and in death carry it with me to the
tomb?" After all, we must give Aretino credit for genuine feelings of
admiration toward illustrious artists like Titian, Sansovino, and
Michelangelo. Writing many years after the date of these letters, when
he has seen an engraving of the Last Judgment, he uses terms,
extravagant indeed, but apparently sincere, about its grandeur of
design. Then he repeats his request for a drawing. "Why will you not
repay my devotion to your divine qualities by the gift of some scrap
of a drawing, the least valuable in your eyes? I should certainly
esteem two strokes of the chalk upon a piece of paper more than all
the cups and chains which all the kings and princes gave me." It seems
that Michelangelo continued to correspond with him, and that Benvenuto
Cellini took part in their exchange of letters. But no drawings were
sent; and in course of time the ruffian got the better of the virtuoso
in Aretino's rapacious nature. Without ceasing to fawn and flatter
Michelangelo, he sought occasion to damage his reputation. Thus we
find him writing in January 1546 to the engraver Enea Vico, bestowing
high praise upon a copper-plate which a certain Bazzacco had made from
the Last Judgment, but criticising the picture as "licentious and
likely to cause scandal with the Lutherans, by reason of its immodest
exposure of the nakedness of persons of both sexes in heaven and
hell." It is not clear what Aretino expected from Enea Vico. A
reference to the Duke of Florence seems to indicate that he wished to
arouse suspicions among great and influential persons regarding the
religious and moral quality of Michelangelo's work.

This malevolent temper burst out at last in one of the most remarkable
letters we possess of his. It was obviously intended to hurt and
insult Michelangelo as much as lay within his power of innuendo and
direct abuse. The invective offers so many points of interest with
regard to both men, that I shall not hesitate to translate it here in
full.

"Sir, when I inspected the complete sketch of the whole of your Last
Judgment, I arrived at recognising the eminent graciousness of
Raffaello in its agreeable beauty of invention.

"Meanwhile, as a baptized Christian, I blush before the license, so
forbidden to man's intellect, which you have used in expressing ideas
connected with the highest aims and final ends to which our faith
aspires. So, then, that Michelangelo stupendous in his fame, that
Mich