as
blocking out one of the bound Captives at the Louvre. It seems from
what follows in the letter that Michelangelo had attempted to recover
the money through his brother Buonarroto, but that Signorelli refused
to acknowledge his debt. The Capitano wrote that he was sure it had
been discharged. "That," adds Michelangelo, "is the same as calling me
the biggest blackguard; and so I should be, if I wanted to get back
what had been already paid. But let your Lordship think what you like
about it, I am bound to get the money, and so I swear." The remainder
of the autograph is torn and illegible; it seems to wind up with a
threat.
The records of this period are so scanty that every detail acquires a
certain importance for Michelangelo's biographer. By a deed executed
on the 14th of June 1514, we find that he contracted to make a figure
of Christ in marble, "life-sized, naked, erect, with a cross in his
arms, and in such attitude as shall seem best to Michelangelo." The
persons who ordered the statue were Bernardo Cencio (a Canon of S.
Peter's), Mario Scappucci, and Metello Varj dei Porcari, a Roman of
ancient blood. They undertook to pay 200 golden ducats for the work;
and Michelangelo promised to finish it within the space of four years,
when it was to be placed in the Church of S. Maria sopra Minerva.
Metello Varj, though mentioned last in the contract, seems to have
been the man who practically gave the commission, and to whom
Michelangelo was finally responsible for its performance. He began to
hew it from a block, and discovered black veins in the working. This,
then, was thrown aside, and a new marble had to be attacked. The
statue, now visible at the Minerva, was not finished until the year
1521, when we shall have to return to it again.
There is a point of some interest in the wording of this contract, on
which, as facts to dwell upon are few and far between at present, I
may perhaps allow myself to digress. The master is here described as
_Michelangelo (di Lodovico) Simoni, Scultore_. Now Michelangelo always
signed his own letters Michelangelo Buonarroti, although he addressed
the members of his family by the surname of Simoni. This proves that
the patronymic usually given to the house at large was still Simoni,
and that Michelangelo himself acknowledged that name in a legal
document. The adoption of Buonarroti by his brother's children and
descendants may therefore be ascribed to usage ensuing from the
illustra
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