Summary

Michelangelo seeks release from the torment of the previous three years, and he finds it in work: he carves a marble “Risen Christ” for a client, and the sculpture itself rises as if all his internal pressure is pushing it out of the stone. He continues work on the statues for Pope Julius’s tomb—but money, as ever, is scarce, as he has already been paid for Julius’s tomb.

He has established his brothers Buonarroto and Giovansimone in business as wool merchants, but the business has never made money, and it continues to drink up Michelangelo’s funds. But he can’t close the shop, because then they would lose their social status.

He begins four nine-foot “Giants” for Julius’s tomb, working on all simultaneously. They are all emerging from the stone, heading to completion, which does not please Pope Leo or Cardinal...