Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/361

Rh would not of himself refuse to do so, being most kindly of nature as well as much attached to the memory of Michelagnolo. All this duly settled, and the Academicians having dispersed, the Prorector wrote to the Duke as follows:—

“The Academy and Company of Painters and Sculptors having resolved, if it please your Excellency, to do honour in some sort to the memory of Michelagnolo, not only from a consideration of what is due to the genius of him who was, perhaps, the greatest master that has ever lived, and one more particularly their own, he belonging to their common country, but also as being moved by a sense of the benefit accruing to the arts from the perfection of his works, and by the obligation laid upon them to prove their gratitude to his memory, do hereby repeat this their desire, expressed to your most illustrious Excellency in their former epistle, and do entreat from you, as their sure resource, a certain amount of assistance. I then, being requested by them and being (as I think) bound thereto, by the fact that, with your Excellency’s good pleasure, I am again of their company this year under the title of your Prorector, am moved to compliance, as the undertaking appears to me worthy of upright and grateful men; but still more as knowing the protection extended by your Excellency to the arts, and that in this age you are the sole resource and shield of distinguished men. Insomuch that you do herein surpass your illustrious ancestors, although they also conferred innumerable favours on the men of these vocations; witness the Magnificent Lorenzo, who, long before his death, caused a statue to be erected in the Cathedral to Giotto, with a monument in marble to Era Filippo, all at his own cost; to say nothing of many other great and noble acts that might be named. Considering all these things, I have taken courage to recommend to your illustrious Excellency the petition of this Academy, to the effect that they may duly honour the genius of Michelagnolo, who was the disciple and especial pupil of the School created by the Magnificent Lorenzo. For this that they desire to do shall be not only to their great contentment, but also to the infinite satisfaction of all men; it will, furthermore, be no slight spur to the professors