composition. Thus, in this highly interesting essay, the horoscope of
the mightiest Florentine artist was already cast. Nature leads him,
and he follows Nature as his own star bids. But that star is double,
blending classic influence with Tuscan instinct. The roof of the
Sistine was destined to exhibit to an awe-struck world what wealths of
originality lay in the artist thus gifted, and thus swayed by rival
forces. For the present, it may be enough to remark that, in the
geometrical proportions of this bas-relief, which is too high for its
length, Michelangelo revealed imperfect feeling for antique
principles; while, in the grouping of the figures, which is more
pictorial than sculpturesque, he already betrayed, what remained with
him a defect through life, a certain want of organic or symmetrical
design in compositions which are not rigidly subordinated to
architectural framework or limited to the sphere of an _intaglio_.

Vasari mentions another bas-relief in marble as belonging to this
period, which, from its style, we may, I think, believe to have been
designed earlier than the Centaurs. It is a seated Madonna with the
Infant Jesus, conceived in the manner of Donatello, but without that
master's force and power over the lines of drapery. Except for the
interest attaching to it as an early work of Michelangelo, this piece
would not attract much attention. Vasari praises it for grace and
composition above the scope of Donatello; and certainly we may trace
here the first germ of that sweet and winning majesty which Buonarroti
was destined to develop in his Pietà of S. Peter, the Madonna at
Bruges, and the even more glorious Madonna of S. Lorenzo. It is also
interesting for the realistic introduction of a Tuscan cottage
staircase into the background. This bas-relief was presented to Cosimo
de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, by Michelangelo's nephew
Lionardo. It afterwards came back into the possession of the