different in tone, and not so personally
interesting. Still it illustrates the nervousness and apprehension
under which Michelangelo's acquaintances continually lived. The
painter commonly known as Rosso Fiorentino was on a visit to Rome,
where he studied the Sistine frescoes. They do not appear to have
altogether pleased him, and he uttered his opinion somewhat too freely
in public. Now he pens a long elaborate epistle, full of adulation, to
purge himself of having depreciated Michelangelo's works. People said
that "when I reached Rome, and entered the chapel painted by your
hand, I exclaimed that I was not going to adopt that manner." One of
Buonarroti's pupils had been particularly offended. Rosso protests
that he rather likes the man for his loyalty; but he wishes to remove
any impression which Michelangelo may have received of his own
irreverence or want of admiration. The one thing he is most solicitous
about is not to lose the great man's good-will.

It must be added, at the close of this investigation, that however hot
and hasty Michelangelo may have been, and however readily he lent his
ear to rumours, he contrived to renew the broken threads of friendship
with the persons he had hurt by his irritability.

CHAPTER XV

I

During the winter of 1563-64 Michelangelo's friends in Rome became
extremely anxious about his health, and kept Lionardo Buonarroti from
time to time informed of his proceedings. After New Year it was clear
that he could not long maintain his former ways of life. Though within
a few months of ninety, he persisted in going abroad in all weathers,
and refused to surround himself with the comforts befitting a man of
his eminence and venerable age. On the 14th of February he seems to
have had a kind of seizure. Tiberio Calcagni, writing that day to
Lionardo, gives expression to his grave anxiety: "Walking through Rome
to-day, I heard from many persons that Messer Michelangelo was ill.
Accordingly I went at once to visit him, and although it was raining I
found him out of doors on foot. When I saw him, I said that I did not
think it right and seemly for him to be going about in such weather
'What do you want?' he answered; 'I am ill, and cannot find rest
anywhere.' The uncertainty of his speech, together with the look and
colour of his face, made me feel extremely uneasy about his life. The
end may not be just now, but I fear greatly that it cannot be far
off." Michelangelo did not leave