sonnets among those he wrote which give a very good notion of his great inventive power and judgment.  Some of them have furnished Varchi with the subject of Discourses.  It must be remembered, however, that he practised poetry for his amusement, and not as a profession, always depreciating his own talent, and appealing to his ignorance in these matters.  Just in the same way he has perused the Holy Scriptures with great care and industry, studying not merely the Old Testament, but also the New, together with their commentators, as, for example, the writings of Savonarola, for whom he always retained a deep affection, since the accents of the preacher’s living voice rang in his memory.

“He has given away many of his works, the which, if he had chosen to sell them, would have brought him vast sums of money.  A single instance of this generosity will suffice—­namely, the two statues which he presented to his dearest friend, Messer Ruberto Strozzi.  Nor was it only of his handiwork that he has been liberal.  He opened his purse readily to poor men of talent in literature or art, as I can testify, having myself been the recipient of his bounty.  He never showed an envious spirit toward the labours of other masters in the crafts he practised, and this was due rather to the goodness of his nature than to any sense of his own superiority.  Indeed, he always praised all men of excellence without exception, even Raffaello of Urbino, between whom and himself there was of old time some rivalry in painting.  I have only heard him say that Raffaello did not derive his mastery in that art so much from nature as from prolonged study.  Nor is it true, as many persons assert to his discredit, that he has been unwilling to impart instruction.  On the contrary, he did so readily, as I know by personal experience, for to me he unlocked all the secrets of the arts he had acquired.  Ill-luck, however, willed that he should meet either with subjects ill adapted to such studies, or else with men of little perseverance, who, when they had been working a few months under his direction, began to think themselves past-masters.  Moreover, although he was willing to teach, he did not like it to be known that he did so, caring more to do good than to seem to do it.  I may add that he always attempted to communicate the arts to men of gentle birth, as did the ancients, and not to plebeians.”

V

To this passage about Michelangelo’s pupils we may add the following observation by Vasari:  “He loved his workmen, and conversed with them on friendly terms.  Among these I will mention Jacopo Sansovino, Rosso, Pontormo, Daniele da Volterra, and Giorgio Vasari.  To the last of these men he showed unbounded kindness, and caused him to study architecture, with the view of employing his services in that art.  He exchanged thoughts readily with him, and discoursed upon artistic topics.  Those are in the wrong who assert that he refused to communicate