Complimentary sonnets must also have been addressed to the painter.

I take it that Niccolo Martelli sent some poems on the subject from Florence, for Michelangelo replied upon the 20th of January 1542 in the following letter of singular modesty and urbane kindness:-- "I received from Messer Vincenzo Perini your letter with two sonnets and a madrigal.

The letter and the sonnet addressed to me are so marvellously fine, that if a man should find in them anything to castigate, it would be impossible to castigate him as thoroughly as they are castigated.

It is true they praise me so much, that had I Paradise in my bosom, less of praise would suffice.

I perceive that you suppose me to be just what God wishes that I were.