Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/337

Rh to construct in the Cathedral of Milan, as will be related in its due place.

About the same time the Cavaliere Lioni made the Portrait of Michelagnolo, (a very close resemblance,) in a medal; on the reverse of which, and in compliment to the master, was a blind man led by a dog, with the following legend:—

This pleased Michelagnolo greatly, and he presented Lioni with a model in wax of Hercules killing Antaeus, accompanied by several of his designs. Of Michelagnolo we have no other portrait except two in painting, one of which is by Bugiardino, and the other by Jacopo del Conte, with an alto-rilievo in bronze by Daniello Ricciarelli; but from that of the Cavaliere Lione there have been made so many copies, that I have myself seen a vast number both in Italy and other countries.

In the same year, Griovanni Cardinal de’ Medici, son of Duke Cosimo, went to Rome to receive the Hat from Pope Pius IV., when Vasari, who was his friend and servant, determined to go with him, remaining there willingly for a month to enjoy the society of Michelagnolo, whom he held very dear, and visited constantly. Vasari had taken with him, by order of his Excellency, the model in wood of the Ducal Palace of Florence, together with the Designs for the new Apartments, which had been built and painted by himself. These models and designs Michelagnolo desired to see, since, being old, he could not visit the works themselves; they were extensive, varied, and replete with divers inventions and phantasies, exhibiting Stories of Uranus, Saturn, Ops, Ceres, Jupiter, Juno, and Hercules; each apartment being adorned with histories, in numerous compartments, of one of those Gods. The apartments beneath these were decorated with stories from the Lives of Heroes belonging to the House of Medici, beginning with Cosimo the Elder, and proceeding through the times of Lorenzo, Leo X., Clement VII.; the Signor Giovanni, the Duke Alessandro, and,