res high, with a ring at the top; and having tried to place
various statues within these niches, which did not turn out well, he
asked Michelagnolo what he should place in them, and he answered:
"Hang bunches of eels from those rings." There was appointed to the
government of the fabric of S. Pietro a gentleman who professed to
understand Vitruvius, and to be a critic of the work done.
Michelagnolo was told, "You have obtained for the fabric one who has a
great intelligence"; and he answered, "That is true, but he has a bad
judgment." A painter had executed a scene, and had copied many things
from various other works, both drawings and pictures, nor was there
anything in that work that was not copied. It was shown to
Michelagnolo, who, having seen it, was asked by a very dear friend
what he thought of it, and he replied: "He has done well, but I know
not what this scene will do on the day of Judgment, when all bodies
shall recover their members, for there will be nothing left of it"--a
warning to those who practise art, that they should make a habit of
working by themselves. Passing through Modena, he saw many beautiful
figures by the hand of Maestro Antonio Bigarino,[5] a sculptor of
Modena, made of terra-cotta and coloured in imitation of marble, which
appeared to him to be excellent works; and, since that sculptor did
not know how to work marble, Michelagnolo said: "If this clay were to
become marble, woe to the ancient statues." Michelagnolo was told that
he should show resentment against Nanni di Baccio Bigio, who was
seeking every day to compete with him; but he answered: "He who
contends with men of no account never gains a victory." A priest, his
friend, said to him: "It is a pity that you have not taken a wife, so
that you might have had many children and left them all your
honourable labours." And Michelagnolo replied: "I have only too much
of a wife in this art of mine, who has always kept me in tribulation,
and my children shall be the works that I may leave, which, even if
they are naught, will live a while. Woe to Lorenzo di Bartoluccio
Ghiberti, if he had not made the gates of S. Giovanni, for his
children and grandchildren sold or squandered all that he left, but
the gates are still standing." Vasari, sent by Julius III to
Michelagnolo's house for a design at the first hour of the night,
found him working at the Pieta in marble that he broke. Michelagnolo,
recognizing him by the knock at the door, left hi