nly two authentic portraits in painting of Michelangelo, one
by Bugiardini, the other by Jacopo del Conte. He has neglected to
mention two which are undoubtedly attempts to reproduce the features
of the master by scholars he had formed. Probably Vasari overlooked
them, because they did not exist as easel-pictures, but were
introduced into great compositions as subordinate adjuncts. One of
them is the head painted by Daniele da Volterra in his picture of the
Assumption at the church of the Trinita de' Monti in Rome. It belongs
to an apostle, draped in red, stretching arms aloft, close to a
column, on the right hand of the painting as we look at it. This must
be reckoned among the genuine likenesses of the great man by one who
lived with him and knew him intimately. The other is a portrait placed
by Marcello Venusti in the left-hand corner of his copy of the Last
Judgment, executed, under Michelangelo's direction, for the Cardinal
Farnese. It has value for the same reasons as those which make us
dwell upon Daniele da Volterra's picture. Moreover, it connects itself
with a series of easel-paintings. One of these, ascribed to Venusti,
is preserved in the Museo Buonarroti at Florence; another at the
Capitol in Rome. Several repetitions of this type exist: they look
like studies taken by the pupil from his master, and reproduced to
order when death closed the scene, making friends wish for mementoes
of the genius who had passed away. The critique of such works will
always remain obscure.

What has become of the portrait of Del Conte mentioned by Vasari
cannot now be ascertained. We have no external evidence to guide us.

On the other hand, certain peculiarities about the portrait in the
Uffizi, especially the exaggeration of one eye, lend some colouring to
the belief that we here possess the picture ascribed by Vasari to
Bugiardini.

Michelangelo's type of face was well accentuated, and all the more or
less contemporary portraits of him reproduce it. Time is wasted in the
effort to assign to little men their special part in the creation of a
prevalent tradition. It seems to me, therefore, the function of sane
criticism not to be particular about the easel-pictures ascribed to
Venusti, Del Conte, and Bugiardini.

The case is different with a superb engraving by Giulio Bonasoni, a
profile in a circle, dated 1546, and giving Buonarroti's age as
seventy-two. This shows the man in fuller vigour than the portraits we
have hith