having the work founded in the Montorio. Now Messer Bindo Altoviti,
the Consul of the Florentine colony at that time, was much the friend
of Vasari, and on this occasion Giorgio said to him that it would be
well to have this work erected in the Church of S. Giovanni de'
Fiorentini, and that he had already spoken of it with Michelagnolo,
who would favour the enterprise; and that this would be a means of
giving completion to that church. This proposal pleased Messer Bindo,
and, being very intimate with the Pope, he urged it warmly upon him,
demonstrating that it would be well that the chapel and the tombs
which his Holiness was having executed for the Montorio should be
placed in the Church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini; adding that the
result would be that with this occasion and this spur the Florentine
colony would undertake such expenditure that the church would receive
its completion, and, if his Holiness were to build the principal
chapel, the other merchants would build six chapels, and then little
by little all the rest. Whereupon the Pope changed his mind, and,
although the model for the work was already made and the price
arranged, went to the Montorio and sent for Michelagnolo, to whom
Vasari was writing every day, receiving answers from him according to
the opportunities presented in the course of affairs. Michelagnolo
then wrote to Vasari, on the first day of August in 1550, of the
change that the Pope had made; and these are his words, written in his
own hand:
ROME.
"MY DEAR MESSER GIORGIO,
"With regard to the founding of the work at S. Pietro a Montorio, and
how the Pope would not listen to a word, I wrote you nothing, knowing
that you are kept informed by your man here. Now I must tell you what
has happened, which is as follows. Yesterday morning the Pope, having
gone to the said Montorio, sent for me. I met him on the bridge, on
his way back, and had a long conversation with him about the tombs
allotted to you; and in the end he told me that he was resolved that
he would not place those tombs on that mount, but in the Church of the
Florentines. He sought from me my opinion and also designs, and I
encouraged him not a little, considering that by this means the said
church would be finished. Respecting your three letters received, I
have no pen wherewith to answer to such exalted matters, but if I
should rejoice to be in some sort what you make me, I should rejoice
for no other reason save that you might have a servant who might be
worth something. But I do not marvel that you, who restore dead men to
life, should lengthen the life of the living, or rather, that you
should steal from death for an unlimited period those barely alive. To
cut this short, such as I am, I am wholly yours,
"MICHELAGNOLO BUONARROTI."
While these matters were being discussed, and the Florentine colony
was seeking to raise money, certain difficulties arose, on account of
which they came to no decision, and the affair grew cold. Meanwhile,
Vasari and Ammanati having by this time had all the marbles quarried
at Carrara, a great part of them were sent to Rome, and with them
Ammanati, through whom Vasari wrote to Buonarroti that he should
ascertain from the Pope where he wanted the tomb, and, after receiving
his orders, should have the work begun. The moment that Michelagnolo
received the letter, he spoke to his Holiness; and with his own hand
he wrote the following resolution to Vasari:
"_13th of October_, 1550.
"MY DEAR MESSER GIORGIO,
"The instant that Bartolommeo arrived here, I went to speak to the
Pope, and, having perceived that he wished to begin the work once more
at the Montorio, in the matter of the tombs, I looked for a mason from
S. Pietro. 'Tantecose'[3] heard this and insisted on sending one of
his choosing, and I, to avoid contending with a man who commands the
winds, have retired from the matter, because, he being a light-minded
person, I would not care to be drawn into any entanglement. Enough
that in my opinion there is no more thought to be given to the Church
of the Florentines. Fare you well, and come back soon. Nothing else
occurs to me."
[Footnote 3: Busybody, or Jack-of-all-Trades.]
Michelagnolo used to call Monsignor di Forlì "Tantecose," because he
insisted on doing everything himself. Being Chamberlain to the Pope,
he had charge of the medals, jewels, cameos, little figures in bronze,
pictures, and drawings, and desired that everything should depend on
him. Michelagnolo was always anxious to avoid the man, because he had
been constantly working against the master's interests, and therefore
Buonarroti feared lest he might be drawn into some entanglement by the
intrigues of such a man. In short, the Florentine colony lost a very
fine opportunity for that church, and God knows when they will have
such another; and to me it was an indescribable grief. I have desired
not to omit to make this brief record, to the end that it may be seen
that our Michelagnolo always sought to help his fellow-countrymen and
his friends, and also art.
