e certainty and freedom of the
master's hand. Though the last touches of the chisel are lacking,
every limb palpitates and undulates with life. The marble seems to be
growing into flesh beneath the hatched lines left upon its surface.
The pose of the young god, full of strength and sinewy, is no less
admirable for audacity than for ease and freedom. Whether Vasari was
right in his explanation of the action of this figure may be
considered more than doubtful. Were we not accustomed to call it an
Apollo, we should rather be inclined to class it with the Slaves of
the Louvre, to whom in feeling and design it bears a remarkable
resemblance. Indeed, it might be conjectured with some probability
that, despairing of bringing his great design for the tomb of Julius
to a conclusion, he utilised one of the projected captives for his
present to the all-powerful vizier of the Medicean tyrants. It ought,
in conclusion, to be added, that there was nothing servile in
Michelangelo's desire to make Valori his friend. He had accepted the
political situation; and we have good reason, from letters written at
a later date by Valori from Rome, to believe that this man took a
sincere interest in the great artist. Moreover, Varchi, who is
singularly severe in his judgment on the agents of the Medici,
expressly states that Baccio Valori was "less cruel than the other
Palleschi, doing many and notable services to some persons out of
kindly feeling, and to others for money (since he had little and spent
much); and this he was well able to perform, seeing he was then the
lord of Florence, and the first citizens of the land paid court to him
and swelled his train."

VI

During the siege Lodovico Buonarroti passed his time at Pisa. His
little grandson, Lionardo, the sole male heir of the family, was with
him. Born September 25, 1519, the boy was now exactly eleven years
old, and by his father's death in 1528 he had been two years an
orphan. Lionardo was ailing, and the old man wearied to return. His
two sons, Gismondo and Giansimone, had promised to fetch him home when
the country should be safe for travelling. But they delayed; and at
last, upon the 30th of September, Lodovico wrote as follows to
Michelangelo: "Some time since I directed a letter to Gismondo, from
whom you have probably learned that I am staying here, and, indeed,
too long; for the flight of Buonarroto's pure soul to heaven, and my
own need and earnest desire to come home, and