action, that nothing survives of ancient or of modern art which touches
the same lofty point of excellence; and, as I have already said, the
design of the great Leonardo was itself most admirably beautiful. These
two cartoons stood, one in the Palace of the Medici, the other in the hall
of the Pope. So long as they remained intact they were the school of the
world. Though the divine Michael Angelo in later life finished that great
chapel of Pope Julius, he never rose half-way to the same pitch of power;
his genius never afterwards attained to the force of those first studies."

These years spent under the shadow of the Duomo, away from which no
Florentine is happy, working at his sculptures and drawings, were probably
some of the happiest years of Michael Angelo's whole life.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE TOMB

[Image #11]

MOSES

THE TOMB OF JULIUS II. SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI, ROME
(_By permission of Sig. Giacomo Brogi, Florence_)

The cartoon, The Apostles for the Duomo, and all these works, had to be
left unfinished, as Michael Angelo was summoned to Rome in the beginning
of 1505 by Pope Julius II. From this period Michael Angelo was the
servant, often the unwilling servant, of the Popes (his Medusa as he
said). Much of his time was wasted owing to the different dispositions and
likings of his patrons, yet we must be thankful to them for the
opportunities they gave him in their great undertakings. Now began what
Condivi called "The Tragedy of the Tomb"; the phrase is so apt that we
imagine he must have got it from Michael Angelo himself. Julius appears to
have appreciated his artist from the first; both were what the Italians
call _uomini terribili_, men whose brains worked with furious energy,
grand and formidable in their imaginations. Michael Angelo was packed off
to Carrara for marble as soon as his design was approved. There is a
contract signed by him and two shipowners of Lavagna, dated November 18,
1505. Thirty-four cartloads of marble were then ready for shipment,
together with two blocked-out figures. He probably left Carrara soon
afterwards, returning to Rome by way of Florence. The only authoritative
account of the original project of the Tomb is that of Condivi; Vasari's
account was not published until his second edition in 1558. The
architectural drawings, said to b