have it done quickly;” adding finally, that if it were not at once completed, he would have him, Michelagnolo, thrown headlong from the scaffolding.
Hearing this, our artist, who feared the fury of the Pope, and with good cause, desisted instantly, without taking time to add what was wanting, and took down the remainder of the scaffolding, to the great satisfaction of the whole city, on All Saints’ day, when Pope Julius went into that Chapel to sing mass: but Michelagnolo had much desired to retouch some portions of the work a secco, as had been done by the older masters who had painted the stories on the walls; he would also gladly have added a little ultramarine to some of the draperies, and gilded other parts, to the end that the whole might have a richer and more striking effect. The Pope, too, hearing that these things were still wanting, and finding that all who beheld the Chapel praised it highly, would now fain have had the additions made, but as Michelagnolo thought reconstructing the scaffold too long an affair, the pictures remained as they were, although the Pope, who often saw Michelagnolo, would sometimes say, “Let the Chapel be enriched with bright colours and gold; it looks poor.” When Michelagnolo would reply familiarly, “Holy Father, the men of those days did not adorn themselves with gold; those who are painted here less than any, for they were none too rich; besides which, they were holy men, and must have despised riches and ornaments.”
For this work Michelagnolo received from the Pope, in various payments, the sum of three thousand crowns, and of these he may have spent twenty-five in colours. He worked with great inconvenience to himself, having to labour with the face turned upwards, and injuring his eyes so much in the progress of the work, that he could neither read letters nor examine drawings for several months afterwards, except in the same attitude of looking upwards. I can myself bear full testimony to the effects of such work, having painted the ceilings of five large apartments in the Palace of Duke Cosimo; and if I had not made a seat with a support for the head, and occasionally laid down to my work, I should never have been able to finish them; as it was, I weakened my sight, and injured my head so much that I still feel the bad e:&cts of that toil, and I wonder Michelagnolo endured it so well; but his zeal for his art increased daily, while the
