to be erected on the same floor by Antonio da San Gallo, in imitation
of that of Nicholas V; and in this he resolved that Michelagnolo
should paint two great pictures with two large scenes. In one he
painted the Conversion of S. Paul, with Jesus Christ in the air and a
multitude of nude Angels making most beautiful movements, and below,
all dazed and terrified, Paul fallen from his horse to the level of
the ground, with his soldiers about him, some striving to raise him
up, and others, struck with awe by the voice and splendour of Christ,
are flying in beautiful attitudes and marvellous movements of panic,
while the horse, taking to flight, appears to be carrying away in its
headlong course him who seeks to hold it back; and this whole scene is
executed with extraordinary design and art. In the other picture is
the Crucifixion of S. Peter, who is fixed, a nude figure of rare
beauty, upon the cross; showing the ministers of the crucifixion,
after they have made a hole in the ground, seeking to raise the cross
on high, to the end that he may remain crucified with his feet in the
air; and there are many remarkable and beautiful considerations.
Michelagnolo, as has been said elsewhere, gave his attention only to
the perfection of art, and therefore there are no landscapes to be
seen there, nor trees, nor buildings, nor any other distracting graces
of art, for to these he never applied himself, as one, perchance, who
would not abase his great genius to such things. These, executed by
him at the age of seventy-five, were his last pictures, and, as he
used himself to tell me, they cost him much fatigue, for the reason
that painting, and particularly working in fresco, is no art for men
who have passed a certain age. Michelagnolo arranged that Perino del
Vaga, a very excellent painter, should decorate the vaulting with
stucco and with many things in painting, after his designs, and such,
also, was the wish of Pope Paul III; but the work was afterwards
delayed, and nothing more was done, even as many undertakings are left
unfinished, partly by the fault of want of resolution in the
craftsmen, and partly by that of Princes little zealous in urging
them on.
Pope Paul had made a beginning with the fortifying of the Borgo, and
had summoned many gentlemen, together with Antonio da San Gallo, to a
conference; but he wished that Michelagnolo also should have a part in
this, knowing that the fortifications about the hill of S. Miniato in
Florence had been constructed under his direction. After much
discussion, Michelagnolo was asked what he thought; and he, having
opinions contrary to San Gallo and many others, declared them freely.
Whereupon San Gallo said to him that his arts were sculpture and
painting, and not fortification. Michelagnolo replied that of
sculpture and painting he knew little, but of fortification, what with
the thought that he had devoted to it for a long time, and his
experience in what he had done, it appeared to him that he knew more
than either Antonio or any of his family; showing him in the presence
of the company that he had made many errors in that art. Words rising
high on either side, the Pope had to command silence; but no long time
passed before Michelagnolo brought a design for all the fortifications
of the Borgo, which laid open the way for all that has since been
ordained and executed; and this was the reason that the great gate of
S. Spirito, which was approaching completion under the direction of
San Gallo, was left unfinished.
[Illustration: PIETÀ
(_After =Michelagnolo=. Florence: Duomo_)
_Alinari_]
The spirit and genius of Michelagnolo could not rest without doing
something; and, since he was not able to paint, he set to work on a
piece of marble, intending to carve from it four figures in the round
and larger than life, including a Dead Christ, for his own delight and
to pass the time, and because, as he used to say, the exercise of the
hammer kept him healthy in body. This Christ, taken down from the
Cross, is supported by Our Lady, by Nicodemus, who bends down and
assists her, planted firmly on his feet in a forceful attitude, and by
one of the Maries, who also gives her aid, perceiving that the Mother,
overcome by grief, is failing in strength and not able to uphold Him.
Nor is there anywhere to be seen a dead form equal to that of Christ,
who, sinking with the limbs hanging limp, lies in an attitude wholly
different, not only from that of any other work by Michelagnolo, but
from that of any other figure that was ever made. A laborious work is
this, a rare achievement in a single stone, and truly divine; but,
as will be related hereafter, it remained unfinished, and suffered
many misfortunes, although Michelagnolo had intended that it should
serve to adorn his own tomb, at the foot of that altar where he
thought to place it.