Vasari had scarcely returned to Rome, when, before the beginning of
the year 1551, the San Gallo faction arranged a conspiracy against
Michelagnolo, whereby the Pope was to hold an assembly in S. Pietro,
and to summon together the superintendents and all those who had the
charge of the work, in order to show to the Pope, by means of false
calumnies, that Michelagnolo had ruined that fabric, because, he
having already built the apse of the King, where there are the three
chapels, and having executed these with the three windows above, they,
not knowing what was to be done with the vaulting, with feeble
judgment had given the elder Cardinal Salviati and Marcello Cervini,
who afterwards became Pope, to understand that S. Pietro was being
left with little light. Whereupon, all being assembled, the Pope said
to Michelagnolo that the deputies declared that the apse would give
little light, and he answered: "I would like to hear these deputies
speak in person." Cardinal Marcello replied: "We are here." Then
Michelagnolo said to him: "Monsignore, above these windows, in the
vaulting, which is to be made of travertine, there are to be three
others." "You have never told us that," said the Cardinal. And
Michelagnolo answered: "I am not obliged, nor do I intend to be
obliged, to say either to your Highness or to any other person what I
am bound or desirous to do. Your office is to obtain the money and to
guard it from thieves, and the charge of the design for the building
you must leave to me." And then, turning to the Pope, he said: "Holy
Father, you see what my gains are, and that if these fatigues that I
endure do not profit me in my mind, I am wasting my time and my work."
The Pope, who loved him, laid his hands on his shoulders, and said:
"You shall profit both in mind and in body; do not doubt it."
Michelagnolo having thus been able to get rid of those persons, the
Pope came to love him even more; and he commanded him and Vasari that
on the day following they should both present themselves at the Vigna
Julia, in which place his Holiness had many discussions with him, and
they carried that work almost to the condition of perfect beauty in
which it now is; nor did the Pope discuss or do anything in the matter
of design without Michelagnolo's advice and judgment. And, among other
things, since Michelagnolo went often with Vasari to visit him, the
Pope insisted, once when he was at the fountain of the Acqua Vergine
with twelve Cardinals, after Buonarroti had come up; the Pope, I say,
insisted very strongly that he should sit beside him, although he
sought most humbly to excuse himself; thus always honouring his genius
as much as lay in his power.
The Pope caused him to make the model of a façade for a palace that
his Holiness desired to build beside S. Rocco, intending to avail
himself of the Mausoleum of Augustus for the rest of the masonry; and,
as a design for a façade, there is nothing to be seen that is more
varied, more ornate, or more novel in manner and arrangement, for the
reason that, as has been seen in all his works, he never consented to
be bound by any law, whether ancient or modern, in matters of
architecture, as one who had a brain always able to discover things
new and well-varied, and in no way less beautiful. That model is now
in the possession of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who had it as a present
from Pope Pius IV when he went to Rome; and he holds it among his
dearest treasures. That Pope had such respect for Michelagnolo, that
he was constantly taking up his defence against Cardinals and others
who sought to calumniate him, and he desired that other craftsmen,
however able and renowned they might be, should always go to seek him
at his house; such, indeed, were the regard and reverence that he felt
for him, that his Holiness did not venture, lest he might annoy him,
to call upon Michelagnolo for many works which, although he was old,
he could have executed.
As far back as the time of Paul III Michelagnolo had made a beginning
with the work of refounding, under his own direction, the Ponte S.
