the Baptist, and to
be placed in the Church of the Convent of S. Silvestro. On the 7th of
June Soderini wrote upon the same topic, requesting a design. This
Michelangelo sent in October, the execution of the shrine being
intrusted to Federigo Frizzi. The incident would hardly be worth
mentioning, except for the fact that it brings to mind one of
Michelangelo's earliest patrons, the good-hearted Gonfalonier of
Justice, and anticipates the coming of the only woman he is known to
have cared for, Vittoria Colonna. It was at S. Silvestro that she
dwelt, retired in widowhood, and here occurred those Sunday morning
conversations of which Francesco d'Olanda has left us so interesting a
record.

During the next year, 1519, a certain Tommaso di Dolfo invited him to
visit Adrianople. He reminded him how, coming together in Florence,
when Michelangelo lay there in hiding from Pope Julius, they had
talked about the East, and he had expressed a wish to travel into
Turkey. Tommaso di Dolfo dissuaded him on that occasion, because the
ruler of the province was a man of no taste and careless about the
arts. Things had altered since, and he thought there was a good
opening for an able sculptor. Things, however, had altered in Italy
also, and Buonarroti felt no need to quit the country where his fame
was growing daily.

Considerable animation is introduced into the annals of Michelangelo's
life at this point by his correspondence with jovial Sebastiano del
Piombo. We possess one of this painter's letters, dating as early as
1510, when he thanks Buonarroti for consenting to be godfather to his
boy Luciano; a second of 1512, which contains the interesting account
of his conversation with Pope Julius about Michelangelo and Raffaello;
and a third, of 1518, turning upon the rivalry between the two great
artists. But the bulk of Sebastiano's gossipy and racy communications
belongs to the period of thirteen years between 1520 and 1533; then it
suddenly breaks off, owing to Michelangelo's having taken up his
residence at Rome during the autumn of 1533. A definite rupture at
some subsequent period separated the old friends. These letters are a
mine of curious information respecting artistic life at Rome. They
prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that, whatever Buonarroti and
Sanzio may have felt, their flatterers, dependants, and creatures
cherished the liveliest hostility and lived in continual rivalry. It
is somewhat painful to think that