I estimate that it will take
some months to chase, for it has come out with a bad surface; all
the same, we must thank God! for, as I say, it might have been
worse. If anything is said to you by Salvestro del Pollaiolo(99)
or others, tell them that I do not need any one, so that no one
will be sent here to be on my shoulders, because I have spent so
much that there hardly remains enough for me to live on, let alone
keeping others. About next week I will let you know more when I
have uncovered the whole figure.
"MICHAEL ANGELO, in Bologna."(100)
After several letters describing his labours, he writes, ultimately, to
the same:--
"BUONARROTO,--I marvel you write to me so seldom. I am sure you
have much more time to write to me than I to write to you, so let
me hear often how things go. I understand by your last how, with
good reason, you wish me to return soon. It made me anxious for
several days; therefore, when you write to me, write strongly and
clearly what the matter is so that I may understand it--and enough.
Know that I desire to return soon even more than you desire it,
for I pass my life here in the greatest discomfort and with the
hardest labour, doing nothing but work day and night, and I have
endured so much fatigue and hardship that if I should have to go
through it again, I do not believe my life would hold out, for it
has been an enormous undertaking, and if it had been in any one
else's hands it would have come out very badly.
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