Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/404

352 of Christ. I live humbly here and care little for the world's honour. I endure great weariness and hopelessness, but so it has been with me for the last fifteen years—I have never known an hour's comfort. You have never believed how hard I have tried to help you. God forgive us all! I am ready, as far as I can, to do the same as long as I live."

Through failure and despondency the great master worked steadily on, and at length, in October, 1512, the whole of the vault was uncovered, and all Rome flocked to see the result of his labours. That day Michelangelo's triumph was complete. Friends and foes alike rejoiced over the magnificent work, and Raphael was foremost among the painters who recognised his rival's complete success. "Look at Raphael," said Pope Julius to Sebastian del Piombo, "who, after seeing Michelangelo's frescoes, immediately abandoned Perugino's manner and tried to imitate that of Buonarroti." Michelangelo himself announced the completion of the work to his father in these simple words: "I have finished the painting of the chapel. The Pope is very well satisfied, but other things are not as I should wish."

The frescoes of the Sistina were the grandest achievement of Michelangelo's art. In them we see the most sublime manifestation of his creative faculties and technical powers, produced at a time when he was in the fulness of bodily strength and mental vigour. Whether we regard the artistic beauty and grandeur of the decoration, or the intellectual conception of the scheme, the work is alike marvellous. The whole story of Creation, of the Fall of Man and the Deluge is set forth in the nine large compartments of the central vault. On the