ms here to be softened and a little tamed.

The symbolical meaning of these figures is obscure, as usual with him.
His intellectual quality was rarely strong enough or rather clear enough
to impose itself on his artistic conceptions. It is placed in
juxtaposition to them in a puerile and accessory way as in the
allegorical attributes of the Medici tombs, and we can take it away
without hurting the strength of the work.

As for the rest of the monument of Julius II, it is not worth
mentioning.[84] It is a caricature of the great project, but at least it
was finished. Michelangelo was delivered from the nightmare of his whole
life.

CHAPTER V

OLD AGE AND DEATH

(1547-1564)

Michelangelo cared no longer for his own glory. He thought only of the
glory of God, and art had become to him merely a means of service. He
wrote, "I understand now how great is the mistake, the passionate
delusion in which I made of art an idol and a king."

L'affectuosa fantasia,
Che l'arte mi fece idol'e monarca,
Conosco or ben, com'era d'error carca....[85]

His soul "had turned to that divine love which welcomes us with arms
outspread upon the cross."

L'anima, volta a quell'amor divino
C'aperse a prender noi 'n croce le braccia.

He wished to consecrate all that remained of his life to the task of
building for his God the temple of temples, St. Peter's.

By a pontifical letter of Paul III, dated January 1, 1547, and renewed
by Julius III in 1552 he had been appointed governor and architect of
St. Peter's with full power to carry on the construction. He accepted
this heavy task as a sacred duty, and refused to take any pay for it. In
1557 he wrote to his nephew Lionardo, "many people believe, as I do
myself, that I have been placed at this post by God. I will not leave it
because I am serving for the love of God and put all my hope in
Him."[86]

He at once found himself in trouble with the party of San Gallo. They
had always been his enemies and it must be acknowledged that he had done
his best to deserve their hostility.

When Raphael was directing the work on St. Peter's, Antonio da San Gallo
had been his assistant, and he therefore belonged to the party opposed
to Michelangelo. In 1537 San Gallo became architect-in-chief, succeeding
Baldassare Peruzzi, and he abandoned, as Raphael had done, Bramante's
great design for the main construction. Michelangelo, on the contrary,
went back to that plan, f