wish to write, for the sake of
sculptors and painters, a treatise on the movements of the human body, its
aspect, and concerning the bones, with an ingenious theory of his own,
devised after long practice. He would have done it had he not mistrusted
his powers, lest they should not suffice to treat with dignity and grace
of such a subject, like one practised in the sciences and in rhetoric. I
know well that when he reads Alberto Duro he finds him very weak, seeing
in his own mind how much more beautiful and useful his own conception
would be. To tell the truth, Alberto only treats of the proportions and
diversities of the body, for which one cannot make fixed rules, making
figures as regular as posts; and what matters more, says nothing of human
movements and gestures. And because Michael Angelo has now reached a ripe
old age, he thinks of putting his ideas in writing and giving them to the
world. With great devotion he has explained everything minutely to me; he
also conferred with Messer Realdo Colombo, an anatomist and most excellent
surgeon, a great friend of Michael Angelo's and mine. He sent to Michael
Angelo for study the body of a Moor, a very fine young man, and very
suitable to the purpose; he was sent to Santa Agata, where I then lived
and still live, as it is a quiet place. On this corpse Michael Angelo
showed me many rare and recondite facts, perhaps never before understood,
all of which I noted down, and hope one day, with the help of some learned
man, to publish for the advantage and use of painters and sculptors; but
enough of this.

LXI. He devoted himself to perspective and to architecture, his works show
with what profit. Michael Angelo did not content himself with knowing only
the main features of architecture, but wished also to know about
everything that could be useful in any way in that profession, such as
ties, platforms, scaffolding, and such like, he knew as much of these
things as those who profess nothing else, which was exemplified in the
time of Julius II. in this wise. When Michael Angelo had to paint the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the Pope ordered Bramante to erect the
scaffolding. For all the architect he was he did not know how to do it,
but pierced the vault in many places, letting down certain ropes through
these holes to sling the platform. When Michael Angelo saw it he smiled,
and asked Bramante what was to be done when he came to those holes?
Bramante had no defence to make, onl