power was in this man of turning
lines in foreshortening and perspective. Now in the spaces that are below
the lunettes, as well as in those above, which have a triangular shape,
are painted all the genealogy, or, I should say, all the ancestors of the
Saviour, except the triangles at the corners, which come together, and so,
two make up one of double the area. In one then of these, above the wall
of the Last Judgment on the right hand,(42) is seen how Aman, by command
of King Ahasuerus, was hung upon a cross; and this was because, in his
pride and arrogance, he wished to hang Mordecai, the uncle Queen Ester,
for not honouring him with a reverence as he passed by. In another corner
is the story of the bronze serpent, lifted by Moses on a staff, in which
the children of Israel, wounded and ill-treated by lively little serpents,
are healed by looking up. Here Michael Angelo has shown admirable force in
those figures that are struggling to free themselves from the coils of the
serpents. In the third corner, at the lower end of the chapel, is the
vengeance wreaked upon Holofernes by Judith, and in the fourth that of
David over Goliath. And these are briefly all the histories.

XXXV. But no less marvellous is that part which does not relate to the
histories at all, that is to say, certain nudes who sit upon plinths above
the before-mentioned cornice, one on either side holding up the
medallions, which, as has been said, appear to be of metal, on which, in
the style of reverses, are designed several stories, all however
appropriate to their principal histories. By the beauty of the divisions,
by the variety of the poses, and by the balance of the proportionate
parts, in all of them Michael Angelo exhibited the highest art. But to
tell the particulars of these things would be an infinite labour, a book
to them alone would not be enough; therefore I pass over them briefly,
wishing rather to give a little light upon the whole than to detail the
parts.

XXXVI. In the meanwhile he did not lack troubles; for, having finished the
picture of the Deluge, the work began to grow mouldy,(43) so much so that
the figures could hardly be distinguished. Michael Angelo, thinking that
this excuse would suffice to enable him to shake off his burden, went to
the Pope and said to him: "_I have already told your Holiness that this is
not my art; all that I have done is spoiled; if you do not believe it send
and see._" The Pope sent Il San Gallo, w