adores your work, and tastes its quality as much as it is possible for man to do.  Indeed, his appreciation is miraculous, and such as ought to give great satisfaction to an artist.  He speaks of you so honourably, and with such loving affection, that a father could not say of a son what he does of you.  It is true that he has been grieved at times by buzzings in his ear about you at the time of the siege of Florence.  He shrugged his shoulders and cried, ’Michelangelo is in the wrong; I never did him any injury.’” It is interesting to find Sebastiano, in the same letter, complaining of Michelangelo’s sensitiveness.  “One favour I would request of you, that is, that you should come to learn your worth, and not stoop as you do to every little thing, and remember that eagles do not prey on flies.  Enough!  I know that you will laugh at my prattle; but I do not care; Nature has made me so, and I am not Zuan da Rezzo.”

VIII

The year 1520 was one of much importance for Michelangelo.  A Ricordo dated March 10 gives a brief account of the last four years, winding up with the notice that “Pope Leo, perhaps because he wants to get the facade at S. Lorenzo finished quicker than according to the contract made with me, and I also consenting thereto, sets me free ... and so he leaves me at liberty, under no obligation of accounting to any one for anything which I have had to do with him or others upon his account.”  It appears from the draft of a letter without date that some altercation between Michelangelo and the Medici preceded this rupture.  He had been withdrawn from Serravezza to Florence in order that he might plan the new buildings at S. Lorenzo; and the workmen of the Opera del Duomo continued the quarrying business in his absence.  Marbles which he had excavated for S. Lorenzo were granted by the Cardinal de’ Medici to the custodians of the cathedral, and no attempt was made to settle accounts.  Michelangelo’s indignation was roused by this indifference to his interests, and he complains in terms of extreme bitterness.  Then he sums up all that he has lost, in addition to expected profits.  “I do not reckon the wooden model for the said facade, which I made and sent to Rome; I do not reckon the period of three years wasted in this work; I do not reckon that I have been ruined (in health and strength perhaps) by the undertaking; I do not reckon the enormous insult put on me by being brought here to do the work, and then seeing it taken away from me, and for what reason I have not yet learned; I do not reckon my house in Rome, which I left, and where marbles, furniture and blocked-out statues have suffered to upwards of 500 ducats.  Omitting all these matters, out of the 2300 ducats I received, only 500 remain in my hands.”