Odyss. M. 328. seq.
[72] Sebbene il divino Michel Agnolo fece la gran Cappella di Papa Julio, dappoi non arrivò a questo segno mai alla metà, la sun virtù non aggiunse mai alla forza di quei primi studi. Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, p. 13.—Vasari, as appears from his own account, never himself saw the cartoon: he talks of an ‘infinity of combatants on horseback,’ of which there neither remains nor ever can have existed a trace, if the picture at Holkham be the work of Bastiano da St. Gallo. This he saw, for it was painted, at his own desire, by that master, from his small cartoon in 1542, and by means of Monsignor Jovio transmitted to Francis I. who highly esteemed it; from his collection it however disappeared, and no mention is made of it by the French writers for near two centuries. It was probably discovered at Paris, bought and carried to England by the late Lord Leicester. That Vasari, on inspecting the copy, should not have corrected the confused account he gives of the cartoon from hearsay, can be wondered at, only by those, who are unacquainted with his character as a writer. One solitary horse and a drummer on the imaginary back-ground of the groups engraved by Agostino Venetiano, are all the cavalry remaining of Vasari’s squadrons, and can as little belong to Michel Agnolo as the spot on which they are placed.
The following are his own words: ‘Si vedeva dalle divine mani di Michelagnolo chi affrettare lo armarsi per dare ajuto a’compagni, altri affibbiarsi la corazza, e molti metter altre armi indosso, ed infiniti combattendo a cavallo cominciare la zuffa.’
Vasari, Vita di M. A. B. p. 183. ed. Bottari.
Ὁ δε, πως μεγεθυνει τα Δαιμονια;——Την
Ὁρμην ἀντων κοσμικῳ διαστηματι καταμετρει.
Longinus; § 9.
[74] Much has been said of the loss we have suffered in the marginal drawings which Michael Angelo drew in his Dante. Invention may have suffered in being deprived of them; they can, however, have been little more than hints of a size too minute to admit of much discrimination. The true terrours of Dante depend as much upon the medium in which he shews, or gives us a glimpse of his figures, as on their form. The characteristic outlines of his fiends, Michael Angelo personified in the dæmons of the last judgment, and invigourated the undisguised appetite, ferocity or craft of the brute, by traits of human malignity, cruelty, or lust. The Minos of Dante, in Messer Biagio da Cesena, and his Charon, have been recognized by all; but less the shivering wretch held over the barge by a hook, and evidently taken from the following passage in the xxiid of the Inferno:
Et Graffiacan, che gli era più di contra