block, like the head of one of the captives of
the Boboli. The man who carved the head, and also worked on other portions
of the group, turned the neck round too much. If we imagine the head less
turned and looking down towards the crouching figure, conquered by the
young genius of beauty and victory, we shall see the grace in the pose of
the torso to greater advantage. We imagine a somewhat similar story for
the figure in the Bargello, called the Adonis. The boar cannot be by
Michael Angelo's hand, and, indeed, very little of the figure suggests his
grasp of plastic possibilities; the figure cannot have been much more than
blocked out by him, and was finished after his death by some artist of the
type of Vincenzio Danti.

CHAPTER X

THE CHAPEL OF POPE PAUL, AND THE PIETA OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE

Michael Angelo wrote a number of sonnets and made many drawings for his
friends, especially for the Marchioness of Pescara and Messer Tomaso dei
Cavalieri, a noble Roman gentleman. For him they were generally subjects
from Greek and Roman mythology, but for the Marchioness the drawings
always represented episodes from the story of the Passion of our Lord. A
Pieta, drawn for this lady, was engraved by Giulio Bonasoni and Tudius
Bononiensis in 1546. There are several drawings in the Print Room of the
British Museum and the Windsor and Oxford Collections of this character
and period. One at Oxford was probably the original sent to Vittoria, but
all are of the same sacred inspiration; in fact, the religious element
becomes very strong indeed in all his later work, just as in the later
work of Titian. These artists had the near prospect of death in view, and
thus they turned their thoughts entirely to work from which they hoped for
reward in the world to come. The fear of hell was not without its
influence upon both of them.

Some of the drawings made by Michael Angelo for his friend, Tomaso
Cavalieri, are mentioned in one of Tomaso's letters, dated 1533.(156)

[Image #46]

THE CRUCIFIXION OF SAINT PETER

THE CHAPEL OF POPE PAUL, THE VATICAN, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)

"UNIQUE MY LORD,--Some days ago I received a letter from you, which
was very welcome, both because I learned by it that you are well,
and also because I can now be sure that you will soon return. I
was very sorry not t