ract a farthing; and when I complained one
day to Messer Bernardo da Bibbiena and to Atalante, representing that
I could not stop longer in Rome, and that I should be forced to go
away with God's grace, Messer Bernardo told Atalante he must bear this
in mind, for that he wished me to have money, whatever happened." When
we consider, then, the magnitude of the undertaking, the arduous
nature of the preparatory studies, and the waste of time in journeys
and through other hindrances, four and a half years are not too long a
period for a man working so much alone as Michelangelo was wont to do.

We have reason to believe that, after all, the frescoes of the Sistine
were not finished in their details. "It is true," continues Condivi,
"that I have heard him say he was not suffered to complete the work
according to his wish. The Pope, in his impatience, asked him one day
when he would be ready with the Chapel, and he answered: 'When I shall
be able.' To which his Holiness replied in a rage: 'You want to make
me hurl you from that scaffold!' Michelangelo heard and remembered,
muttering: 'That you shall not do to me.' So he went straightway, and
had the scaffolding taken down. The frescoes were exposed to view on
All Saints' day, to the great satisfaction of the Pope, who went that
day to service there, while all Rome flocked together to admire them.
What Michelangelo felt forced to leave undone was the retouching of
certain parts with ultramarine upon dry ground, and also some gilding,
to give the whole a richer effect. Giulio, when his heat cooled down,
wanted Michelangelo to make these last additions; but he, considering
the trouble it would be to build up all that scaffolding afresh,
observed that what was missing mattered little. 'You ought at least to
touch it up with gold,' replied the Pope; and Michelangelo, with that
familiarity he used toward his Holiness, said carelessly: 'I have not
observed that men wore gold.' The Pope rejoined: 'It will look poor.'
Buonarroti added: 'Those who are painted there were poor men.' So the
matter turned into pleasantry, and the frescoes have remained in their
present state." Condivi goes on to state that Michelangelo received
3000 ducats for all his expenses, and that he spent as much as twenty
or twenty-five ducats on colours alone. Upon the difficult question of
the moneys earned by the great artist in his life-work, I shall have
to speak hereafter, though I doubt whether any really sa