. And
if they do not agree with me, half of the said money shall be paid
them for their travelling expenses, and for their time."

On the strength of this _Ricordo_, it has been assumed that
Michelangelo actually began to paint the Sistine on the 10th of May
1508. That would have been physically and literally impossible. He was
still at Florence, agreeing to rent his house in Borgo Pinti, upon the
18th of March. Therefore he had no idea of going to Rome at that time.
When he arrived there, negotiations went on, as we have seen, between
him and Pope Julius. One plan for the decoration of the roof was
abandoned, and another on a grander scale had to be designed. To
produce working Cartoons for that immense scheme in less than two
months would have been beyond the capacities of any human brain and
hands. But there are many indications that the vault was not prepared
for painting, and the materials for fresco not accumulated, till a
much later date. For instance, we possess a series of receipts by
Piero Rosselli, acknowledging several disbursements for the plastering
of the roof between May 11 and July 27. We learn from one of these
that Granacci was in Rome before June 3; and Michelangelo writes for
fine blue colours to a certain Fra Jacopo Gesuato at Florence upon the
13th of May. All is clearly in the air as yet, and on the point of
preparation. Michelangelo's phrase, "on which I begin work to-day,"
will have to be interpreted, therefore, in the widest sense, as
implying that he was engaging assistants, getting the architectural
foundation ready, and procuring a stock of necessary articles. The
whole summer and autumn must have been spent in taking measurements
and expanding the elaborate design to the proper scale of working
drawings; and if Michelangelo had toiled alone without his Florentine
helpers, it would have been impossible for him to have got through
with these preliminary labours in so short a space of time.

Michelangelo's method in preparing his Cartoons seems to have been the
following. He first made a small-scale sketch of the composition,
sometimes including a large variety of figures. Then he went to the
living models, and studied portions of the whole design in careful
transcripts from Nature, using black and red chalk, pen, and sometimes
bistre. Among the most admirable of his drawings left to us are
several which were clearly executed with a view to one or other of
these great Cartoons. Finally, ret