THE VAULT OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL
Michael Angelo's work in Bologna well over, he returned to Florence upon
March 18, 1508, and hired his house at Borgo Pinti from the Operai del
Duomo, probably intending to proceed with the Twelve Apostles for that
church. Michael Angelo's father now emancipated his son from parental
control. The date of the document is March 13; it was entered in the State
Archives upon March 28. According to the law of Florence a son was not of
age until his father had executed this document. Michael Angelo appears to
have had the idea of settling in Florence at this time, but "his Medusa,"
as he called the Pope, commanded the presence of his artist in Rome as
soon as he heard that the work at Bologna was finished. Michael Angelo
obeyed at once this time. We have a good account by his own hand of what
happened when he arrived in Rome, his famous letter to Fattucci, written
sixteen years later.
"_To_ SER GIOVAN FRANCESCO FATTUCCI, _in Rome_.
"_From_ FLORENCE (_January_ 1524).
"MESSER GIOVAN FRANCESCO,--You ask of me in your letter how my
affairs stood with Pope Julius. I tell you that I estimate that I
could demand payment and interest on it, to receive money rather
than give it. For when he sent for me to Florence, I believe it
was in the second year of his Pontificate, I had begun to decorate
the half of the Sala del Consiglio of Florence, that is to paint
it. I was to have had three thousand ducats for it, and the
cartoon was already completed, as was well known to all Florence,
so that they seemed to me half earned. And of the Twelve Apostles,
which I had still to do for Santa Maria del Fiore, one was
sketched out, as may still be seen; and I had carried thither the
greater part of the marbles. Pope Julius calling me away, I
received nothing for either undertaking. Afterwards, I being in
Rome with the said Pope Julius, he commissioned me to make his
tomb, into which was to go a thousand ducats' worth of marbles. He
paid me the money, and sent me to Carrara for them; there I stayed
eight months having them blocked out, and brought them almost all
to the piazza of St. Peter's; a part remained at the Ripa. After I
had paid the freightage of these said marbles the money received
for this work came to an end. I furnished the house I had on the
piazza of St. Peter's with beds and furniture with my own money,
on my hopes of the tomb, and sent for workmen from Florence (some
of whom are still living), and paid them with my own in advance.
By this time Pope Julius had changed his mind, and no longer
wished to have it done. I, not knowing this and going to him for
money, was chased from the room; and for this insult I immediately
left Rome, and everything I had in my house went to the bad; and
these marbles which I had bought lay on the piazza of St. Peter's
until the creation of Pope Leo; and on every side things went
wrong. Among other things that I can prove, two pieces, of four
braccia and a half each, on the Ripa were stolen from me by
Agostino Chigi, which had cost me more than fifty gold ducats; and
these could be claimed for, because there are witnesses. But to
return to the marbles. From the time that I went for them, and
that I remained at Carrara, until I was driven from the Palace,
was more than a year, for which period I never received anything,
and I paid out many tens of ducats.
[Image #14]
CREATION OF MAN
SISTINE CHAPEL
(_By permission of Messrs. Braun, Clement & Co., in Dornach,
Alsace_)
"Afterwards, the first time Pope Julius went to Bologna, I was
obliged to take my courage in both hands and go there to beg his
pardon; then he ordered me to make his portrait in bronze, which
was seated, about seven braccia high. He asking me what it would
cost, I said I believed I could cast it for a thousand ducats, but
that it was not my art and that I could not promise. He replied to
me: 'Go to work and cast it until it come well, and we will give
you what will content you.' To be brief, it was cast twice. At the
end of the two years that I stayed there I found myself four
ducats and a half in pocket; and during that time I never received
anything for all the expenses that I had, except the thousand
ducats which I had said that I could cast it for; these were paid
me in several installments by Messer Antonio Maria da Legnia
(_me_), the Bolognese.
