Campidoglio is now so rich. In
the middle of the Piazza, on a base in the form of an oval, is placed
the famous bronze horse on which is the statue of Marcus Aurelius,
which the same Pope Paul caused to be removed from the Piazza di
Laterano, where Sixtus IV had placed it. This edifice is now being
made so beautiful that it is worthy to be numbered among the finest
works that Michelagnolo has executed, and it is being carried to
completion at the present day under the direction of M. Tommaso de'
Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman who was, and still is, one of the
greatest friends that Michelagnolo ever had, as will be related
hereafter.

[Illustration: COURT OF THE PALAZZO FARNESE

(_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome_)

_Anderson_]

Pope Paul III had caused San Gallo, while he was alive, to carry
forward the Palace of the Farnese family, but the great upper
cornice, to finish the roof on the outer side, had still to be
constructed, and his Holiness desired that Michelagnolo should execute
it from his own designs and directions. Michelagnolo, not being able
to refuse the Pope, who so esteemed and favoured him, caused a model
of wood to be made, six braccia in length, and of the size that it was
to be; and this he placed on one of the corners of the Palace, so that
it might show what effect the finished work would have. It pleased his
Holiness and all Rome, and that part of it has since been carried to
completion which is now to be seen, proving to be the most varied and
the most beautiful of all that have ever been known, whether ancient
or modern. On this account, after San Gallo was dead, the Pope desired
that Michelagnolo should have charge of the whole fabric as well; and
there he made the great marble window with the beautiful columns of
variegated marble, which is over the principal door of the Palace,
with a large escutcheon of great beauty and variety, in marble, of
Pope Paul III, the founder of that Palace. Within the Palace he
continued, above the first range of the court, the two other ranges,
with the most varied, graceful, and beautiful windows, ornaments and
upper cornice that have ever been seen, so that, through the labours
and the genius of that man that court has now become the most handsome
in Europe. He widened and enlarged the Great Hall, and set in order
the front vestibule, and caused the vaulting of that vestibule to be
constructed in a new variety of curve, in the form of a half oval.

Now in that year