Though the divine Michael Angelo in later life finished that great
chapel of Pope Julius, he never rose half-way to the same pitch of power;
his genius never afterwards attained to the force of those first studies."
These years spent under the shadow of the Duomo, away from which no
Florentine is happy, working at his sculptures and drawings, were probably
some of the happiest years of Michael Angelo's whole life.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE TOMB
[Image #11]
MOSES
THE TOMB OF JULIUS II. SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI, ROME
(_By permission of Sig. Giacomo Brogi, Florence_)
The cartoon, The Apostles for the Duomo, and all these works, had to be
left unfinished, as Michael Angelo was summoned to Rome in the beginning
of 1505 by Pope Julius II. From this period Michael Angelo was the
servant, often the unwilling servant, of the Popes (his Medusa as he
said). Much of his time was wasted owing to the different dispositions and
likings of his patrons, yet we must be thankful to them for the
opportunities they gave him in their great undertakings. Now began what
Condivi called "The Tragedy of the Tomb"; the phrase is so apt that we
imagine he must have got it from Michael Angelo himself. Julius appears to
have appreciated his artist from the first; both were what the Italians
call _uomini terribili_, men whose brains worked with furious energy,
grand and formidable in their imaginations.
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