“I received from Messer Vincenzo Perini your letter with two sonnets and a madrigal.  The letter and the sonnet addressed to me are so marvellously fine, that if a man should find in them anything to castigate, it would be impossible to castigate him as thoroughly as they are castigated.  It is true they praise me so much, that had I Paradise in my bosom, less of praise would suffice.  I perceive that you suppose me to be just what God wishes that I were.  I am a poor man and of little merit, who plod along in the art which God gave me, to lengthen out my life as far as possible.  Such as I am, I remain your servant and that of all the house of Martelli.  I thank you for your letter and the poems, but not as much as duty bids, for I cannot soar to such heights of courtesy.”

When the Last Judgment was finished, Michelangelo not unreasonably hoped that he might resume his work upon the Tomb of Julius.  But this was not to be.  Antonio da San Gallo had just completed the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the Vatican, which is known as the Cappella Paolina, and the Pope resolved that its frescoes should be painted by Buonarroti.  The Duke of Urbino, yielding to his wishes, wrote to Michelangelo upon the 6th of March 1542, saying that he should be quite satisfied if the three statues by his hand, including the Moses, were assigned to the tomb, the execution of the rest being left to competent workmen under his direction.

In effect, we possess documents proving that the tomb was consigned to several masters during this year, 1542.  The first is a contract dated February 27, whereby Raffaello da Montelupo undertakes to finish three statues, two of these being the Active Life and the Contemplative.  The second is a contract dated May 16, in which Michelangelo assigns the architectural and ornamental portion of the monument conjointly to Giovanni de’ Marchesi and Francesco d’ Amadore, called Urbino, providing that differences which may arise between them shall be referred to Donato Giannotti.  There is a third contract, under date June 1, about the same work intrusted to the same two craftsmen, prescribing details with more exactitude.  It turned out that the apprehension of disagreement between the masters about the division of their labour was not unfounded, for Michelangelo wrote twice in July to his friend Luigi del Riccio, complaining bitterly of their dissensions, and saying that he has lost two months in these trifles.  He adds that one of them is covetous, the other mad, and he fears their quarrel may end in wounds or murder.  The matter disturbs his mind greatly, chiefly on account of Urbino, because he has brought him up, and also because of the time wasted over “their ignorance and bestial stupidity.”  The dispute was finally settled by the intervention of three master-masons (acting severally for Michelangelo, Urbino, and Giovanni), who valued the respective portions of the work.