Then follows, in the same month of October, that stormy letter to some prelate, which is one of the most weighty autobiographical documents from the hand of Michelangelo in our possession.
"Monsignore,--Your lordship sends to tell me that I must begin to paint, and have no anxiety.

I answer that one paints with the brain and not with the hands; and he who has not his brains at his command produces work that shames him.

Therefore, until my business is settled, I can do nothing good.

The ratification of the last contract does not come.

On the strength of the other, made before Clement, I am daily stoned as though I had crucified Christ....