HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE WORKS OF ART IN THIS COLLECTION.

Portrait frontispiece. An oil painting in The Hall of the Portraits of Old Masters, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. The authorship of the painting is not certainly known. Symonds says that "it may perhaps be ascribed with some show of probability to Bugiardini." Bugiardini was a friend of Michelangelo's youth and a fellow student in the gardens of the Medici. That later in life he painted a portrait of his distinguished friend we know from Vasari. Vasari tells us that the portrait showed a peculiarity in the right eye, and this fact lends probability to the identification of the Uffizi portrait with Bugiardini's work.

1. Madonna and Child, an unfinished bas-relief medallion, made, according to Vasari, during Michelangelo's residence in Florence in 1501-1505. It was made for Bartolommeo Pitti. It is now in the National Museum (Bargello), Florence.

2. David, a statue made from a block of Carrara marble which had been spoiled by an unskilled sculptor. After it had lain useless in Florence for a century, a sculptor applied to the board of works of the cathedral for permission to use it. The board consulted Michelangelo and offered him the marble. He undertook to cut from it a single figure which would exactly use the block. The contract to make the statue of David was drawn up in 1501, and the statue was completed in 1504. Forty men were employed four days to remove it from the cathedral works to the Piazza della Signoria, where it was placed on the platform of the palace (Palazzo Vecchio), remaining in the open air more than three centuries. The weather was beginning to injure it, and it was removed in 1873 to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where it now stands.

3. Cupid. Symonds gives the following account of the statue in the "Life of Michelangelo," published in 1893: "Discovered some forty years ago, hidden away in the cellars of the Gualfonda (Ruccellai) Gardens, Florence, by Professor Milanesi and the famous Florentine sculptor, Santarelli. On a cursory examination they both declared it to be a genuine Michelangelo. The left arm was broken, the right hand damaged, and the hair had never received the sculptor's final touches. Santarelli restored the arm, and the Cupid passed by purchase into the possession of the English nation." It is now in the Museum of South Kensington.

4. Moses, a statue on the tomb commemorative of Julius II.,[2] in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. At the beginning of Michelangelo's connection with Julius II., he made plans for a magnificent monumental tomb for this pope, to be ornamented with more than forty statues and to be of great size (34-1/2 × 23 feet). The fickleness of the Pope caused a continual series of disappointments in the progress of the work, which was finally abandoned for the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. After the death of the Pope, his executors were even less zealous for the completion of the tomb. A succession of contracts were made and broken, each one reducing the size and importance of the design. The artist was continually in demand for other work. Finally, in 1542, to leave him free for the services of the Pope, the completion of the tomb was put into other hands. The statue of Moses, with those of Rachel and Leah, is all that Michelangelo contributed to a work which had occupied his thoughts for nearly forty years. The setting of the Moses is in every way exceedingly unfavorable to a proper appreciation of the work.

[2] The Pope, Julius II., is buried at St. Peter's.

5. Holy Family, an oil painting belonging to the Florentine period 1501-1505, and painted for Angelo Doni. It is now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

6. The Pietà, a marble group executed by the order of the Cardinal di San Dionigi according to a contract drawn up August 28, 1498. It was placed in the old basilica of St. Peter's (Rome), in a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Fever (Madonna della Febbre). In the present church of St. Peter's it occupies a side chapel, to which it gives its name, where it is placed so high that it is impossible to see it well, and where its beauty is disfigured by the bronze cherubs fastened above, holding a crown over the Virgin's head.

7. Christ Triumphant, a marble statue ordered by Bernardo Cencio (a canon of St. Peter's), Mario Scappuci, and Metello Varj dei Porcari for the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, where it still stands. The deed was executed in 1514, specifying that the statue should be of marble, "life sized, naked, erect, with a cross in his arms." It appears from Michelangelo's correspondence that the work was finished by apprentices, first by Pietro Urbano, who did so badly that he was discharged and replaced by Federigo Frizzi. It was completed in 1521, when Michelangelo offered to make a new statue if it was not satisfactory. Varj, however, declared that the sculptor had "already made what could not be surpassed and was incomparable," so the statue was placed in position.

8-12. The Creation of Man, Jeremiah, Daniel, The Delphic Sibyl, the Cumæan Sibyl, frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Rome, begun in 1508 at the order of the Pope Julius II. Michelangelo undertook the work reluctantly, as sculpture was his chosen art. The architect Bramante first made a scaffolding for the work, so clumsily constructed that Michelangelo replaced it by one of his own invention. Several Florentine painters were engaged as assistants, but, failing to satisfy the painter, returned. Julius II. often visited the chapel during the work, climbing to the scaffolding to see how it progressed. Impatient to see it, he gave orders to have the ceiling uncovered when but half finished. The first uncovering took place November 1, 1509. The work was completed October, 1512.

13-14. Lorenzo de' Medici, Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, marble tombs first projected in 1520 or 1521, during the pontificate of Leo X. (formerly Giovanni de' Medici). The order was renewed by Clement VII., another Medici pope, in 1523. The work was carried on intermittently a number of years during which occurred the revolution, siege, and recapture of Florence. From 1530-1533 Michelangelo carried them to the point of completion in which they are now seen: they were never fully finished. The identity of the tombs was long a matter of doubt. Though Vasari had called the helmeted figure Lorenzo and the other Giuliano, there were critics, notably Grimm, who took the opposite view. In 1875 the sarcophagus of the helmeted figure was opened and evidence found proving it to be unquestionably the tomb of Lorenzo, as Vasari had said. Both tombs remain as originally placed in the new sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo, Florence.

15. Central Figures of the Last Judgment, a fresco painting on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, executed by the order of the Pope Paul III., who in 1535 appointed Michelangelo chief architect, sculptor, and painter at the Vatican. The work occupied several years and was completed in 1541.