When he saw Michael Angelo in his presence, Julius, with an angry look,
said to him, "_You ought to have come to us, and you have waited for us to
come to you_." Meaning to say, that his Holiness being come to Bologna, a
place much nearer to Florence than Rome is, it was as if he (the Pope) had
come to him. Michael Angelo with a loud voice and on his knees craved
pardon, pleading that he had not erred maliciously but through
indignation, for he could not bear to be hunted away as he had been. The
Pope kept his head lowered and replied nothing, to all appearances much
troubled, when a certain monsignore, sent by the Cardinal Soderini to
excuse and intercede for Michael Angelo, broke in, saying: "_Your
Holiness, do not remember his fault, for he has erred through ignorance;
these painters in things outside their art are all like this._" The Pope
indignantly replied: "_You __abuse him, whilst we say nothing; you are the
ignorant one, and he is not the culprit; take yourself off in an evil
hour._" But as he was not going, he was, as Michael Angelo used to tell,
hustled out of the room with blows by the servants of the Pope. Thus the
Pope having spent his fury on the bishop, called Michael Angelo closer to
him, and pardoned him, ordering him not to leave Bologna until another
commission had been given to him. Nor was he long before he sent for him
and said that he wished Michael Angelo to make a great portrait statue of
him in bronze, which he wished to place on the front of the Church of San
Petronio.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48