But he protested firmly against being considered an architect by inclination or by education.

Therefore he accepted the most obvious conditions of each task, and devoted himself to schemes of surface decoration.
The interior of the sacristy is planned with a noble sense of unity.
For the purpose of illuminating a gallery of statues, the lighting may be praised without reserve; and there is no doubt whatever that Michelangelo intended every tabernacle to be filled with figures, and all the whitewashed spaces of the walls to be encrusted with bas-reliefs in stucco or painted in fresco.

The recesses or niches, taking the form of windows, are graduated in three degrees of depth to suit three scales of sculptural importance.

The sepulchres of the Dukes had to emerge into prominence; the statues subordinate to these main masses occupied shallower recesses; the shallowest of all, reserved for minor statuary, are adorned above with garlands, which suggest the flatness of the figures to be introduced.

Architecturally speaking, the building is complete; but it sadly wants the plastic decoration for which it was designed, together with many finishing touches of importance.