as then in Florence, saw that I was working at the tomb
and he would no longer permit it. For that reason I was prevented from
doing anything until the Medici became pope."

Michelangelo always sought excuses for not finishing his undertakings.
The real culprit was his eager and changeable genius, uncontrollable and
constantly seized with enthusiasm for some new idea. He no more
succeeded in raising the facade of S. Lorenzo than in finishing the
tomb.

His terrible mania for doing everything himself drove him--instead of
staying and working in Florence--into going to Carrara to oversee the
quarrying of the blocks of marble. There he found himself in all sorts
of difficulties. The Medici wanted to use the quarries of Pietra Santa,
which had been lately bought by Florence, instead of those of Carrara
and Michelangelo, because he took sides with the Carrarese, found
himself suspected by the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici of having been
bought by them; and because he was forced in the end to obey the strict
orders of the pope he was persecuted by the people of Carrara, who made
an arrangement with the Genoese boatmen at Pisa so that he could not
secure any barge to transport his marble. He had to build a road several
miles in length across the mountains with pick and shovel. The ill-will
of the people of Pietra Santa and the stupidity of the workmen who did
not understand their work so upset him that he fell ill at Seravezza
from over-strain and worry. He felt that his vigour, his health and his
ideas were being wasted in this life of an engineer and contractor. He
was dying with impatience to begin the facade, but the blocks of marble
did not reach Florence because the barges were stopped or the Arno was
dry. They arrived at last and the marble was unloaded, but instead of
setting to work Michelangelo returned to Seravezza and Pietra Santa. He
was obstinately determined not to begin until he had gathered in
Florence, just as he had done before in Rome for the tomb of Julius II,
all the material which would be necessary for the entire undertaking, a
veritable mountain of marble. He kept putting off the moment of
beginning. Was it not the truth--though he did not admit it even to
himself--that he was really afraid of the great architectural
undertaking into which he had imprudently plunged and for which he had
so little training? How, indeed, could he have acquired this new art
which he had had no chance of practising? Had he n