being
the servant of that family; but, not having found any means of living
in Venice, he returned to Bologna. There he had the misfortune to
neglect, through lack of thought, when entering by the gate, to learn
the countersign for going out again, a command having been issued at
that time, as a precaution, at the desire of Messer Giovanni
Bentivogli, that all strangers who had not the countersign should be
fined fifty Bolognese lire; and having fallen into such a predicament,
nor having the means to pay, Michelagnolo by chance was seen by Messer
Giovan Francesco Aldovrandi, one of the Sixteen of the Government, who
had compassion on him, and, having made him tell his story, liberated
him, and then kept him in his house for more than a year. One day
Aldovrandi took him to see the tomb of S. Dominic, made, as has been
related, by Giovanni Pisano and then by Maestro Niccolo dell'Arca,
sculptors of olden days. In that work there were wanting a S. Petronio
and an Angel holding a candelabrum, figures of about one braccio, and
Aldovrandi asked him if he felt himself able to make them; and he
answered Yes. Whereupon he had the marble given to him, and
Michelagnolo executed them in such a manner, that they are the best
figures that are there; and Messer Francesco Aldovrandi caused thirty
ducats to be given to him for the two. Michelagnolo stayed a little
more than a year in Bologna, and he would have stayed there even
longer, in order to repay the courtesy of Aldovrandi, who loved him
both for his design and because, liking Michelagnolo's Tuscan
pronunciation in reading, he was pleased to hear from his lips the
works of Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, and other Tuscan poets. But,
since he knew that he was wasting his time, he was glad to return to
Florence.

[Illustration: BACCHUS

(_After =Michelagnolo=. Florence: Museo Nazionale_)

_Alinari_]

There he made for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici a S. Giovannino
of marble, and then set himself to make from another piece of marble a
Cupid that was sleeping, of the size of life. This, when finished, was
shown by means of Baldassarre del Milanese to Lorenzo di Pier
Francesco as a beautiful thing, and he, having pronounced the same
judgment, said to Michelagnolo: "If you were to bury it under ground
and then sent it to Rome treated in such a manner as to make it look
old, I am certain that it would pass for an antique, and you would
thus obtain much more for it than by selling