olo expressed marvel that he should be in that habit, and
then added, as it were to congratulate him: "Oh, but you are
magnificent! If you were as fine within as I see you to be without, it
would be well with your soul." The same man had recommended a friend
to Michelagnolo (who had given him a statue to execute), praying him
that he should have something more given to him, which Michelagnolo
graciously did; but the envy of the friend, who had made the request
to Michelagnolo only in the belief that he would not grant it, brought
it about that, perceiving that the master had granted it after all, he
complained of it. This matter was reported to Michelagnolo, and he
answered that he did not like men made like sewers, using a metaphor
from architecture, and meaning that it is difficult to have dealings
with men who have two mouths. Being asked by a friend what he thought
of one who had counterfeited in marble some of the most celebrated
antique figures, and boasted that in his imitations he had surpassed
the antiques by a great measure, Michelagnolo replied: "He who goes
behind others can never go in front of them, and he who is not able to
work well for himself cannot make good use of the works of others." A
certain painter, I know not who, had executed a work wherein was an
ox, which looked better than any other part; and Michelagnolo, being
asked why the painter had made the ox more lifelike than the rest,
said: "Any painter can make a good portrait of himself." Passing by S.
Giovanni in Florence, he was asked his opinion of those doors, and he
answered: "They are so beautiful that they would do well at the gates
of Paradise." While serving a Prince who kept changing plans every
day, and would never stand firm, Michelagnolo said to a friend: "This
lord has a brain like a weather-cock, which turns round with every
wind that blows on it." He went to see a work of sculpture which was
about to be sent out because it was finished, and the sculptor was
taking much trouble to arrange the lights from the windows, to the end
that it might show up well; whereupon Michelagnolo said to him: "Do
not trouble yourself; the important thing will be the light of the
Piazza"; meaning to infer that when works are in public places, the
people must judge whether they are good or bad. There was a great
Prince in Rome who had a notion to play the architect, and he had
caused certain niches to be built in which to place figures, each
three squa