own hand. By this contract[1] the Duke of Urbino allowed Michelagnolo to work during four months of the year for Pope Clement, whether in Florence or wherever else it might please the Pontiff to employ him; Michelagnolo now believed himself to have obtained quiet, but he was not allowed to continue his work of the Tomb in peace, because Pope Clement, eager to behold the ultimate effort and force of his art in the Chapel, kept him perpetually occupied with those paintings. Yet, while giving the Pontiff reason to suppose him fully employed with them, he did secretly work on the Statues for the Sepulchre.[2]
In the year 1533, Pope Clement died,[3] when the works proceeding at the Library and Sacristy in Florence, which, notwithstanding all the efforts made, were not yet finished, were at once laid aside. Michelagnolo then believed himself to be free and at liberty to give all his attention to the Tomb of Pope Julius, but Paul III. being created High Pontiff, no long time elapsed before our artist was summoned by His Holiness, who received him with great favour, declaring that he wished the master to enter his service and remain near his person; Michelagnolo excused himself, saying, he was engaged by contract to the Duke of Urbino until the Tomb should be completed; but Paul, much displeased, replied, “For thirty years have I had this wish, and now that I am Pope will you disappoint me? That contract shall be torn up, for I will have you work for me, eome what may.” Hearing this, Michelagnolo was tempted to leave Pome and find means for the completion of the Tomb elsewhere.[4] Yet, prudent as he was, and fearing the power of the Pontiff, he resolved to try if he could not content him with words, and so keep him quiet (seeing that he was already so old), until some new change might ensue.
Pope Paul meanwhile, determined to have some important work executed by Michelagnolo, went one day to his house with ten Cardinals, and then demanded to see all the Statues
- ↑ The Duke’s letter to Michael Angelo, dated March 6, 1542, will be found in Gaye, loc. cit. vol. ii.
- ↑ For details respecting Michael Angelo’s occupations of this period, and the invitation which he received from Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, see Gaye, ut supra, vol. ii.
- ↑ Pope Clement died on the 25th Sept., 1534.— Bottari.
- ↑ For highly interesting details of this period, which cannot here find place, see Condivi, Vita di Michelagnolo, as before cited.
