ime, until he returned to Rome. I returned to Rome
and set myself to work on the cartoons for the said vault, that
is, for the ends and sides of the said Chapel of Sisto, hoping to
have money to finish the work. I never could obtain anything; and
complaining one day to Messer Bernardo da Bibbiena and Attalante
how that I was unable to stay any longer in Rome, but that I must
go away, with the help of God, Messer Bernardo said to Attalante
that he must remember that he was to give me money in any case,
and he had two thousand ducats of the Chamber given to me, which
are the moneys, with that first thousand for marbles, that they
put to the account of the tomb; and I estimate that I should have
more for the time lost and the work done. And of the said moneys,
Messer Bernardo and Attalante having obtained it for me, I gave to
the one a hundred ducats, to the other fifty.

"Then came the death of Pope Julius, and in the first years of
Leo, Aginensis, wishing to enlarge the tomb, that is, to make a
greater work than the design I had at first prepared, we made a
contract, and I not wishing the said three thousand ducats I had
received to be put to the account of the tomb, and showing that I
ought to have much more, Aginensis said to me that I was a
swindler."(103)

[Image #15]

CREATION OF MAN

DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL

The preliminary works for the vault of the Sistine Chapel were carried on
without delay, and there is a note in Michael Angelo's hand, saying: "I
record how on this day, the tenth of May, in the year one thousand five
hundred and eight, I, Michael Angelo, Sculptor, have received from the
Holiness of our Lord Pope Julius II. five hundred ducats of the Camera,
the which were paid me by Messer Carlino, chamberlain, and Messer Carlo
degli Albizzi, on account of the painting of the vault of the Chapel of
Pope Sisto, on which I begin to work this day, under the conditions and
contracts set forth in a document written by his Most Reverend Lordship of
Pavia, and signed by my hand. For the painter assistants who are to come
from Florence, who will be five in number, twenty gold ducats of the
Camera a-piece, on this condition, that is to say, that when they are here
and are working in accord with me, the said twenty ducats shall be
reckoned to each m