Francis I possessed "not a single work in marble, neither ancient nor modern," according to Vasari, a situation which the French king sought vigorously to remedy throughout his reign. His well-known imperial aspirations made the collection and display of ancient statues an especially important part of his efforts to enhance his political dominion, since Rome's treasures were replete with reminiscences of the origins of the imperial authority Francis strove to assume actually and symbolically. The Italophile king had invited Leonardo and Michelangelo, and, with greater success, Rosso Fiorentino and Primaticcio, to transform his royal seats into appropriate loci for a monarch with the ambition of universal rule, but Francis I had a difficult time prying antiquities loose from Florence and Rome.... [This is a chapter excerpted from "Medieval Renaissance Baroque: A Cat's Cradle for Marilyn Aronberg Lavin," edited by David A. Levine and Jack Freiberg (Italica Press, New York, 2010).]