ion that the
way to get possession of the coveted commission would depend on the
latter's consenting to supply him with designs, emerge in the
following passage: "The Cardinal told me that he was ordered by the
Pope to offer me the lower hall. I replied that I could accept nothing
without your permission, or until your answer came, which is not to
hand at the date of writing. I added that, unless I were engaged to
Michelangelo, even if the Pope commanded me to paint that hall, I
would not do so, because I do not think myself inferior to Raffaello's
'prentices, especially after the Pope, with his own mouth, had offered
me half of the upper hall; and anyhow, I do not regard it as
creditable to myself to paint the cellars, and they to have the gilded
chambers. I said they had better be allowed to go on painting. He
answered that the Pope had only done this to avoid rivalries. The men
possessed designs ready for that hall, and I ought to remember that
the lower one was also a hall of the Pontiffs. My reply was that I
would have nothing to do with it; so that now they are laughing at me,
and I am so worried that I am well-nigh mad." Later on he adds: "It
has been my object, through you and your authority, to execute
vengeance for myself and you too, letting malignant fellows know that
there are other demigods alive beside Raffael da Urbino and his
'prentices." The vacillation of Leo in this business, and his desire
to make things pleasant, are characteristic of the man, who acted just
in the same way while negotiating with princes.

IX

When Michelangelo complained that he was "rovinato per detta opera di
San Lorenzo," he probably did not mean that he was ruined in purse,
but in health and energy. For some while after Leo gave him his
liberty, he seems to have remained comparatively inactive. During this
period the sacristy at S. Lorenzo and the Medicean tombs were probably
in contemplation. Giovanni Cambi says that they were begun at the end
of March 1520. But we first hear something definite about them in a
_Ricordo_ which extends from April 9 to August 19, 1521. Michelangelo
says that on the former of these dates he received money from the
Cardinal de' Medici for a journey to Carrara, whither he went and
stayed about three weeks, ordering marbles for "the tombs which are to
be placed in the new sacristy at S. Lorenzo. And there I made out
drawings to scale, and measured models in clay for the said tombs." He
left his