waiting to be married, asked him for the Leda, and he gave it to him
willingly, with the greater part of the designs and cartoons that he
had made, which were divine things, and also two chests full of
models, with a great number of finished cartoons for making pictures,
and some of works that had been painted. When Antonio took it into his
head to go to France, he carried all these with him; the Leda he sold
to King Francis by means of some merchants, and it is now at
Fontainebleau, but the cartoons and designs were lost, for he died
there in a short time, and some were stolen; and so our country was
deprived of all these valuable labours, which was an incalculable
loss. The cartoon of the Leda has since come back to Florence, and
Bernardo Vecchietti has it; and so also four pieces of the cartoons
for the chapel, with nudes and Prophets, brought back by the sculptor
Benvenuto Cellini, and now in the possession of the heirs of Girolamo
degli Albizzi.
It became necessary for Michelagnolo to go to Rome to see Pope
Clement, who, although angry with him, yet, as the friend of every
talent, forgave him everything, and gave him orders that he should
return to Florence and have the library and sacristy of S. Lorenzo
completely finished; and, in order to shorten that work, a vast number
of statues that were to be included in it were distributed among other
masters. Two he allotted to Tribolo, one to Raffaello da Montelupo,
and one to Fra Giovanni Agnolo, the Servite friar, all sculptors; and
he gave them assistance in these, making rough models in clay for each
of them. Whereupon they all worked valiantly, and he, also, caused
work to be pursued on the library, and thus the ceiling was finished
in carved woodwork, which was executed after his models by the hands
of the Florentines Carota and Tasso, excellent carvers and also
masters of carpentry; and likewise the shelves for the books, which
were executed at that time by Battista del Cinque and his friend
Ciappino, good masters in that profession. And in order to give the
work its final perfection there was summoned to Florence the divine
Giovanni da Udine, who, together with others his assistants and also
some Florentine masters, decorated the tribune with stucco; and they
all sought with great solicitude to give completion to that vast
undertaking.
Now, just as Michelagnolo was about to have the statues carried into
execution, at that very time the Pope took it into his head to have
him near his person, being desirous to have the walls of the Chapel of
Sixtus painted, where Michelagnolo had painted the vaulting for Julius
II, his nephew. On the principal wall, where the altar is, Clement
wished him to paint the Universal Judgment, to the end that he might
display in that scene all that the art of design could achieve, and
opposite to it, on the other wall, over the principal door, he had
commanded that he should depict the scene when Lucifer was expelled
for his pride from Heaven, and all those Angels who sinned with him
were hurled after him into the centre of Hell: of which inventions it
was found that Michelagnolo many years before had made various
sketches and designs, one of which was afterwards carried into
execution in the Church of the Trinità at Rome by a Sicilian painter,
who stayed many months with Michelagnolo, to serve him and to grind
his colours. This work, painted in fresco, is in the Chapel of S.
Gregorio, in the cross of the church, and, although it is executed
badly, there is a certain variety and terrible force in the attitudes
and groups of those nudes that are raining down from Heaven, and of
the others who, having fallen into the centre of the earth, are
changed into various forms of Devils, very horrible and bizarre; and
it is certainly an extraordinary fantasy. While Michelagnolo was
directing the preparation of the designs and cartoons of the Last
Judgment on the first wall, he never ceased for a single day to be at
strife with the agents of the Duke of Urbino, by whom he was accused
of having received sixteen thousand crowns from Julius II for the
tomb. This accusation was more than he could bear, and he desired to
finish the work some day, although he was already an old man, and he
would have willingly stayed in Rome to finish it, now that he had
found, without seeking it, such a pretext for not returning any more
to Florence, since he had a great fear of Duke Alessandro de' Medici,
whom he regarded as little his friend; for, when the Duke had given
him to understand through Signor Alessandro Vitelli that he should
select the best site for the building of the castle and citadel of
Florence, he answered that he would not go save at the command of Pope
Clement.
