. On
asking the King where he wanted me to set up my Jupiter, Madame
d’Etampes, who happened to be present, told him there was no place more
appropriate than his own handsome gallery. This was, as we should say in
Tuscany, a loggia, or, more exactly, a large lobby; it ought indeed to
be called a lobby, because what we mean by loggia is open at one side.
The hall was considerably longer than 100 paces, decorated, and very
rich with pictures from the hand of that admirable Rosso, our Florentine
master. Among the pictures were arranged a great variety of sculptured
works, partly in the round, and partly in bas-relief. The breadth was
about twelve paces. Now Bologna had brought all his antiques into this
gallery, wrought with great beauty in bronze, and had placed them in a
handsome row upon their pedestals; and they were, as I have said, the
choicest of the Roman antiquities. Into this same gallery I took my
Jupiter; and when I saw that grand parade, so artfully planned, I said
to myself: “This is like running the gauntlet; [1] now may God assist
me.” I placed the statue, and having arranged it as well as I was able,
waited for the coming of the King. The Jupiter was raising his
thunderbolt with the right hand in the act to hurl it; his left hand
held the globe of the world. Among the flames of the thunderbolt I had
very cleverly introduced a torch of white wax. Now Madame d’Etampes
detained the King till nightfall, wishing to do one of two mischiefs,
either to prevent his coming, or else to spoil the effect of my work by
its being shown off after dark; but as God has promised to those who
trust in Him, it turned out exactly opposite to her calculations; for
when night came, I set fire to the torch, which standing higher than the
head of Jupiter, shed light from above and showed the statue far better
than by daytime.
At length the King arrived; he was attended by his Madame d’Etampes, his
son the Dauphin and the Dauphinéss, together with the King of Navarre
his brother-in-law, Madame Marguerite his daughter, [2] and several
other great lords, who had been instructed by Madame d’Etampes to speak
against me. When the King appeared, I made my prentice Ascanio push the
Jupiter toward his Majesty. As it moved smoothly forwards, my cunning in
its turn was amply rewarded, for this gentle motion made the figure seem
alive; the antiques were left in the background, and my work was the
first to take the eye with pleasure. The King exclaimed at once: “This
is by far the finest thing that has ever been seen; and I, although I am
an amateur and judge of art, could never have conceived the hundredth
part of its beauty.” The lords whose cue it was to speak against me, now
seemed as though they could not praise my masterpiece enough. Madame
d’Etampes said boldly: “One would think you had no eyes! Don’t you see
all those fine bronzes from the antique behind there? In those consists
the real distinction of this art, and not in that modern trumpery.” Then
the King advanced, and the others with him. After casting a glance at
the bronzes, which were not shown to advantage from the light being
below them, he exclaimed: “Whoever wanted to injure this man has done
him a great service; for the comparison of these admirable statues
demonstrates the immeasurable superiority of his work in beauty and in
art. Benvenuto deserves to be made much of, for his performances do not
merely rival, but surpass the antique.” In reply to this, Madame
d’Etampes observed that my Jupiter would not make anything like so fine
a show by daylight; besides, one had to consider that I had put a veil
upon my statue to conceal its faults. I had indeed flung a gauze veil
with elegance and delicacy over a portion of my statue, with the view of
augmenting its majesty. This, when she had finished speaking, I lifted
from beneath, uncovering the handsome genital members of the god; then
tore the veil to pieces with vexation. She imagined I had disclosed
those parts of the statue to insult her. The King noticed how angry she
was, while I was trying to force some words out in my fury; so he wisely
spoke, in his own language, precisely as follows: “Benvenuto, I forbid
you to speak; hold your tongue, and you shall have a thousand times more
wealth than you desire.” Not being allowed to speak, I writhed my body
in a rage; this made her grumble with redoubled spite; and the King
departed sooner than he would otherwise have done, calling aloud,
however, to encourage me: “I have brought from Italy the greatest man
who ever lived, endowed with all the talents.”