tract by which he pledged himself to execute the monument in seven
years and not to undertake any other work of importance till it was
finished. He was to receive sixteen thousand five hundred ducats, from
which were deducted the three thousand five hundred which had been paid
during the life of Julius II.[30] The new plan included thirty-two large
statues, and the monument was to be built against the wall of the
church. "At each of the three sides were two tabernacles, both
containing a group of two figures; in front of each of the pilasters
flanking the tabernacles was to be a statue. Between the tabernacles
were reliefs in bronze, on the platform above was the statue of the pope
supported by four figures and surrounded by six others on pedestals.
Finally from the platform was to rise a little sanctuary thirty-four
palms high[31] and containing five statues larger in size than the
others."[32]

[Illustration: THE LIBYAN SIBYL

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512).]

For three years Michelangelo devoted himself almost exclusively to this
work and from that period of vigour and maturity, of relative calm and
satisfying accomplishment, came his most perfect piece of sculpture, the
Moses. This statue, originally intended for one of the six colossal
figures crowning the upper story of the tomb, in the end was itself the
complete expression of the whole monument. The Moses is the older
brother of the Prophets of the Sistine, sprung from the same vehement
and passionate inspiration, but more commanding, more sure and more
master of himself (we shall come upon him again at the completion of the
work thirty years later, for Michelangelo was never tired of returning
to him). The two Slaves[33] now in the Louvre, who were to be placed
against the pilasters of the lower story, immortal symbols of the
weariness of living and of the revolt against life,--the voluptuous hero
with his beautiful body overcome by deadly torpor and the athlete,
vanquished but unsubdued, who writhes in his bonds, "bent like a
spring," gathering himself together and hurling his scorn into the face
of heaven--both belong to this period. Probably the Caryatid of the
Hermitage at St. Petersburg, which was certainly meant for one of the
groups of conquerors in the niches, was made at this time as well as the
models for many statues.

The general subject of the monument according to Condivi and to Vasari
who preserved the sayings of Michelangelo himse