Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/297

Rh offices to be seen. Upon the whole, then, the work has turned out to be a very good one, although wanting much of the magnificence promised by the first design.

Michelagnolo had now resolved, since he could not do otherwise, to enter the service of Pope Paul III,, who commanded him to continue the paintings ordered by Pope Clement, without departing in any manner from the earlier plans and inventions, which had been laid before His Holiness; for the latter held the genius of Michelagnolo in great respect; nay, the love and admiration which he felt for him were such that he desired nothing more earnestly than to do him pleasure. Of this there was a proof in the fact that Pope Paul desired to have his own Arms placed beneath the Statue of the Prophet Jonas, where those of Julius 11. had previously been. But when the master, not wishing to do wrong to Julius and Clement, declined to execute them there, saying that it would not be well to do so. His Holiness yielded at once, that he might not give Michelagnolo pain, acknowledging at the same time the excellence of that man who followed the right and just alone, without flattery or undue respect of persons; a thing to which the great are but little accustomed.

Michelagnolo now caused an addition to be made to the wall of the Chapel, a sort of escarpment, carefully built of well-burnt and nicely chosen bricks, and projecting half a braccio at the summit, in such sort that no dust or other soil could lodge on the work. But I do not propose to enter into details as regards the compositions or inventions of this story, because there have been so many prints, great and small, made from it that I need not waste my time in describing the same. Let it suffice to say that the purpose of this extraordinary master was no other than the representation by the pencil of the human form, in the absolute perfection of its proportions, and the greatest possible variety of attitude, with the passions, emotions, and affections of the soul, expressed with equal force and truth: it was sufficient to him to treat that branch of art wherein he was superior to all, and to lay open to others the grandeur of manner that might be attained in the nude form, by the display of what he could himself effect in the difficulties of design, thus