in this illustrious lady a friend who shared his deepest thoughts. Together they talked of art and poetry, of God and the soul. When she paid her yearly visits to Orvieto and Viterbo, she wrote frequent letters to her "more than dearest friend," and he in return sent her sonnets and drawings of Crucified Christs and Pietàs.
"I had the greatest faith in God," she writes, in acknowledging one of these, "that He would bestow upon you supernatural grace for the making of this Christ. The design is in all parts perfect and consummate, and I could not desire more. I tell you that I am greatly pleased to see the angel on the right hand is by far the fairer, since he, Michael, will place you, Michelangelo, upon the right hand of our Lord on that last day. Meanwhile, I cannot serve you better than by praying to this sweet Christ, whom you have drawn so well and perfectly, and begging you to hold me ever at your service."
Michelangelo often took part in the Sunday gatherings at the Marchesa's rooms, where churchmen and scholars met to discuss literary and æsthetic subjects, and the painter, Francesco d'Olanda, has recorded some interesting fragments of the great man's conversation. His defence of the eccentricities of artists is very characteristic, and is in reality an apology for his own habits:
