Whether Leo conceived the plan of finishing the facade of S. Lorenzo at Florence before he left Rome, or whether it occurred to him during this visit, is not certain.  The church had been erected by the Medici and other magnates from Brunelleschi’s designs, and was perfect except for the facade.  In its sacristy lay the mortal remains of Cosimo, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and many other members of the Medicean family.  Here Leo came on the first Sunday in Advent to offer up prayers, and the Pope is said to have wept upon his father’s tomb.  It may possibly have been on this occasion that he adopted the scheme so fatal to the happiness of the great sculptor.  Condivi clearly did not know what led to Michelangelo’s employment on the facade of S. Lorenzo, and Vasari’s account of the transaction is involved.  Both, however, assert that he was wounded, even to tears, at having to abandon the monument of Julius, and that he prayed in vain to be relieved of the new and uncongenial task.

IV

Leo at first intended to divide the work between several masters, giving Buonarroti the general direction of the whole.  He ordered Giuliano da San Gallo, Raffaello da Urbino, Baccio d’Agnolo, Andrea and Jacopo Sansovino to prepare plans.  While these were in progress, Michelangelo also thought that he would try his hand at a design.  As ill-luck ruled, Leo preferred his sketch to all the rest.  Vasari adds that his unwillingness to be associated with any other artist in the undertaking, and his refusal to follow the plans of an architect, prevented the work from being executed, and caused the men selected by Leo to return in desperation to their ordinary pursuits.  There may be truth in the report; for it is certain that, after Michelangelo had been forced to leave the tomb of Julius and to take part in the facade, he must have claimed to be sole master of the business.  The one thing we know about his mode of operation is, that he brooked no rival near him, mistrusted collaborators, and found it difficult to co-operate even with the drudges whom he hired at monthly wages.

Light is thrown upon these dissensions between Michelangelo and his proposed assistants by a letter which Jacopo Sansovino wrote to him at Carrara, on the 30th of June 1517.  He betrays his animus at the commencement by praising Baccio Bandinelli, to mention whom in the same breath with Buonarroti was an insult.  Then he proceeds:  “The Pope, the Cardinal, and Jacopo Salviati are men who when they say yes, it is a written contract, inasmuch as they are true to their word, and not what you pretend them to be.  You measure them with your own rod; for neither contracts nor plighted troth avail with you, who are always saying nay and yea, according as you think it profitable.  I must inform you, too, that the Pope promised me the sculptures, and so did Salviati; and they are men who will maintain me in my right to them.