"Why will you not repay my devotion to your divine qualities by the gift of some scrap of a drawing, the least valuable in your eyes?
I should certainly esteem two strokes of the chalk upon a piece of paper more than all the cups and chains which all the kings and princes gave me." It seems that Michelangelo continued to correspond with him, and that Benvenuto Cellini took part in their exchange of letters.

But no drawings were sent; and in course of time the ruffian got the better of the virtuoso in Aretino's rapacious nature.

Without ceasing to fawn and flatter Michelangelo, he sought occasion to damage his reputation.

Thus we find him writing in January 1546 to the engraver Enea Vico, bestowing high praise upon a copper-plate which a certain Bazzacco had made from the Last Judgment, but criticising the picture as "licentious and likely to cause scandal with the Lutherans, by reason of its immodest exposure of the nakedness of persons of both sexes in heaven and hell." It is not clear what Aretino expected from Enea Vico.

A reference to the Duke of Florence seems to indicate that he wished to arouse suspicions among great and influential persons regarding the religious and moral quality of Michelangelo's work.
This malevolent temper burst out at last in one of the most remarkable letters we possess of his.