aint,
he must send for the Duke's ambassador and procure the ratification."

What happened at this time about the tomb can be understood by help of
a letter written to Salvestro da Montauto on the 3rd of February 1545.
Michelangelo refers to the last contract, and says that the Duke of
Urbino ratified the deed. Accordingly, five statues were assigned to
Raffaello da Montelupo. "But while I was painting the new chapel for
Pope Paul III., his Holiness, at my earnest prayer, allowed me a
little time, during which I finished two of them, namely, the Active
and Contemplative Life, with my own hand."

With all his good-will, however, Michelangelo did not wholly extricate
himself from the anxieties of this miserable affair. As late as the
year 1553, Annibale Caro wrote to Antonio Gallo entreating him to
plead for the illustrious old man with the Duke of Urbino. "I assure
you that the extreme distress caused him by being in disgrace with his
Excellency is sufficient to bring his grey hairs to the grave before
his time."

VI

The Tomb of Julius, as it now appears in the Church of S. Pietro in
Vincoli in Rome, is a monument composed of two discordant parts, by
inspecting which a sympathetic critic is enabled to read the dreary
history of its production. As Condivi allows, it was a thing
"rattoppata e rifatta," patched together and hashed up.

The lower half represents what eventually survived from the grandiose
original design for one facade of that vast mount of marble which was
to have been erected in the Tribune of St. Peter's. The socles, upon
which captive Arts and Sciences were meant to stand, remain; but
instead of statues, inverted consoles take their places, and lead
lamely up to the heads and busts of terminal old men. The pilasters of
these terms have been shortened. There are four of them, enclosing two
narrow niches, where beautiful female figures, the Active Life and the
Contemplative Life, still testify to the enduring warmth and vigour of
the mighty sculptor's genius. As single statues duly worked into a
symmetrical scheme, these figures would be admirable, since grace of
line and symbolical contrast of attitude render both charming. In
their present position they are reduced to comparative insignificance
by heavy architectural surroundings. The space left free between the
niches and the terms is assigned to the seated statue of Moses, which
forms the main attraction of the monument, and of which, as a
ma