recommending themselves to him on the ground that it was a disgrace to
their colony to have thrown away so much money without any kind of
profit, and that, if his genius did not avail to finish the work, they
had no other resource. He promised them to do it, with as much
lovingness as he had ever shown in any work in the past, because in
this his old age he readily gave his attention to sacred things, such
as might redound to the honour of God, and also from affection for his
fellow-Florentines, whom he loved always. Michelagnolo had with him at
this conference the Florentine sculptor Tiberio Calcagni, a young man
very ardent to learn art, who, after going to Rome, had turned his
mind to the study of architecture. Loving him, Michelagnolo had given
him to finish, as has been related, the Pieta in marble that he had
broken, and, in addition, a head of Brutus in marble with the
breast, considerably larger than life, to the end that he might
finish it. Of this the head alone was carved, with certain most minute
gradines, and he had taken it from a portrait of Brutus cut in a very
ancient cornelian that was in the possession of Signor Giuliano
Cesarino; which Michelagnolo was doing for Cardinal Ridolfi at the
entreaty of Messer Donato Giannotti, his very dear friend, and it is a
rare work. Michelagnolo, then, in matters of architecture, not being
able by reason of old age to draw any more or to make accurate lines,
was making use of Tiberio, because he was very gentle and discreet;
and thus, desiring to avail himself of him in such an undertaking, he
laid on him the charge of tracing the plan of the site of the
above-named church. That plan having been traced and carried
straightway to Michelagnolo, at a time when it was not thought that he
was doing anything, he gave them to understand through Tiberio that he
had carried out their wishes, and finally showed them five most
beautiful ground-plans of temples; which having seen, they marvelled.
He said to them that they should choose one that pleased them, and
they, not wishing to do it, left the matter to his judgment, but he
insisted that they should decide of their own free will; wherefore
they all with one accord chose the richest. This having been adopted,
Michelagnolo said to them that if they carried such a design to
completion, neither the Greeks nor the Romans ever in their times
executed such a work; words that neither before nor afterwards ever
issued from the mout