Half the period spent by Michael Angelo in quarrying and road-making for Pope Leo would have sufficed for the completion of the Tomb, which would then have been a monument of Michael Angelo's power as a sculptor, fit to rank with the monument of his power as a painter in the Sistine Chapel: a monument containing four figures, equal in execution and size to the Moses, twelve figures like the Slaves, altogether some forty statues and numerous bronze bas-reliefs besides.

It is a great misfortune that we have no bronze bas-reliefs by Michael Angelo, for all his works prove that his genius would have been well expressed in this art.
[Image #33] ONE OF THE ANCESTORS OF CHRIST, OVER THE WINDOW INSCRIBED "IORAM" (_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig.

D.Anderson, Rome_) The early years of the Pontificate of Leo X.were wasted over the project for the facade of San Lorenzo.

Michael Angelo was continually at Carrara.
In a letter, dated May 8, 1517, to Domenico Buoninsegna, Michael Angelo writes with enthusiasm about his new scheme, and undertakes to carry it out for 35,000 golden ducats in six years.

Buoninsegna replied that the Cardinal expressed the highest satisfaction at "the great heart he had for conducting the work of the facade." The friendly relations of Michael Angelo with the natives of Carrara continued until the Pope obliged him to leave their quarries and open up those of Pietra Santa, in Tuscan territory, by which act Michael Angelo lost much time.