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Guglielmo was probably commissioned to construct the funerary monument to Paul III in 1547. In 1575 his ambitious free-standing tomb was temporarily erected in the nave of St Peter's, but by 1588 it had been dismantled and reconstructed in a different form, in a recess in a crossing pier. In 1629 it was finally placed against the wall in the choir of St Peter's. In this arrangement, the bronze seated figure of the Pope is raised on a high pedestal, with inscription, above the two marble reclining figures of Justice and Prudence. The influence of Michelangelo, who occasionally supported Guglielmo, is particularly evident in these figures, which are still on the tomb (allegories of Roman Peace and Public Wealth were removed in 1628 and now flank a fireplace by Vignola in a salon on the piano nobile of the Palazzo Farnese, Rome).
The figures for the monument reveal a perfect combination of Guglielmo's Lombard style with the influence of Classical antiquity and of Michelangelo. In the seated figure of the Pope the overall impression of the figure and a minute attention to detail are finely balanced.
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