Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/359

Rh our vocation, account it among the greatest of my blessings that I was born while Michelagnolo still lived, was found worthy to have him for my master, and being trusted by him, obtained him for my friend, as every one knows, and as the letters which he has written to me clearly prove. To his kindness for me I owe it that I have been able to write many things concerning him, which others could not have related, but which, being true, shall be recorded. Another privilege, and one of which he often reminded me, is, that I have been in the service of Duke Cosimo. “Thank God for this, Giorgio,” has Michelagnolo said to me; “for to enable thee to build and paint, in execution of his thoughts and designs, he spares no expense, and this, as thou seest well, by the Lives thou hast written, is a thing which few artists have experienced.”

Michelagnolo was followed to his tomb by a concourse of all the artists, and by his numerous friends, receiving the most honourable sepulture from the Florentine nation, in the Church of Sant’ Apostolo, within a sepulchre of which church he was laid, in the presence of all Rome, His Holiness expressing an intention to command that a monument should be erected to his memory in St. Peter’s.

Leonardo, the nephew of Michelagnolo, did not arrive in Rome until all was over, although he travelled post in the hope of doing so. When Duke Cosimo heard what had happened, he resolved that, as he had not been able to do the master honour in his life, he would cause his body to be brought to Florence, where his obsequies were to be solemnized with all possible splendour; but the remains of the ^ artist had to be sent out of Rome in the manner of a bale, such as is made by merchants, that no tumult might arise in the city, and so the departure of the corpse be prevented.

But before the body could arrive, the news of the master^s death having been noised abroad, the principal painters, sculptors, and architects assembled in their Academy, on the requisition of their Prorector, who was at that time Don