iful of those in the Louvre came from the Jabach and Mariette
collections.

"You could not ask for anything more finished or showing a greater
knowledge of drawing," says Mariette; ... "they are almost too much
finished.... I do not know any other master who finished his studies
more completely. When he is looking for a certain pose he dashes off
impetuously on the paper what comes from his imagination. He draws with
large strokes.... But if he wants to study nature so that he may
reproduce it later on in sculpture or in painting he follows an entirely
different method.... His drawing is no longer a sketch, but a finished
fragment in which no detail is left out, it is the flesh itself; and
Michelangelo needed nothing more than this for his modelling. I have a
number of drawings where you can see the marks which Michelangelo made
on them, and which indicate that these designs were used by him as
guides in his modelling...."

Some of the drawings in the Louvre were for the tombs of the Medici and
for the bronze David for Florimond Robertet.

Another curious thing about these drawings is that we often find upon
them verses by Michelangelo, fragments of poems. Both verses and
drawings are often the repetitions or variations of certain ideas which
were in his mind for years and occupied his attention with the tenacity
of fixed ideas.

Michelangelo used indifferently red chalk, pen and ink, and charcoal or
pencil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I.--WRITINGS OF MICHELANGELO

_Le Lettere di Michel-Angelo Buonarroti_, publicate, coi _Ricordi ed i
Contratti artistici_, per cura di Gaetano MILANESI. Florence, 1875,
in-fol., IX, 721 pages. Lemonnier (495 letters, from 1497 to 1563).

_Rime di Michel-Angelo Buonarroti_, raccolte da Michelagnolo suo nipote.
Florence, 1623, Giunti (first complete edition, but full of errors).

_Rime di Michel-Angelo Buonarroti_, cavate dagli autografi e publicate
da Cesare GUASTI. Florence, 1863 (first really accurate edition).

_Die Dichtungen des Michel-Angelo Buonarroti_, herausgegeben und mit
kritischem Apparat versehen von Carl FREY. Berlin, 1897 (the finest and
most complete edition of the poems of Michelangelo which has been made
up to the present time).

II.--WORKS ON MICHELANGELO

I. WRITINGS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

Giorgio VASARI.--_Vite degli architetti, pittori e scultori_ (first
edition). Florence, 1550, in 4to;--(second edition). Florence, 1568, in
4to.--edition of MILANESI.