s of the Florentines, his contemporaries and predecessors. Space
and distance never entered into their calculations before the time
of Piero di Cosimo and his pupil Andrea del Sarto, and even then
with but indifferent results. They were all content with the flat
bas-relief effects familiar to them in the gates of the Baptistry
and the jewel-like decorations of the Campanile. Their favourite
problem was the expression of force by form, and no art was so
useful for that purpose as bas-relief, because of its fixed main
lines of composition and its absolute power of expressing the detail
of the action of muscle and bone.

67 Leonardo may have shown it to Vasari also as an early work of the
master's; Condivi does not mention it.

68 The cast of an angel from this shrine at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, South Kensington, is not from the one carved by Michael
Angelo, nor is it of his school as the label states; it is probably
by Nicolo del Arca. Michael Angelo's figure is the companion angel
on the other side of the altar.

69 See p. 21.

70 Probably because it was dangerous to write to any member of the
Medici family. It proves to us that Michael Angelo and Sandro
Botticelli were on confidential terms.

71 See p. 24.

72 See p. 25.

73 Vol. i. p. 22.

74 The "Monte di Pieta" is a savings-bank and pawn-broker's,
established by the state or city.

75 Le Lettere, ii. p. 4.

76 Gotti, ii. p. 33 (Archivio Buonarroti).

77 Nine cubits = 5.31 metres, or 13 feet 6 inches.

78 Agostino di Duccio.

79 Gotti estimates six golden florins at 57.60 francs, or about _L2
6s_.

80 S.C. 1504. See "Le Lettere," &c., p. 620.

81 A contemporary account, Gotti, vol. i. p. 29.

82 Firenze: Le Monnier, 1857, p. 197.

83 Perkins "Tuscan Sculptors," vol. ii. p. 74.

84 This reason given by Vasari for the use of various mediums is just
the sort of reason he would have had himself for using them. Michael
Angelo merely used different materials because it was the best way
of getting the different effects he wanted, or, sometimes possibly,
because they happened to be handy.

85 We know how difficult it is to get facts about the works done a few
decades ago, even though the artists be still living; for instance,
how little we know of