made the gates of S. Giovanni! His children and grandchildren
have sold and squandered the substance that he left. The gates are
still in their places."

VII

This would be an appropriate place to estimate Michelangelo's
professional gains in detail, to describe the properties he acquired
in lands and houses, and to give an account of his total fortune. We
are, however, not in the position to do this accurately. We only know
the prices paid for a few of his minor works. He received, for
instance, thirty ducats for the Sleeping Cupid, and 450 ducats for the
Pieta of S. Peter's. He contracted with Cardinal Piccolomini to
furnish fifteen statues for 500 ducats. In all of these cases the
costs of marble, workmen, workshop, fell on him. He contracted with
Florence to execute the David in two years, at a salary of six golden
florins per month, together with a further sum when the work was
finished. It appears that 400 florins in all (including salary) were
finally adjudged to him. In these cases all incidental expenses had
been paid by his employers. He contracted with the Operai del Duomo to
make twelve statues in as many years, receiving two florins a month,
and as much as the Operai thought fit to pay him when the whole was
done. Here too he was relieved from incidental expenses. For the
statue of Christ at S. Maria sopra Minerva he was paid 200 crowns.

These are a few of the most trustworthy items we possess, and they are
rendered very worthless by the impossibility of reducing ducats,
florins, and crowns to current values. With regard to the bronze
statue of Julius II. at Bologna, Michelangelo tells us that he
received in advance 1000 ducats, and when he ended his work there
remained only 4-1/2 ducats to the good. In this case, as in most of
his great operations, he entered at the commencement into a contract
with his patron, sending in an estimate of what he thought it would be
worth his while to do the work for. The Italian is "pigliare a
cottimo;" and in all of his dealings with successive Popes
Michelangelo evidently preferred this method. It must have sometimes
enabled the artist to make large profits; but the nature of the
contract prevents his biographer from forming even a vague estimate of
their amount. According to Condivi, he received 3000 ducats for the
Sistine vault, working at his own costs. According to his own
statement, several hundred ducats were owing at the end of the affair.
It seems certain t