(By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence)
"The place of quarrying is very rugged, and the workmen are very ignorant of this sort of work. So for some [pg 185]months I must be very patient until the mountains are tamed and the men are mastered. Then we shall get on more quickly. Enough, what I have promised that will I do by some means, and I will make the most beautiful thing that has ever been done in Italy if God helps me."
The melancholy end of this scheme is told in a Ricordo in the Archivio Buonarroti, March 10, 1520.
"Now Pope Leo, perhaps, to carry out more quickly the above-mentioned façade of San Lorenzo than according to the agreement he made with me, and I consenting, sets me free, and for all the above-said money that I have received, are counted the road that I have made to Pietra Santa, and the marbles that were quarried there and rough-hewn as may be seen to-day; and he declares himself content and satisfied with me, as is said, about all the money received for the said façade of San Lorenzo, and every other work that I have had to do for him until this tenth day of March, 1519; and so he leaves me my freedom, and not obliged to render account to any one for anything that I have had to do for him or with others for him."[123]
We have a series of most interesting letters from Sebastiano del Piombo, Michael Angelo's favourite gossip in Rome; most of them are dated from 1520 to 1533, and give Michael Angelo at Carrara news of Sebastiano and the art world of Rome, They often relate to designs that Sebastiano wished to get from Michael Angelo in order that he might be entrusted with commissions from the Pope that would otherwise be given to the scholars of Raphael. In one, dated October 27, 1520, he says:—
"For I know how much the Pope values you, and when he speaks of you it is as if he were speaking of his own brother, almost with tears in his eyes; for he has told me that you were brought up together, and shows that he knows and loves you. But you frighten everybody, even Popes!"[124]
Michael Angelo seems to have taken exception to the remark, for Sebastiano in his next letter but one says:—
"As to what you reply to me about your terribleness, I for my part do not find you terrible; and if I have not written to you about this, do not wonder, for you do not appear to me terrible except only in art—that is to say, the greatest master that has ever been; so it seems to me if I am in error I am to blame. I have no more to say. Christ keep you safe. 9th day of November, 1520. Remember me to friend Leonardo and to Master Pier Francesco.
"Your most faithful gossip,
"Bastiano, Painter, in Rome.