that during the
illness of Duke Giuliano, while no one was expecting such a thing, it
was torn up and divided into many pieces, as has been related
elsewhere, and scattered over various places, to which some pieces
bear witness that are still to be seen in Mantua, in the house of M.
Uberto Strozzi, a gentleman of that city, where they are treasured
with great reverence; and, indeed, they seem to the eye things rather
divine than human.

[Illustration: YOUNG CAPTIVE

(_After =Michelagnolo=. Paris: Louvre_)

_Alinari_]

The name of Michelagnolo, by reason of the Pieta that he had made, the
Giant in Florence, and the cartoon, had become so famous, that in the
year 1503, Pope Alexander VI having died and Julius II having been
elected, at which time Michelagnolo was about twenty-nine years of
age, he was summoned with much graciousness by Julius II, who wished
to set him to make his tomb; and for the expenses of the journey a
hundred crowns were paid to him by the Pope's representatives. Having
made his way to Rome, he spent many months there before he was made to
set his hand to any work. But finally the Pope's choice fell on a
design that he had made for that tomb, an excellent testimony to the
genius of Michelagnolo, which in beauty and magnificence, abundance of
ornamentation and richness of statuary, surpassed every ancient or
imperial tomb. Whereupon Pope Julius took courage, and thus resolved
to set his hand to make anew the Church of S. Pietro in Rome, in order
to erect the tomb in it, as has been related in another place. And so
Michelagnolo set to work with high hopes; and, in order to make a
beginning, he went to Carrara to excavate all the marble, with two
assistants, receiving a thousand crowns on that account from Alamanno
Salviati in Florence. There, in those mountains, he spent eight months
without other moneys or supplies; and he had many fantastic ideas of
carving great statues in those quarries, in order to leave memorials
of himself, as the ancients had done before him, being invited by
those masses of stone. Then, having picked out the due quantity of
marbles, he caused them to be loaded on board ship at the coast and
then conveyed to Rome, where they filled half the Piazza di S. Pietro,
round about S. Caterina, and between the church and the corridor that
goes to the Castello. In that place Michelagnolo had prepared his room
for executing the figures and the rest of the tomb; and, to the end
that