icordo_ dated October 19, 1524, we learn in fact that he then
drew his full pay for eight months.

IV

Since Michelangelo was now engaged upon the Medicean tombs at S.
Lorenzo, it will be well to give some account of the several plans he
made before deciding on the final scheme, which he partially executed.
We may assume, I think, that the sacristy, as regards its general form
and dimensions, faithfully represents the first plan approved by
Clement. This follows from the rapidity and regularity with which the
structure was completed. But then came the question of filling it with
sarcophagi and statues. As early as November 28, 1520, Giulio de'
Medici, at that time Cardinal, wrote from the Villa Magliana. to
Buonarroti, addressing him thus: "_Spectabilis vir, amice noster
charissime_." He says that he is pleased with the design for the
chapel, and with the notion of placing the four tombs in the middle.
Then he proceeds to make some sensible remarks upon the difficulty of
getting these huge masses of statuary into the space provided for
them. Michelangelo, as Heath Wilson has pointed out, very slowly
acquired the sense of proportion on which technical architecture
depends. His early sketches only show a feeling for mass and
picturesque effect, and a strong inclination to subordinate the
building to sculpture.

It may be questioned who were the four Medici for whom these tombs
were intended. Cambi, in a passage quoted above, writing at the end of
March 1520(?), says that two were raised for Giuliano, Duke of
Nemours, and Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and that the Cardinal meant one
to be for himself. The fourth he does not speak about. It has been
conjectured that Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano,
fathers respectively of Leo and of Clement, were to occupy two of the
sarcophagi; and also, with greater probability, that the two Popes,
Leo and Clement, were associated with the Dukes.

Before 1524 the scheme expanded, and settled into a more definite
shape. The sarcophagi were to support statue-portraits of the Dukes
and Popes, with Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano. At
their base, upon the ground, were to repose six rivers, two for each
tomb, showing that each sepulchre would have held two figures. The
rivers were perhaps Arno, Tiber, Metauro, Po, Taro, and Ticino. This
we gather from a letter written to Michelangelo on the 23rd of May in
that year. Michelangelo made designs to meet this plan