response to beginning chapters of: "Michelangelo & The Pope's Ceiling" by Ross King

            In the year of 1503 Pope Julius II decided that he wanted to have his own tomb built.  Although he was a new Pope, this project had meaning to him, because it gave him an excuse to create a statue of himself while he was alive.  He believed that this would promote his career. 

            For the statue, Pope Julius II wanted it to be immense in size, and portray him as a god-like figure, along with large muscles and a heroic stance.  He commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to make this sculpture of himself because he knew that Michelangelo was the most talented of his time and that he enjoyed working in a large scale.  He knew this based on Michelangelo’s previous work, “David” who was seventeen feet tall and in the middle of Florence, Italy. 

            Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to come to Rome to begin this project.  When he proposed his original idea, Michelangelo insisted that it was not immense enough.  Michelangelo had many great ideas which included that the tomb would be pyramid-shaped and decorated with about forty figures sculpted by him.  He insisted that if the Pope would fund the project, Michelangelo would design and build the entire thing himself.  He promised that it would be the greatest tomb since ancient times.  The Pope agreed, and set Michelangelo up in a studio across the street from the Vatican palace.  He started his work, ordering and prepping large blocks of white marble.  He worked for two years just doing preparation work, and still hadn’t completed any statues.  Two years in, Pope Julius II started to see that Michelangelo had no intent on making this project a speedy one.  He would happily work at it his entire life until he had reached perfection. 

            From what I read and researched, it seemed as though Bramante urged Pope Julius against letting Michelangelo have this commission to fuel his own agenda.  The other theory I read was that the Pope was not able to continue funding the project Michelangelo had started because once the rebellion began in the two Papal States of Italy he was short on money.  It was said that the states of Perugia and Bologna declared their independence from Roman and refused to pay taxes.  To retaliate this, the Pope had to organize a Vatican military, which was known as the Swiss Guards.  Regardless of the reasons, Michelangelo’s project came to a halt, and he was not reimbursed for the marble he had been preparing.  This made Michelangelo very upset.  He did not believe that he did anything to deserve this treatment, so he left Rome.  Although the Pope sent people to retrieve Michelangelo, he would not return.  Instead he sent a letter explaining his reasoning for not coming back in his place.