d, with certain of his
designs. Of Michelagnolo we have no other portraits but two in
painting, one by the hand of Bugiardini and the other by Jacopo del
Conte, one in bronze executed in full-relief by Daniello Ricciarelli,
and this one by the Chevalier Leone; from which portraits so many
copies have been made, that I have seen a good number in many places
in Italy and in foreign parts.

The same year Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, the son of Duke Cosimo,
went to Rome to receive the hat from Pius IV, and it fell to Vasari,
as his servant and familiar friend, to go with him; which Vasari went
there willingly and stayed about a month, in order to enjoy
Michelagnolo, who received him with great affection and was always
with him. Vasari had taken with him, by order of his Excellency, a
model in wood of the whole Ducal Palace of Florence, together with
designs of the new apartments that had been built and painted by him;
which Michelagnolo desired to see both in the model and in the
designs, since, being old, he was not able to see the works
themselves. These works, which were abundant and well varied, with
different inventions and fancies, began with the Castration of Uranus
and continued in stories of Saturn, Ops, Ceres, Jove, Juno, and
Hercules, each room having one of these names, with the stories in
various compartments; even as the other chambers and halls, which were
beneath these, had the names of the heroes of the House of Medici,
beginning with the elder Cosimo, and continuing with Lorenzo, Leo X,
Clement VII, Signor Giovanni, Duke Alessandro, and Duke Cosimo, in
each of which were not only the stories of their actions, but also
portraits of them, of their children, and of all the ancients renowned
in statesmanship, in arms, and in letters, taken from the life. Of
these Vasari had written a Dialogue in which he explained all the
stories, the end of the whole invention, and how the fables above
harmonized with the stories below; which was read to Michelagnolo by
Annibale Caro, and he took the greatest pleasure in it. This Dialogue,
when Vasari shall have more time, will be published.

The result of all this was as follows. Vasari was desirous of setting
his hand to the Great Hall, and since, as has been said elsewhere, the
ceiling was low, making it stunted and wanting in lights, he had a
desire to raise that ceiling. Now the Duke would not make up his mind
to give him leave that it should be raised; not that the D