The rough charcoal drawing upon the block of marble, could we see
it, would have been complete to us, only Michael Angelo could add anything
to it; and so it is with every fragment of stone or other piece of work by
his hand, from the lightest charcoal drawing to the great marble fragments
in the grotto of the Boboli Gardens. They are complete to us; the thing he
thought is there, and the art is there, and we are satisfied.
[Image #9]
THE HOLY FAMILY
THE UFFIZI, FLORENCE
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig. D. Anderson, Rome_)
Another tondo executed about this time is the painting now in the Uffizi,
the only easel picture known with certainty to be by the hand of Michael
Angelo. This Holy Family, with naked shepherds in the background, was
painted for Angelo Doni, the same man whose portrait was painted by
Raphael. Vasari says that Michael Angelo asked seventy ducats for the
work, but that Doni only offered forty when the picture was delivered.
Michael Angelo sent word that he must pay a hundred or send back the
picture. Doni offered the original seventy; but Michael Angelo replied
that if he was bent on bargaining, he should not pay less than one hundred
and forty. In this composition the Madonna is seated upon the ground,
forming a pyramid, of which the heads of Joseph and the Child form the
apex; her lithe and strong form has a Greek loveliness as she turns
quickly and receives the beautiful Child on to her shoulder from the arms
of Joseph.
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