d his last, to go to a better life.

Michelagnolo was much inclined to the labours of art, seeing that
everything, however difficult, succeeded with him, he having had from
nature a genius very apt and ardent in these most noble arts of
design. Moreover, in order to be entirely perfect, innumerable times
he made anatomical studies, dissecting men's bodies in order to see
the principles of their construction and the concatenation of the
bones, muscles, veins, and nerves, the various movements and all the
postures of the human body; and not of men only, but also of animals,
and particularly of horses, which last he much delighted to keep. Of
all these he desired to learn the principles and laws in so far as
touched his art, and this knowledge he so demonstrated in the works
that fell to him to handle, that those who attend to no other study
than this do not know more. He so executed his works, whether with the
brush or with the chisel, that they are almost inimitable, and he gave
to his labours, as has been said, such art and grace, and a loveliness
of such a kind, that (be it said without offence to any) he surpassed
and vanquished the ancients; having been able to wrest things out of
the greatest difficulties with such facility, that they do not appear
wrought with effort, although whoever draws his works after him finds
enough in imitating them.

The genius of Michelagnolo was recognized in his lifetime, and not, as
happens to many, after death, for it has been seen that Julius II, Leo
X, Clement VII, Paul III, Julius III, Paul IV, and Pius IV, all
supreme Pontiffs, always wished to have him near them, and also, as is
known, Suleiman, Emperor of the Turks, Francis of Valois, King of
France, the Emperor Charles V, the Signoria of Venice, and finally, as
has been related, Duke Cosimo de' Medici; all offering him honourable
salaries, for no other reason but to avail themselves of his great
genius. This does not happen save to men of great worth, such as he
was; and it is evident and well known that all these three arts were
so perfected in him, that it is not found that among persons ancient
or modern, in all the many years that the sun has been whirling round,
God has granted this to any other but Michelagnolo. He had imagination
of such a kind, and so perfect, and the things conceived by him in
idea were such, that often, through not being able to express with the
hands conceptions so terrible and grand, he abandoned h