As it is, the style, while seeming to aim at breadth, remains frigid and formal.

The so-called Prophet on the other side counts among the signal failures of Italian sculpture.

It has neither beauty nor significance.

Like a heavy Roman consul of the Decadence, the man sits there, lumpy and meaningless; we might take it for a statue-portrait erected by some provincial municipality to celebrate a local magnate; but of prophecy or inspiration there is nothing to detect in this inert figure.

We wonder why he should be placed so near a Pope.
It is said that Michelangelo expressed dissatisfaction with Montelupo's execution of the two statues finally committed to his charge, and we know from documents that the man was ill when they were finished.