ade it,
and he, having sat down in order to put on his hose, into which his
legs would not go because they were wet with water, and hearing the
cries and tumult of the soldiers and the uproar of the drummers, was
struggling to draw on one stocking by force; and, besides that all the
muscles and nerves of his figure could be perceived, his mouth was so
distorted as to show clearly how he was straining and struggling even
to the very tips of his toes. There were also drummers, and figures
with their clothes in their arms running to the combat; and there were
to be seen the most extravagant attitudes, some standing, some
kneeling or bent double, others stretched horizontally and struggling
in mid-air, and all with masterly foreshortenings. There were also
many figures in groups, all sketched in various manners, some outlined
with charcoal, some drawn with strokes, others stumped in and
heightened with lead-white, Michelagnolo desiring to show how much he
knew in his profession. Wherefore the craftsmen were seized with
admiration and astonishment, seeing the perfection of art revealed to
them in that drawing by Michelagnolo; and some who saw them, after
beholding figures so divine, declare that there has never been seen
any work, either by his hand or by the hands of others, no matter how
great their genius, that can equal it in divine beauty of art. And, in
truth, it is likely enough, for the reason that since the time when it
was finished and carried to the Sala del Papa with great acclamation
from the world of art and extraordinary glory for Michelagnolo, all
those who studied from that cartoon and drew those figures--as was
afterwards the custom in Florence for many years both for strangers
and for natives--became persons eminent in art, as we have since seen.
For among those who studied the cartoon were Aristotile da San Gallo,
the friend of Michelagnolo, Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Raffaello Sanzio of
Urbino, Francesco Granacci, Baccio Bandinelli, and the Spaniard Alonzo
Berughetta, and then there followed Andrea del Sarto, Franciabigio,
Jacopo Sansovino, Rosso, Maturino, Lorenzetto, Tribolo, who was then a
boy, Jacopo da Pontormo, and Perino del Vaga; and all these became
excellent Florentine masters. The cartoon having thus become a school
for craftsmen, it was taken into the Great Upper Hall in the house of
the Medici; and this was the reason that it was left with too little
caution in the hands of the craftsmen, insomuch