Maria at Rome, which had been weakened by the constant flow of water
and by age, and was falling into ruin. The refounding was contrived by
Michelagnolo by means of caissons, and by making stout reinforcements
against the piers; and already he had carried a great part of it to
completion, and had spent large sums on wood and travertine on behalf
of the work, when, in the time of Julius III, an assembly was held by
the Clerks of the Chamber with a view to making an end of it, and a
proposal was made among them by the architect Nanni di Baccio Bigio,
saying that if it were allotted by contract to him it would be
finished in a short time and without much expense; and this they
suggested on the pretext, as it were, of doing a favour to
Michelagnolo and relieving him of a burden, because he was old,
alleging that he gave no thought to it, and that if matters remained
as they were the end would never be seen. The Pope, who little liked
being troubled, not thinking what the result might be, gave authority
to the Clerks of the Chamber that they should have charge of the work,
as a thing pertaining to them; and then, without Michelagnolo hearing
another word about it, they gave it with all those materials, without
any conditions, to Nanni, who gave no attention to the reinforcements,
which were necessary for the refounding, but relieved the bridge of
some weight, in consequence of having seen a great quantity of
travertine wherewith it had been flanked and faced in ancient times,
the result of which was to give weight to the bridge and to make it
stouter, stronger, and more secure. In place of that he used gravel
and other materials cast with cement, in such a manner that no defect
could be seen in the inner part of the work, and on the outer side he
made parapets and other things, insomuch that to the eye it appeared
as if made altogether new; but it was made lighter all over and
weakened throughout. Five years afterwards, when the flood of the year
1557 came down, it happened that the bridge collapsed in such a manner
as to make known the little judgment of the Clerks of the Chamber and
the loss that Rome suffered by departing from the counsel of
Michelagnolo, who predicted the ruin of the bridge many times to me
and to his other friends. Thus I remember that he said to me, when we
were passing there together on horseback, "Giorgio, this bridge is
shaking under us; let us spur our horses, or it may fall while we are
upon it."
But to return to the narrative interrupted above; when the work of the
Montorio was finished, and that much to my satisfaction, I returned to
Florence to re-enter the service of Duke Cosimo, which was in the year
1554. The departure of Vasari grieved Michelagnolo, and likewise
Giorgio, for the reason that Michelagnolo's adversaries kept harassing
him every day, now in one way and now in another; wherefore they did
not fail to write to one another daily. And in April of the same year,
Vasari giving him the news that Leonardo, the nephew of Michelagnolo,
had had a male child, that they had accompanied him to baptism with an
honourable company of most noble ladies, and that they had revived the
name of Buonarroto, Michelagnolo answered in a letter to Vasari in
these words:
"DEAR FRIEND GIORGIO,
"I have had the greatest pleasure from your letter, seeing that you
still remember the poor old man, and even more because you were
present at the triumph which, as you write, you witnessed in the birth
of another Buonarroto; for which intelligence I thank you with all my
heart and soul. But so much pomp does not please me, for man should
not be laughing when all the world is weeping. It seems to me that
Leonardo should not make so much rejoicing over a new birth, with all
that gladness which should be reserved for the death of one who has
lived well. Do not marvel if I delay to answer; I do it so as not to
appear a merchant. As for the many praises that you send me in your
letter, I tell you that if I deserved a single one of them, it would
appear to me that in giving myself to you body and soul, I had truly
given you something, and had discharged some infinitesimal part of the
debt that I owe you; whereas I recognize you every hour as my creditor
for more than I can repay, and, since I am an old man, I can now never
hope to be able to square the account in this life, but perhaps in the
next. Wherefore I pray you have patience, and remain wholly yours.
Things here are much as usual."
Already, in the time of Paul III, Duke Cosimo had sent Tribolo to
Rome to see if he might be able to persuade Michelagnolo to return to
Florence, in order to give completion to the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo.
But Michelagnolo excused himself because, having grown old, he could
not support the burden of such fatigues, and demonstrated to him with
many reasons that he could not leave Rome. Whereupon Tribolo finally
asked him about the staircase of the library of S. Lorenzo, for which
Michelagnolo had caused many stones to be prepared, but there was no
model of it nor any certainty as to the exact form, and, although
there were some marks on a pavement and some other sketches in clay,
the true and final design could not be found. However, no matter how
much Tribolo might beseech him and invoke the name of the Duke,
Michelagnolo would never answer a word save that he remembered nothing
of it. Orders were given to Vasari by Duke Cosimo that he should write
to Michelagnolo, requesting him to write saying what final form that
staircase was to have; in the hope that through the friendship and
love that he bore to Vasari, he would say something that might lead to
some solution and to the completion of the work. Vasari wrote to
Michelagnolo the mind of the Duke, saying that the execution of all
that was to be done would fall to him; which he would do with that
fidelity and care with which, as Michelagnolo knew, he was wont to
treat such of his works as he had in charge. Wherefore Michelagnolo
sent the directions for making the above-named staircase in a letter
by his own hand on the 28th of September, 1555.
