Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/261

Rh meet and offer the homage of their adoration to the Pontiff. Around the tomb, in four niches, are figures of four virtues in marble, Justice, Fortitude, Peace, and Prudence namely, all of them being executed with great care by Michelagnolo, who was assisted by the Counsels of Baldassare.

It is true that some parts of this work were by the hand of the Florentine sculptor Tribolo, who was then very young, and that these have been considered the best of the whole but Michelagnolo gave the most zealous attention to the minor details thereof, finishing the small figures with the most subtle delicacy; these therefore deserve more commendation than all the other parts. Among those portions worthy of being more particularly remarked, are certain decorations in vari-coloured marbles, which are executed with so much elegance, and are so carefully conjoined, that better work could scarcely be desired, For these labours Michelagnolo received his due and just reward from the above-named cardinal, and was ever treated with great favour by that prelate all the days of his life. Nor was this more than justice or without good reason, seeing that the cardinal has obtained no less renown from that monument, and for the gratitude which he displayed therein, than did Michelagnolo himself, to whom it gave a name in life and much glory after his death. No long time had elapsed after its completion, before Michelagnolo passed from this life to another, which he did when he was at about the fiftieth year of his age.

The Neapolitan sculptor, Girolamo Santacroce, although torn from us by death in the very best of his days and at a time when very great hopes had been conceived of his future progress, yet gave full evidence of what might have been expected from him, had he been permitted to live longer, in the works which he performed in Naples during the few years of his life, seeing that the sculptures by his hand, still to be seen in Naples, are executed and finished with all that love and diligence which could ‘be desired in a youth who is eager to surpass by far all those who have previously held the first rank in the noble art to which he has devoted himself.