Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/295

Rh for the Tomb of Julius; they appeared to him to be most admirable, more particularly the Moses, which, as the Cardinal of Mantua remarked, was sufficient of itself to do honour to the late Pontiff. The Cartoons and designs for the walls of the Chapel were next examined, these also amazed the Pope with their beauty, and he again pressed Michelagnolo to enter his service, promising to persuade the Duke of Urbino to content himself with three Statues by the hand of Michelagnolo, who might cause the remaining three to be executed after his own models by other good artists. And His Holiness did accordingly so arrange with the Duke’s agents, that a new contract was signed by that prince; but Michelagnolo proposed, of his own free will, to pay for the three Statues wanting, as well as for the masonry of the sepulchre, depositing one thousand five hundred and eighty ducats in the Bank of the Strozzi for that purpose. This he might have avoided, had it pleased him to do so; but having done that, he thought he had made sufficient sacrifices for so laborious and vexatious an undertaking as this Tomb had proved to be, and he then caused it to be erected, at San Pietro in Vincola, in the following manner.

The lower basement, with its carved decorations, has four pedestals, which project forwards to the extent required for giving room to a figure representing a Captive, which was originally to have been placed on each, but for which a terminal figure was now substituted; the lower part had thus a poor appearance, and a reversed corbel was therefore added at the feet of each. Between the termini are three niches, of which the two outermost have a circular form, and were to have received figures of Victory; instead of which, the one had now Leah, the daughter of Laban, as the representative of Active Life; in one hand she holds a mirror, to denote the circumspection which we should give to our actions; and in the other a garland, to intimate the virtues which adorn our lives while in this world, and render them glorious after death. The opposite niche received liebecca, the sister of Leah, as denoting Life in Contemplation; her hands are joined, her knees are bent, and her face is turned upwards as in ecstacy of spirit. These