perfection, and gives up the attempt, or if he has sense
he follows him as the ideal of the perfect. This has been exemplified in
our own day in Bembo, in Sanazzaro, in Caro, in Guidoccione, in the
Marchioness of Pescara, and in other writers and lovers of the Tuscan
rhyme, who, although gifted with the highest and most singular genius,
none the less, not being able of themselves to do better than nature
exemplifies in Petrarca, they set themselves to follow him, but so happily
that they are judged worthy to be read and counted with the best.

CHAPTER XI

CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE BY CONDIVI

LVII. Now to consider my remarks. I say, that it seems to me, that nature
has endowed Michael Angelo so largely with all her riches in these arts of
painting and sculpture, that I am not to be reproached for saying that his
figures are almost inimitable. Nor does it appear that I have allowed
myself to be too much carried away, for until now he alone has worthily
taken up both chisel and brush. Of the painting of the ancients there is
no memorial, and to whom does he yield in their sculpture (of which,
indeed, much remains)? In the judgment of men learned in the art, to no
one, unless we stoop to the opinion of the vulgar, who admire the antique
for the sole reason that they envy the genius and industry of their own
times. All the same, I have not yet heard any one say the contrary; this
man is so far above envy. Raffael da Urbino, although he desired to
compete with Michael Angelo, was often constrained to say that he thanked
God he was born in his time as he acquired from him a style very different
from that which he learnt from his father, who was a painter, and from his
master Perugino. But what greater and clearer sign can we ever have of the
excellence of this man than the contention of the Princes of the world for
him? From the four Pontiffs, Julius, Leo, Clement, and Paul, to the Grand
Turk, father of him who to-day holds the Empire. As I have said above, the
Sultan sent certain monks of the Order of Saint Francis with letters
begging Michael Angelo to come and stay with him; arranging by letters of
credit for the bank of the Gondi, in Florence, to advance the amount of
money necessary for his journey, and also that from Cossa, near Ragusi, he
should be accompanied to Constantinople most honourably by one of his
grandees. Francesco(54) Valesio, King of France, tried every means to get
him, credi