revived me.  Since then, thank God, I have been always well.  Messer Bartolommeo (Angelini) has now brought me a sonnet sent by you, which has made me feel it my duty to write.  Some three days since I received my Phaethon, which is exceedingly well done.  The Pope, the Cardinal de’ Medici, and every one, have seen it; I do not know what 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 Ganymede done in crystal.  I could not manage to prevent him from using the Tityos, and it is now being 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 messages, but only to pray you to come back.—­Your affectionate,

“Thomao Cavaliere. 
“Rome, September 6.”

All the drawings mentioned by Vasari as having been 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 mathematical exactitude of pyramidal composition.  That belonging to M. Galichon must have been made in Rome, for it has this rough 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 something in the sketch—­possibly the women writhing into trees—­and that to this circumstance we owe the Windsor drawing, 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 Ganymede, which seems intended for an intaglio.  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 fragmentary jottings upon the margin of other sketches intended for the same theme survive.

VI

A correspondence between Bartolommeo Angelini in Rome and Michelangelo in Florence during the summers of 1532 and 1533 throws some light upon the latter’s movements, and also upon his friendship 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 dismount at your own house.  Knowing then that there is nothing 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 some other conveniences.  For eating, you will be able to provide yourself to your own liking in the neighbourhood.”