hat earth alone was not
enough to give them honourable burial in their greatness, and desired
that all the phases of the world should be there, and that their
sepulchres should be surrounded and covered by four statues; wherefore
he gave to one Night and Day, and to the other Dawn and Twilight;
which statues, most beautifully wrought in form, in attitude, and in
the masterly treatment of the muscles, would suffice, if that art were
lost, to restore her to her pristine lustre. There, among the other
statues, are the two Captains, armed; one the pensive Duke Lorenzo,
the very presentment of wisdom, with legs so beautiful and so well
wrought, that there is nothing better to be seen by mortal eye; and
the other is Duke Giuliano, so proud a figure, with the head, the
throat, the setting of the eyes, the profile of the nose, the opening
of the mouth, and the hair all so divine, to say nothing of the hands,
arms, knees, feet, and, in short, every other thing that he carved
therein, that the eye can never be weary or have its fill of gazing at
them; and, of a truth, whoever studies the beauty of the buskins and
the cuirass, believes it to be celestial rather than mortal. But what
shall I say of the Dawn, a nude woman, who is such as to awaken
melancholy in the soul and to render impotent the style of sculpture?
In her attitude may be seen her effort, as she rises, heavy with
sleep, and raises herself from her downy bed; and it seems that in
awakening she has found the eyes of that great Duke closed in death,
so that she is agonized with bitter grief, weeping in her own
unchangeable beauty in token of her great sorrow. And what can I say
of the Night, a statue not rare only, but unique? Who is there who has
ever seen in that art in any age, ancient or modern, statues of such a
kind? For in her may be seen not only the stillness of one sleeping,
but the grief and melancholy of one who has lost a great and honoured
possession; and we must believe that this is that night of darkness
that obscures all those who thought for some time, I will not say to
surpass, but to equal Michelagnolo in sculpture and design. In that
statue is infused all the somnolence that is seen in sleeping forms;
wherefore many verses in Latin and rhymes in the vulgar tongue were
written in her praise by persons of great learning, such as these, of
which the author is not known--

La Notte che tu vedi in si dolci atti
Dormire, fu da un Angelo scolpita