Finally an agreement was formed in the matter of the tomb, that it
should be finished in the following manner: there was no longer to be
an isolated tomb in a rectangular shape, but only one of the original
façades, in the manner that best pleased Michelagnolo, and he was to
be obliged to place in it six statues by his own hand. In this
contract that was made with the Duke of Urbino, his Excellency
consented that Michelagnolo should be at the disposal of Pope Clement
for four months in the year, either in Florence or wherever he might
think fit to employ him. But, although it seemed to Michelagnolo that
at last he had obtained some peace, he was not to be quit of it so
easily, for Pope Clement, desiring to see the final proof of the force
of his art, kept him occupied with the cartoon of the Judgment.
However, contriving to convince the Pope that he was thus engaged, at
the same time he kept working in secret, never relaxing his efforts,
at the statues that were going into the above-named tomb.
In the year 1533[1] came the death of Pope Clement, whereupon the work
of the library and sacristy in Florence, which had remained unfinished
in spite of all the efforts made to finish it, was stopped. Then, at
length, Michelagnolo thought to be truly free and able to give his
attention to finishing the tomb of Julius II. But Paul III, not long
after his election, had him summoned to his presence, and, besides
paying him compliments and making him offers, requested him to enter
his service and remain near his person. Michelagnolo refused, saying
that he was not able to do it, being bound by contract to the Duke of
Urbino until the tomb of Julius should be finished. The Pope flew into
a rage and said: "I have had this desire for thirty years, and now
that I am Pope do you think I shall not satisfy it? I shall tear up
the contract, for I am determined to have you serve me, come what
may." Michelagnolo, hearing this resolution, was tempted to leave Rome
and in some way find means to give completion to the tomb; however,
fearing, like a wise man, the power of the Pope, he resolved to try to
keep him pacified with words, seeing that he was so old, until
something should happen. The Pope, who wished to have some
extraordinary work executed by Michelagnolo, went one day with ten
Cardinals to visit him at his house, where he demanded to see all the
statues for the tomb of Julius, which appeared to him marvellous, and
particularly the Moses, which figure alone was said by the Cardinal of
Mantua to be enough to do honour to Pope Julius. And after seeing the
designs and cartoons that he was preparing for the wall of the chapel,
which appeared to the Pope to be stupendous, he again besought
Michelagnolo with great insistence that he should enter his service,
promising that he would persuade the Duke of Urbino to content himself
with three statues, and that the others should be given to other
excellent masters to execute after his models. Whereupon, his Holiness
having arranged this with the agents of the Duke, a new contract was
made, which was confirmed by the Duke; and Michelagnolo of his own
free will bound himself to pay for the other three statues and to have
the tomb erected, depositing for this purpose in the bank of the
Strozzi one thousand five hundred and eighty ducats. This he might
have avoided, and it seemed to him that he had truly done enough to be
free of such a long and troublesome undertaking; and afterwards he
caused the tomb to be erected in S. Pietro in Vincola in the following
manner. He erected the lower base, which was all carved, with four
pedestals which projected outwards as much as was necessary to give
space for the captive that was originally intended to stand on each of
them, instead of which there was left a terminal figure; and since the
lower part had thus a poor effect, he placed at the feet of each
terminal figure a reversed console resting on the pedestal. Those four
terminal figures had between them three niches, two of which (those at
the sides) were round, and were to have contained the Victories.
