er Jacopo
Galli, an ingenious person, who caused him to make a Cupid of marble
as large as life, and then a figure of a Bacchus ten palms high, who
has a cup in the right hand, and in the left hand the skin of a tiger,
with a bunch of grapes at which a little satyr is trying to nibble. In
that figure it may be seen that he sought to achieve a certain fusion
in the members that is marvellous, and in particular that he gave it
both the youthful slenderness of the male and the fullness and
roundness of the female--a thing so admirable, that he proved himself
excellent in statuary beyond any other modern that had worked up to
that time. On which account, during his stay in Rome, he made so much
proficience in the studies of art, that it was a thing incredible to
see his exalted thoughts and the difficulties of the manner exercised
by him with such supreme facility; to the amazement not only of those
who were not accustomed to see such things, but also of those familiar
with good work, for the reason that all the works executed up to that
time appeared as nothing in comparison with his. These things awakened
in Cardinal di San Dionigi, called Cardinal de Rohan, a Frenchman, a
desire to leave in a city so famous some worthy memorial of himself by
the hand of so rare a craftsman; and he caused him to make a Pieta of
marble in the round, which, when finished, was placed in the Chapel of
the Vergine Maria della Febbre in S. Pietro, where the Temple of Mars
used to be. To this work let no sculptor, however rare a craftsman,
ever think to be able to approach in design or in grace, or ever to be
able with all the pains in the world to attain to such delicacy and
smoothness or to perforate the marble with such art as Michelagnolo
did therein, for in it may be seen all the power and worth of art.
Among the lovely things to be seen in the work, to say nothing of the
divinely beautiful draperies, is the body of Christ; nor let anyone
think to see greater beauty of members or more mastery of art in any
body, or a nude with more detail in the muscles, veins, and nerves
over the framework of the bones, nor yet a corpse more similar than
this to a real corpse. Here is perfect sweetness in the expression of
the head, harmony in the joints and attachments of the arms, legs, and
trunk, and the pulses and veins so wrought, that in truth Wonder
herself must marvel that the hand of a craftsman should have been able
to execute so divinely and so p