This adjusted, Michael Angelo immediately proceeded to comply with the
wishes of the Pope: if Paolo was inferior to Giulio in impetuosity, he
was his equal in fervour of attachment to art, and excelled him, if not
every other name which patronage has distinguished, in personal respect
and public homage to the artist. No work ever received countenance and
honours equal to those conferred on the Last Judgement of Michael
Angelo, from its plan to its ultimate finish by Paolo Farnese. His first
visit to the artist was attended by a train of ten cardinals:[77] though
ambitious to have the work consecrated to his own name, in deference to
Michael Angelo's attachment to the memory of Giulio, he submitted to his
refusal of displacing the arms of De Rovere at the top of the picture,
in favour of the Farnesian.[78] Induced by the specious sophistry of
Sebastian del Piombo to prefer oil to fresco in the execution of the
work, he permitted the wall to be prepared for that purpose, but on
Michael Angelo's declaring oil painting an art for women only and
sedentary tameness, he yielded to the decision, and patiently saw the
whole apparatus dashed to the ground. When, before its final disclosure
to the public, he took a private view of the whole composition at the
Chapel, less convinced than irritated by the bigoted philippic of an
attendant prelate against the daring display of immodest nudity, he
acquiesced in the artist's well-known revenge, and refused to revoke or
mitigate the punishment inflicted on the unlucky critic.[79]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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