s. Those who would see this
group aright must visit the Duomo before seven o'clock on a summer
morning, when the light of the sun falls, though the white robe of a
bishop in one of the high eastern windows, upon the neighbouring pillars
and the floor, and lights up that end of the church; at other times the
darkness of the dome covers the group as the darkness covered the earth
during the tragic hours at Golgotha.

The right arm of the Christ has become over polished and much worn because
it is used as a balustrade by the acolytes, who carelessly run up and down
the steps between the group and the back of the high altar to light the
candles during service. On the other side a rough metal handle has
positively been let into the left side of the Joseph of Arimathea, so that
a clumsy boy may climb the more easily; wooden steps also fit so closely
to the marble that they injure the lines of the group. All the
characteristics of Michael Angelo's impassioned period may be studied in
this group; his favourite mannerisms are there also. Examine the hand of
Joseph, with the middle finger touching the thumb, and compare it with the
allegorical statues of the Medici Chapel. Vasari tells us that Michael
Angelo began another Pieta on a smaller scale; this may be the beautiful
group that has been spoiled by an alteration, now in the courtyard of the
Palazzo Rondini, No. 418, the Corso, Rome. There is a cast of it in the
Belle Arti at Florence. The hanging limbs of the Christ have a most
pathetic effect, and so has the whole expression of the group. The effect
is obtained by the length of the principal lines.

There is a medallion of the Madonna clasping her dead son at the Albergo
dei Poveri, at Genoa, attributed to Michael Angelo; it may have been begun
by him during this long period of old age, but it cannot be called his
work. It has been entirely recarved by an imitator.

Michael Angelo made his famous report condemning the design of Antonio da
Sangallo for the rebuilding of the Farnese palace upon the shores of the
Tiber; it is a mysterious document, in Michael Angelo's own hand, and does
not leave Sangallo a single merit. All the theories are proved by the
precepts of Vitruvius. The adherents of Sangallo resented it very
naturally, and the "Setta Sangallesca" became his bitter enemies. The Pope
himself was dissatisfied with Sangallo, and the design for the cornice was
thrown open to competition. Perino del Vaga, Sebastiano