re him to deliver it with his own hand.

"Di Bologna (the 18th day of February, 1508)."(102)

On February 21, 1508, the statue of Pope Julius II. was hoisted on to its
pedestal above the great central door of San Petronio. Alas! this work
which cost Michael Angelo a year and three months of hard, unremitting
labour only existed for about twice that period. It was destroyed by the
worst enemy of art--war. The Papal Legate fled from Bologna in 1511 and the
Bentivogli again entered the city. The people of their party dragged the
heavy bronze to the ground and broke it into pieces on December 30. The
broken fragments were sent to Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who cast a
huge cannon with the metal, which the Italians, with their usual mocking
spirit, immediately called La Giulia. The Duke kept the head only, and
said he would not take its weight in gold for it; it weighed six hundred
pounds. This head has disappeared too; there is no drawing, engraving, or
any fragment to help us to reconstruct in our minds this mighty bronze;
only, perhaps, we may imagine that we have an echo of this Pope by Michael
Angelo when we turn our eyes from the bare front of San Petronio to the
niche on the Palazzo Comunale to the right of the square, where a bronze
Pope, Gregory XIII., stretches his hand to curse the iconoclastic people.
In the Piazza Dante, at Perugia, is the bronze statue of Pope Julius III.,
by Vincenzio Dante, that makes us think of the master, and in Rimini a
mighty bronze form stretches out his right hand with a threatening
gesture. He, too, is a Pope--Paul V.

[Image #13]

THE CREATION OF THE SUN AND MOON, AND OF THE TREES AND HERBS

SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence)

CHAPTER VI

THE VAULT OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL

Michael Angelo's work in Bologna well over, he returned to Florence upon
March 18, 1508, and hired his house at Borgo Pinti from the Operai del
Duomo, probably intending to proceed with the Twelve Apostles for that
church. Michael Angelo's father now emancipated his son from parental
control. The date of the document is March 13; it was entered in the State
Archives upon March 28. According to the law of Florence a son was not of
age until his father had executed this document. Michael Angelo appears to
have had the idea of settling in Florence at this time,