tants as the times provided after Bramante's death in
1514. Julius instinctively selected men of soaring and audacious
genius, who were capable of planning on a colossal scale. Leo
delighted in the society of clever people, poetasters, petty scholars,
lutists, and buffoons. Rome owes no monumental work to his inventive
brain, and literature no masterpiece to his discrimination. Ariosto,
the most brilliant poet of the Renaissance, returned in disappointment
from the Vatican. "When I went to Rome and kissed the foot of Leo,"
writes the ironical satirist, "he bent down from the holy chair, and
took my hand and saluted me on both cheeks. Besides, he made me free
of half the stamp-dues I was bound to pay; and then, breast full of
hope, but smirched with mud, I retired and took my supper at the Ram."

The words which Leo is reported to have spoken to his brother Giuliano
when he heard the news of his election, express the character of the
man and mark the difference between his ambition and that of Julius.
"Let us enjoy the Papacy, since God has given it us." To enjoy life,
to squander the treasures of the Church on amusements, to feed a
rabble of flatterers, to contract enormous debts, and to disturb the
peace of Italy, not for some vast scheme of ecclesiastical
aggrandisement, but in order to place the princes of his family on
thrones, that was Leo's conception of the Papal privileges and duties.
The portraits of the two Popes, both from the hand of Raffaello, are
eminently characteristic. Julius, bent, white-haired, and emaciated,
has the nervous glance of a passionate and energetic temperament. Leo,
heavy-jawed, dull-eyed, with thick lips and a brawny jowl, betrays the
coarser fibre of a sensualist.

II

We have seen already that Julius, before his death, provided for his
monument being carried out upon a reduced scale. Michelangelo entered
into a new contract with the executors, undertaking to finish the work
within the space of seven years from the date of the deed, May 6,
1513. He received in several payments, during that year and the years
1514, 1515, 1516, the total sum of 6100 golden ducats. This proves
that he must have pushed the various operations connected with the
tomb vigorously forward, employing numerous workpeople, and ordering
supplies of marble. In fact, the greater part of what remains to us of
the unfinished monument may be ascribed to this period of
comparatively uninterrupted labour. Michelangelo