Perhaps this coloured his unflattering account of Condivi as an artist, when describing Michael Angelo's scholars: "Ascanio della Ripa took great pains, but no results have been seen, whether in designs or finished works.

He spent several years over a picture for which Michael Angelo had given him the cartoon, and, at a word, the hopes conceived of him have vanished in smoke." What a good thing it would have been for Vasari's reputation if his art work had vanished in smoke, too, and only his biographies remained.

Condivi lives, as he said he wished to live, in the dedication of his work to Pope Julius III., with the name of being a faithful servant and disciple of Michael Angelo.
A second edition of the "Vita di Michael Angelo," by Ascanio Condivi, was published at Florence in 1746.

The introduction informs us that Condivi was born at Ripa Transona, and that he outlived his master ten years, dying on February 17, 1563 (1564), aged nearly eighty-nine years.
The second part of this book may be regarded as an appendix( 1) to Condivi.
It is a supplementary account of the existing works of the master, and details of their fashioning that may help us to realise the mystery of their production, from contemporary documents: letters, contracts, and the life by Vasari, with some few explanations that will not interest the learned, but may help young students of the works of the great master.
Londoners have peculiar facilities for this study.

The bas-relief in the Diploma Gallery of the Royal Academy, the drawings in the British Museum, and the unfinished and altered picture at the National Gallery, are an excellent foundation from which to study the casts at Kensington and in the Crystal Palace (the latter are unique in this country, but, alas! in a poor state now).