Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/251

Rh pains he might take, whether in elegance and delicacj, or force, and the careful perforation of the marble, nor could any surpass the art which Michelagnolo has here exhibited.

Among other fine things may be remembered—to say nothing of the admirable draperies — that the body of the Dead Christ exhibits the very perfection of research in .every muscle, vein, and nerve, nor could any corpse more completely resemble the dead than does this There is besides a most exquisite expression in the countenance, and the limbs are affixed to the trunk in a manner that is truly perfect; the veins and pulses, moreover, are indicated with so much exactitude, that one cannot but marvel how the hand of the artist should in a short time have produced such a work, or how a stone which just before was without form or shape, should all at once display such perfection as Nature can but rarely produce in the flesh. The love and care which Michelagnolo had given to this group were such that he there left his name—a thing he never did again for any work—on the cincture which girdles the robe of Our Lady; for it happened one day that Michelagnolo, entering the place where it was erected, found a large assemblage of strangers from Lombardy there, who were praising it highly; one of these asking who had done it, was told “Our Hunchback of Milan hearing which, Michelagnolo remained silent, although surprised that his work should be attributed to another. But one night he repaired to Saint Peter’s with a light and his chisels, to engrave his name as we have said on the figure, which seems to breathe a spirit as perfect as her form and countenance, speaking as one might think in the following words:— Beauty and goodness, piety and grief, Dead in the living marble. Weep not thus; Be comforted, time shall awake the dead. Cease then to weep with these unmeasured tears. Our Lord, and thine, thy father, son, and spouse. His daughter, thou his mother and sole bride. From this work then Michelgnolo acquired great fame; certain dullards do indeed affirm that he has made Our Lady