the opposite niche as the place of his own sepulchre, which was to correspond in manner with that of Paul III., but the opposition of Fra Guglielmo caused his own work to remain unfinished,[1] while the construction of that of Pope Julius was likewise prevented; results which had all been predicted by Michelagnolo.
In the same year Pope Julius resolved to erect a marble chapel in San Pietro-a-Montorio, with two sepulchral monuments, the one for his uncle Antonio Cardinal di Monte, and the other for Messer Fabiano his grandfather, who had laid the foundation of greatness for that illustrious house. For these works Vasari made the designs and models, when Pope Julius, who admired the genius of Michelagnolo and loved Vasari, commanded that the former should fix the price to be paid for those labours, and Vasari entreated the Pontiff to prevail on Michelagnolo to take the work under his protection. Now Vasari had proposed that Simon Mosca should be employed to prepare carvings for this Chapel, and. that Paffaello di Montelupo should execute statues; but Michelagnolo advised that no carvings of foliage should be added, nor any decorations of that kind used among the architectural portions of the monuments, remarking that where there are marble statues there should be no other ornament. Vasari meanwhile was afraid the work would look poor; but when he afterwards saw it completed, he confessed that Michelagnolo had displayed judgment, nay, great judgment.
The master was also unwilling that Paffaello da Monte Lupo should have the commission for the statues, remembering that he had not acquitted himself well in those which he had executed under his own guidance for the Tomb of Pope Julius II. He therefore preferred to ‘see them confided to Bartolommeo Ammannati, whom Vasari was likewise seeking to put forward for that occasion, although Michelagnolo had a touch of personal dislike against him, as well as against Nanni di Baccio Bigio. But this displeasure, if we consider all things, had arisen from slight causes, these artists having offended from love of art rather than from, a desire to wrong him. Being youths that is to say, they had taken several drawings by Michelagnolo from his disciple Antonio
- ↑ It was subsequently completed, and in the niche destined by our author for the tomb of Pope Julius 111., that of Pope Urban VIII. has been erected.
