That, however, signified nothing to Italian architects, who were satisfied when the frontispiece to a church or palace agreeably masked what lay behind it.

As a frame for sculpture, the design might have served its purpose, though there are large spaces difficult to account for; and spiteful folk were surely justified in remarking to the Pope that no one life sufficed for the performance of the whole.
Nothing testifies more plainly to the ascendancy which this strange man acquired over the imagination of his contemporaries, while yet comparatively young, than the fact that Michelangelo had to relinquish work for which he was pre-eminently fitted (the tomb of Julius) for work to which his previous studies and his special inclinations in no-wise called him.

He undertook the facade of S.Lorenzo reluctantly, with tears in his eyes and dolour in his bosom, at the Pope Medusa's bidding.

He was compelled to recommence art at a point which hitherto possessed for him no practical importance.

The drawings of the tomb, the sketch of the facade, prove that in architecture he was still a novice.