Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/322

310 But I depart from my subject, I have indeed last my memory and understanding; writing is besides a great trouble to me, seeing that it is not my vocation. The conclusion is this: to make you comprehend what would follow if I were to abandon the above-named building and depart hence. Firstly, I should rejoice many a worthless scoundrel; and lastly, I should cause the ruin, or perhaps indeed the final suspension, of the edifice.”

Michelagnolo furthermore wrote to Vasari, telling him, for his excuse with the Duke, that having a house and many other comforts in Rome, worth some thousands of crowns, and suffering besides from many infirmities of age, he was unfit for the fatigues of travelling, as Messer Eraldo his physician, to whom, after God, he owed it that he was yet in life, could testify. He added, that for all these causes he was unable to leave Rome, and had, indeed, courage for nothing more than to die and be at rest. In other letters from his hand, which Vasari has kept, he begs the latter to excuse him to the Duke; and did himself also write to his Excellency, as I have said. Nay, had he been in a condition to travel, he would have repaired instantly to Florence; and the kindness shown to him by Duke Cosimo had moved him so deeply that I do not believe he would in that case have found resolution to depart again.

Meanwhile he pressed forward the works of San Pietro in various parts of the building, desiring to bring it to such a state that the arrangement thereof could no more be changed. About this time he was told that Pope Paul IV. bethought himself of having certain parts of the Paintings in the Chapel altered, His Holiness considering that the figures in the Last Judgment where shamefully nude. When Michelagnolo, therefore, received a message from the Pope to that effect, he replied: “Tell His Holiness that this is a mere trifle, and can be easily done; let him mend the world, paintings are easily mended.”

The office of the Chancery at Rimini was now taken from our artist, but he would not speak of the matter to His Holiness, who knew nothing about it, his Cupbearer having withdrawn it from Michelagnolo, with the intention of paying him a hundred crowns per month instead, by way of stipend, for his services at San Pietro; but when the first month