It happened in the year 1546 that Antonio da San Gallo died;
whereupon, there being now no one to direct the building of S. Pietro,
many suggestions were made by the superintendents to the Pope as to
who should have it. Finally his Holiness, inspired, I believe, by God,
resolved to send for Michelagnolo. But he, when asked to take
Antonio's place, refused it, saying, in order to avoid such a burden,
that architecture was not his proper art; and in the end, entreaties
not availing, the Pope commanded that he should accept it, whereupon,
to his great displeasure and against his wish, he was forced to
undertake that enterprise. And one day among others that he went to S.
Pietro to see the wooden model that San Gallo had made, and to examine
the building, he found there the whole San Gallo faction, who,
crowding before Michelagnolo, said to him in the best terms at their
command that they rejoiced that the charge of the building was to be
his, and that the model was a field where there would never be any
want of pasture. "You speak the truth," answered Michelagnolo, meaning
to infer, as he declared to a friend, that it was good for sheep and
oxen, who knew nothing of art. And afterwards he used to say publicly
that San Gallo had made it wanting in lights, that it had on the
exterior too many ranges of columns one above another, and that, with
its innumerable projections, pinnacles, and subdivisions of members,
it was more akin to the German manner than to the good method of the
ancients or to the gladsome and beautiful modern manner; and, in
addition to this, that it was possible to save fifty years of time and
more than three hundred thousand crowns of money in finishing the
building, and to execute it with more majesty, grandeur, and facility,
greater beauty and convenience, and better ordered design. This he
afterwards proved by a model that he made, in order to bring it to the
form in which the work is now seen constructed; and thus he
demonstrated that what he said was nothing but the truth. This model
cost him twenty-five crowns, and was made in a fortnight; that of San
Gallo, as has been related, cost four thousand, and took many years to
finish. From this and other circumstances it became evident that that
fabric was but a shop and a business for making money, and that it
would be continually delayed, with the intention of never finishing
it, by those who had undertaken it as a means of profit.
[Illustration: STAIRS OF THE PALACE OF THE SENATORS
(_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome: The Capitol_)
_Anderson_]
Such methods did not please our upright Michelagnolo, and in order to
get rid of all these people, while the Pope was forcing him to accept
the office of architect to the work, he said to them openly one day
that they should use all the assistance of their friends and do all
that they could to prevent him from entering on that office, because,
if he were to undertake such a charge, he would not have one of them
about the building. Which words, spoken in public, were taken very
ill, as may be believed, and were the reason that they conceived a
great hatred against him, which increased every day as they saw the
whole design being changed, both within and without, so that they
would scarcely let him live, seeking out daily new and various devices
to harass him, as will be related in the proper place. Finally the
Pope issued a Motu-proprio creating him head of that fabric, with full
authority, and giving him power to do or undo whatever he chose, and
to add, take away, or vary anything at his pleasure; and he decreed
that all the officials employed in the work should be subservient to
his will. Whereupon Michelagnolo, seeing the great confidence and
trust that the Pope placed in him, desired, in order to prove his
generosity, that it should be declared in the Motu-proprio that he was
serving in the fabric for the love of God and without any reward. It
is true that the Pope had formerly granted to him the ferry over the
river at Parma,[2] which yielded him about six hundred crowns; but he
lost it at the death of Duke Pier Luigi Farnese, and in exchange for
it he was given a Chancellery at Rimini, a post of less value. About
that he showed no concern; and, although the Pope sent him money
several times by way of salary, he would never accept it, to which
witness is borne by Messer Alessandro Ruffini, Chamberlain to the Pope
at that time, and by M. Pier Giovanni Aliotti, Bishop of Forlì.
Finally the model that had been made by Michelagnolo was approved by
the Pope; which model diminished S. Pietro in size, but gave it
greater grandeur, to the satisfaction of all those who have judgment,
although some who profess to be good judges, which in fact they are
not, do not approve of it. He found that the four principal piers
built by Bramante, and left by Antonio da San Gallo, which had to
support the weight of the tribune, were weak; and these he partly
filled up, and beside them he made two winding or spiral staircases,
in which is an ascent so easy that the beasts of burden can climb
them, carrying all the materials to the very top, and men on
horseback, likewise, can go up to the uppermost level of the arches.
