graced his residence. During the four years that he remained there, he laid the foundation of all his acquirements.
THE CARTOON OF PISA.
According to Condivi, Michael Angelo devoted
twelve years to the study of anatomy, with great
injury to his health, and this course "determined
his style, his practice, and his glory." His perfect
knowledge of the human body was best shown in
his famous Cartoon of the Battle of Pisa, prepared
in competition with Leonardo da Vinci, in the saloon
of the public palace at Florence. Angelo did not
rest satisfied with representing the Florentines, cased
in armor, and mingling with their enemies in deadly
combat; but choosing the moment of the attack
upon the van, while bathing in the river Arno, he
seized the opportunity of representing many naked
figures, as they rushed to arms from the water, by
which he was enabled to introduce a prodigious variety
of foreshortenings, and attitudes the most energetic—in
a word, the highest perfection of his peculiar
excellence. Cellini observes of this work,
that "when Michael Angelo painted in the chapel
of Julius II., he did not reach half that dignity;"
and Vasari says that "all the artists who studied
and designed after this cartoon, became eminent."
This sublime production has perished, and report, though not authenticated, accuses Baccio Bandinelli of having destroyed it, either that others might
