IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARTISAN AND ARTIST. 315 



islied pieces, iu what way lie must have mapped out the marble and 

 doue the work himself; and that is Avhy we have so many vast pieces 

 by him unfinished : either the stroke did not come out as he desired, or 

 it went too far into the marble, and spoilt his labor. But so it is, that 

 by far the greater part of those gigantic pieces which he finished, if not 

 all, were the productions of his own hand, as W'Cll as of his intellect. 



"When about seventy-five years of age, Vasari tells us, he used to be 

 just as indefatigable with his chisel and hammer as when he was a stout, 

 young man. He had near his bed-room, if not in it, (for he lived in a 

 most primitive and simple manner,) an immense block of marble, and, 

 when he had nothing else to do, he used to be hammering at that; and 

 when asked why he so continuously worked at this branch of his vari- 

 ous arts, he used to reply that he did it for amusement, to pass his time, 

 and that it was good for his health to take exercise with the mallet. 

 He undertook at that age, out of an enormous block of marble, to bring 

 out four figures, larger than life, representing the descent from the 

 cross; and he had nearly worked out the figure of our Lord, w^en, hap- 

 pening to meet with a vein that was hard and troublesome, he one day 

 broke it into half a dozen pieces. It was seen in this state by a friend, 

 and his servant begged it for him. It was put together, and it is now 

 to be seen at Florence. But Vasari says that it was necessary, in order 

 to give him occupation, to get another large block of marble and put it 

 near his bed, that so he might continue at his work ; and he began 

 another group of the same sort. This w^as at the age of seventy-five. 

 And Vasari gives us an interesting account of how he worked : he says 

 he was remarkably sober, and while performing his greatest works, suck 

 as the paintings, he rarely took more than a crust of bread and a glass 

 of wine for his dinner. This sobriety, he says, made him very vigilant, 

 and not require much sleep ; and very often in the night he used to rise, 

 when he could not sleep, and work away with his chisel, having made 

 for himself a sort of helmet, or cap, out of pasteboard, and upon the 

 middle of this, in the toj), he had his candle, so that the shadow of his 

 body never could be thrown upon the work. 



Apropos of this, Vasari tells us an anecdote v/hich is interesting as 

 showing the character of Michael Angelo and of his time. Vasari 

 observes that he never used wax candles for this purpose, but a particu- 

 lar sort of caudles made of goat's tallow, which, he says, are particularly 

 excellent. Wishing to make him a present, he (Vasari) sent to Michael 

 Angelo his servant one day with four bags of these particular candles, 

 containing forty jjounds of them. The servant brought them; and 

 Michael Angelo, who never accepted a present, told him to take them 

 back again, he would not receive them. The servant said, "They have 

 nearly broken my arm iu bringing them, and 1 shall not carry them 

 back." "Then do what you like with them," said Michael Angelo. 

 "Then," replied the servant, "I observed, as I came to your house, that 

 just before your door there was a nice bed of just-hardened mud : I'll go 