Instead of the Victories, he placed in one Leah, the daughter of
Laban, to represent the Active Life, with a mirror in her hand to
signify the consideration that we should give to our actions, and in
the other hand a garland of flowers, to denote the virtues that adorn
our life during its duration, and make it glorious after death; and
the other figure was her sister Rachel, representing the Contemplative
Life, with the hands clasped and one knee bent, and on the countenance
a look as of ecstasy of spirit. These statues Michelagnolo executed
with his own hand in less than a year. In the centre is the other
niche, rectangular in shape, which in the original design was to have
been one of the doors that were to lead into the little oval temple of
the rectangular tomb; this having become a niche, there is placed in
it, upon a dado of marble, the gigantic and most beautiful statue of
Moses, of which we have already said enough. Above the heads of the
terminal figures, which form capitals, are architrave, frieze, and
cornice, which project beyond those figures and are carved with rich
ornaments, foliage, ovoli, dentils, and other rich members,
distributed over the whole work. Over that cornice rises another
course, smooth and without carvings, but with different terminal
figures standing directly above those below, after the manner of
pilasters, with a variety of cornice-members; and since this course
accompanies that below and resembles it in every part, there is in it
a space similar to the other, forming a niche like that in which there
is now the Moses, and in the niche, resting on projections of the
cornice, is a sarcophagus of marble with the recumbent statue of Pope
Julius, executed by the sculptor Maso dal Bosco, while in that niche,
also, there stands a Madonna who is holding her Son in her arms,
wrought by the sculptor Scherano da Settignano from a model by
Michelagnolo; which statues are passing good. In two other rectangular
niches, above the Active and the Contemplative Life, are two larger
statues, a Prophet and a Sibyl seated, which were both executed by
Raffaello da Montelupo, as has been related in the Life of his father
Baccio, but little to the satisfaction of Michelagnolo. For its
crowning completion this work had a different cornice, which, like
those below, projected over the whole work; and above the terminal
figures, as a finish, were candelabra of marble, with the arms of Pope
Julius in the centre. Above the Prophet and the Sibyl, in the recess
of each niche, he made a window for the convenience of the friars who
officiate in that church, the choir having been made behind; which
windows serve to send their voices into the church when they say the
divine office, and permit the celebration to be seen. Truly this whole
work has turned out very well, but not by a great measure as it had
been planned in the original design.
[Footnote 1: 1534.]
[Illustration: THE LAST JUDGMENT
(_After the fresco by =Michelagnolo=. Rome: The Vatican, Sistine
Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
Michelagnolo resolved, since he could not do otherwise, to serve Pope
Paul, who allowed him to continue the work as ordered by Clement,
without changing anything in the inventions and the general conception
that had been laid before him, thus showing respect for the genius of
that great man, for whom he felt such reverence and love that he
sought to do nothing but what pleased him; of which a proof was soon
seen. His Holiness desired to place his own arms beneath the Jonas in
the chapel, where those of Pope Julius II had previously been put; but
Michelagnolo, being asked to do this, and not wishing to do a wrong to
Julius and Clement, would not place them there, saying that they would
not look well; and the Pope, in order not to displease him, was
content to have it so, having recognized very well the excellence of
such a man, and how he always followed what was just and honourable
without any adulation or respect of persons--a thing that the great
are wont to experience very seldom. Michelagnolo, then, caused a
projection of well baked and chosen bricks to be carefully built on
the wall of the above-named chapel (a thing which was not there
before), and contrived that it should overhang half a braccio from
above, so that neither dust nor any other dirt might be able to settle
upon it. But I will not go into the particulars of the invention and
composition of this scene, because so many copies of it, both large
and small, have been printed, that it does not seem necessary to lose
time in describing it. It is enough for us to perceive that the
intention of this extraordinary man has been to refuse to paint
anything but the human body in its best proportioned and most perfect
forms and in the greatest variety of attitudes, and not this only, but
likewise the play of the passions and contentments of the soul, being
satisfied with justifying himself in that field in which he was
superior to all his fellow-craftsmen, and to lay open the way of the
grand manner in the painting of nudes, and his great knowledge in the
difficulties of design; and, finally, he opened out the way to
facility in this art in its principal province, which is the human
body, and, attending to this single object, he left on one side the
charms of colouring and the caprices and new fantasies of certain
minute and delicate refinements which many other painters, perhaps not
without some show of reason, have not entirely neglected. For some,
not so well grounded in design, have sought with variety of tints and
shades of colouring, with various new and bizarre inventions, and,
in short, with the other method, to win themselves a place among the
first masters; but Michelagnolo, standing always firmly rooted in his
profound knowledge of art, has shown to those who know enough how they
should attain to perfection.
