me the greatest pleasure. God be thanked for it! and may he be pleased to make him good, that he may do honour to our house, and sustain it. Thank Cassandra, and remember me to her. The only thing that remains to do, is that about which I wrote you some months ago, if you should meet with a respectable and well-situated house for sale, to let me know; and thus I write you again, that if such a house should present itself, you must not fail to inform me. If you do not think it unseasonable, you might look for it now. From Rome."

(11.)-Michael Angelo did not call himself old without reason: he was at that time in his eightieth year.

Fifth Letter to Vasari.

(12.)-Condivi says that Michael Angelo exercised the profession of architect with reluctance; and that when Antonio da San Gallo, the architect of St. Peter, died, Pope Paul III., seeing that, in spite of all his entreaties, Michael Angelo declined to undertake the work, alleging that architecture was not his art, at last took the resolution to command him; giving him, however, very ample powers, which were afterwards confirmed by

Julius III.

(13.)-If Michael Angelo worked for the love of God, or gratis, it was his own fault, and not because the Pope had refused to remunerate him. Condivi says

that Michael Angelo never would accept anything for his services, and had required it to be so specified in the agreement. The Pope, notwithstanding, sent him once a hundred crowns of gold by Messer Pier Giovanni, the Bishop of Forli, then the chamberlain of his holiness, as his salary for a month, on account of the fabric; but Michael Angelo refused them, saying that he had made a different agreement, and he sent them back. The Pope was angry; but Michael Angelo was not to be moved from his resolution.

The words with which that great Pope expressed himself, when he granted Michael Angelo the ferry of Piacenza, (which Vasari wrongly calls Parma,) are the following:-"The happy memory of Clement VII., our immediate predecessor, first, and then ourselves, being desirous to remunerate and satisfy you for the picture to be made on the wall of the altar of our chapel, representing the history of the Last Judgment; con

sidering your labour and your merits, with which you amply adorn our age, we promised, and still promise you by the present brief, the yearly income of 1200 golden crowns during your life: and in order that you may continue and bring to an end the said work which you began with our apostolical authority, by virtue of the present brief we grant you, during your life, the ferry on the Po, near Piacenza, enjoyed by Francesco Burla, when he was living, with the usual emoluments, jurisdictions, honours, and duties, as a part of the said income promised to you, viz. for 600 golden crowns, the sum we hear the said ferry annually yields, continuing our promise, as regards the other 600 crowns during your life; ordering our vicelegate of Cispadane Gaul, who is there now, and those who may be there in future, and our beloved children, the Anziani and the corporation of the said town of Piacenza, and all others whom it may concern, to give you or your and the exercise of the same, and to agent the possession of the said ferry, maintain you in it, after having given it to you, and to make you enjoy peacefully this concession during your life, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, &c. Rome, 1st Sept. 1535, the first year of our pontificate."

(14.)—Michael Angelo said also that writing was not his art, and besides that, on this account, he often declined an

swering by letter. He also left off writing a work on drawing, which would have been of that utility to art which it is easy to imagine. Whilst, however, he said he could not write, he composed some most beautiful verses; and his letters themselves are more than sufficient to prove that he might have become an excellent prose writer, if he had but chosen to attend to it.

Sixth Letter to Vasari.

(15.)-This Urbino was a Francesco Amatori from Urbino, whom Antonio Franzese had placed with Buonaroti in 1530. When Antonio Mini, pupil of Buonaroti, went to France, Francesco began to serve him in a very praiseworthy manner, and he continued to do so for twenty-six years, until Michael Angelo, as Vasari says, made him rich. He gave him a great deal of money, even 2000 crowns at one time; and besides that, he obtained him the place of guardian of the pictures of the Sistine chapel, for which

he received from the apostolical treasury four crowns every month, with an addition of six monthly ducats of gold for life. His duty was, as expressed in the moto-proprio of Paul III., to preserve from dust and other dirt the pictures of the ceiling already made in the Sistine chapel, and the other pictures and ornaments of the chapel and halls built by the said Pope, and also to preserve them from the smoke of the lights which are used for the celebration of divine of. fices. When Francesco died, Vasari wrote Michael Angelo a letter of consolation which was answered by the pre

sent.

Seventh Letter to Vasari.

(16.) This letter was written by Michael Angelo to Vasari, after his return from Spoleti, where he had fled a short time before the French army approached Rome.

He mentions Messer Cosimo Bartoli, the curate of St. John of Florence, a very learned man, and a member of the Florentine academy, who published the book called a " Defence of the Florentine Language, and of Dante," which Charles Lenzoni, a learned member of the same academy, whilst dying, ordered Giambullari to inscribe to Michael Angelo.

Letter to Varchi. (17.)-Though Vasari says he speaks as an ignorant man, it seems he says in these few words much more than

many learned men, who, in spite of the opinion of such a man, would continue to lose their time in writing about a question of no utility. Buonaroti always considered it as such; wherefore, when he was questioned by Vasari, he answered sneering," that sculpture and painting have the same end, obtained with great difficulty on both, sides; and he could draw no more from him."-Varchi, Two Lectures, &c.

