The statue must have been more than thrice life-size, if it rose fourteen feet in a sitting posture.  Michelangelo worked at the model in a hall called the Stanza del Pavaglione behind the Cathedral.  Three experienced workmen were sent, at his request, from Florence, and he began at once upon the arduous labour.  His domestic correspondence, which at this period becomes more copious and interesting, contains a good deal of information concerning his residence at Bologna.  His mode of life, as usual, was miserable and penurious in the extreme.  This man, about whom popes and cardinals and gonfaloniers had been corresponding, now hired a single room with one bed in it, where, as we have seen, he slept together with his three assistants.  There can be no doubt that such eccentric habits prevented Michelangelo from inspiring his subordinates with due respect.  The want of control over servants and workmen, which is a noticeable feature of his private life, may in part be attributed to this cause.  And now, at Bologna, he soon got into trouble with the three craftsmen he had engaged to help him.  They were Lapo d’Antonio di Lapo, a sculptor at the Opera del Duomo; Lodovico del Buono, surnamed Lotti, a metal-caster and founder of cannon; and Pietro Urbano, a craftsman who continued long in his service.  Lapo boasted that he was executing the statue in partnership with Michelangelo and upon equal terms, which did not seem incredible considering their association in a single bedroom.  Beside this, he intrigued and cheated in money matters.  The master felt that he must get rid of him, and send the fellow back to Florence.  Lapo, not choosing to go alone, lest the truth of the affair should be apparent, persuaded Lodovico to join him; and when they reached home, both began to calumniate their master.  Michelangelo, knowing that they were likely to do so, wrote to his brother Buonarroto on the 1st of February 1507:  “I inform you further how on Friday morning I sent away Lapo and Lodovico, who were in my service.  Lapo, because he is good for nothing and a rogue, and could not serve me.  Lodovico is better, and I should have been willing to keep him another two months, but Lapo, in order to prevent blame falling on himself alone, worked upon the other so that both went away together.  I write you this, not that I regard them, for they are not worth three farthings, the pair of them, but because if they come to talk to Lodovico (Buonarroti) he must not be surprised at what they say.  Tell him by no means to lend them his ears; and if you want to be informed about them, go to Messer Angelo, the herald of the Signory; for I have written the whole story to him, and he will, out of his kindly feeling, tell you just what happened.”