He replied to
me: 'Go to work and cast it until it come well, and we will give
you what will content you.' To be brief, it was cast twice. At the
end of the two years that I stayed there I found myself four
ducats and a half in pocket; and during that time I never received
anything for all the expenses that I had, except the thousand
ducats which I had said that I could cast it for; these were paid
me in several installments by Messer Antonio Maria da Legnia
(_me_), the Bolognese.
"Having hoisted the figure on to the facade of San Petronio, and
returned to Rome, Pope Julius did not yet wish me to go on with
the tomb, but set me to paint the vault of Sisto, and we made an
agreement for three thousand ducats. The first design was for
twelve apostles in the lunettes, and for the rest certain
compartments filled with ornaments of the usual sort.
"After beginning the said work it seemed to me it would be but a
poor thing. He asked me why? I told him, because they also were
poor. Then he gave me a new order to do what I would, and that he
would satisfy me, and that I was to paint down to the stories
below. When the vault was almost finished the Pope returned to
Bologna, where I went twice for money I needed, uselessly, and
lost all my time, until he returned to Rome. I returned to Rome
and set myself to work on the cartoons for the said vault, that
is, for the ends and sides of the said Chapel of Sisto, hoping to
have money to finish the work.
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