"Having hoisted the figure on to the facade of San Petronio, and
returned to Rome, Pope Julius did not yet wish me to go on with
the tomb, but set me to paint the vault of Sisto, and we made an
agreement for three thousand ducats. The first design was for
twelve apostles in the lunettes, and for the rest certain
compartments filled with ornaments of the usual sort.
"After beginning the said work it seemed to me it would be but a
poor thing. He asked me why? I told him, because they also were
poor. Then he gave me a new order to do what I would, and that he
would satisfy me, and that I was to paint down to the stories
below. When the vault was almost finished the Pope returned to
Bologna, where I went twice for money I needed, uselessly, and
lost all my time, until he returned to Rome. I returned to Rome
and set myself to work on the cartoons for the said vault, that
is, for the ends and sides of the said Chapel of Sisto, hoping to
have money to finish the work. I never could obtain anything; and
complaining one day to Messer Bernardo da Bibbiena and Attalante
how that I was unable to stay any longer in Rome, but that I must
go away, with the help of God, Messer Bernardo said to Attalante
that he must remember that he was to give me money in any case,
and he had two thousand ducats of the Chamber given to me, which
are the moneys, with that first thousand for marbles, that they
put to the account of the tomb; and I estimate that I should have
more for the time lost and the work done. And of the said moneys,
Messer Bernardo and Attalante having obtained it for me, I gave to
the one a hundred ducats, to the other fifty.
"Then came the death of Pope Julius, and in the first years of
Leo, Aginensis, wishing to enlarge the tomb, that is, to make a
greater work than the design I had at first prepared, we made a
contract, and I not wishing the said three thousand ducats I had
received to be put to the account of the tomb, and showing that I
ought to have much more, Aginensis said to me that I was a
swindler."(103)
[Image #15]
CREATION OF MAN
DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL
The preliminary works for the vault of the Sistine Chapel were carried on
without delay, and there is a note in Michael Angelo's hand, saying: "I
record how on this day, the tenth of May, in the year one thousand five
hundred and eight, I, Michael Angelo, Sculptor, have received from the
Holiness of our Lord Pope Julius II. five hundred ducats of the Camera,
the which were paid me by Messer Carlino, chamberlain, and Messer Carlo
degli Albizzi, on account of the painting of the vault of the Chapel of
Pope Sisto, on which I begin to work this day, under the conditions and
contracts set forth in a document written by his Most Reverend Lordship of
Pavia, and signed by my hand. For the painter assistants who are to come
from Florence, who will be five in number, twenty gold ducats of the
Camera a-piece, on this condition, that is to say, that when they are here
and are working in accord with me, the said twenty ducats shall be
reckoned to each man's salary; the said salary to begin upon the day they
leave Florence to come here. And if they do not agree with me, half the
said money shall be paid them for their travelling expenses and for their
time."(104)
From this important record we learn that Michael Angelo, who still calls
himself "sculptor," intends to engage five painter assistants, and very
wisely arranges terms by which he can send them away if he does not get on
with them, and also that he began to work upon May 10, 1508. This must not
be taken to mean that he began to paint, but only to prepare the vault by
carefully pointing the bricks and covering it with rough cast plaster
ready for the fine coat called intonaca, in this case made of marble dust
and Roman lime, prepared each day and plastered on the wall in patches
sufficient for one day's work only. In true fresco painting the colour is
put on the plaster only whilst it is still wet. Michael Angelo must also
have prepared a general scheme to scale from his small design, approved by
the Pope, and set it off with very careful measurements on the surface of
the rough cast, at least as to the architectural framework. The cartoons
for the figure-subjects and details he may have left until they were
needed. He considerably altered the scale of the figures in his stories as
he proceeded with the work; this alteration in scale is not only
observable in the central subjects or pictures of the vault, but also in
the decorative figures on the framework, called Athletes; those at the
end, near the stories of Noah and the Flood, and where Michael Angelo
began to work, are at least a head smaller than those at the other end of
the chapel over the altar, where the stories relate to the Creation. This
can be seen even in a photographic reproduction. Although the development
of the great scheme was so much upon the traditional lines of Italian art,
yet the details of arrangement and placing must have fully occupied the
artist for some months. He cannot have begun actually to paint on the
vault until late autumn, at least, not any of the work we see now, for his
assistants did not arrive from Florence until August, and he had to
experiment with their work, and find it wanting, before he dismissed them,
destroyed their work, and began alone. All the work of the part of the
vault executed first is by Michael Angelo's own hand, as far as can be
judged from the floor of the chapel, or from the cornice level with the
windows. The following receipts for the plaster, or for rough-coating the
vault, show that painting cannot have begun so early as has been
assumed:(105)
[Image #16]
THE CREATION OF EVE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
"In the name of God, the 11th day of May, 1508.
