This group, which is unfinished, is the last the old and weary Titan ever worked at, and it was meant to be part of his own tomb.

Vasari, to whose "Lives of the Painters" we shall be indebted, as this book proceeds, for so much good human nature, and who speaks of Michelangelo with peculiar authority, since he was his friend, pupil, and correspondent, tells us that once when he went to see the sculptor in Rome, near the end, he found him at work upon this Pieta, but the sculptor was so dissatisfied with one portion that he let his lantern fall in order that Vasari might not see it, saying: "I am so old that death frequently drags at my mantle to take me, and one day my person will fall like this lantern".

The Pieta is still in deep gloom, as the master would have liked, but enough is revealed to prove its pathos and its power.
In the east end of the nave is the chapel of S.Zenobius, containing a bronze reliquary by Ghiberti, with scenes upon it from the life of this saint, so important in Florentine religious history.

It is, however, very hard to see, and should be illuminated.

Zenobius was born at Florence in the reign of Constantine the Great, when Christianity was by no means the prevailing religion of the city, although the way had been paved by various martyrs.