He employed Cellini, and forced Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgment.

On ascending the Papal throne he complained that this mighty genius had been too long occupied for Delia Roveres and Medici.

When the fresco was finished, he set the old artist upon his last great task of completing S.Peter's.
So far there was nothing to distinguish Alessandro Farnese from other ecclesiastics of the Renaissance.

As Cardinal he seemed destined, should he ever attain the Papal dignity, to combine the qualities of the Borgian and Medicean Pontiffs.

But before his elevation to that supreme height, he lived through the reigns of Julius II., Leo X., Adrian VI., and Clement VII.