But to return to the story: Michelagnolo had already carried to
completion more than three-fourths of the work, when Pope Paul went to
see it. And Messer Biagio da Cesena, the master of ceremonies, a
person of great propriety, who was in the chapel with the Pope, being
asked what he thought of it, said that it was a very disgraceful thing
to have made in so honourable a place all those nude figures showing
their nakedness so shamelessly, and that it was a work not for the
chapel of a Pope, but for a bagnio or tavern. Michelagnolo was
displeased at this, and, wishing to revenge himself, as soon as Biagio
had departed he portrayed him from life, without having him before his
eyes at all, in the figure of Minos with a great serpent twisted round
the legs, among a heap of Devils in Hell; nor was Messer Biagio's
pleading with the Pope and with Michelagnolo to have it removed of any
avail, for it was left there in memory of the occasion, and it is
still to be seen at the present day.
It happened at this time that Michelagnolo fell no small distance from
the staging of this work, and hurt his leg; and in his pain and anger
he would not be treated by anyone. Now there was living at this same
time the Florentine Maestro Baccio Rontini, his friend, an ingenious
physician, who had a great affection for his genius; and he, taking
compassion on him, went one day to knock at his door. Receiving no
answer either from the neighbours or from him, he so contrived to
climb by certain secret ways from one room to another, that he came to
Michelagnolo, who was in a desperate state. And then Maestro Biagio
would never abandon him or take himself off until he was cured.
Having recovered from this injury, he returned to his labour, and,
working at it continually, he carried it to perfect completion in a
few months, giving such force to the paintings in the work, that he
justified the words of Dante--
Morti li morti, i vivi parean vivi.
And here, also, may be seen the misery of the damned and the joy of
the blessed. Wherefore, when this Judgment was thrown open to view, it
proved that he had not only vanquished all the earlier masters who had
worked there, but had sought to surpass the vaulting that he himself
had made so famous, excelling it by a great measure and outstripping
his own self. For he imagined to himself the terror of those days, and
depicted, for the greater pain of all who have not lived well, the
whole Passion of Christ, causing various naked figures in the air to
carry the Cross, the Column, the Lance, the Sponge, the Nails, and the
Crown of Thorns, all in different attitudes, executed to perfection in
a triumph of facility over their difficulties. In that scene is Christ
seated, with a countenance proud and terrible, turning towards the
damned and cursing them; not without great fear in Our Lady, who,
hearing and beholding that vast havoc, draws her mantle close around
her. There are innumerable figures, Prophets and Apostles, that form a
circle about Him, and in particular Adam and S. Peter, who are
believed to have been placed there, one as the first parent of those
thus brought to judgment, and the other as having been the first
foundation of the Christian Church; and at His feet is a most
beautiful S. Bartholomew, who is displaying his flayed skin. There is
likewise a nude figure of S. Laurence; besides which, there are
multitudes of Saints without number, both male and female, and other
figures, men and women, around Him, near or distant, who embrace one
another and make rejoicing, having received eternal blessedness by the
grace of God and as the reward of their works. Beneath the feet of
Christ are the Seven Angels with the Seven Trumpets described by S.
John the Evangelist, who, as they sound the call to judgment, cause
the hair of all who behold them to stand on end at the terrible wrath
that their countenances reveal. Among others are two Angels that have
each the Book of Life in the hands: and near them, on one side, not
without beautiful consideration, are seen the Seven Mortal Sins in the
forms of Devils, assailing and striving to drag down to Hell the souls
that are flying towards Heaven, all with very beautiful attitudes and
most admirable foreshortenings. Nor did he hesitate to show to the
world, in the resurrection of the dead, how they take to themselves
flesh and bones once more from the same earth, and how, assisted by
others already alive, they go soaring towards Heaven, whence succour
is brought to them by certain souls already blessed; not without
evidence of all those marks of consideration that could be thought to
be required in so great a work. For studies and labours of every kind
were executed by him, which may be recognized throughout the whole
work without exception; and this is manifested with particular
clearness in the barque of Charon, who, in an attitude of fury,
strikes with his oars at the souls dragged down by the Devils into the
barque, after the likeness of the picture that the master's
best-beloved poet, Dante, described when he said--
Caron demonio con occhi di bragia,
Loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie,
Batte col remo qualunque si adagia.
