Giovanni Antonio Stampa, the suspected antiquarian, was subjected to the torture, without eliciting from him any acknowledgment of guilt. Suspicion fell also on Giacomo Barrozzi da Vignola; but if the police of Julius III did not succeed in bringing the crime home to any one at the time it was committed, it would be useless for us to investigate the matter further, after such a lapse of time. Baronino's bust has been placed among those of eminent Italians in the Protomotheca of the Capitol.

In describing Michelangelo's transformation of the central hall of the baths of Diocletian into the church of the Madonna degli Angeli, Vasari says that the great master did not disdain occasionally to undertake works of minor importance, such as now fall into the domain of industrial art. He furnished, in fact, the design for the ciborium of the Blessed Sacrament in the same church, cast in metal by Giacomo del Duca and inlaid with precious stones by Giovanni Bernardi da Castel Bolognese. This beautiful object, known by the name of "Ciborio Farnesiano," because it was designed and cast at the expense of Cardinal Alessandro, is now exhibited in the Museo Nazionale at Naples, but without the intaglios and the small columns of lapis lazuli, stolen, I believe, at the time of the first French invasion. Vasari could have mentioned other productions of the goldsmith's art, made from the designs of Michelangelo. Such was the dinner service described in a despatch (July 4, 1537) of Girolamo Staccoli to the duke of Urbino, whose interests he represented in Rome. The original sketch of the central piece, showing an oval vase with masks and festoons round the body, and a figure in full relief on the cover, found its way into the Fountaine collection, and later (1884) into that of Sir J. C. Robinson. We do not know whether this beautiful service is still in existence, or whether it disap

THE FALL OF PHAETHON INTO THE RIVER ERIDANUS

From a cartoon by Michelangelo, engraved by Béatrizet

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

peared in the crucible of an eighteenth century goldsmith. If it still exists, we ought to find traces of it in the "guardaroba" of the ex-grand dukes of Tuscany, on account of the marriage to the grand duke Francis II of Vittoria, daughter of Francesco Maria II, the sole heiress and the last representative of the house of Urbino.

Documents lately discovered in the archives of the Vatican throw light on another peculiarity of Michelangelo's character. Whenever the apostolic treasury was laboring under difficulties and could not meet its obligations in ready money, the artist was always willing to accept any transaction that would satisfy the Pope without endangering his own interests. When he undertook, for instance, the painting of the "Last Judgment" in the Sixtine chapel, Clement VII promised him a remuneration of twelve hundred scudi a year during his lifetime. I do not know whether the negligence of the treasury in meeting this engagement had the effect of disheartening the artist; the fact is that at the death of Clement VII in 1534 the "Last Judgment" was not begun. Paul III, however, won back the good will of Michelangelo, and by renewing the promise of the twelve hundred a year settled the financial side of the question. The promise is expressed in a letter addressed by the pontiff on September 1, 1535, " dilecto filio Michelangelo de Bonarotis patritio Florentino," in which he says that half of the yearly allowance, viz., six hundred scudi, would be paid in cash; for the other half he was given a life interest in the revenue of the ferry of the river Po between Piacenza and Codogno. Who would ever have thought of Michelangelo owning a ferryboat on the mighty river of the North! I wonder if this unexpected connection with the old Eridanus gave him the inspirations for the powerful composition of the "Fall of Phaethon" into that stream, of

which there are three editions, -the first by Lafreri, the second by Béatrizet, the third by Losi.

The Giudizio was finished in 1541. The public was allowed to behold this striking production of a master genius on Christmas Day of that year. The question to be asked is this: Must we consider the "Last Judgment" as an absolutely original artistic conception, or as a repetition of a subject which had already been treated by older artists, and of which Michelangelo had seen and studied more than one specimen? There is no doubt that at least one great and beautiful Judgment was known to him, the one painted by Pietro Cavallini in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, the rediscovery of which in the spring of 1900 created such a sensation in the world of art. The fresco had remained concealed behind the stalls of the choir since 1530, when Pope Clement VII granted the adjoining convent (formerly of the Benedictines) to the nuns of Santa Maria di Campo Marzio. In removing the central part of the stalls, a group was first discovered representing the Redeemer within a halo of angels and cherubim, with the Virgin Mary on the right, the Precursor on the left, each followed by six apostles. The subsequent exploration of the wall below the line of the apostles left no doubt that the subject of the composition was a "Giudizio Universale" in the fullest meaning of the words. Under the feet of the Redeemer there is an altar with a cross and the instruments of the passion, guarded by four angels sounding the silver trumpets. On the right of the altar are the hosts of the blessed, led to heaven by the holy deacons Lawrence and Stephen. The blessed are marshalled into three groups, men, women, and ecclesiastics, each in turn led by one of the cherubim. On the opposite side of the altar are three archangels pushing the condemned into the fire of hell.