Page:The Life of Michael Angelo.djvu/212

 But he gained fresh strength in the obligation which Urbino had imposed upon him—that of undertaking the guardianship of his sons, one of whom was his godson and bore his name.

He made other friendships—strange ones. Through a desire for reaction (so strong in the case of men of robust nature) against all the constraints imposed by society, he loved to surround himself with simple-minded men, who were given to uttering unexpected flashes of wit and had free manners—men who were not made like all the world. There was Topolino, a stonecutter of Carrara, "who thought himself a good sculptor, and who never loaded a boat for Rome without sending three or four little figures of his own, at which Michael Angelo died of laughing." Menighella, a clumsy painter of Valdarno, was another. "He came to see Michael Angelo from time to time and got him to draw St. Roch or St. Anthony to paint and sell to the peasants. Michael Angelo, whom it was hard to persuade to work for kings, put aside everything to make simple designs suitable to his friend's style and requirements as Menighella said. Among other things he did a model of a Crucifix of great beauty." For a barber, who dabbled in painting, he designed a cartoon representing the "Stigmatisation of St. Francis." Other friends of his were: one of his