that Michelangelo began another Pieta in marble on a much
smaller scale. It is possible that this may have been the unfinished
group of two figures (a dead Christ sustained by a bending man), of
which there is a cast in the Accademia at Florence. In some respects
the composition of this fragment bears a strong resemblance to the
puzzling Deposition from the Cross in our National Gallery. The
trailing languor of the dead Christ's limbs is almost identical in the
marble and the painting.

While speaking of these several Pietas, I must not forget the
medallion in high relief of the Madonna clasping her dead Son, which
adorns the Albergo dei Poveri at Genoa. It is ascribed to
Michelangelo, was early believed to be his, and is still accepted
without hesitation by competent judges. In spite of its strongly
marked Michelangelesque mannerism, both as regards feeling, facial
type, and design, I cannot regard the bas-relief, in its present
condition at least, as a genuine work, but rather as the production of
some imitator, or the _rifacimento_ of a restorer. A similar
impression may here be recorded regarding the noble portrait-bust in
marble of Pope Paul III. at Naples. This too has been attributed to
Michelangelo. But there is no external evidence to support the
tradition, while the internal evidence from style and technical
manipulation weighs strongly against it. The medallions introduced
upon the heavily embroidered cope are not in his style. The treatment
of the adolescent female form in particular indicates a different
temperament. Were the ascription made to Benvenuto Cellini, we might
have more easily accepted it. But Cellini would certainly have
enlarged upon so important a piece of sculpture in his Memoirs. If
then we are left to mere conjecture, it would be convenient to suggest
Guglielmo della Porta, who executed the Farnese monument in S.
Peter's.

IV

While still a Cardinal, Paul III. began to rebuild the old palace of
the Farnesi on the Tiber shore. It closes one end of the great open
space called the Campo di Fiore, and stands opposite to the Villa
Farnesina, on the right bank of the river. Antonio da Sangallo was the
architect employed upon this work, which advanced slowly until
Alessandro Farnese's elevation to the Papacy. He then determined to
push the building forward, and to complete it on a scale of
magnificence befitting the supreme Pontiff. Sangallo had carried the
walls up to the second story. T