The observation is just; and it suggests a comment on the habit Michelangelo early formed of treating the face idealistically, however much he took from study of his models.

Vasari, for example, says that he avoided portraiture, and composed his faces by combining several individuals.

We shall see a new ideal type of the male head emerge in a group of statues, among which the most distinguished is Giuliano de' Medici at San Lorenzo.

We have already seen a female type created in the Madonnas of S.Peter's and Notre Dame at Bruges.

But this is not the place to discuss Michelangelo's theory of form in general.