Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

Leonardo watches Pope Alexander VI perform mass at the Sistine Chapel. Cesare Borgia kneels at the pope’s feet, dressed in a black cape, “begging for forgiveness for his wartime sins” (180). Leonardo studies the frescoes on the chapel wall, painted 20 years earlier by Florence’s renowned artists. Leonardo still resents that Lorenzo de’ Medici didn’t suggest him for this project. While noting his influence on the part of the painting attributed to Pietro Perugino, Leonardo laments that Perugino never finished the project for which he borrowed Leonardo’s portrayal of “controlled chaos.” After the mass, Leonardo enters St. Peter’s Basilica through a secret door to examine Michelangelo’s Pieta. Realizing that Michelangelo is a genius and worthy rival, he resigns his position and sets off for Florence. He resolves not to miss another opportunity to assert his artistic talent.

As Michelangelo dissects another corpse to inform his work on the David, he’s distracted and senses that someone else is in the morgue. Leonardo reveals himself, and Michelangelo notices how much his rival has aged in the past year. Leonardo speaks about how Michelangelo’s frenzied artistic drive taught him about the “urgency of doing” (187). He reveals that he knows all about the morgue, having dissected bodies there himself long before Michelangelo did.