Michelangelo's indignation was roused by this indifference to his interests, and he complains in terms of extreme bitterness.

Then he sums up all that he has lost, in addition to expected profits.

"I do not reckon the wooden model for the said facade, which I made and sent to Rome; I do not reckon the period of three years wasted in this work; I do not reckon that I have been ruined (in health and strength perhaps) by the undertaking; I do not reckon the enormous insult put on me by being brought here to do the work, and then seeing it taken away from me, and for what reason I have not yet learned; I do not reckon my house in Rome, which I left, and where marbles, furniture and blocked-out statues have suffered to upwards of 500 ducats.

Omitting all these matters, out of the 2300 ducats I received, only 500 remain in my hands." When he was an old man, Michelangelo told Condivi that Pope Leo changed his mind about S.Lorenzo.In the often-quoted letter to the prelate he said: "Leo, not wishing me to work at the tomb of Julius, _pretended that he wanted to complete_ the facade of S.Lorenzo at Florence." What was the real state of the case can only be conjectured.

It does not seem that the Pope took very kindly to the facade; so the project may merely have been dropped through carelessness.