Vol. I., Age of the Despots, p. 251.
To these years we must also assign the two unfinished medallions of "Madonna and the infant Christ," the circular oil picture of the "Holy Family," painted for Angelo Doni, and the beautiful unfinished picture of "Madonna with the boy Jesus and S. John" in the National Gallery. The last of these works is one of the loveliest of Michael Angelo's productions, whether we regard the symmetry of its composition or the refinement of its types. The two groups of two boys standing behind the central group on either hand of the Virgin, have incomparable beauty of form. The supreme style of the Sistine is here revealed to us in embryo. Whether the "Entombment," also unfinished, and also in the National Gallery, belongs to this time, and whether it be Michael Angelo's at all, is a matter for the experts to decide. To my perception, it is quite unworthy of the painter of the Doni "Holy family;" nor can I think that his want of practice in oil-painting will explain its want of charm and vigour.
It has long been believed that Baccio Bandinelli destroyed Michael Angelo's; but Grimm, in his Life of the sculptor (vol. i. p. 376, Eng. Tr.), adduces solid arguments against this legend. A few studies, together with the engravings of portions by Marc Antonio and Agostino Veneziano, enable us to form a notion of the composition. At Holkham there is an old copy of the larger portion of the cartoon, which has been engraved by Schiavonetti, and reproduced in Harford's Illustrations, plate x.