recognised superior talent. At the same time, Michelangelo's
influence was undeniable, and we cannot ignore the testimony of those
who conversed with both great artists--of Julius himself, for
instance, when he said to Sebastian del Piombo: "Look at the work of
Raffaello, who, after seeing the masterpieces of Michelangelo,
immediately abandoned Perugino's manner, and did his utmost to
approach that of Buonarroti."

Condivi's assertion that the part uncovered in November 1509 was the
first half of the whole vault, beginning from the door and ending in
the middle, misled Vasari, and Vasari misled subsequent biographers.
We now know for certain that what Michelangelo meant by "the portion I
began" was the whole central space of the ceiling--that is to say, the
nine compositions from Genesis, with their accompanying genii and
architectural surroundings. That is rendered clear by a statement in
Albertini's Roman Handbook, to the effect that the "upper portion of
the whole vaulted roof" had been uncovered when he saw it in 1509.
Having established this error in Condivi's narrative, what he proceeds
to relate may obtain some credence. "Raffaello, when he beheld the new
and marvellous style of Michelangelo's work, being extraordinarily apt
at imitation, sought, by Bramante's means, to obtain a commission for
the rest." Had Michelangelo ended at a line drawn halfway across the
breadth of the vault, leaving the Prophets and Sibyls, the lunettes
and pendentives, all finished so far, it would have been a piece of
monstrous impudence even in Bramante, and an impossible discourtesy in
gentle Raffaello, to have begged for leave to carry on a scheme so
marvellously planned. But the history of the Creation, Fall, and
Deluge, when first exposed, looked like a work complete in itself.
Michelangelo, who was notoriously secretive, had almost certainly not
explained his whole design to painters of Bramante's following; and it
is also improbable that he had as yet prepared his working Cartoons
for the lower and larger portion of the vault. Accordingly, there
remained a large vacant space to cover between the older frescoes by
Signorelli, Perugino, Botticelli, and other painters, round the walls
below the windows, and that new miracle suspended in the air. There
was no flagrant impropriety in Bramante's thinking that his nephew
might be allowed to carry the work downward from that altitude. The
suggestion may have been that the Sistine Chapel