They were never employed in the production of any monumental work of sculpture or of painting.

For this very reason, because they were occasional improvisations, preludes, dreams of things to be, they preserve the finest bloom, the Indian summer of his fancy.

Lovers of Michelangelo must dedicate their latest and most loving studies to this phase of his fourth manner.
X If we seek to penetrate the genius of an artist, not merely forming a correct estimate of his technical ability and science, but also probing his personality to the core, as near as this is possible for us to do, we ought to give our undivided study to his drawings.

It is there, and there alone, that we come face to face with the real man, in his unguarded moments, in his hours of inspiration, in the laborious effort to solve a problem of composition, or in the happy flow of genial improvisation.

Michelangelo was wont to maintain that all the arts are included in the art of design.