Hitherto, he regarded building as the background to sculpture, or the surface on which frescoes might be limned.

To achieve anything great in this new sphere implied for him a severe course of preliminary studies.

It depends upon our final estimate of Michelangelo as an architect whether we regard the three years spent in Leo's service for S.Lorenzo as wasted.

Being what he was, it is certain that, when the commission had been given, and he determined to attack his task alone, the man set himself down to grasp the principles of construction.

There was leisure enough for such studies in the years during which we find him moodily employed among Tuscan quarries.