The Christ
is dead, all His limbs fall relaxed, but withall in a very different
manner from the Christ Michael Angelo made for the Marchioness of Pescara
or the Christ in the Madonna della Febbre. It is impossible to speak of
its beauty and its sorrow, of the grieving and sad faces of them all,
especially of the afflicted Mother. Let it suffice; I tell you it is a
rare thing, and one of the most laborious works that he has yet done,
principally because all the figures are distinct from each other, the
folds of the draperies of one figure not confused with those of the
others.
LV. Michael Angelo has done infinitely more things of which I have not
spoken, such as the Christ that is in the Church of the Minerva, a St.
Matthew in Florence; when he began it he designed to carve all the twelve
Apostles to be placed near twelve pilasters in the Duomo. His cartoons for
several works of paintings, and of designs for buildings, both public and
private, are infinite in number; and, lastly, for a bridge to span the
Grand Canal of Venice, of a new shape and style of which the like was
never seen; and many other things never to be seen. It would be long to
describe them, so I make an end. He intends to give the Deposition from
the Cross to some church, and to be buried at the foot of the altar where
it is placed. The Lord God in His goodness long preserve him to us, for
without doubt the same day will end his life and his labours, as is
written of Socrates.
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