The malignancy of this letter is only equalled by its stylistic ingenuity.  Aretino used every means he could devise to wound and irritate a sensitive nature.  The allusion to Raffaello, the comparison of his own pornographic dialogues with the Last Judgment in the Sistine, the covert hint that folk gossiped about Michelangelo’s relations to young men, his sneers at the great man’s exclusiveness, his cruel insinuations with regard to the Tomb of Julius, his devout hope that Paul will destroy the fresco, and the impudent eulogy of his precious letter on the Last Day, were all nicely calculated to annoy.  Whether the missive was duly received by Buonarroti we do not know.  Gaye asserts that it appears to have been sent through the post.  He discovered it in the Archives of the Strozzi Palace.

The virtuous Pietro Aretino was not the only one to be scandalised by the nudities of the Last Judgment; and indeed it must be allowed that when Michelangelo treated such a subject in such a manner, he was pushing the principle of art for art’s sake to its extremity.  One of the most popular stories told about this work shows that it early began to create a scandal.  When it was three fourths finished, Pope Paul went to see the fresco, attended by Messer Biagio da Cesena, his Master of the Ceremonies.  On being asked his opinion of the painting, Messer Biagio replied that he thought it highly improper to expose so many naked figures in a sacred picture, and that it was more fit for a place of debauchery than for the Pope’s chapel.  Michelangelo, nettled by this, drew the prelate’s portrait to the life, and placed him in hell with horns on his head and a serpent twisted round his loins.  Messer Biagio, finding himself in this plight, and being no doubt laughed at by his friends, complained to the Pope, who answered that he could do nothing to help him.  “Had the painter sent you to Purgatory, I would have used my best efforts to get you released; but I exercise no influence in hell; ubi nulla est redemptio.”  Before Michelangelo’s death, his follower, Daniele da Volterra, was employed to provide draperies for the most obnoxious figures, and won thereby the name of Il Braghettone, or the breeches-maker.  Paul IV. gave the painter this commission, having previously consulted Buonarroti on the subject.  The latter is said to have replied to the Pope’s messenger:  “Tell his Holiness that this is a small matter, and can easily be set straight.  Let him look to setting the world in order:  to reform a picture costs no great trouble.”  Later on, during the Pontificate of Pio V., a master named Girolamo da Fano continued the process begun by Daniele da Volterra.  As a necessary consequence of this tribute to modesty, the scheme of Michelangelo’s colouring and the balance of his masses have been irretrievably damaged.

IV