ope
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 demanded 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, 1512, 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 1513, and was succeeded by Leo X., the son of
Lorenzo 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, unbending 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 emulation, while it must be confessed that something like
scorn mingled with the feelings of Michael Angelo. The pontificate of
Leo X., an interval of ten years, was the least productive period of
his life. In the year 1519, 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 churc