See Michael Angelo's letters to Giovan Francesco Fattucci, and his family. Gotti, pp. 55-65.
See the sonnet to Giovanni da Pistoja:—
La mia pittura morta
Difendi orma', Giovanni, e 'l mio onore,
Non sendo in loco bon, nè io pittore.
According to the first plan, Michael Angelo bargained with the Pope for twelve Apostles in the lunettes, and another part to be filled with ornament in the usual manner—"dodici Apostoli nelle lunette, e 'l resto un certo partimento ripieno d' adornamenti come si usa." Michael Angelo, after making designs for this commission, told the Pope he thought the roof would look poor, because the Apostles were poor folk—"perchè furon poveri anche loro." He then began his cartoons for the vault as it now exists. See the letter to Ser Giovan Francesco Fattucci, in the Archivio Buonarroti, Milanesi, pp. 426-427. This seems to be the foundation for an old story of the Pope's complaining that the Sistine roof looked poor without gilding, and Michael Angelo's reply that the Biblical personages depicted there were but poor people.