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58
THE LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO
insultingly accused by the Pope of being bribed;[1] and for having had to obey Leo's orders he was persecuted by the Carrarais, who, by coming to an arrangement with the Ligurian mariners, prevented him finding a single ship, from Genoa to Pisa, to carry his marble.[2] He had to construct a road, partly on piles, through the mountains and over the swampy plains—a road to the cost of which the people of the district refused to contribute a penny. The workers knew nothing about their work. The quarries were new and the workman also. Michael Angelo lamented.
"In wishing to conquer these mountains and bring art here I have undertaken to awaken the dead."[3]
He stuck to his task, however.
- ↑ Letter of February 2, 1518, from Cardinal Julius de' Medici to Michael Angelo: "We are somewhat suspicious that, through personal interest, you are siding with the Carrarais and wish to depreciate the Pietrasanta quarries…We have to inform you, without entering into further explanations, that His Holiness wishes that the entire work be carried out with blocks of Pietrasanta marble, and no other…Should you act otherwise, it will be against the express desire of His Holiness and myself, and we shall have good reason to be seriously irritated against you…Banish, therefore, this stubbornness from your mind."
- ↑ "I have been as far as Genoa to look for ships…The Carrarais have bribed all the owners of boats…I must go to Pisa…." (Letter from Michael Angelo to Urbano, April 2, 1518.) "The ships I hired at Pisa have not arrived. I believe they have tricked me—my fate in all things! Oh! cursed a thousand times be the day and hour I left Carrara! It is the cause of my ruin…." (Letter of April 18, 1518.)
- ↑ Letter of April 18, 1518. A few months later he wrote: "The quarry is very precipitous, and the people quite ignorant. Patience! I must conquer the mountains and instruct the men…." (Letter of September 1518 to Berto da Filicaja.)
