Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/380

368 already made mention, and shall speak further hereafter. It represented Paine, or Honour, under the semblance of a youth in a fine attitude, and bearing a trumpet in the right hand, while his feet are planted on the figures of Time and Death, to show that Fame and Honour, in despite of Death and Time, maintain those who have powerfully acted in this life, in the perpetual memory of their fellow men.

The Church being prepared in this manner was furthermore adorned by numerous lights, and was filled by an incalculable number of the people; all of whom, abandoning every other care, had thronged to behold that honourable solemnity. When the procession entered the building, there first came the Prorector of the Academy, accompanied by' the Captain and Halbardiers of the Dukes Guard, and followed by the Syndics, the Academicians, and all the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects of Florence. These having taken their places between the Catafalque and the High Altar, where they had for some time been awaited by a large number of nobles and gentlemen, all seated according to their rank, a solemn mass for the dead was begun, with music, and all the ceremonies usual on the highest occasions. That finished, Varchi mounted the pulpit above-mentioned, to fulfil an office which he had last undertaken for the most illustrious lady, the Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Duke Cosimo, and had never accepted since; then, with that elegance of manner, those modes of utterance, and that tone of voice, which are indeed peculiar to that distinguished man, he described the merits, life, and works of the divine Michelagnolo Buonarroti.

And assuredly it is to be reputed as a great happiness for Michelagnolo that he did not die before the creation of our Academy, seeing that his funeral ceremonies were solemnized by that Society with pomp so magnificent and so honourable. Very fortunate was he, likewise, in having departed before Varchi was removed from this life to that of eternal blessedness, since he could not have been eulogized by a more eloquent or more learned man. The funeral oration pronounced by Messer Benedetto was printed no long time afterwards, as was also another equally beautiful oration, made in praise of Michelagnolo and of Painting, b}' the most noble and most learned Messer Leonardo Salviati, then a youth of but twenty-two years old, although dis-