Meanwhile, Vasari turned his attention to one of the
legs of the Christ, which Michael Angelo had been altering. In order to
prevent his seeing it Michael Angelo let the light fall, and they remained
in darkness. He then called for another light, and stepped forth from the
screen of planks behind which he worked, saying: "I am so old that
oftentimes Death plucks me by the cape to go with him, and one day this
body of mine will fall like the lantern, and the light of life will be put
out."
"If life gives us pleasure we ought not to expect displeasure from death,
seeing it is made by the hand of the same master," was a favourite
reflection of Michael Angelo's upon mortality. This Deposition was never
completed, flaws appeared in the marble, and perhaps whilst working in the
imperfect light Michael Angelo's impatient chisel cut too deep. He began
to break up the work, but luckily his servant Antonio, successor to
Urbino, begged the fragments from his master. Francesco Bandini, a
Florentine exile settled in Rome, wished for a work by the master, and,
with Michael Angelo's consent, bought it from Antonio for two hundred
crowns. It was patched up, but apparently not worked upon, and remained in
the garden of Bandini's heir at Monte Cavallo. It was afterwards taken to
Florence and was finally placed in the Duomo in 1722 by the Grand Duke
Cosimo III., where it may now be seen behind the high altar, well-placed,
so that the great cross of the altar looks like the tree from which the
body has just been lowered.
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