lo Visconti, a great man in this
city, and beloved by his Holiness, four medals of your portrait: two
in silver, and two in bronze. I should have done so earlier but for my
occupation with the monument (of Medeghino), and for the certainty I
feel that you will excuse my tardiness, if not a sin of ingratitude in
me. The one enclosed within the little box has been worked up to the
finest polish. I beg you to accept and keep this for the love of me.
With the other three you will do as you think best. I say this because
ambition has prompted me to send copies into Spain and Flanders, as I
have also done to Rome and other places. I call it ambition, forasmuch
as I have gained an overplus of benefits by acquiring the good-will of
your lordship, whom I esteem so highly. Have I not received in little
less than three months two letters written to me by you, divine man;
and couched not in terms fit for a servant of good heart and will, but
for one beloved as a son? I pray you to go on loving me, and when
occasion serves, to favour me; and to Signer Tomao dei Cavalieri say
that I shall never be unmindful of him."

It is clear, then, I think, that Leoni's model was made at Rome in
1560, cast at Milan, and sent early in the spring of 1561 to
Michelangelo. The wide distribution of the medals, two of which exist
still in silver, while several in bronze may be found in different
collections, is accounted for by what Leoni says about his having
given them away to various parts of Europe. We are bound to suppose
that AET. 88 in the legend on the obverse is due to a misconception
concerning Michelangelo's age. Old men are often ignorant or careless
about the exact tale of years they have performed.

There is reason to believe that Leoni's original model of the profile,
the likeness he shaped from life, and which he afterwards used for the
medallion, is extant and in excellent preservation. Mr. C. Drury E.
Fortnum (to whose monographs upon Michelangelo's portraits, kindly
communicated by himself, I am deeply indebted at this portion of my
work), tells us how he came into possession of an exquisite cameo, in
flesh-coloured wax upon a black oval ground. This fragile work of art
is framed in gilt metal and glazed, carrying upon its back an Italian
inscription, which may be translated: "Portrait of Michelangelo
Buonarroti, taken from the life, by Leone Aretino, his friend."
Comparing the relief in wax with the medal, we cannot doubt that both