uke feared
the cost, as was seen afterwards, but rather the danger of raising the
beams of the roof thirteen braccia. However, like a man of judgment,
his Excellency consented that the advice of Michelagnolo should be
taken, and Michelagnolo, having seen in that model the Hall as it then
was, and afterwards, all the beams having been removed and replaced by
other beams with a new invention in the ceiling and walls, the same
Hall as it has since been made, with the invention of the stories
likewise designed therein, liked it and straightway became not a judge
but a supporter, and the rather as he saw the facile method of raising
the beams and the roof, and the plan for executing the whole work in a
short time. Wherefore, on Vasari's return, he wrote to the Duke that
he should carry out that undertaking, since it was worthy of his
greatness.

[Illustration: PORTA PIA

(_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome_)

_Alinari_]

The same year Duke Cosimo went to Rome with the Lady Duchess
Leonora, his consort, and Michelagnolo, after the Duke's arrival,
went straightway to see him. The Duke, after receiving him with many
endearments, caused him, out of respect for his great genius, to sit
by his side, and with much familiarity talked to him of all that he
had caused to be done in painting and sculpture at Florence, and also
of all that he was minded to have done, and in particular of the Hall;
and Michelagnolo again encouraged and reassured him in that matter,
lamenting, since he loved that Lord, that he was not young enough to
be able to serve him. His Excellency said that he had discovered the
way to work porphyry, a thing which Michelagnolo could not believe,
and the Duke therefore sent him, as has been related in the first
chapter of the Treatise on Theory, the head of Christ wrought by the
sculptor Francesco del Tadda, at which he was astonished; and he
visited the Duke several times the while that he stayed in Rome, to
his vast satisfaction. He did the same a short time afterwards when
the most Illustrious Don Francesco de' Medici, the Duke's son, went
there, in whom Michelagnolo took much delight from the marks of regard
and affection shown to him by his most Illustrious Excellency, who
spoke with him always cap in hand, having infinite reverence for so
rare a man; and Michelagnolo wrote to Vasari that it vexed him to be
old and infirm, for he would have liked to do something for that Lord,
but he was going about trying to buy