But what grieved Michael Angelo the most, is that instead of thanks all he
got was odium and disgrace.
LIII. But returning to Pope Paul. I must tell you that after the last
agreement made between his Excellency the Duke and Michael Angelo, the
Pope took Michael Angelo into his service, and desired him to carry out
what he had begun in the time of Clement, to paint the end wall of the
Sistine Chapel, which he had already covered with rough-cast and screened
off with boards from floor to ceiling. As this work was instigated by Pope
Clement, and begun in his time, it does not bear the arms of Paul,
although he desired it; but Pope Paul so loved and reverenced Michael
Angelo that however much he desired it he would never have vexed him. In
this work Michael Angelo expressed all that the human figure is capable of
in the art of painting, not leaving out any pose or action whatsoever. The
composition is careful and well thought out, but lengthy to describe;
perhaps it is unnecessary, as so many engravings and such a variety of
drawings of it have been dispersed everywhere. Nevertheless, for those who
have not seen the real thing, and into whose hands the engravings have not
come, let us say, briefly, that the whole is divided into parts, right and
left, upper and lower, and central. In the central part, near to the
earth, are seven angels, described by Saint John in the Apocalypse, with
trumpets to their lips, calling the dead to judgment from the four corners
of the earth.
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