The first cornice above the arches he constructed of travertine,
curving in a round, which is an admirable and graceful thing, and very
different from any other; nor could anything better of that kind be
done. He also made a beginning with the two great recesses of the
transepts; and whereas formerly, under the direction of Bramante,
Baldassarre, and Raffaello, as has been related, eight tabernacles
were being made on the side towards the Camposanto, and that plan was
afterwards followed by San Gallo, Michelagnolo reduced these to three,
with three chapels in the interior, and above them a vaulting of
travertine, and a range of windows giving a brilliant light, which are
varied in form and of a sublime grandeur. But, since these things are
in existence, and are also to be seen in engraving, not only those of
Michelagnolo, but those of San Gallo as well, I will not set myself to
describe them, for it is in no way necessary. Let it suffice to say
that he set himself, with all possible diligence, to cause the work to
be carried on in those parts where the fabric was to be changed in
design, to the end that it might remain so solid and stable that it
might never be changed by another; which was the wise provision of a
shrewd and prudent intellect, because it is not enough to do good
work, if further precautions be not taken, seeing that the boldness
and presumption of those who might be supposed to have knowledge if
credit were placed rather in their words than in their deeds, and at
times the favour of such as know nothing, may give rise to many
misfortunes.
[Footnote 2: Piacenza.]
The Roman people, with the sanction of that Pope, had a desire to give
some useful, commodious, and beautiful form to the Campidoglio, and
to furnish it with colonnades, ascents, and inclined approaches with
and without steps, and also with the further adornment of the ancient
statues that were already there, in order to embellish that place. For
this purpose they sought the advice of Michelagnolo, who made them a
most beautiful and very rich design, in which, on the side where the
Senatore stands, towards the east, he arranged a façade of travertine,
and a flight of steps that ascends from two sides to meet on a level
space, from which one enters into the centre of the hall of that
Palace, with rich curving wings adorned with balusters that serve as
supports and parapets. And there, to enrich that part, he caused to be
placed on certain bases the two ancient figures in marble of recumbent
River Gods, each of nine braccia, and of rare workmanship, one of
which is the Tiber and the other the Nile; and between them, in a
niche, is to go a Jove. On the southern side, where there is the
Palace of the Conservatori, in order that it might be made
rectangular, there followed a rich and well varied façade, with a
loggia at the foot full of columns and niches, where many ancient
statues are to go; and all around are various ornaments, doors,
windows, and the like, of which some are already in place. On the
other side from this, towards the north, below the Araceli, there is
to follow another similar façade; and before it, towards the west, is
to be an ascent of baston-like steps, which will be almost level, with
a border and parapet of balusters; here will be the principal
entrance, with a colonnade, and bases on which will be placed all that
wealth of noble statues in which the Campidoglio is now so rich. In
the middle of the Piazza, on a base in the form of an oval, is placed
the famous bronze horse on which is the statue of Marcus Aurelius,
which the same Pope Paul caused to be removed from the Piazza di
Laterano, where Sixtus IV had placed it. This edifice is now being
made so beautiful that it is worthy to be numbered among the finest
works that Michelagnolo has executed, and it is being carried to
completion at the present day under the direction of M. Tommaso de'
Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman who was, and still is, one of the
greatest friends that Michelagnolo ever had, as will be related
hereafter.
[Illustration: COURT OF THE PALAZZO FARNESE
(_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome_)
_Anderson_]
Pope Paul III had caused San Gallo, while he was alive, to carry
forward the Palace of the Farnese family, but the great upper
cornice, to finish the roof on the outer side, had still to be
constructed, and his Holiness desired that Michelagnolo should execute
it from his own designs and directions. Michelagnolo, not being able
to refuse the Pope, who so esteemed and favoured him, caused a model
of wood to be made, six braccia in length, and of the size that it was
to be; and this he placed on one of the corners of the Palace, so that
it might show what effect the finished work would have. It pleased his
Holiness and all Rome, and that part of it has since been carried to
completion which is now to be seen, proving to be the most varied and
the most beautiful of all that have ever been known, whether ancient
or modern. On this account, after San Gallo was dead, the Pope desired
that Michelagnolo should have charge of the whole fabric as well; and
there he made the great marble window with the beautiful columns of
variegated marble, which is over the principal door of the Palace,
with a large escutcheon of great beauty and variety, in marble, of
Pope Paul III, the founder of that Palace. Within the Palace he
continued, above the first range of the court, the two other ranges,
with the most varied, graceful, and beautiful windows, ornaments and
upper cornice that have ever been seen, so that, through the labours
and the genius of that man that court has now become the most handsome
in Europe. He widened and enlarged the Great Hall, and set in order
the front vestibule, and caused the vaulting of that vestibule to be
constructed in a new variety of curve, in the form of a half oval.
