CREATION OF MAN
DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL
The preliminary works for the vault of the Sistine Chapel were carried on without delay, and there is a note in Michael Angelo's hand, saying: "I record how on this day, the tenth of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and eight, I, Michael Angelo, Sculptor, have received from the Holiness of our Lord Pope Julius II. five hundred ducats of the Camera, the which were paid me by Messer Carlino, chamberlain, and Messer Carlo degli Albizzi, on account of the painting of the vault of the Chapel of Pope Sisto, on which I begin to work this day, under the conditions and contracts set forth in a document written by his Most Reverend Lordship of Pavia, and signed by my hand. For the painter assistants who are to come from Florence, who will be five in number, twenty gold ducats of the Camera a-piece, on this condition, that is to say, that when they are here and are working in accord with me, the said twenty ducats shall be reckoned to each man's salary; the said salary to begin upon the day they leave Florence to come here. And if they do not agree with me, half the said money shall be paid them for their travelling expenses and for their time."[104]
From this important record we learn that Michael Angelo, who still calls himself "sculptor," intends to engage five painter assistants, and very wisely arranges terms by which he can send them away if he does not get on with them, and also that he began to work upon May 10, 1508. This must not be taken to mean that he began to paint, but only to prepare the vault by carefully pointing the bricks and covering it with rough cast plaster ready for the fine coat called intonaca, in this case made [pg 148]of marble dust and Roman lime, prepared each day and plastered on the wall in patches sufficient for one day's work only. In true fresco painting the colour is put on the plaster only whilst it is still wet. Michael Angelo must also have prepared a general scheme to scale from his small design, approved by the Pope, and set it off with very careful measurements on the surface of the rough cast, at least as to the architectural framework. The cartoons for the figure-subjects and details he may have left until they were needed. He considerably altered the scale of the figures in his stories as he proceeded with the work; this alteration in scale is not only observable in the central subjects or pictures of the vault, but also in the decorative figures on the framework, called Athletes; those at the end, near the stories of Noah and the Flood, and where Michael Angelo began to work, are at least a head smaller than those at the other end of the chapel over the altar, where the stories relate to the Creation. This can be seen even in a photographic reproduction. Although the development of the great scheme was so much upon the traditional lines of Italian art, yet the details of arrangement and placing must have fully occupied the artist for some months. He cannot have begun actually to paint on the vault until late autumn, at least, not any of the work we see now, for his assistants did not arrive from Florence until August, and he had to experiment with their work, and find it wanting, before he dismissed them, destroyed their work, and began alone. All the work of the part of the vault executed first is by Michael Angelo's own hand, as far as can be judged from the floor of the chapel, or from the cornice level with the windows. The following receipts for the plaster, or for [pg 149]rough-coating the vault, show that painting cannot have begun so early as has been assumed:[105]
THE CREATION OF EVE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
"In the name of God, the 11th day of May, 1508.