h the Pope and with Michelagnolo to have it removed of any
avail, for it was left there in memory of the occasion, and it is
still to be seen at the present day.

It happened at this time that Michelagnolo fell no small distance from
the staging of this work, and hurt his leg; and in his pain and anger
he would not be treated by anyone. Now there was living at this same
time the Florentine Maestro Baccio Rontini, his friend, an ingenious
physician, who had a great affection for his genius; and he, taking
compassion on him, went one day to knock at his door. Receiving no
answer either from the neighbours or from him, he so contrived to
climb by certain secret ways from one room to another, that he came to
Michelagnolo, who was in a desperate state. And then Maestro Biagio
would never abandon him or take himself off until he was cured.

Having recovered from this injury, he returned to his labour, and,
working at it continually, he carried it to perfect completion in a
few months, giving such force to the paintings in the work, that he
justified the words of Dante--

Morti li morti, i vivi parean vivi.

And here, also, may be seen the misery of the damned and the joy of
the blessed. Wherefore, when this Judgment was thrown open to view, it
proved that he had not only vanquished all the earlier masters who had
worked there, but had sought to surpass the vaulting that he himself
had made so famous, excelling it by a great measure and outstripping
his own self. For he imagined to himself the terror of those days, and
depicted, for the greater pain of all who have not lived well, the
whole Passion of Christ, causing various naked figures in the air to
carry the Cross, the Column, the Lance, the Sponge, the Nails, and the
Crown of Thorns, all in different attitudes, executed to perfection in
a triumph of facility over their difficulties. In that scene is Christ
seated, with a countenance proud and terrible, turning towards the
damned and cursing them; not without great fear in Our Lady, who,
hearing and beholding that vast havoc, draws her mantle close around
her. There are innumerable figures, Prophets and Apostles, that form a
circle about Him, and in particular Adam and S. Peter, who are
believed to have been placed there, one as the first parent of those
thus brought to judgment, and the other as having been the first
foundation of the Christian Church; and at His feet is a most
beautiful S. Bartholomew, who is displ