Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/34

 218 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS made the figures too numerous and too small to produce their full effect from below, a fault which he corrected in those executed subsequently. When almost half the work was completed, the pope insisted on viewing what was done, and the astonishment and admiration it excited rendered him more and more eager to have the whole completed at once. The progress, however, was not rapid enough to suit the impatient temper of the pontiff. On one occasion he de. manded of the artist when he meant to finish it ; to which Michael Angelo replied calmly, " When I can." " When thou canst ! " exclaimed the fiery old pope, " thou hast a mind that I should have thee thrown from the scaffold ! " At length, on the day of All Saints, 15 12, the ceiling was uncovered to public view. Michael Angelo had employed on the painting only, without reckoning the time spent in preparing the cartoons, twenty-two months, and he received in payment three thousand crowns. The collection of engravings after Michael Angelo in the British Museum is very imperfect, but it contains some fine old prints from the Prophets which should be studied by those who wish to understand the true merit of this great master, of whom Sir Joshua Reynolds said that, "to kiss the hem of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections, would be glory and distinction enough for an ambitious man ! " When the Sistine Chapel was completed Michael Angelo was in his thirty- ninth year ; fifty years of a glorious though troubled career were still before him. Pope Julius II. died in 15 13, and was succeeded by Leo X., the son of Lo- renzo the Magnificent. As a Florentine and his father's son, we might naturally have expected that he would have gloried in patronizing and employing Michael Angelo ; but such was not the case. There was something in the stern, unbend- ing character, and retired and abstemious habits of Michael Angelo, repulsive to the temper of Leo, who preferred the graceful and amiable Raphael, then in the prime of his life and genius ; hence arose the memorable rivalry between Michael Angelo and Raphael, which on the part of the latter was merely generous emula- tion, while it must be confessed that something like scorn mingled with the feel- ings of Michael Angelo. The pontificate of Leo X., an interval of ten years, was the least productive period of his life. In the year 15 19, when the Signoria of Florence was negotiating with Ravenna for the restoration of the remains of Dante, he petitioned the pope that he might be allowed to execute, at his own labor and expense, a monument to the " Divine Poet." He was sent to Florence to superintend the building of the church of San Lorenzo and the completion of Santa Croce ; but he differed with the pope on the choice of the marble, quar- relled with the officials, and scarcely anything was accomplished. Clement VII., another Medici, was elected pope in 1523. He had conceived the idea of conse- crating a chapel in the church of San Lorenzo, to receive the tombs of his ances- tors and relations, and which should be adorned with all the splendor of art Michael Angelo planned and built the chapel, and for its interior decoration de- signed and executed six of his greatest works in sculpture. While Michael Angelo was engaged in these works his progress was inter-