After being cabined in the vestibule to the Laurentian Library, our soul escapes with gladness to those airy spaces of the dome, that great cloud on the verge of the Campagna, and feels thankful that we can take our leave of Michelangelo as architect elsewhere.
VI While seeking to characterise what proved pernicious to contemporaries in Michelangelo's work as architect, I have been led to concentrate attention upon the Library at S.Lorenzo.This was logical; for, as we have seen, Vasari regarded that building as the supreme manifestation of his manner.

Vasari never saw the cupola of S.Peter's in all its glory, and it may be doubted whether he was capable of learning much from it.
The sacristy demands separate consideration.

It was an earlier work, produced under more favourable conditions of place and space, and is in every way a purer specimen of the master's style.

As Vasari observed, the Laurentian Library indicated a large advance upon the sacristy in the development of Michelangelo's new manner.
At this point it may not unprofitably be remarked, that none of the problems offered for solution at S.Lorenzo were in the strictest sense of that word architectural.

The facade presented a problem of pure panelling.