f
cordwain fastened on the inside, as a protection against damp. His
face was round, the brow square and spacious, with seven straight
lines, and the temples projected considerably beyond the ears; which
ears were somewhat on the large side, and stood out from the cheeks.
The body was in proportion to the face, or rather on the large side;
the nose somewhat flattened, as was said in the Life of Torrigiano,
who broke it for him with his fist; the eyes rather on the small side,
of the colour of horn, spotted with blueish and yellowish gleams; the
eyebrows with few hairs, the lips thin, with the lower lip rather
thicker and projecting a little, the chin well shaped and in
proportion with the rest, the hair black, but mingled with white
hairs, like the beard, which was not very long, forked, and not very
thick.

Truly his coming was to the world, as I said at the beginning, an
exemplar sent by God to the men of our arts, to the end that they
might learn from his life the nature of noble character, and from his
works what true and excellent craftsmen ought to be. And I, who have
to praise God for infinite blessings, as is seldom wont to happen with
men of our profession, count it among the greatest blessings that I
was born at the time when Michelagnolo was alive, that I was thought
worthy to have him as my master, and that he was so much my friend and
intimate, as everyone knows, and as the letters written by him to me,
now in my possession, bear witness; and out of love for truth, and
also from the obligation that I feel to his loving kindness, I have
contrived to write many things of him, and all true, which many others
have not been able to do. Another blessing he used to point out to me
himself: "You should thank God, Giorgio, who has caused you to serve
Duke Cosimo, who, in his contentment that you should build and paint
and carry into execution his conceptions and designs, has grudged no
expense; and you will remember, if you consider it, that the others
whose Lives you have written did not have such advantages."

With most honourable obsequies, and with a concourse of all the
craftsmen, all his friends, and all the Florentine colony,
Michelagnolo was given burial in a sepulchre at S. Apostolo, in the
sight of all Rome; his Holiness having intended to make him some
particular memorial and tomb in S. Pietro at Rome. Leonardo, his
nephew, arrived when all was over, although he travelled post. When
Duke Cosimo was inf