twelve in all.  On the platform above the said rectangular structure stands a sarcophagus with four feet, as may be seen in the model, upon which will be Pope Julius sustained by two angels at his head, with two at his feet; making five figures on the sarcophagus, all larger than life, that is, about twice the size.  Round about the said sarcophagus will be placed six dadoes or pedestals, on which six figures of the same dimensions will sit.  Furthermore, from the platform, where it joins the wall, springs a little chapel about thirty-five palms high (26 feet 3 inches), which shall contain five figures larger than all the rest, as being farther from the eye.  Moreover, there shall be three histories, either of bronze or of marble, as may please the said executors, introduced on each face of the tomb between one tabernacle and another.”  All this Michelangelo undertook to execute in seven years for the stipulated sum.

The new project involved thirty-eight colossal statues; and, fortunately for our understanding of it, we may be said with almost absolute certainty to possess a drawing intended to represent it.  Part of this is a pen-and-ink sketch at the Uffizi, which has frequently been published, and part is a sketch in the Berlin Collection.  These have been put together by Professor Middleton of Cambridge, who has also made out a key-plan of the tomb.  With regard to its proportions and dimensions as compared with Michelangelo’s specification, there remain some difficulties, with which I cannot see that Professor Middleton has grappled.  It is perhaps not improbable, as Heath Wilson suggested, that the drawing had been thrown off as a picturesque forecast of the monument without attention to scale.  Anyhow, there is no doubt that in this sketch, so happily restored by Professor Middleton’s sagacity and tact, we are brought close to Michelangelo’s conception of the colossal work he never was allowed to execute.  It not only answers to the description translated above from the sculptor’s own appendix to the contract, but it also throws light upon the original plan of the tomb designed for the tribune of S. Peter’s.  The basement of the podium has been preserved, we may assume, in its more salient features.  There are the niches spoken of by Condivi, with Vasari’s conquered provinces prostrate at the feet of winged Victories.  These are flanked by the terminal figures, against which, upon projecting consoles, stand the bound captives.  At the right hand facing us, upon the upper platform, is seated Moses, with a different action of the hands, it is true, from that which Michelangelo finally adopted.  Near him is a female figure, and the two figures grouped upon the left angle seem to be both female.  To some extent these statues bear out Vasari’s tradition that the platform in the first design was meant to sustain figures of the contemplative and active life of the soul—­Dante’s Leah and Rachel.