[Illustration: BIBLIOTECA LAURENZIANA
(_After =Michelagnolo=. Florence_)
_Alinari_]
"MESSER GIORGIO, DEAR FRIEND,
"Concerning the staircase for the library, of which so much has been
said to me, you may believe that if I could remember how I had
designed it, I would not need to be entreated. There does, indeed,
come back to my mind, like a dream, a certain staircase; but I do not
believe that it is exactly the one which I conceived at that time,
because it comes out so stupid. However, I will describe it here. Take
a quantity of oval boxes, each one palm in depth, but not of equal
length and breadth. The first and largest place on the pavement at
such a distance from the wall of the door as may make the staircase
easy or steep, according to your pleasure. Upon this place another,
which must be so much smaller in every direction as to leave on the
first one below as much space as the foot requires in ascending;
diminishing and drawing back the steps one after another towards the
door, in accord with the ascent. And the diminution of the last step
must reduce it to the proportion of the space of the door. The said
part of the staircase with the oval steps must have two wings, one on
one side and one on the other, with corresponding steps but not oval.
Of these the central flight shall serve as the principal staircase,
and from the centre of the staircase to the top the curves of the said
wings shall meet the wall; but from the centre down to the pavement
they shall stand, together with the whole staircase, at a distance of
about three palms from the wall, in such a manner that the basement of
the vestibule shall not be obstructed in any part, and every face
shall be left free. I am writing nonsense; but I know well that you
will find something to your purpose."
Michelagnolo also wrote to Vasari in those days that Julius III being
dead, and Marcellus elected, the faction that was against him, in
consequence of the election of the new Pontiff, had again begun to
harass him. Which hearing, and not liking these ways, the Duke caused
Giorgio to write and tell him that he should leave Rome and come to
live in Florence, where the Duke did not desire more than his advice
and designs at times for his buildings, and that he would receive from
that lord all that he might desire, without doing anything with his
own hand. Again, there were carried to him by M. Leonardo Marinozzi,
the private Chamberlain of Duke Cosimo, letters written by his
Excellency; and so also by Vasari. But then, Marcellus being dead, and
Paul IV having been elected, by whom once again numerous offers had
been made to him from the very beginning, when he went to kiss his
feet, the desire to finish the fabric of S. Pietro, and the obligation
by which he thought himself bound to that task, kept him back; and,
employing certain excuses, he wrote to the Duke that for the time
being he was not able to serve him, and to Vasari a letter in these
very words:
"MESSER GIORGIO, MY DEAR FRIEND,
"I call God to witness how it was against my will and under the
strongest compulsion that I was set to the building of S. Pietro in
Rome by Pope Paul III, ten years ago. Had they continued to work at
that fabric up to the present day, as they were doing then, I would
now have reached such a point in the undertaking that I might be
thinking of returning home; but for want of money it has been much
retarded, and is still being retarded at the time when it has reached
the most laborious and difficult stage, insomuch that to abandon it
now would be nothing short of the greatest possible disgrace and sin,
losing the reward of the labours that I have endured in those ten
years for the love of God. I have made you this discourse in answer to
your letter, and also because I have a letter from the Duke that has
made me marvel much that his Excellency should have deigned to write
so graciously; for which I thank God and his Excellency to the best of
my power and knowledge. I wander from the subject, because I have lost
my memory and my wits, and writing is a great affliction to me, for it
is not my art. The conclusion is this: to make you understand what
would be the result if I were to abandon the fabric and depart from
Rome; firstly, I would please a number of thieves, and secondly, I
would be the cause of its ruin, and perhaps, also, of its being
suspended for ever."
