ormed of the event, he confirmed his resolve that
since he had not been able to have him and honour him alive, he would
have him brought to Florence and not hesitate to honour him with all
manner of pomp after death; and the body was sent secretly in a bale,
under the title of merchandise, which method was adopted lest there
might be a tumult in Rome, and lest perchance the body of Michelagnolo
might be detained and prevented from leaving Rome for Florence. But
before the body arrived, the news of the death having been heard, the
principal painters, sculptors, and architects were assembled together
at the summons of the Lieutenant of their Academy, and they were
reminded by that Lieutenant, who at that time was the Reverend Don
Vincenzio Borghini, that they were obliged by virtue of their statutes
to pay due honour to the death of any of their brethren, and that,
they having done this so lovingly and with such universal satisfaction
in the obsequies of Fra Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli, who had been the
first to die after the creation of the Academy, they should look well
to what it might be proper for them to do in honour of Buonarroti, who
had been elected by an unanimous vote of the whole body of the Company
as the first Academician and the head of them all. To which proposal
they all replied, as men most deeply indebted and affected to the
genius of so great a man, that at all costs pains should be taken to
do him honour in the best and finest ways available to them. This
done, in order not to have to assemble so many persons together every
day, to their great inconvenience, and to the end that matters might
proceed more quietly, four men were elected as heads of the obsequies
and the funeral pomp that were to be held; the painters Agnolo
Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, and the sculptors Benvenuto Cellini and
Bartolommeo Ammanati, all men of illustrious name and eminent ability
in their arts; to the end, I say, that they might consult and
determine between themselves and the Lieutenant what was to be done in
each particular, and in what way, with authority and power to dispose
of the whole body of the Company and Academy. This charge they
accepted all the more willingly because all the members, young and
old, each in his own profession, offered their services for the
execution of such pictures and statues as had to be done for that
funeral pomp. They then ordained that the Lieutenant, in pursuance of
his office, and the Co