Unfortunately Michael Angelo was unable to
execute this congenial task. There is a magnificent portrait of this
prince, as Neptune, by Sebastiano del Piombo in the private rooms of the
Doria Palace at Rome. The admiral points down with Michael Angelesque
forefinger as though he were condemning his enemies to descend to the
lowest depths of the sea. It looks as if it had been inspired by a drawing
of Michael Angelo's, possibly for this statue, which may have been
designed as a nude figure of Neptune; the parapet in front of the picture
is decorated with a painted bas-relief of a Roman galley.
Michael Angelo's last known letter to his father is supposed to have been
written in June 1523.(128) It is a bitter complaint of the testy manner in
which his father always treated him, and the continual interruptions of
his work. It must have been a great grief to Michael Angelo when the old
man came to die if he had not made up this quarrel with him, for he loved
him in a way that is marvellous to us when we consider the character of
the old man as evidenced in the correspondence.
Clement VII. lost no time, after he was elected Pope, in setting Michael
Angelo to work, but again it was against the inclination of the artist,
who passionately desired to complete the Tomb of Julius, partly for the
love of his memory and partly to free himself from the importunity of the
executors, who threatened him with a lawsuit. Michael Angelo replied to
the agent of Clement, Francesco Fattucci, who requested plans for the
Laurentian Library: "I understand from your last that his Holiness our
Lord wishes that the design for the Library should be by my hand.
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