he interior curved in the form of an oval after the manner of a
temple, in the centre of which was the sarcophagus wherein was to be
laid the dead body of that Pope. And, finally, there were to be in
this whole work forty statues of marble, without counting the other
scenes, children, and ornaments, the carvings covering the cornices,
and the other architectural members of the work. Michelagnolo
ordained, to expedite the labour, that a part of the marbles should
be conveyed to Florence, where he intended at times to spend the
summer months in order to avoid the malaria of Rome; and there he
executed one side of the work in many pieces, complete in every
detail. In Rome he finished entirely with his own hand two of the
captives, figures divinely beautiful, and other statues, than which
none better have ever been seen; but in the end they were never placed
in position, and those captives were presented by him to S. Ruberto
Strozzi, when Michelagnolo happened to be lying ill in his house;
which captives were afterwards sent as presents to King Francis, and
they are now at Ecouen in France. Eight statues, likewise, he blocked
out in Rome, and in Florence he blocked out five and finished a
Victory with a captive beneath, which are now in the possession of
Duke Cosimo, having been presented by Michelagnolo's nephew, Leonardo,
to his Excellency, who has placed the Victory in the Great Hall of his
Palace, which was painted by Vasari.

He finished the Moses, a statue in marble of five braccia, which no
modern work will ever equal in beauty; and of the ancient statues,
also, the same may be said. For, seated in an attitude of great
dignity, he rests one arm on the Tables, which he holds with one hand,
and with the other he holds his beard, which is long and waving, and
carved in the marble in such sort, that the hairs--in which the
sculptor finds such difficulty--are wrought with the greatest
delicacy, soft, feathery, and detailed in such a manner, that one
cannot but believe that his chisel was changed into a pencil. To say
nothing of the beauty of the face, which has all the air of a true
Saint and most dread Prince, you seem, while you gaze upon it, to wish
to demand from him the veil wherewith to cover that face, so
resplendent and so dazzling it appears to you, and so well has
Michelagnolo expressed the divinity that God infused in that most holy
countenance. In addition, there are draperies carved out and finished
with mos