been set to work to enable him to
see it, and he had obtained permission. Whereupon, seeing the artistry
of Michelagnolo, he was amazed: and then, being asked by Michelagnolo
what he thought of that figure, Francia answered that it was a most
beautiful casting and a fine material. Wherefore Michelagnolo,
considering that he had praised the bronze rather than the
workmanship, said to him, "I owe the same obligation to Pope Julius,
who has given it to me, that you owe to the apothecaries who give you
your colours for painting;" and in his anger, in the presence of all
the gentlemen there, he declared that Francia was a fool. In the same
connection, when a son of Francia's came before him and was announced
as a very beautiful youth, Michelagnolo said to him, "Your father's
living figures are finer than those that he paints." Among the same
gentlemen was one, whose name I know not, who asked Michelagnolo which
he thought was the larger, the statue of the Pope or a pair of oxen;
and he answered, "That depends on the oxen. If they are these
Bolognese oxen, then without a doubt our Florentine oxen are not so
big."

Michelagnolo had the statue finished in clay before the Pope departed
from Bologna for Rome, and his Holiness, having gone to see it, but
not knowing what was to be placed in the left hand, and seeing the
right hand raised in a proud gesture, asked whether it was pronouncing
a benediction or a curse. Michelagnolo answered that it was
admonishing the people of Bologna to mind their behaviour, and asked
his Holiness to decide whether he should place a book in the left
hand; and he said, "Put a sword there, for I know nothing of letters."
The Pope left a thousand crowns in the bank of M. Anton Maria da
Lignano for the completion of the statue, and at the end of the
sixteen months that Michelagnolo toiled over the work it was placed on
the frontispiece in the facade of the Church of S. Petronio, as has
been related; and we have also spoken of its size. This statue was
destroyed by the Bentivogli, and the bronze was sold to Duke Alfonso
of Ferrara, who made with it a piece of artillery called La Giulia;
saving only the head, which is to be found in his guardaroba.

[Illustration: GOD DIVIDING THE WATERS FROM THE EARTH

(_After the fresco by =Michelagnolo=. Rome: The Vatican, Sistine
Chapel_)

_Anderson_]

When the Pope had returned to Rome and Michelagnolo was at work on the
statue, Bramante, the friend and relat