n the rough, and the
Library he designed to hold the priceless Medician manuscripts, collected
by Cosimo Pater Patriae and Lorenzo the Magnificent, now known as the
"Biblioteca Laurenziana," was only begun. As Michael Angelo's designs and
working drawings were of the roughest description, and he usually left a
great deal to be settled after he had seen the effect of the earlier part
of his works, we cannot blame him only for certain faults, such as, for
instance, the awkward approach to the Library. If he had completed the
work he very likely would have made an entrance from the piazza, as roomy
and convenient, as the curious staircase in the corner of the cloister is
awkward and cramped. It was completed by Giorgio Vasari, whose letters to
Michael Angelo about this difficult work, and Michael Angelo's chaotic
replies, belong to a much later period. The curious manner of cutting up
the wall by pilasters and framed spaces cannot properly be judged without
the bronze bas-reliefs that they were intended to contain. Considered as a
method of hanging or displaying a collection of works of art they are
admirable, and might well serve for the interior decoration of a great
museum. The vestibule, with its curious stairway, large consoles, and
green and white colour, leaves an impression of power and eccentricity in
architecture like the effect of the serious caricatures of Leonardo da
Vinci in drawing. The buildings at San Lorenzo should be regarded as the
prentice work of the architect of the Dome of St. Peter's. The decorations
of the Sagrestia Nuova, too, were left unfinished; the statues of Day,
Night, Morning, and Evening were left where he had worked upon them, on
the floor of the chapel. From Vasari's letter to him of 1562, instigated
by the Duke Cosimo, who desired to complete the work according to Michael
Angelo's designs, asking for help and advice,(146) we gather that Michael
Angelo intended to have placed statues in all the niches above the
sepulchres, and in the frames above the doors works of painting, stucco
for the arches, and painting to adorn the flat walls and semicircular
spaces of the chapel. Michael Angelo, on account of his great age, was
unable or unwilling to assist in the work. The present sarcophagi cannot
have been intended to hold the allegorical figures in the way they do, for
the under surfaces of the statues do not fit the top of the mouldings, and
certainly the rough stones that project over them,