other things a Cupid of such height and in such an attitude, the man knew that he had found the right person.  So he related how the matter had gone, and promised Michelangelo, if he would come with him to Rome, to get the difference of price made up, and to introduce him to his patron, feeling sure that the latter would receive him very kindly.  Michelangelo, then, partly in anger at having been cheated, and partly moved by the gentleman’s account of Rome as the widest field for an artist to display his talents, went with him, and lodged in his house, near the palace of the Cardinal.”  S. Giorgio compelled Messer Baldassare to refund the 200 ducats, and to take the Cupid back.  But Michelangelo got nothing beyond his original price; and both Condivi and Vasari blame the Cardinal for having been a dull and unsympathetic patron to the young artist of genius he had brought from Florence.  Still the whole transaction was of vast importance, because it launched him for the first time upon Rome, where he was destined to spend the larger part of his long life, and to serve a succession of Pontiffs in their most ambitious undertakings.

Before passing to the events of his sojourn at Rome, I will wind up the story of the Cupid.  It passed first into the hands of Cesare Borgia, who presented it to Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.  On the 30th of June 1502, the Marchioness of Mantua wrote a letter to the Cardinal of Este, saying that she should very much like to place this piece, together with an antique statuette of Venus, both of which had belonged to her brother-in-law, the Duke of Urbino, in her own collection.  Apparently they had just become the property of Cesare Borgia, when he took and sacked the town of Urbino upon the 20th of June in that year.  Cesare Borgia seems to have complied immediately with her wishes; for in a second letter, dated July 22, 1502, she described the Cupid as “without a peer among the works of modern times.”

IV

Michelangelo arrived in Rome at the end of June 1496.  This we know from the first of his extant letters, which is dated July 2, and addressed to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici.  The superscription, however, bears the name of Sandro Botticelli, showing that some caution had still to be observed in corresponding with the Medici, even with those who latterly assumed the name of Popolani.  The young Buonarroti writes in excellent spirits:  “I only write to inform you that last Saturday we arrived safely, and went at once to visit the Cardinal di San Giorgio; and I presented your letter to him.  It appeared to me that he was pleased to see me, and he expressed a wish that I should go immediately to inspect his collection of statues.  I spent the whole day there, and for that reason was unable to deliver all your letters.  Afterwards, on Sunday, the Cardinal came into the new house, and had me sent for.  I went to him, and he asked what I thought about the