"Of these five statues my Lord the Pope having at my earnest prayer and for my satisfaction conceded to me a little time, I finished two of them with my own hand, that is to say, the Contemplative Life and the Active Life for the same sum that the said Raffaello was to have had." From the works themselves we may be sure that there is a good deal of Raffaello da Montelupo about these figures all the same.
Notwithstanding all this evidence of the desire of Michael Angelo to carry out his contract, we have a letter( 154) from Annibale Caro to Antonio Gallo as late as 1553 entreating him to plead with the Duke of Urbino for Michael Angelo.

"I assure you that the extreme distress caused him by being in disgrace with his Excellency is sufficient to bring his grey hair with sorrow to the grave before his time." In the finished work there are statues not yet accounted for, that is to say, the recumbent portrait of the Pope which was executed by Maso del Bosco, the coat of arms of the Della Rovere by Battista Benti of Pietra Santa, and the terminal figures by Giacomo del Duca.

The greatest drawback to the effect of the whole is the change in the architectural treatment and decorations.

The lower part belongs to the period when the work was begun in 1505, and the upper, with no transition but a joint in the stone, to the heavier and coarser style of the period when it was finished, 1545.
The jointing and the masonry generally are not of a satisfactory character,( 155) and Michael Angelo's assistants cannot be congratulated upon the way they did their share of the work.

With the exception of the figures of Active and Contemplative Life, the work of the assistants would be better away.
The two bound captives which were too big for the altered monument are now the glory of the Italian sculpture galleries of the Louvre.