casion were collected into one volume, and distributed by the
Florentine firm of Sermatelli. To load these pages with the details of
allegorical statues and pictures which have long passed out of
existence, and to cite passages from funeral speeches, seems to me
useless. It is enough to have directed the inquisitive to sources
where their curiosity may be gratified.

IV

It would be impossible to take leave of Michelangelo without some
general survey of his character and qualities. With this object in
view I do not think I can do better than to follow what Condivi says
at the close of his biography, omitting those passages which have been
already used in the body of this book, and supplementing his summary
with illustrative anecdotes from Vasari. Both of these men knew him
intimately during the last years of his life; and if it is desirable
to learn how a man strikes his contemporaries, we obtain from them a
lively and veracious, though perhaps a slightly flattered, picture of
the great master whom they studied with love and admiration from
somewhat different points of view. This will introduce a critical
examination of the analysis to which the psychology; of Michelangelo
has recently been subjected.

Condivi opens his peroration with the following paragraphs:--

"Now, to conclude this gossiping discourse of mine, I say that it is
my opinion that in painting and sculpture nature bestowed all her
riches with a full hand upon Michelangelo. I do not fear reproach or
contradiction when I repeat that his statues are, as it were,
inimitable. Nor do I think that I have suffered myself to exceed the
bounds of truth while making this assertion. In the first place, he is
the only artist who has handled both brush and mallet with equal
excellence. Then we have no relics left of antique paintings to
compare with his; and though many classical works in statuary survive,
to whom among the ancients does he yield the palm in sculpture? In the
judgment of experts and practical artists, he certainly yields to
none; and were, we to consult the vulgar, who admire antiquity without
criticism, through a kind of jealousy toward the talents and the
industry of their own times, even here we shall find none who say the
contrary; to such a height has this great man soared above the scope
of envy. Raffaello of Urbino, though he chose to strive in rivalry
with Michelangelo, was wont to say that he thanked God for having been
born in his day