not willing to instruct others are wrong, he would assist all with whom he was intimate or who asked his counsels. I have been present many times when this has happened, but I say no more, not desiring to proclaim the defects of others.[1] It is true that he was not fortunate with those whom he took into his house, having chanced upon disciples wholly incapable of imitating their master. The Pistolese, Pietro Urbino, had ability but would never give himself the trouble to work. Antonio Mini was sufficiently willing, but had not quickness of perception, and when the wax is hard it does not take a good impression. Ascanio della Pipa took great pains, but no results have been displayed, whether in designs or finished works; he spent several years over a picture of which Michelagnolo had given him the cartoon, and, at a word, the hopes conceived of him have vanished in smoke. I remember that Michelagnolo, having compassion on Pipa’s hard labours, would sometimes help him with his own hand, but it was all to little purpose. Had he found a disciple to his mind, he would have made studies of anatomy, and written a treatise on that subject, even in his old age, as he often said to me, desiring to do this for the benefit of artists, who are frequently misled by want of knowledge in anatomy. But he distrusted his power of doing justice to his conceptions with the pen, having little practice in speaking, although in his letters he expressed his thoughts well and in few words. He delighted in the reading of our Italian poets, more especially of Dante, whom he honoured greatly and imitated in his thoughts as well as copied in his inventions. Like Petrarch also, he was fond of writing madrigals and making sonnets, many of which are very serious, and have since been made subjects of commentary. Messer Benedetto Varchi, for example, has read an admirable lecture[2] before the Florentine Academy, on that beginning: —
Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto
Ch'un marmo solo in se non circonscriva.
Michelagnolo sent a large number of these verses to the most illustrious Marchesana di Pescara, receiving replies
- ↑ Giovann’ Bologna, when very young, showed Michael Angelo, then in his eightieth year, a model which he had finished with infinite care, but the master, passing his fingers over it, altered every part, saying, “Learn to sketch before you attempt to finish.”
- ↑ Two rather, which were published at Florence in 1594.
