Nevertheless, far the larger part, including all the most important figures, and especially the nudes, belongs to Michelangelo.
These troubles with his assistants illustrate a point upon which I shall have to offer some considerations at a future time.

I allude to Michelangelo's inaptitude for forming a school of intelligent fellow-workers, for fashioning inferior natures into at least a sympathy with his aims and methods, and finally for living long on good terms with hired subordinates.

All those qualities which the facile and genial Raffaello possessed in such abundance, and which made it possible for that young favourite of heaven and fortune to fill Rome with so much work of mixed merit, were wanting to the stern, exacting, and sensitive Buonarroti.
But the assistants were not the only hindrance to Michelangelo at the outset.

Condivi says that "he had hardly begun painting, and had finished the picture of the Deluge, when the work began to throw out mould to such an extent that the figures could hardly be seen through it.

Michelangelo thought that this excuse might be sufficient to get him relieved of the whole job.