[322] See above, Chapter II, Michael Angelo.
[323] Vasari names the gloomy statue, called by the Italians Il Penseroso, “Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino,” the sprightly one, “Giuliano, Duke of Nemours;” and this contemporary tradition has been recently confirmed by an inspection of the Penseroso’s tomb (see a letter to the Academy, March 13, 1875, by Mr. Charles Heath Wilson). Grimm, in his Life of Michael Angelo, gave plausible aesthetic reasons why we should reverse the nomenclature; but the discovery of two bodies beneath the Penseroso, almost certainly those of Lorenzo and his supposed son Alessandro, justifies Vasari. Neither of these statues can be accepted as a portrait.
[324] The “Bacchus” of the Bargello, the “David,” the “Christ,” of the Minerva, the “Duke of Nemours,” and the almost finished “Night,” might also be mentioned. His chalk drawings of the “Bersaglieri,” the “Infant Bacchanals,” the “Fall of Phaethon,” and the “Punishment of Tityos,” now in the Royal Collection at Windsor, prove that even in old age Michael Angelo carried delicacy of execution as a draughtsman to a point not surpassed even by Lionardo. Few frescoes, again, were ever finished with more conscientious elaboration than those of the Sistine vault.
[325] See Varchi, at the end of the Storia Fiorentina, for episodes in the life of Pier Luigi Farnese, and Cellini for a popular estimate of the Cardinal, his father.
[326] This extract from Cesare Balbo’s Pensieri sulla Storia d’ Italia, Le Monnier, 1858, p. 57, may help to explain the situation: “E se lasciando gli uomini e i nomi grandi de’ governanti, noi venissimo a quella storia, troppo sovente negletta, dei piccoli, dei piu, dei governati che sono in somma scopo d’ ogni sorta di governo; se, coll’ aiuto delle tante memorie rimaste di quell’ secolo, noi ci addestrassimo a conoscere la condizione comune e privata degli Italiani di quell’ eta, noi troveremmo trasmesse dai governanti a’ governati, e ritornate da questi a quelli, tali universali scostumatezze ed immoralita, tali fiacchezze e perfidie, tali mollezze e libidini, tali ozi e tali vizi, tali avvilimenti insomma e corruzioni, che sembrano appena credibili in una eta d’ incivilmento cristiano.”
[327] Vasari’s description moves our laughter with its jargon about “attitudini bellissime e scorti molto mirabili,” when the man, in spite of his honest and enthusiastic admiration, is so little capable of penetrating the painter’s thought. Mr. Ruskin leaves the same impression as Vasari: he too makes much talk about attitudes and muscles in Michael Angelo, and seems to be on Vasari’s level as to comprehending him. The difference is that Vasari praises, Ruskin blames; both miss the mark.
[328] “E possibile che voi, che per essere divino non degnate il consortio degli huomini, haviate cio fatto nel maggior tempio di Dio?.... In un bagno delitioso, non in un choro supremo si conveniva il far vostro.” Those who are curious may consult Aretino’s correspondence with Michael Angelo in his published letters (Parigi, 1609), lib. i. p. 153; lib. ii. p. 9; lib. iii. pp. 45, 122; lib. iv. p. 37.