Now in that year there was found at the Baths of Antoninus a mass of
marble seven braccia in every direction, in which there had been
carved by the ancients a Hercules standing upon a mound, who was
holding the Bull by the horns, with another figure assisting him, and
around that mound various figures of Shepherds, Nymphs, and different
animals--a work of truly extraordinary beauty, showing figures so
perfect in one single block without any added pieces, which was judged
to have been intended for a fountain. Michelagnolo advised that it
should be conveyed into the second court, and there restored so as to
make it spout water in the original manner; all which advice was
approved, and the work is still being restored at the present day
with great diligence, by order of the Farnese family, for that
purpose. At that time, also, Michelagnolo made a design for the
building of a bridge across the River Tiber in a straight line with
the Farnese Palace, to the end that it might be possible to go from
that palace to another palace and gardens that they possessed in the
Trastevere, and also to see at one glance in a straight line from the
principal door which faces the Campo di Fiore, the court, the
fountain, the Strada Giulia, the bridge, and the beauties of the other
garden, even to the other door which opened on the Strada di
Trastevere--a rare work, worthy of that Pontiff and of the judgment,
design, and art of Michelagnolo.
In the year 1547 died Sebastiano Viniziano, the Friar of the Piombo;
and, Pope Paul proposing that the ancient statues of his Palace should
be restored, Michelagnolo willingly favoured the Milanese sculptor
Guglielmo della Porta, a young man of promise, who had been
recommended by the above-named Fra Sebastiano to Michelagnolo, who,
liking his work, presented him to Pope Paul for the restoration of
those statues. And the matter went so far forward that Michelagnolo
obtained for him the office of the Piombo, and he then set to work on
restoring the statues, some of which are to be seen in that Palace at
the present day. But Guglielmo, forgetting the benefits that he had
received from Michelagnolo, afterwards became one of his opponents.
In the year 1549 there took place the death of Pope Paul III;
whereupon, after the election of Pope Julius III, Cardinal Farnese
gave orders for a grand tomb to be made for his kinsman Pope Paul by
the hand of Fra Guglielmo, who arranged to erect it in S. Pietro,
below the first arch of the new church, beneath the tribune, which
obstructed the floor of the church, and was, in truth, not the proper
place. Michelagnolo advised, most judiciously, that it could not and
should not stand there, and the Frate, believing that he was doing
this out of envy, became filled with hatred against him; but
afterwards he recognized that Michelagnolo had spoken the truth, and
that the fault was his, in that he had had the opportunity and had not
finished the work, as will be related in another place. And to this I
can bear witness, for the reason that in the year 1550 I had gone by
order of Pope Julius III to Rome to serve him (and very willingly, for
love of Michelagnolo), and I took part in that discussion.
Michelagnolo desired that the tomb should be erected in one of the
niches, where there is now the Column of the Possessed, which was the
proper place, and I had so gone to work that Julius III was resolving
to have his own tomb made in the other niche with the same design as
that of Pope Paul, in order to balance that work; but the Frate, who
set himself against this, brought it about that his own was never
finished after all, and that the tomb of the other Pontiff was also
not made; which had all been predicted by Michelagnolo.
In the same year Pope Julius turned his attention to having a chapel
of marble with two tombs constructed in the Church of S. Pietro a
Montorio for Cardinal Antonio di Monte, his uncle, and Messer Fabiano,
his grandfather, the first founder of the greatness of that
illustrious house. For this work Vasari having made designs and
models, Pope Julius, who always esteemed the genius of Michelagnolo
and loved Vasari, desired that Michelagnolo should fix the price
between them; and Vasari besought the Pope that he should prevail upon
him to take it under his protection. Now Vasari had proposed Simone
Mosca for the carvings of this work, and Raffaello da Montelupo for
the statues; but Michelagnolo advised that no carvings of foliage
should be made in it, not even in the architectural parts of the work,
saying that where there are to be figures of marble there must not be
any other thing. On which account Vasari feared that the work should
be abandoned, because it would look poor; but in fact, when he saw it
finished, he confessed that Michelagnolo had shown great judgment.
