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And I—although the Pope would make me paint, &c.—Page 72.

The allusion here is to the circumstances under which the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were executed. Michael Angelo, who had no previous experience in fresco painting, and had returned to Rome, expecting to complete the sculpture for the magnificent tomb contemplated by Julius II. for himself, (of which the Moses, in San Pietro in Vincoli, and the figures of the Captives, now in the Louvre, were to form a part,) was greatly disappointed to find the idea of the tomb abandoned, and his imperious Holiness determined to have the ceiling of the Chapel painted by the hand which had shown its supremacy in sculpture. ‘The labour,’ says Vasari, ‘was great and difficult, and our artist, aware of his own inexperience, did all he could to excuse himself from undertaking the work, proposing, at the same time, that it should be confided to Raphael. But the more he refused, the more Pope Julius insisted; impetuous in all his desires, and stimulated by the competitors of Michelagnolo, more especially by Bramante, he was on the point of making a quarrel with our artist, when the latter, finding His Holiness determined, resolved to accept the task.’— (Vasari's Lives. Translated by Mrs. J. Foster. Bohn. 1852. Vol. 5, p. 254.) Michelagnolo summoned to his assistance several Florentine artists, including Granacci, Giuliano Bugiardini, Jacopo di Sandro, the elder Indaco, Agnolo da Donnino, and Aristotile da Sangallo, who were all versed in the processes of fresco painting. Their work, however, was so unsatisfactory to their master, that he determined to destroy all that they had done. ‘He then,’ says Vasari, ‘shut himself up in the Chapel, and not only would he never again permit the building to be opened to

them, but he likewise refused to see any one of them at his house. Finally, therefore, and when the jest appeared to them to be carried too far, they returned, ashamed and mortified, to Florence. Michelagnolo then made arrangements for performing the whole work himself, sparing no care or labour, in the hope of bringing the same to a satisfactory termination, nor would he ever permit himself to be seen, lest he should give occasion for a request to show the work.’

This dislike to allow his work to be seen while in progress gave rise to the incident mentioned in the text, or at all events to the story as told by Vasari. The Pope, finding himself as rigorously excluded as other people, is reported to have bribed Michelagnolo's assistants, and in this way to have obtained admission to the Chapel. Michelagnolo, suspecting what was on foot, had concealed himself, and, to startle the intruder, of whose dignity he was not aware, flung down a plank from the scaffolding.