Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/287

Rh Or what shall I say of the Night?—a statue not rare but unique. Who, in any period of the world’s history, has ever seen statues, ancient or modern, exhibiting equal art? Not only is there here the repose of one who sleeps, hut the grief and regret of one who has lost a great and valued possession. This is the Night that obscures all those who for a certain time expected, I will not say to surpass, but to equal Michelagnolo. In this figure is all that somnolency which one remarks in the sleeping form, as moulded by Nature herself; wherefore many verses, both in Latin and the vulgar tongue, were made in praise of our artist’s work by most learned persons, as, for example, those which follow, and of which the author is not known. The Night that here thou seest, in graceful guise Thus sleeping, by an Angel’s hand was carved In this pure stone; but sleeping, still she lives. Awake her if thou doubtest, and she’ll speak. To these words Michelagnolo, speaking in the name of Night, replied as below:— Happy am I to sleep, and still more blest To be of stone, while grief and shame endure; To see, nor feel, is now my utmost hope, Wherefore speak softly, and awake me not. Certain it is, that if the enmity, which constantly exists between Fortune and Genius, had suffered this work to attain completion. Art might have proved to Nature that she is capable of far surpassing her on every point. While Michelagnolo was - thus labouring with the utmost zeal and love at such works, came the siege of Florence, which too effectually impeded the completion thereof; this took place in 1529, when he could do little or nothing more, the citizens having charged him with the care of the fortifications, as we have said. He had lent the Republic a thousand crowns; and, as he made one of the Council of War, called the Nine, he turned all his mind and thoughts to the perfecting and strengthening of the defences. But at length, and when the enemy’s troops had closed round the city, while all hope of aid was gradually disappearing, and the difiiculties of maintaining the place increased, Michelagnolo, who felt himself to be in a position not suited to him, resolved, for the