Michelagnolo would not have Montelupo make the statues, remembering
how badly he had acquitted himself in those of his own tomb of Julius
II, and he was content, rather, that they should be entrusted to
Bartolommeo Ammanati, whom Vasari had proposed, although Buonarroti
had something of a private grievance against him, as also against
Nanni di Baccio Bigio, caused by a reason which, if one considers it
well, seems slight enough; for when they were very young, moved rather
by love of art than by a desire to do wrong, they had entered with
great pains into his house, and had taken from Antonio Mini, the
disciple of Michelagnolo, many sheets with drawings; but these were
afterwards all restored to him by order of the Tribunal of Eight, and,
at the intercession of his friend Messer Giovanni Norchiati, Canon of
S. Lorenzo, he would not have any other punishment inflicted on them.
Vasari, when Michelagnolo spoke to him of this matter, said to him,
laughing, that it did not seem to him that they deserved any blame,
and that he himself, if he had ever been able, would have not taken a
few drawings only, but robbed him of everything by his hand that he
might have been able to seize, merely for the sake of learning art.
One must look kindly, he said, on those who seek after excellence, and
also reward them, and therefore such men must not be treated like
those who go about stealing money, household property, and other
things of value; and so the matter was turned into a jest. This was
the reason that a beginning was made with the work of the Montorio,
and that in the same year Vasari and Ammanati went to have the marble
conveyed from Carrara to Rome for the execution of that work.
At that time Vasari was with Michelagnolo every day; and one morning
the Pope in his kindness gave them both leave that they might visit
the Seven Churches on horseback (for it was Holy Year), and receive
the Pardon in company. Whereupon, while going from one church to
another, they had many useful and beautiful conversations on art and
every industry, and out of these Vasari composed a dialogue, which
will be published at some more favourable opportunity, together with
other things concerning art. In that year Pope Julius III confirmed
the Motu-proprio of Pope Paul III with regard to the building of S.
Pietro; and although much evil was spoken to him of Michelagnolo by
the friends of the San Gallo faction, in the matter of that fabric of
S. Pietro, at that time the Pope would not listen to a word, for
Vasari had demonstrated to him (as was the truth) that Michelagnolo
had given life to the building, and also persuaded his Holiness that
he should do nothing concerned with design without the advice of
Michelagnolo. This promise the Pope kept ever afterwards, for neither
at the Vigna Julia did he do anything without his counsel, nor at the
Belvedere, where there was built the staircase that is there now, in
place of the semicircular staircase that came forward, ascending in
eight steps, and turned inwards in eight more steps, erected in former
times by Bramante in the great recess in the centre of the Belvedere.
And Michelagnolo designed and caused to be built the very beautiful
quadrangular staircase, with balusters of peperino-stone, which is
there at the present day.
Vasari had finished in that year the printing of his work, the Lives
of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, in Florence. Now he had
not written the Life of any living master, although some who were old
were still alive, save only of Michelagnolo; and in the book were many
records of circumstances that Vasari had received from his lips, his
age and his judgment being the greatest among all the craftsmen.
Giorgio therefore presented the work to him, and he received it very
gladly; and not long afterwards, having read it, Michelagnolo sent to
him the following sonnet, written by himself, which I am pleased to
include in this place in memory of his loving-kindness:
Se con lo stile o co' colori havete
Alla Natura pareggiato l'Arte,
Anzi a quella scemato il pregio in parte,
Che 'l bel di lei più bello a noi rendete,
Poichè con dotta man posto vi siete
A più degno lavoro, a vergar carte,
Quel che vi manca a lei di pregio in parte,
Nel dar vita ad altrui tutto togliete.
Che se secolo alcuno omai contese
In far bell'opre, almen cedale, poi
Che convien', ch'al prescritto fine arrive.
Or le memorie altrui già spente accese
Tornando fate, or che sien quelle, e voi,
Mal grado d'esse, eternalmente vive.