Patriarch of Aquileja. In the same year, 1523, the Genoese entered
into negotiations for a colossal statue of Andrea Doria, which they
desired to obtain from the hand of Michelangelo. Its execution must
have been seriously contemplated, for the Senate of Genoa banked 300
ducats for the purpose. We regret that Michelangelo could not carry
out a work so congenial to his talent as this ideal portrait of the
mighty Signer Capitano would have been; but we may console ourselves
by reflecting that even his energies were not equal to all tasks
imposed upon him. The real matter for lamentation is that they
suffered so much waste in the service of vacillating Popes.

To the year 1523 belongs, in all probability, the last extant letter
which Michelangelo wrote to his father. Lodovico was dissatisfied with
a contract which had been drawn up on the 16th of June in that year,
and by which a certain sum of money, belonging to the dowry of his
late wife, was settled in reversion upon his eldest son. Michelangelo
explains the tenor of the deed, and then breaks forth into the,
following bitter and ironical invective: "If my life is a nuisance to
you, you have found the means of protecting yourself, and will inherit
the key of that treasure which you say that I possess. And you will be
acting rightly; for all Florence knows how mighty rich you were, and
how I always robbed you, and deserve to be chastised. Highly will men
think of you for this. Cry out and tell folk all you choose about me,
but do not write again, for you prevent my working. What I have now to
do is to make good all you have had from me during the past
five-and-twenty years. I would rather not tell you this, but I cannot
help it. Take care, and be on your guard against those whom it
concerns you. A man dies but once, and does not come back again to
patch up things ill done. You have put off till the death to do this.
May God assist you!"

In another draft of this letter Lodovico is accused of going about the
town complaining that he was once a rich man, and that Michelangelo
had robbed him. Still, we must not take this for proved; one of the
great artist's main defects was an irritable suspiciousness, which
caused him often to exaggerate slights and to fancy insults. He may
have attached too much weight to the grumblings of an old man, whom at
the bottom of his heart he loved dearly.

III

Clement, immediately after his election, resolved on setting
Michelangelo a