Continuing to write to Giorgio, Michelagnolo said to him, to excuse
himself with the Duke, that he had a house and many convenient things
at his disposal in Rome, which were worth thousands of crowns, in
addition to being in danger of his life from disease of the kidneys,
colic, and the stone, as happens to every old person, and as could be
proved by Maestro Realdo, his physician, from whom he congratulated
himself on having his life, after God; that for these reasons he was
not able to leave Rome, and, finally, that he had no heart for
anything but death. He besought Vasari, as he did in several other
letters that Giorgio has by his hand, that he should recommend him to
the Duke for pardon, in addition to what he wrote to the Duke, as I
have said, to excuse himself. If Michelagnolo had been able to ride,
he would have gone straightway to Florence, whence, I believe, he
would never have consented to depart in order to return to Rome, so
much was he influenced by the tenderness and love that he felt for the
Duke; but meanwhile he gave his attention to working at many parts of
the above-named fabric, in order so to fix the form that it might
never again be changed. During this time certain persons had informed
him that Pope Paul IV was minded to make him alter the façade of the
chapel where the Last Judgment is, because, he said, those figures
showed their nakedness too shamelessly. When, therefore, the mind of
the Pope was made known to Michelagnolo, he answered: "Tell the Pope
that it is no great affair, and that it can be altered with ease. Let
him put the world right, and every picture will be put right in a
moment." The office of the Chancellery of Rimini was taken away from
Michelagnolo, but he would never speak of this to the Pope, who did
not know it; and it was taken away from him by the Pope's Cup-bearer,
who sought to have a hundred crowns a month given to him in respect of
the fabric of S. Pietro, and caused a month's payment to be taken to
his house, but Michelagnolo would not accept it. In the same year took
place the death of Urbino, his servant, or rather, as he may be
called, and as he had been, his companion. This man came to live with
Michelagnolo in Florence in the year 1530, after the siege was
finished, when his disciple Antonio Mini went to France; and he
rendered very faithful service to Michelagnolo, insomuch that in
twenty-six years that faithful and intimate service brought it about
that Michelagnolo made him rich and so loved him, that in this,
Urbino's last illness, old as he was, he nursed him and slept in his
clothes at night to watch over him. Wherefore, after he was dead,
Vasari wrote to Michelagnolo to console him, and he answered in these
words:
"MY DEAR MESSER GIORGIO,
"I am scarce able to write, but, in reply to your letter, I shall say
something. You know how Urbino died, wherein God has shown me very
great grace, although it is also a grave loss and an infinite grief to
me. This grace is that whereas when living he kept me alive, dying he
has taught me to die not with regret, but with a desire for death. I
have had him twenty-six years, and have found him a very rare and
faithful servant; and now, when I had made him rich and was looking to
him as the staff and repose of my old age, he has flown from me, nor
is any hope left to me but to see him again in Paradise. And of this
God has granted a sign in the happy death that he died, in that dying
grieved him much less than leaving me in this traitorous world with so
many afflictions; although the greater part of me is gone with him,
and nothing is left me but infinite misery. I commend myself to you."
Michelagnolo was employed in the time of Pope Paul IV on many parts of
the fortifications of Rome, and also by Salustio Peruzzi, to whom that
Pope, as has been related elsewhere, had given the charge of executing
the great portal of the Castello di S. Angelo, which is now half
ruined; and he occupied himself in distributing the statues of that
work, examining the models of the sculptors, and correcting them. At
that time the French army approached near to Rome, and Michelagnolo
thought that he was like to come to an evil end together with that
city; whereupon he resolved to fly from Rome with Antonio Franzese of
Castel Durante, whom Urbino at his death had left in his house as his
servant, and went secretly to the mountains of Spoleto, where he
visited certain seats of hermits. Meanwhile Vasari wrote to him,
sending him a little work that Carlo Lenzoni, a citizen of Florence,
had left at his death to Messer Cosimo Bartoli, who was to have it
printed and dedicated to Michelagnolo; which, when it was finished,
Vasari sent in those days to Michelagnolo, and he, having received it,
answered thus:
"_September_ 18, 1556.
"MESSER GIORGIO, DEAR FRIEND,
"I have received Messer Cosimo's little book, which you send to me,
and this shall be a letter of thanks. I pray you to give them to him,
and send him my compliments.