The miserable tragedy of the sepulchre dragged on for another sixteen years.  During this period the executors of Julius passed away, and the Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere replaced them.  He complained that Michelangelo neglected the tomb, which was true, although the fault lay not with the sculptor, but with the Popes, his taskmasters.  Legal proceedings were instituted to recover a large sum of money, which, it was alleged, had been disbursed without due work delivered by the master.  Michelangelo had recourse to Clement VII., who, being anxious to monopolise his labour, undertook to arrange matters with the Duke.  On the 29th of April 1532 a third and solemn contract was signed at Rome in presence of the Pope, witnessed by a number of illustrious personages.  This third contract involved a fourth design for the tomb, which Michelangelo undertook to furnish, and at the same time to execute six statues with his own hand.  On this occasion the notion of erecting it in S. Peter’s was finally abandoned.  The choice lay between two other Roman churches, that of S. Maria del Popolo, where monuments to several members of the Della Rovere family existed, and that of S. Pietro in Vincoli, from which Julius II. had taken his cardinal’s title.  Michelangelo decided for the latter, on account of its better lighting.  The six statues promised by Michelangelo are stated in the contract to be “begun and not completed, extant at the present date in Rome or in Florence.”  Which of the several statues blocked out for the monument were to be chosen is not stated; and as there are no specifications in the document, we cannot identify them with exactness.  At any rate, the Moses must have been one; and it is possible that the Leah and Rachel, Madonna, and two seated statues, now at S. Pietro, were the other five.

It might have been thought that at last the tragedy had dragged on to its conclusion.  But no; there was a fifth act, a fourth contract, a fifth design.  Paul III. succeeded to Clement VII., and, having seen the Moses in Michelangelo’s workshop, declared that this one statue was enough for the deceased Pope’s tomb.  The Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere died in 1538, and was succeeded by his son, Guidobaldo II.  The new Duke’s wife was a granddaughter of Paul III., and this may have made him amenable to the Pope’s influence.  At all events, upon the 20th of August 1542 a final contract was signed, stating that Michelangelo had been prevented “by just and legitimate impediments from carrying out” his engagement under date April 29, 1532, releasing him from the terms of the third deed, and establishing new conditions.  The Moses, finished by the hand of Michelangelo, takes the central place in this new monument.  Five other statues are specified:  “to wit, a Madonna with the child in her arms, which is already finished; a Sibyl, a Prophet, an Active Life and a Contemplative Life, blocked out and nearly completed by the said Michelangelo.”  These four were given to Raffaello da Montelupo to finish.  The reclining portrait-statue of Julius, which was carved by Maso del Bosco, is not even mentioned in this contract.  But a deed between the Duke’s representative and the craftsmen Montelupo and Urbino exists, in which the latter undertakes to see that Michelangelo shall retouch the Pope’s face.