otherwise. Michelagnolo
recognized that Bramante was either not very competent for such a work
or else little his friend, and he went to the Pope and said to him
that the scaffolding was not satisfactory, and that Bramante had not
known how to make it; and the Pope answered, in the presence of
Bramante, that he should make it after his own fashion. And so he
commanded that it should be erected upon props so as not to touch the
walls, a method of making scaffoldings for vaults that he taught
afterwards to Bramante and others, whereby many fine works have been
executed. Thus he enabled a poor creature of a carpenter, who rebuilt
the scaffolding, to dispense with so many of the ropes, that, after
selling them (for Michelagnolo gave them to him), he made up a dowry
for his daughter.

[Illustration: THE CREATION OF EVE

(_After the fresco by =Michelagnolo=. Rome: The Vatican, Sistine
Chapel_)

_Anderson_]

He then set his hand to making the cartoons for that vaulting; and the
Pope decided, also, that the walls which the masters before him in the
time of Sixtus had painted should be scraped clean, and decreed that
he should have fifteen thousand ducats for the whole cost of the work;
which price was fixed through Giuliano da San Gallo. Thereupon, forced
by the magnitude of the undertaking to resign himself to obtaining
assistance, Michelagnolo sent for men to Florence; and he determined
to demonstrate in such a work that those who had painted there before
him were destined to be vanquished by his labours, and also resolved
to show to the modern craftsmen how to draw and paint. Having begun
the cartoons, he finished them; and the circumstances of the work
spurred him to soar to great heights, both for his own fame and for
the welfare of art. And then, desiring to paint it in fresco-colours,
and not having any experience of them, there came from Florence to
Rome certain of his friends who were painters, to the end that they
might give him assistance in such a work, and also that he might learn
from them the method of working in fresco, in which some of them were
well-practised; and among these were Granaccio, Giuliano Bugiardini,
Jacopo di Sandro, the elder Indaco, Agnolo di Donnino, and Aristotile.
Having made a commencement with the work, he caused them to begin some
things as specimens; but, perceiving that their efforts were very far
from what he desired, and not being satisfied with them, he resolved
one morning to t