Michael Angelo executed his last great works in painting and sculpture: “The Last Judgment,” the frescoes of the Pauline Chapel and—at last—the mausoleum of Julius II. When Michael Angelo left Florence in 1534 to settle down in Rome he thought that, having been relieved of all his other works by the death of Clement VII., he would be able to complete the mausoleum of Julius II. in peace, and then die, with his conscience relieved of the burden which had weighed on the whole of his life. But he had hardly arrived than he allowed himself to be enchained by new masters.
“Paul III. soon summoned him and required his services. … Michael Angelo, however, declined until the tomb should be finished, alleging his contract with the Duke of Urbino. His refusal angered the Pope, who said, ‘I have been longing for this opportunity for thirty years, and shall I not have it now I am Pope? I will tear up the contract, and I am determined that you shall serve me, come what may.’”[1]
Michael Angelo was on the point of fleeing.
“He thought of taking refuge near Genoa, in an abbey of the Bishop of Aleria, who was his friend and who had been that of Julius II. There, in the neighbourhood of Carrara, he would comfortably have finished
- ↑ Vasari.
by hating her. He implored Fate to make her ugly and enamoured of him, in order that he could no longer love her and make her suffer in her turn:
“Cupid, why do you permit beauty to refuse your supreme courtesy to one who desires and appreciates you, whilst she accords it to stupid beings? Oh! grant that another time she has a loving heart, but so ugly a body that I love her not, and that she loves me!”See Appendix, xx (“Poems,” cix, 63).
