Part 20 (1/2)
Regarding what you write toto leave Ro froo in my name to pay you my respects, merely on account of his own desire to speak with you I have nothingyou to return quickly When you come you will deliver me fro this desire, I cannot converse with any one but you I recommend myself to you a thousand times--Yours ust 2, 1533_”
It appears fro the course of the s he made expressly for his friend:--”Unique, o I received a letter from you, which was very welcome, both because I learned from it that you ell, and also because I can now be sure that you will soon return I was very sorry not to be able to answer at once However, it consoles me to think that, when you know the cause, you will hold me excused On the day your letter reached h fever that I was on the point of death; and certainly I should have died, if it (ie, the letter) had not somewhat revived me Since then, thank God, I have been alell Messer Bartoloht me a sonnet sent by you, which has made me feel it my duty to write
Soly well done The Pope, the Cardinal de' Medici, and every one, have seen it; I do not knohat made them want to do so The Cardinal expressed a wish to inspect all your drawings, and they pleased him so much that he said he should like to have the tityos and Ganye to prevent hi executed by Maestro Giovanni Hard I struggled to save the Ganymede The other day I went, as you requested, to Fra Sebastiano He sends a thousand es, but only to pray you to come back--Your affectionate,
”Thomao Cavaliere
”Rosbeen made for Cavalieri are alluded to here, except the Bacchanal of Children Of the Phaethon we have two splendid examples in existence, one at Windsor, the other in the collection of M Emile Galichon They differ considerably in details, but have the same almost mathe to M Galichon h scrawl in Michelangelo's hand at the bottom, ”Tomao, se questo scizzo non vi piace, ditelo a Urbino” He then promises to make another Perhaps Cavalieri sent word back that he did not like so into trees--and that to this circu, which is purer in style There is a fine tityos with the vulture at Windsor, so exquisitely finished and perfectly preserved that one can scarcely believe it passed through the hands of Maestro Giovanni
Windsor, too, possesses a very delicate Ganylio The subject is repeated in an unfinished pen-design at the Uffizi, incorrectly attributed to Michelangelo, and is represented by several old engravings The Infant Bacchanals again exist at Windsor, and fragin of other sketches intended for the same theme survive
VI
A correspondence between Bartolo the suht upon the latter's movements, and also upon his friendshi+p for Tommaso Cavalieri The first letter of this series, written on the 21st of August 1532, shows that Michelangelo was then expected in Rome ”Fra Sebastiano says that you wish to dis but the walls, I hunted up a small amount of furniture, which I have had sent thither, in order that you may be able to sleep and sit down and enjoy so, you will be able to provide yourself to your own liking in the neighbourhood” From the next letter (Septeelo was then in Roap in the correspondence, which is not resumed until July 12, 1533 It now appears that Buonarroti had recently left Roelini iave that soul you wrote of to M Tos me to communicate any letters I may receive froht, and I often go to visit it by day The hens and reatly over your absence, albeit they have plenty to eat” Angelini never writes noithoutCavalieri Since this name does not occur in the correspondence before the date of July 12, 1533, it is possible that Michelangelohis residence at RoeliniCavalieri's affection; for the replies invariably contain so words (July 26): ”Yours reat is the love you bear him; and in truth, so far as I have seen, he does not love you less than you love hiave your letter to M Thomao, who sends you his kindest reest desire for your return, saying that when he is with you, then he is really happy, because he possesses all that he wishes for upon this world So then, it see with desire for you to do so Why do you not begin in earnest to ive peace to yourself and all of us, if you were here I have seen your soul, which is in good health and under good guardianshi+p The body waits for your arrival”
This ave, at Buonarroti's request, to young Cavalieri, and which he now describes as prospering, throws so elo upon the 11th of October The writer, alluding to Messer Too on living in his absence: ”And so, if I yearn day and night without interain to life, which I cannot enjoy without the soul” This conceit is carried on for so sentence: ”My dear Bartolo with you, this is not the case I aroenty years older and twenty pounds lighter since I have been here” This epistle, as we shall see in due course, was acknowledged All Michelangelo's intimates in Rome beca to Sebastiano fro you, if you see Messer T Cavalieri, to recommendabout him to keep him in my memory; for if I were to lose hihtway” In Sebastiano's letters there is one allusion to Cavalieri, who had coelini, when he was ill
It is not necessary to follow all the references to Toelini's letters They aes and ishes for Michelangelo's return Soon, however, Michelangelo began to send poees (September 6): ”I have received the very welcoraceful and beautiful sonnet, of which I kept a copy, and then sent it on to M Tho thereby assured that God has deigned to bestow upon hiifts as you are”
