y misfortunes with
it by reason of a flaw that was in the marble, so that he lost his
patience and began to break it up; and he would have broken it
altogether into pieces if his servant Antonio had not besought him
that he should present it to him as it was. Whereupon Tiberio, having
heard this, spoke to Bandini, who desired to have something by the
hand of Michelagnolo, and Bandini contrived that Tiberio should
promise to Antonio two hundred crowns of gold, and prayed Michelagnolo
to consent that Tiberio should finish it for Bandini with the
assistance of models by his hand, urging that thus his labour would
not be thrown away. Michelagnolo was satisfied, and then made them a
present of it. The work was carried away immediately, and then put
together again and reconstructed with I know not what new pieces by
Tiberio; but it was left unfinished by reason of the death of Bandini,
Michelagnolo, and Tiberio. At the present day it is in the possession
of Pier Antonio Bandini, the son of Francesco, at his villa on Monte
Cavallo. But to return to Michelagnolo; it became necessary to find
some work in marble on which he might be able to pass some time every
day with the chisel, and another piece of marble was put before him,
from which another Pieta had been already blocked out, different from
the first and much smaller.

[Illustration: PIETA

(_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome: Palazzo Rondanini_)

_Alinari_]

There had entered into the service of Paul IV, and also into the
charge of the fabric of S. Pietro, the architect Pirro Ligorio, and he
was now once more harassing Michelagnolo, going about saying that he
had sunk into his second childhood. Wherefore, angered by such
treatment, he would willingly have returned to Florence, and, having
delayed to return, he was again urged in letters by Giorgio, but he
knew that he was too old, having now reached the age of eighty-one.
Writing at that time to Vasari by his courier, and sending him various
spiritual sonnets, he said that he was come to the end of his life,
that he must be careful where he directed his thoughts, that by
reading he would see that he was at his last hour, and that there
arose in his mind no thought upon which was not graved the image of
death; and in one letter he said:

"It is God's will, Vasari, that I should continue to live in misery
for some years. I know that you will tell me that I am an old fool to
wish to write sonnets, but since many say that I a