[329] Braun’s autotypes of the vault frescoes show what ravage the lapse of time has wrought in them, by the cracking of the plaster, the peeling off in places of the upper surface, and the deposit of dirt and cobwebs.  Mr. Heath Wilson, after careful examination, pronounces that not only time, but the wilful hand of man, re-painting and washing the delicate tint-coats with corrosive acids, has contributed to their ruin.

[330] Histoire de la Peinture en Italie, p. 332.

[331] That is not counting the frescoes of the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican, painted about 1544, which are now in a far worse state even than the “Last Judgment,” and which can never have done more than show his style in decadence.

[332] See above, Chapter II, S. Peter’s.

[333] See Gotti, p. 307, or Archivio Buonarroti, p. 535.

[334] I have reserved my translation of the sonnets that cast most light upon Michael Angelo’s thought and feeling for an Appendix, No.  II.

[335] The majority of Michael Angelo’s letters are written on domestic matters—­about the affairs of his brothers and his father.  When they vexed him, he would break out into expressions like the following:  “Io son ito, da dodici anni in qua, tapinando per tutta Italia; sopportato ogni vergognia; patito ogni stento; lacerato il corpo mio in ogni fatica; messa la vita propria a mille pericoli, solo per aiutar la casa mia.”  They are generally full of good counsel and sound love.  How he loved his father may be seen in the terza rima poem on his death in 1534.

[336] Notice this expression in a letter to his father, written from Rome, about 1512, “Bastivi avere del pane, e vivete ben con Cristo e poveramente; come fo io qua, che vivo meschinamente.”  It does not seem that he ever altered this poor way of living.  For his hiring at Bologna, in 1507, a single room with one bed in it, for himself and his three workmen, see Gotti, p. 58.  His father in 1500 rebuked him for the meanness of his establishment; ibid. p. 23.  It appears that he was always sending money home.

[337] “Io sto qua in grande afanno, e con grandissima fatica di corpo, e non o amici di nessuna sorte, e none voglio:  e non o tanto tempo che io possa mangiare el bisognio mio.”  Letter to Gismondo, published by Grimm.  See, too, Sebastian del Piombo’s letter to him of November 9, 1520:  “Ma fate paura a ognuno, insino a’ papi.”  Compare, too, the letter of Sebastian, Oct. 15, 1512, in which Julius is reported to have said, “E terribile, come tu vedi, non se pol praticar con lui.”  Again, Michael Angelo writes:  “Sto sempesolo, vo poco attorno e non parlo a persona e massino di fiorentini.”  Gotti, p. 255.

[338] When anything went wrong with him, he became moody and vehement:  “Non vi maravigliate che io vi abbi scritto alle volte cosi stizosamente, che io o alle volte di gran passione, per molte cagioni che avengono a chi e fuor di casa.”  So he writes to his father in 1498.  A letter to Luigi del Riccio of 1545, is signed “Michelagnolo Buonarroti non pittore, ne scultore, ne architettore, ma quel che voi volete, ma none briaco, come vi dissi, in casa.”