to give
it the appearance of an antique marble, and added that he would then
sell it in Rome and get a good price for it. Michael Angelo consented to
this plan, and in the end he received thirty ducats for the work. The
secret of its origin was not kept, and the cardinal who had bought it
sent an agent to Florence to find out the truth about it. This agent
pretended to be in search of a sculptor; and when he saw Michael Angelo
he asked him what works he had done. When he mentioned a Sleeping Cupid,
and the agent asked questions, the young sculptor found that the
cardinal had paid two hundred ducats for it, and that he had been
greatly deceived when attempting to deceive others.

Michael Angelo consented to go to Rome with this man, who promised to
receive him into his own house, and assured him that he would be fully
occupied in the Eternal City. The oldest writing by the hand of Michael
Angelo is the letter which he wrote to Lorenzo telling him of his
arrival in Rome; when this was written he was twenty-one years old. The
first work which he did after he reached Rome was the "Drunken Bacchus,"
now in the Uffizi Gallery; it shows a great knowledge of anatomy in one
so young, and the expression of drunkenness is given in the most natural
manner.

[Illustration: FIG. 105.--PIETA. _By Michael Angelo._]

But the work that established his fame as a great sculptor is the Pieta,
now in St. Peter's at Rome (Fig. 105). He was twenty-five years old when
he executed this work, and from that time was acknowledged to be the
greatest sculptor of Italy--a decision which has never been reversed.

Soon after this Michael Angelo returned to Florence, and his first
important work was a Madonna, now at Bruges; it is life-size, and one of
his finest sculptures. There was at this time an immense block of marble
which had lain many years in the yard to the workshops of the cathedral.
Several sculptors had talked of making something from it, and now
Michael Angelo was asked by the consuls to make something good of it. He
had just taken an order for fifteen statues for the Piccolomini tomb at
Siena; but when he saw the immense block he gave up the Siena work, and
contracted to make a statue in two years. He was to be paid six gold
florins a month, and as much more as could be agreed upon when the work
was done. He first made a model in wax of his David; it was very small,
and is now in the Uffizi. In the beginning of 1504, after about two