g or cursing?' To which the
sculptor replied: 'Holy Father, it is threatening this people of
Bologna if they are not prudent.'"

Michelangelo's letter to Fattucci confirms Condivi's narrative. "When
Pope Julius went to Bologna the first time, I was forced to go there
with a rope round my neck to beg his pardon. He ordered me to make his
portrait in bronze, sitting, about seven cubits (14 feet) in height.
When he asked what it would cost, I answered that I thought I could
cast it for 1000 ducats; but that this was not my trade, and that I
did not wish to undertake it. He answered: 'Go to work; you shall cast
it over and over again till it succeeds; and I will give you enough to
satisfy your wishes.' To put it briefly, I cast the statue twice; and
at the end of two years, at Bologna, I found that I had four and a
half ducats left. I never received anything more for this job; and all
the moneys I paid out during the said two years were the 1000 ducats
with which I promised to cast it. These were disbursed to me in
instalments by Messer Antonio Maria da Legnano, a Bolognese."

The statue must have been more than thrice life-size, if it rose
fourteen feet in a sitting posture. Michelangelo worked at the model
in a hall called the Stanza del Pavaglione behind the Cathedral. Three
experienced workmen were sent, at his request, from Florence, and he
began at once upon the arduous labour. His domestic correspondence,
which at this period becomes more copious and interesting, contains a
good deal of information concerning his residence at Bologna. His mode
of life, as usual, was miserable and penurious in the extreme. This
man, about whom popes and cardinals and gonfaloniers had been
corresponding, now hired a single room with one bed in it, where, as
we have seen, he slept together with his three assistants. There can
be no doubt that such eccentric habits prevented Michelangelo from
inspiring his subordinates with due respect. The want of control over
servants and workmen, which is a noticeable feature of his private
life, may in part be attributed to this cause. And now, at Bologna, he
soon got into trouble with the three craftsmen he had engaged to help
him. They were Lapo d'Antonio di Lapo, a sculptor at the Opera del
Duomo; Lodovico del Buono, surnamed Lotti, a metal-caster and founder
of cannon; and Pietro Urbano, a craftsman who continued long in his
service. Lapo boasted that he was executing the statue in partnership