Again he writes (October 18): ”Yours of the 12th is to hand, together with M Thomao's letter and the most beautiful sonnets I have kept copies, and sent them on to him for whom they were intended, because I knohat affection he regards all things that pertain to you He promised to send an anshich shall be enclosed in this I noriting He is counting not the days merely, but the hours, till you return” In another letter, without date, Angelini says, ”I gave your es to M Thomao, who replied that your presence would be dearer to hi, and that if it seems to you a thousand years, to hiallant (galante) and beautiful sonnet; and though you said nothing about it, I saw at once for who of yours, it delighted him The tenor of the sonnet shows that love keeps you perpetually restless I do not think this ought to be the effect of love, and so I send you one of my poor performances to prove the contrary opinion” We may perhaps assume that this sonnet was the famous No xxxi, from the last line of which every one could perceive that Michelangelo nificant that, while Michelangelo's affection for the young Ro force, another friendshi+p, whichup and then declined, but not apparently through his own fault or coldness We hear of Febo di Poggio in the following autu to speak of him, I ind up what has to be said about To after the date of the last letter quoted above, Michelangelo returned to Rome, and settled there for the rest of his life He continued to the end of his days in close friendshi+p with Cavalieri, who helped to nurse hie of his effects after his death, and who carried on the architectural work he had begun at the Capitol
Their friendshi+p seereeave way to his suspicious irritability, quite at the close of his long life This drew forth fro letter:--
”Veryseveral days past that you have soainst me
Yesterday I becaine the cause, I have thought it best to write this, in order that, if you like, you may inform me I am more than positive that I never offended you But you lend easy credence to those whoht least to trust; and some one has possibly told you some lie, for fear I should one day reveal the many knaveries done under your name, the which do you little honour; and if you desire to know about them, you shall Only I cannot, nor, if I could, should I wish to force myself--but I tell you frankly that if you do not want me for a friend, you can do as you like, but you cannot compel me not to be a friend to you I shall always try to do you service; and only yesterday I came to show you a letter written by the Duke of Florence, and to lighten your burdens, as I have ever done until now Be sure you have no better friend than me; but on this I will not dwell
Still, if you think otherwise, I hope that in a short time you will explain matters; and I know that you know I have always been your friend without the least interest of my own Noill say nowhich does not exist, and which I aine I pray and conjure you, by the love you bear to God, that you tell ainstmore to write, I remain your servant,
”Thomao De' Cavalieri
”From my house, November 15, 1561”
It is clear from this letter, and froelo and Cavalieri up to the day of his death, that the latter was a gentleood repute and honour, whose affection did credit to his friend I a but an injury to both is done by explaining away the obviousof the letters and the sonnets I have quoted The supposition that Michelangelo intended the Cavalieri letters to reach Vittoria Colonna through that friend's hands does not, indeed, deserve the colad, however, to be able to adduce the opinion of a caustic Florentine scholar upon this topic, which agrees with inal documents which I have been enabled to make use of Fanfani says: ”I have searched, but in vain, for docuelo is supposed to have felt for Vittoria Colonna, and which she returned with ardour according to the assertion of soes than myself, is that we have here to deal with one of thethe difficulties presented by his advanced age, it is wholly contrary to all we know about the Marchioness, and not a little da to her reputation for austerity, to suppose that this adave herself up to God, and abjured the commerce of the world, should, later in life, have carried on an intrigue, as the saying is, upon the sly, particularly when a third person is io-between and cloak in the transaction, as certain biographers of the great artist, and certain commentators of his poetry, are pleased to assert, with how much common-sense and what seriousness I will not ask”
VIII
The history of Luigi del Riccio's affection for a lad of Florence called Cecchino dei Bracci, since this is interwoven with Michelangelo's own biography and the criticisuular promise and personal chari del Riccio, one of Buonarroti's most intimate friends and advisers, becaelo, after his return to Roi's admiration for Cecchino; and the close intimacy into which the two elder men were drawn, at a somewhat later period of Buonarroti's life, seems to have been cemented by their co for a char personality We have a letter of uncertain date, in which Michelangelo tells Del Riccio that he has sent hi him, if he thinks fit, to commit the verses ”to the fire--that is, to what consumes me” Then he asks him to resolve a certain probleht, ”for while I was saluting _our idol_ in a dreahed, and in the sa which of these twoyou to find out froain, you will inform me”
Cecchino, who is probably alluded to in this letter, died at Rome on the 8th of January 1542, and was buried in the Church of Araceli