Letter to Messer Bartolommeo.

in the possession of the heirs of Michael Angelo, and is written to a friend of his whose name is not mentioned.

"The model of Antonio San Gallo is very large, and is still preserved at Belvedere.”—Bottari.

chapel, the room where the bulls are Bottari says "he mentions the Paoline sealed, and the hall where the auditors of Rota assemble. It may be observed, that whilst Michael Angelo speaks here due to him, when he went to the Pope, of Bramante with the praise that was refrain from criticising him much also Julius, to complain of him, he did not

about architectural matters."-V. Condivi.

Letter to the Grand Duke. (19.)-Pope Leo had also made that church the parish of the Florentines, who lived at Rome even from the year

1519.

(20.)-Michael Angelo was very old, and as he could not make plans for architectural drawings, he employed Tiberio Calcagni, a gentlemanlike and prudent person: he therefore ordered Tiberio to make the plan of the place of the church; and whilst people thought that he was doing nothing, he sent word to the deputies that he had served them. In fact, he had not only prepared one plan, but five, and all very beautiful, and the deputies chose the richest. It may appear strange that Michael Angelo made his models with clay; but, as a sculptor, he was more experienced in clay than in anything else. Benvenuto Cellini says, that Michael Angelo being

once desirous to show some stone-cutters some shapes of windows, before he proceeded to show them by drawings, he Lectures, &c. made them also with clay.-Varchi, Two

Letter to Cornelia.

STUDIES OF

THE original studies of M. Angelo for many of his great works are still remaining, and were executed in different styles. The original design was sketched in merely to show the composition and effect of the figure, and was executed with a boldness and firmness

M. ANGELO.

Extract from Hayley's Life of Romney.

"It is probable that his professional writings, mentioned by his scholar Condivi, have perished; although Gori, in his notes on Condivi, probably meant to include them in his enumeration of Michael Angelo's writings; namely, I Ragionamenti, le Lettere, e le Rime. I conclude the Ragionamenti to be lost, as they would not otherwise have escaped the researches of M. Angelo's last and very accurate and zealous biographer. It may, however, gratify the curious to observe that some notice of them may be found in the work of a Florentine (Vicentio Carduchi), who rose to considerable eminence as a painter in Spain. He published at Madrid, about seventy years after the decease of M. Angelo, Dialogues upon Art between a Master and his Disciple,' in the Spanish language. In the commencement of the work, the disciple enumerates the treatises he read for the acquisition of professional knowledge. After naming those of Albert Durer, Leon Battista, Alberti, and others, he mentions Algunos Discursos Manuscrittos doctissimos de Michael Angel.' I do not recollect any later trace of such compositions; but this seems to prove that, in 1633, they still existed. It is remarkable that they are not mentioned by Vasari, who has not failed to declare that he heard his illustrious master and friend utter many admirable observations on art, which he, Vasari, intended to preserve and publish in the form of a dialogue; an intention that his editor Bottari says he never fulfilled."

Sculptors-Successors and Contempo

raries of M. Angelo.

Baccio Bandinelli was one of M. Angelo's contemporaries, and to whom he was opposed. His works are bold, and the design vigorous, though mannered. Several of his works exist at Florence. Benvenuto Cellini, one of the most amusing writers of his time, was also an eminent sculptor of the same age; and though more generally known for his smaller works, still his "Perseus at Florence," which is the best of his larger works, proves him to have been one of the most distinguished artists of his time.

In mentioning the celebrated sculptors of his time, Propertia da Rossi, one of the most beautiful and accomplished women of her times, and who died in the flower of her age, must not be omitted. She executed some statues for the façade of a church at Bologna.-See Vasari.

Giovanni da Bologna was celebrated for his facility and freedom; but the art had taken leave of repose and simplicity. His bronze statue of Mercury, however, known all over the world, will always be regarded as the most elegant and poetical production of modern art.

Bernini, who was born at Naples, was an artist of the greatest promise, though, with the exception of the beautiful groupe of Daphne and Apollo, what he did seemed to subvert all true taste in sculpture; and with him began the style which ended with the French school, consisting of strained actions, uncommon arrangement of composition, and flying draperies, till statuary became a work of ingenuity and dexterity, rather

than an art.

Pleased with the devoted attention of an aged domestic who attended his latter years, and who died before his master, M. Angelo one day asked him, "What was likely to become of him, should he himself be suddenly cut off?" "Alas, Sir," replied the old man, "I should be compelled to look for another service." "That you shall never do, my good Urbino; I will preserve you from the necessity of such a step ;" and he presented him with 2000 crowns.

Though ever busily engaged in the world, solitude was not without its charms to a mind like Michael Angelo's. He once retired, as related in his Life, to the mountains of Spoleto, and when charged with his love of seclusion, he used to observe, that his art was a jealous mistress, and would only be content with the most devoted and exclusive love.

So great was the attachment which he felt throughout life for sculpture, that it continued undiminished to extreme age; and when no longer able to walk, it is said he caused himself to be conveyed into the court of the Belvedere, to contemplate the beauty of the statues. It is even asserted, that, when no longer able to see, he was accustomed to examine their proportions with his hands, and that he never retired without embracing them.

