g to do (as Michael
Angelo himself has said). He received four hundred ducats for this work,
and finished it in eighteen months.

XXII. In order that no copy of the Giant should exist which was not his
own handiwork, he had it cast in bronze, of the size of the original, for
his good friend Pier Soderini, who sent it to France; and similarly he
cast a David with Goliath under him. The one to be seen in the middle of
the court-yard of the Palazzo de'Signori is by Donatello, a man excellent
in his art, and much praised by Michael Angelo, except for one thing--he
had not the patience to properly polish his works; so that in the distance
they look admirable, but close to they lose their quality. Michael Angelo
also cast a bronze group of the Madonna with her Son in her lap, which was
sent into Flanders(31) by certain Flemish merchants, the Moscheroni, great
people at home; they paid him one hundred ducats for it. And, in order not
altogether to give up painting, he executed a round panel of Our Lady(32)
for Messer Agnolo Doni, a Florentine citizen, for which he received
seventy ducats.

XXIII. It was some time since he had worked at that art, having given
himself up to the study of poets and authors in the vulgar tongue and
writing sonnets for his own pleasure. After the death of Pope Alexander
VI. he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II., and received a hundred
ducats in Florence as his _viaticum_. At this time Michael Angelo was
about twenty-nine years old; for if we count from his birth in 1474,
already stated, to the death of the above Alexander, which was in 1503, we
shall find the number of years as given.

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE TOMB

XXIV. Coming then to Rome, many months(33) passed before Julius II.
resolved in what way to employ him. Ultimately it came into his head to
get him to make his monument. When he saw Michael Angelo's design it
pleased him so much that he at once sent him to Carrara to quarry the
necessary marbles, instructing Alamanno Salviati, of Florence, to pay him
a thousand ducats for this purpose. Michael Angelo stayed in these
mountains more than eight months with two workmen and his horse, and
without any other salary except his food. One day whilst he was there he
saw a crag that overlooked the sea, which made him wish to carve a
colossus that would be a landmark for sailors from a long way off, incited
thereto principally by the suitable