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THE LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO

am, I do not wish to abandon it, for I serve through love of God and place all my hopes in Him.”[1]

He did not accept any payment for this sacred task.

He found himself engaged in a struggle with numerous enemies: “the faction of San Gallo,"[2] as Vasari calls them, and with all the administrators, tradesmen and contractors of the building, whose frauds—to which San Gallo had always closed his eyes—he denounced. "Michael Angelo," says Vasari," delivered St. Peter from thieves and robbers."

A coalition was formed against him, headed by the impudent Nanni di Baccio Bigio, an architect whom Vasari accuses of having robbed Michael Angelo, and who aspired to supplant him. They spread about the rumour that Michael Angelo knew nothing of architecture; that he was wasting money and merely destroying the work of his predecessor. The committee in charge of the administration of the building, itself taking part against its architect, instituted, in 1551, a solemn inquiry, presided over by the Pope. Inspectors and workmen, supported by Cardinals Salviati and Cervini,[3] came and gave evidence against Michael Angelo. But the artist hardly

  1. Letter from Michael Angelo to his nephew Leonardo (July 7, 1557).
  2. The person here in question is Antonio da San Gallo, Architect in Chief of St. Peter’s from 1537 to the time of his death in October 1546. He had always been the enemy of Michael Angelo, who treated him without consideration. They were opposed to each other over the Borgo fortifications (the Vatican quarter), the plans for which by San Gallo were set aside through Michael Angelo in 1545, and also during the building of the Farnese Palace, which San Gallo had built up to the second floor, but which Michael Angelo completed, after imposing his model for the cornice in 1549 and eliminating his rival’s project (see Thode’s "Michael Angelo").
  3. The future Pope Marcel II.