[327] Vasari's description moves our laughter with its jargon about "attitudini bellissime e scorti molto mirabili," when the man, in spite of his honest and enthusiastic admiration, is so little capable of penetrating the painter's thought. Mr. Ruskin leaves the same impression as Vasari: he too makes much talk about attitudes and muscles in Michael Angelo, and seems to be on Vasari's level as to comprehending him. The difference is that Vasari praises, Ruskin blames; both miss the mark. [328] "È possibile che voi, che _per essere divino non degnate il consortio degli huomini_, haviate ciò fatto nel maggior tempio di Dio?.... In un bagno delitioso, non in un choro supremo si conveniva il far vostro." Those who are curious may consult Aretino's correspondence with Michael Angelo in his published letters (Parigi, 1609), lib. i. p. 153; lib. ii. p. 9; lib. iii. pp. 45, 122; lib. iv. p. 37. [329] Braun's autotypes of the vault frescoes show what ravage the lapse of time has wrought in them, by the cracking of the plaster, the peeling off in places of the upper surface, and the deposit of dirt and cobwebs. Mr. Heath Wilson, after careful examination, pronounces that not only time, but the wilful hand of man, re-painting and washing the delicate tint-coats with corrosive acids, has contributed to their ruin. [330] _Histoire de la Peinture en Italie_, p. 332. [331] That is not counting the frescoes of the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican, painted about 1544, which are now in a far worse state even than the "Last Judgment," and which can never have done more than show his style in decadence. [332] See above, Chapter II, S. Peter's. [333] See Gotti, p. 307, or _Archivio Buonarroti_, p. 535. [334] I have reserved my translation of the sonnets that cast most light upon Michael Angelo's thought and feeling for an Appendix, No. II. [335] The majority of Michael Angelo's letters are written on domestic matters--about the affairs of his brothers and his father. When they vexed him, he would break out into expressions like the following: "Io son ito, da dodici anni in qua, tapinando per tutta Italia; sopportato ogni vergognia; patito ogni stento; lacerato il corpo mio in ogni fatica; messa la vita propria a mille pericoli, solo per aiutar la casa mia." They are generally full of good counsel and sound love. How he loved his father may be seen in the _terza rima_ poem on his death in 1534. [336] Notice this expression in a letter to his father, written from Rome, about 1512, "Bastivi avere del pane, e vivete ben con Cristo e poveramente; come fo io qua, che vivo meschinamente." It does not seem that he ever altered this poor way of living. For his hiring at Bologna, in 1507, a single room with one bed in it, for himself and his three workmen, see Gotti, p. 58. His father in 1500 rebuked him for the meanness of his establishment; _ibid_. p. 23. It appears that he was always sending money home.