Page:The Life of Michael Angelo.djvu/93

Rh heroic thoughts. It seems as though he had been ashamed to introduce the weaknesses of his heart into them. He confided in poetry alone. It is there, under a rugged envelope, that we must look for the secret of his timid and tender heart:

On terminating the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, and Julius II. having died, Michael Angelo returned to Florence and resumed work on the project which he had most at heart—the mausoleum of the dead Pope. He undertook by contract to complete it in seven years. For three years he was almost exclusively occupied with this work. During this relatively tranquil period—a period of melancholy and serene maturity when the furious agitation of the Sistine days subsided, like the raging sea which returns to its bed—Michael Angelo produced his most perfect works, those which best display the equihbrium of his passion and will-power—his "Moses," and the "Slaves" of the Louvre.