Mariette, and probably in oil, which would be a twofold exception to Michelangelo's ordinary work, is so much the more to be regretted, as the work was executed at the time when the Artist of the Sixtine was in the fulness both of his vigour and genius. The Leda of the London cartoon recalls the Night of the San Lorenzo Tomb. There is an atmosphere of rude and forbidding voluptuousness, but nothing in common with the obscene figures which the decline of ancient art has bequeathed to us. Under the sway of Neo-platonic sentiments the painters of the Renaissance interpreted the story of Leda as the union of Man with Nature-the seduction of the intellectual being by the sensual. So Leonardo da Vinci and Correggio treated the subject; and it would have been highly interesting to be able to compare their works with that of their omnipotent rival. Clement VII. pardoned Michelangelo his share in the defence of Florence only upon condition that he would finish the San Lorenzo tombs. It required all the firm friendship of the Pope to defend the sculptor against the hatred of Alexander de' Medici. Deceived in his most cherished hopes, compelled to be a passive and helpless spectator of the triumph of a cause which he detested, irritated at the dissensions of his party, which had brought about a defeat which his efforts could only delay, Michelangelo seems at this time to have become the melancholy victim of a disordered mind. His health was so seriously affected that the Pope issued a brief forbidding him, under pain of excommunication, all work in painting or sculpture, except that which related to the sacristy of San Lorenzo. Some months before his pupil, Antonio Mimi, wrote, "Michelangelo seems to me fagged and falling away. We don't think he can live long, if he doesn't take care of himself; it's all through hard work, scanty and bad food, and want of sleep. For the last month he has been subject to headache and giddiness. He oughtn't to be allowed to work in the Sacristy all the winter, and he might finish the Virgin in the little room at the side." Alexander asked him to make plans for the construction of a citadel, but he refused flatly to work for him. This prince was a mulatto bastard of Clement VII., or, according to others, of Lorenzo II. It is said that the irritated artist uttered those cutting words-which apply to many other members of that degenerate race, as well as to this monster-that "the Palace of the Medici ought to be pulled down, and a piazza built upon the site, to be called the Mules' piazza." Michelangelo had not, so to speak, touched his chisel for the last fifteen years. He set to work on the Tombs of San Lorenzo with a sort of fury so great that by the end of 1531 the two female figures were finished, and the others far advanced. There was an idea of placing four tombs in the chapel, and it is probable that the one for Lorenzo the Magnificent was included in this first scheme, which Clement VII. rejected, and confined himself to those of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, brother of Leo X.; and of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, son of Peter, and father of Catharine de' Medici. The chapel which contains these monuments is in the form of a square, surmounted by a cupola. Michelangelo has given many specimens of this severe and cold style in other parts of San Lorenzo, in the numerous palaces which he built, and, the most perfect, in St. Peter's at Rome. At the head of the chapel is the altar; opposite to it a Virgin and Child, one of his finest works, and two figures, which are probably to a great extent by the hands of his pupils, Rafaello |