[Illustration: CHARON'S BOAT: DETAIL FROM THE LAST JUDGMENT
(_After the fresco by =Michelangelo=. Rome: The Vatican, Sistine
Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
Nor would it be possible to imagine how much variety there is in the
heads of those Devils, which are truly monsters from Hell. In the
sinners may be seen sin and the fear of eternal damnation; and, to say
nothing of the beauty of every detail, it is extraordinary to see so
great a work executed with such harmony of painting, that it appears
as if done in one day, and with such finish as was never achieved in
any miniature. And, of a truth, the terrible force and grandeur of the
work, with the multitude of figures, are such that it is not possible
to describe it, for it is filled with all the passions known to human
creatures, and all expressed in the most marvellous manner. For the
proud, the envious, the avaricious, the wanton, and all the other
suchlike sinners can be distinguished with ease by any man of fine
perception, because in figuring them Michelagnolo observed every rule
of Nature in the expressions, in the attitudes, and in every other
natural circumstance; a thing which, although great and marvellous,
was not impossible to such a man, for the reason that he was always
observant and shrewd and had seen men in plenty, and had acquired by
commerce with the world that knowledge that philosophers gain from
cogitation and from writings. Wherefore he who has judgment and
understanding in painting perceives there the most terrible force of
art, and sees in those figures such thoughts and passions as were
never painted by any other but Michelagnolo. So, also, he may see
there how the variety of innumerable attitudes is accomplished, in the
strange and diverse gestures of young and old, male and female; and
who is there who does not recognize in these the terrible power of his
art, together with the grace that he had from Nature, since they move
the hearts not only of those who have knowledge in that profession,
but even of those who have none? There are foreshortenings that appear
as if in relief, a harmony of painting that gives great softness, and
fineness in the parts painted by him with delicacy, all showing in
truth how pictures executed by good and true painters should be; and
in the outlines of the forms turned by him in such a way as could not
have been achieved by any other but Michelagnolo, may be seen the true
Judgment and the true Damnation and Resurrection. This is for our art
the exemplar and the grand manner of painting sent down to men on
earth by God, to the end that they may see how Destiny works when
intellects descend from the heights of Heaven to earth, and have
infused in them divine grace and knowledge. This work leads after it
bound in chains those who persuade themselves that they have mastered
art; and at the sight of the strokes drawn by him in the outlines of
no matter what figure, every sublime spirit, however mighty in design,
trembles and is afraid. And while the eyes gaze at his labours in this
work, the senses are numbed at the mere thought of what manner of
things all other pictures, those painted and those still unpainted,
would appear if placed in comparison with such perfection. Truly
blessed may he be called, and blessed his memories, who has seen this
truly stupendous marvel of our age! Most happy and most fortunate Paul
III, in that God granted that under thy protection should be acquired
the renown that the pens of writers shall give to his memory and
thine! How highly are thy merits enhanced by his genius! And what good
fortune have the craftsmen had in this age from his birth, in that
they have seen the veil of every difficulty torn away, and have beheld
in the pictures, sculptures, and architectural works executed by him
all that can be imagined and achieved!
[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN
(_After the fresco by =Michelagnolo=. Rome: The Vatican, Sistine
Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
He toiled eight years over executing this work, and threw it open to
view in the year 1541, I believe, on Christmas day, to the marvel
and amazement of all Rome, nay, of the whole world; and I, who was
that year in Venice, and went to Rome to see it, was struck dumb by
its beauty.