e been worked by a cake-maker, not carved in marble. It looks as if
it had been made by one who worked in dough, it is so stunted. I do not
understand these things, not knowing the manner of working in marble; but
I can very well tell you that those fingers look to me very stumpy. I can
tell you, too, that it is easy to see he has been working on the beard. I
believe a baby would have had more discretion; it looks as though he had
done the hair with a knife without a point; but this can easily be
remedied. He has also cut one of the nostrils, so that with a little more
the whole nose would have been spoiled, so that no one but God could have
mended it, and I believe God inspired you to write your last letter to
Master Zovane da Reggio, my comrade, for if the figure had remained in the
hands of Pietro he would undoubtedly have ruined it." Michael Angelo
transferred the work of finishing from Pietro to Federigo Frizzi.
Sebastiano goes on to say: "Pietro is most malignant now that he is cast
off by you. He does not seem to value you or any one else alive, but
thinks he is a great master; he will find out what he is fast enough, for
I believe the poor young man will never know how to make statues. He has
forgotten the art. The knees of your statue are worth more than all Rome."

Frizzi mended up the mistakes and finished the work on the hair, face,
hands, feet, cross, and the parts undercut. Michael Angelo was evidently
anxious as to the result of this touching up, and as he was much attached
to Vari, he offered to make a new statue, but the courtly Roman replied
that he was entirely satisfied with the one he had received. He regarded
it and esteemed it as a thing of gold, and said that Michael Angelo's
offer proved his noble soul and generosity, inasmuch as when he had
already made what could not be surpassed and was incomparable, he still
wanted to serve his friend better.(126)

This Christ of the Minerva is like a late Greek embodiment of the
Christian ideal; it is a work that has been a good deal criticised,
particularly as to the details, which the letters just quoted prove to
have been finished by assistants away from the supervision of the master.
The arms and torso, and, as Sebastiano justly says, the knees, are very
splendid, and if the spoiled head and extremities were broken away the
fragment, that is to say, the part really executed by the master, would be
as famous as many a fine work of Greece or of Old Rome. A