before-mentioned Sistine, he desired to decorate it in his own memory, and
he made Michael Angelo paint the frescoes on the side walls. In one is
represented the crucifixion of St. Peter; in the other the story of St.
Paul--how he was converted by the apparition of Jesus Christ--both
stupendous in general composition as in the individual figures. And this
is the last work of painting by Michael Angelo that has been seen to this
day; he finished it in his seventy-fifth year. At present he has in hand a
group in marble, which he works at for his pleasure, as one who full of
ideas and powers must produce something every day. It is a group of four
figures, larger than life--a Deposition. The dead Christ is held up by His
Mother; she supports the body on her bosom with her arms and with her
knees, a wonderfully beautiful gesture. She is aided by Nicodemus above,
who is erect and stands firmly--he holds her under the arms and sustains
her with manly strength--and on the left by one of the Marys, who, although
exhibiting the deepest grief, does not omit to do those offices that the
Mother, by the extremity of her sorrow, is unable to perform. The Christ
is dead, all His limbs fall relaxed, but withall in a very different
manner from the Christ Michael Angelo made for the Marchioness of Pescara
or the Christ in the Madonna della Febbre. It is impossible to speak of
its beauty and its sorrow, of the grieving and sad faces of them all,
especially of the afflicted Mother. Let it suffice; I tell you it is a
rare thing, and one of the most laborious works that he has yet done,
principally because all the figures are distinct from each other, the
folds of the draperies of one figure not confused with those of the
others.

LV. Michael Angelo has done infinitely more things of which I have not
spoken, such as the Christ that is in the Church of the Minerva, a St.
Matthew in Florence; when he began it he designed to carve all the twelve
Apostles to be placed near twelve pilasters in the Duomo. His cartoons for
several works of paintings, and of designs for buildings, both public and
private, are infinite in number; and, lastly, for a bridge to span the
Grand Canal of Venice, of a new shape and style of which the like was
never seen; and many other things never to be seen. It would be long to
describe them, so I make an end. He intends to give the Deposition from
the Cross to some church, and to be buried at the foot of the altar where
i