Nor was he long before he sent for him and said that he wished Michael Angelo to make a great portrait statue of him in bronze, which he wished to place on the front of the Church of San Petronio.

And he left a thousand ducats in the bank of Messer Antommaria da Lignano to carry out the work when he departed for Rome.

It is true that before he left Michael Angelo had already modelled it in clay, but he was doubtful as to what the statue should hold in the left hand, the right was raised as if giving a benediction.

He asked the Pope, who had come to see the statue, if it pleased him that he should be made holding a book.
"_What! a book ?_" he replied, "_a sword! As for me, I am no scholar._" And jesting about the right hand, which was in vigorous action, he said, smiling the while, to Michael Angelo, "_Does this statue of yours give a blessing or a curse ?_" Michael Angelo replied to him: "_It threatens this people, Holy Father, lest they be foolish._" But, as I have said, Pope Julius returned to Rome and Michael Angelo remained behind at Bologna, and spent sixteen months in completing the statue and erecting it where the Pope had directed.

Afterwards, on the return of the Bentivogli to Bologna, this statue was thrown to earth in the fury of the populace and destroyed.
Its height was more than three times that of life..