In the cabinet of the Grand Duke of Florence is still preserved an unfinished head of Brutus, stated to have been abandoned by the illustrious artist during its progress, "lest," as he observed, "he should be thought to give countenance to the parricidal crime of that celebrated Roman, by endeavouring to perpetuate his memory in the minds of posterity." At the foot of the intended bust is to be read the following Latin distich:

Dum Bruti effigiem sculptor de marmore ducit,
In mentem sceleris venit, et abstinuit.

As from the stone the features start to view,
The sculptor paused, and from his task withdrew.

While Raphael was employed in one of the chambers of the Farnese Palace, M. Angelo is reported to have inspected the work in that artist's absence. But without observing what he thought of his rival's labours, he sketched the head of a fawn upon the wall, in a far bolder style and nobler proportions than the figures which he saw around him. No sooner had Raphael, on his return, become aware of it, than he exclaimed, that it could only be the work of M. Angelo. It is added, that the younger

artist availed himself of the tacit reproach it seemed to convey, by enlarging his own manner, and also that, with becoming reverence for superior genius, he chose rather to leave his own labours incomplete, than to erase that noble head, which is said to be still carefully preserved.

Sebastian del Piombo, who was no admirer of painting in fresco, induced Pope Julius II. to lay his commands on M. Angelo to paint the façade of the chapel of the Vatican in oil, which the noble artist as resolutely declined to do. At length, on being much pressed, he said, with some degree of warmth, "No never! that is an employ fit only for idle persons or women!'

Another anecdote, but perhaps hardly so well authenticated as the last, is told of the same parties. It would seem that Julius, impatient to see the progress of the artist's labours, to which the latter was always extremely opposed, obtained admittance to the chapel when it was presumed M. Angelo would be absent. Angry at beholding spectators present against his express injunctions, and not aware of their dignity, the artist suddenly threw down a plank of the scaffolding, which, falling from one stage to the other with a terrible noise, caused such an alarm, that the Pope got out of the place as quickly as possible, and was careful how he renewed his private view of the great painter's unfinished labours.

In his great picture of the Last Judgment, it is said that M. Angelo introduced the portrait of a cardinal, whom he extremely disliked, into his representation of the infernal regions, and that it was so like him as to be easily recognized. The Pope saw it, and interceded for the poor cardinal, in order that it should be effaced, when M. Angelo is reported to have replied, that unfortunately he could not oblige his holiness, which he could have done had the cardinal only been placed in Purgatory, but that being in Hell, there was no redemption for him.

Upon being one day informed that the Pontiff, Paul IV., had been observing upon the nudity of the figures in the Last Judgment, and had desired that they might be retouched for the sake of propriety: "The Pope would do better," replied the painter, "to occupy himself with correcting the disorders and indecencies which disgrace the world, than with any such hypercriticisms."

A Florentine citizen having observed M.

Angelo one day stop at the San Michele to behold a statue of St. Mark executed by Donato, and inquiring of him what most particularly struck him in its appearance, the sculptor is reported to have replied, "It is the character of the good man, which I have nowhere seen surpassed; and if St. Mark was all that he is here represented, you need have no difficulty as to believing every thing which he wrote."

A certain painter having completed a work with extreme care, and taken yet more to derive a considerable profit from its exhibition, M. Angelo was asked what he thought of the author of it: "I think," was the reply," that he will be a poor fellow so long as he shows such an extreme eagerness to become rich." One of his early friends, who had entered the church, having arrived at Rome, waited upon M. Angelo in the splendid dress in which he had officiated at mass; but the latter, affecting great surprise, appeared not to recognize him. When informed by the young dignitary who he was, Michael, fixing his eye with a look of admiration upon his canonical finery, joyfully congratulated him, exclaiming, "Heavens! what a fine outside! if you be only half as beautifully decorated within, it must go well with your soul!"

Being desired by one of his friends to give his opinion of a sculptor who had imitated a number of the most celebrated antique figures in marble, and who boasted that he had even gone beyond the skill of the ancients, M. An

gelo answered with a smile, “He whe walks behind others can never go ahead of them; and the man who cannot do well without foreign aid, can never do any thing good even with the help of others."

A certain painter exhibited a work in which the figure of an ox was drawn, in a manner superior to any other part: and a spectator expressing his surprise at it, the great artist observed, that "There was no painter but could make a good portrait of himself."

On one occasion a sculptor, who had just finished his work, evinced a particular anxiety to throw the light into his rooms in such a manner as to exhibit the piece to advantage; but M. Angelo observed to him, "Do not give yourself! this needless trouble; the light of the public square will best put its merit to the test;" alluding to the popular appre ciation of its character.

A painter of the day exhibited a history-piece, in which there was scarcely a stroke of original power, the several parts having been made up of imitations of various designs and sketches by other hands. M. Angelo being asked his idea of it-"He has done well," was the reply, "not to copy from himself; but he will be awkwardly situated at the day of judgment, when all are to resume what belongs to them: for what will become of his unfortunate picture?" a saying by which he doubtless intended to convey his opinion of the necessity of self-reliance, and the cultivation of an artist's own powers.

1550.