Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/412

360 in this illustrious lady a friend who shared his deepest thoughts. Together they talked of art and poetry, of God and the soul. When she paid her yearly visits to Orvieto and Viterbo, she wrote frequent letters to her "more than dearest friend," and he in return sent her sonnets and drawings of Crucified Christs and Pietàs.

Michelangelo often took part in the Sunday gatherings at the Marchesa's rooms, where churchmen and scholars met to discuss literary and æsthetic subjects, and the painter, Francesco d'Olanda, has recorded some interesting fragments of the great man's conversation. His defence of the eccentricities of artists is very characteristic, and is in reality an apology for his own habits:

"You accuse painters of being rude and ill-mannered, but the fact is, they are bound to refrain from idle compliments because their art claims their whole energies. I can assure your Excellency that even His Holiness annoys me sometimes, by asking me why I do not appear more often in his presence. Then I tell him that I can serve him better by working at home than by dancing attendance for