five hundred ducats of the Camera,
the which were paid me by Messer Carlino, chamberlain, and Messer Carlo
degli Albizzi, on account of the painting of the vault of the Chapel of
Pope Sisto, on which I begin to work this day, under the conditions and
contracts set forth in a document written by his Most Reverend Lordship of
Pavia, and signed by my hand. For the painter assistants who are to come
from Florence, who will be five in number, twenty gold ducats of the
Camera a-piece, on this condition, that is to say, that when they are here
and are working in accord with me, the said twenty ducats shall be
reckoned to each man's salary; the said salary to begin upon the day they
leave Florence to come here. And if they do not agree with me, half the
said money shall be paid them for their travelling expenses and for their
time."(104)
From this important record we learn that Michael Angelo, who still calls
himself "sculptor," intends to engage five painter assistants, and very
wisely arranges terms by which he can send them away if he does not get on
with them, and also that he began to work upon May 10, 1508. This must not
be taken to mean that he began to paint, but only to prepare the vault by
carefully pointing the bricks and covering it with rough cast plaster
ready for the fine coat called intonaca, in this case made of marble dust
and Roman lime, prepared each day and plastered on the wall in patches
sufficient for one day's work only. In true fresco painting the colour is
put on the plaster only whilst it is still wet.
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