File:The life of Michelangelo Buonarroti - based on studies in the archives of the Buonarroti family at Florence (1911) (14762128404).jpg

Identifier: lifeofmichelange02symo (find matches)
Title: The life of Michelangelo Buonarroti : based on studies in the archives of the Buonarroti family at Florence
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Symonds, John Addington, 1840-1893 Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564
Subjects: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564
Publisher: New York : C. Scribners London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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fGiulianos statue, especially the hands, seem to havebeen worked over by an assistant. The same is trueof the Madonna, which will ever be regarded, in herimperfectly finished state, as one of the finest of hissculptural conceptions. To Montelupo belongs theexecution of S. Damiano, and to Montorsoli that ofS. Cosimo. Vasari says that Tribolo was commis-sioned by Michelangelo to carve statues of Earthweeping for the loss of Giuliano, and Heaven rejoic-ing over his spirit.^ The death of Pope Clement, 1 See Heath Wilson, pp. 563-566. He was present at the openingof these sarcophagi in 1875, ^^^ ^^^ t^® remains of Duke Alessandroenclosed with those of his supposed father in the sepulchre of Lorenzo,Duke of Urbino. 2 This view is confirmed by what Condivi writes about the statuesin question. He says that, taken together, they represent Time, whoconsumes all things, cap. xlv. p. 50. 3 Michelangelo even prepared clay models for them. See Lettere,No. cdxix.; Vasari, x. 250; Springer, ii. 384.
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Tomb of Giuliano. THE SACRISTY UNFINISHED. 23 however, put a stop to these subordinate works,which, had they been accomplished, might perhapshave shown us how Buonarroti intended to fill theempty niches on each side of the Dukes. When Michelangelo left Florence for good at theend of 1534, his statues had not been placed; butwe have reason to think that the Dukes and thefour allegorical figures were erected in his life-time. There is something singular in the malad-justment of the recumbent men and women to thecurves of the sarcophagi, and in the contrast betweenthe roughness of their bases and the smooth polishof the chests they rest on. These discrepancies donot, however, oJBfend the eye, and they may evenhave been deliberately adopted from a keen sense ofwhat the Greeks called asymmetreia as an adjunctto effect. It is more difficult to understand whathe proposed to do with the Madonna and her twoattendant saints. Placed as they now are upon asimple ledge, they strike one as being to

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