hat building as the supreme manifestation
of his manner. Vasari never saw the cupola of S. Peter's in all its
glory, and it may be doubted whether he was capable of learning much
from it.

The sacristy demands separate consideration. It was an earlier work,
produced under more favourable conditions of place and space, and is
in every way a purer specimen of the master's style. As Vasari
observed, the Laurentian Library indicated a large advance upon the
sacristy in the development of Michelangelo's new manner.

At this point it may not unprofitably be remarked, that none of the
problems offered for solution at S. Lorenzo were in the strictest
sense of that word architectural. The facade presented a problem of
pure panelling. The ground-plan of the sacristy was fixed in
correspondence with Brunelleschi's; and here again the problem
resolved itself chiefly into panelling. A builder of genius, working
on the library, might indeed have displayed his science and his taste
by some beautiful invention adapted to the awkward locality; as
Baldassare Peruzzi, in the Palazzo Massimo at Rome, converted the
defects of the site into graces by the exquisite turn he gave to the
curved portion of the edifice. Still, when the scheme was settled,
even the library became more a matter of panelling and internal
fittings than of structural design. Nowhere at S. Lorenzo can we
affirm that Michelangelo enjoyed, the opportunity of showing what he
could achieve in the production of a building independent in itself
and planned throughout with a free hand. Had he been a born architect,
he would probably have insisted upon constructing the Medicean
mausoleum after his own conception instead of repeating Brunelleschi's
ground-plan, and he would almost certainly have discovered a more
genial solution for the difficulties of the library. But he protested
firmly against being considered an architect by inclination or by
education. Therefore he accepted the most obvious conditions of each
task, and devoted himself to schemes of surface decoration.

The interior of the sacristy is planned with a noble sense of unity.
For the purpose of illuminating a gallery of statues, the lighting may
be praised without reserve; and there is no doubt whatever that
Michelangelo intended every tabernacle to be filled with figures, and
all the whitewashed spaces of the walls to be encrusted with
bas-reliefs in stucco or painted in fresco. The recesses or niches,
takin