Chapel also, which have been brought back by the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, and are now held by the heirs of Girolamo degli Albizzi.[1]
Michelagnolo now thought it fitting and proper that he should repair to Borne, there to take the commands of Pope Clement, who, though much displeased, was yet the friend of distinguished men; His Holiness accordingly forgave all, and ordered him to return to Plorence with a commission to give the ultimate completion to the Library and the Sacristy of San Lorenzo. By way of facilitating the progress of the work moreover, the large number of Statues required for it were distributed among other masters. Tribolo received two; one was given to Bafiaello da Monte Lupo; and another to the Servite monk, Fra Giovan Agnolo, all sculptors;[2] but Michelagnolo assisted each of them, making rough models in clay for them all. While these masters, therefore, were zealously occupied with their works, Michelagnolo proceeded with the Library, the ceiling of which was finished after his models by the Florentines Caroto and Tasso, both excellent carvers and masters in wood-work; the shelves for the books being executed at the same time by Battista del Cinque and Ciapino his friend, also good masters in their vocation; while, to give the work its final perfection, the famous Giovanni of Udine was invited to Florence; when he, assisted by his disciples and certain Florentine masters, adorned the Tribune with stucco-work;[3] all these artists labouring zealously to bring the edifice to completion.
Michelagnolo, on his part, was anxious to have his statues also in readiness, but the Pope then summoned him to Rome, for the purpose of adorning the walls of the Chapel of Sixtus with pictures, as he had already done the ceiling for Pope Julius 11. On the first of these walls, or that behind the Altar, Pope Clement commanded him to paint the Last Judgment, proposing that in this picture he should display
- ↑ Of Michael Angelo’s drawings, seventy-nine are now in the Gallery of the University at Oxford, others are in the British Museum; there were also a certain number in the possession of the King of the Netherlands at the Hague, and others will be found at Vienna.
- ↑ The whole of the statues were not completed, and there still remain twelve empty niches; the nine finished and erected are seven by Michael Angelo, and two by Tribolo and Raffaello da Montelupo.
- ↑ All the stucco-work has disappeared, but the wood-carving still remains.
