sina by a bridge, of raising in the court of the Belvedere
a Moses striking water from the rock, etc. It was that taste for the
colossal, and what we might even dare to call the uselessly colossal,
which was handed down through his school as far as Bernini.

[104] In 1553. See Condivi. This is the famous Pieta of the cathedral of
Florence. Blaise de Vigenere in "Les Images de Philostrate," Paris,
1629, speaks of a Pieta on which Michelangelo was working in 1550 for
his own tomb.

[105] All his life he suffered from insomnia brought on by overwork, a
fever which continually consumed him and his ascetic sobriety.

[106] Two other unfinished Pietas have been preserved. One is in the
court of the Rondanini palace in Rome, the other has just been found in
Palestrina.

[107] The figures are not on the same scale, especially the figure of
the Magdalen, which is too small. She is colder than the rest of the
group and more finished, and we may suspect that it was upon her figure
that Calcagni worked.

[108] Among these artists he knew particularly well Francesco Granacci,
Giuliano Bugiardini, Jacopo Sansovino, Aristotele da San Gallo, Rosso,
Pontormo, Guglielmo della Porta, Vignole, and the musician Archadelt.

[109] Correspondence between Sebastiano del Piombo and Michelangelo has
been published by Gaetano Milanesi with a French translation by A.
LePileur and an introduction by E. Muentz in the Bibl. Internationale de
l'Art (Librairie de l'Art, 1890).

[110] Donato Giannotti has, as we have said, preserved the memory of
these relations in his "Dialoghi," 1545. Michelangelo was particularly
intimate with Luigi del Riccio through their mutual friendship with the
beautiful Cecchino dei Bracci, whose premature death in 1544 inspired
Michelangelo with a cycle of verses.

[111] "La Vita di Michelangelo," by Ascanio Condivi, appeared in July,
1553, in Rome, published by Antonio Blado and dedicated to Julius III.
The first edition of Vasari's "Vite" had already appeared in 1551 and
Vasari had sent it to Michelangelo, who had thanked him in the sonnet
"Se con lo stile."

[112] See Benvenuto Cellini.

[113] Letter of Vasari to Cosmo de' Medici, April 8, 1560. See also the
affectionate letter of Michelangelo to Sebastiano del Piombo in May,
1555.

[114] Francesca married, in 1538, Michele de Niccolo Guicciardini.
Lionardo married, in 1553, Cassandra, the daughter of Donato Ridolfi.

[115] A few days before Michelangelo had