"I, Piero di Jacopo Roselli, Master Mason, have this day received,
the 11th of May as above said, from Michael Angelo Bonaroti,
Sculptor, ten ducats in gold, full weight, on account of
'Scialbatura' on the vault of Pope Sixtus, and for rough
plastering in his chapel, and doing that which was needful by
order of Pope Julius; and in faith of the truth I have done this
with my own hand, this day above said. Ducats 10 of gold, full
weight."
This payment was made by Michael Angelo. The second receipt of Rosselli
for fifteen ducats was made out on May 24, to Francesco Granacci, so he
was already in Rome, helping his friend. The next payment of ten ducats
was also made by Granacci on June 3, and another on June 10. On July 17
Michael Angelo himself paid the mason; so Granacci had gone to Florence by
then to hire the other assistants. On July 27 Michael Angelo paid Rosselli
thirty golden ducats, full weight, for rough plastering and other details.
The amount paid, and the time taken, go to prove that the whole vault was
plastered. Granacci(106) wrote from Florence about the assistants. Heath
Wilson gives a literal translation of his rather bewildering letter.
"VERY DEAR FRIEND,--I recommend myself and wish you infinite
health. This is to your Excellency, as to-day I met Raffaelino,
the painter, and gathered from him in fine that if you have need
of him he will come at your bidding, should you be pleased to pay
him the salary which he has received from the Master Pietro Matteo
d'Amelia, who, he says, gave him ten ducats a month. Ever faithful
to your Excellency, I give the advice as from myself. If you have
need to employ him, offer him your amount of salary; he is ready
to do what you may command as to work. He is a good master and
honest. And if for me there is anything, advise me, for I am
always here to do for you those things which are useful and
honourable. If I can do one thing more than another let me know; I
will do it with love and solicitude. Nothing more. Christ have you
in his keeping. _Bene Valeti_.
"This day, 22nd of July, 1508.
"YOURS,
"FRANCESCO GRANACCI.
"If you can employ me as above is said, I shall be willing to be
with you. Nothing more.
"GIOVANNI MICHI,
"San Lorenzo, Florence
"(Faithful service and honest man).
"Directed to the Excellent Master
Michael Angelo, Florence, at
St. Peter's, Sculptor, Rome.
"Given from the Bank of Baldassare in Campo di Fiore."
[Image #17]
THE EXPULSION
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of Messrs. Braun, Clement & Co., in. Dornach, Alsace_)
Neither Raffaellino del Garbo nor Giovanni Michi were employed, but the
next letter of Granacci, dated July 24, 1508, mentions Giuliano
Buggiardini and Jacopo L'Indaco, who were both tried. Vasari informs us
that Granacci, Jacopo di Sandro, and the elder Indaco, Agnolo di Donnino,
and Aristotile da Sangallo also accepted work. We have another proof that
the actual fresco painting did not begin at this period, in a document
preserved in the National Archives at Florence. Heath Wilson obtained
legal opinion that Michael Angelo must have been in Florence in person
when this deed was executed. It runs: "In the year of our Lord, 1508, on
the 11th day of August, Michael Angelo, the son of Ludovico Lionardo di
Buonarroto, cancelled his lawful claim upon the estate of his uncle
Francis by a deed drawn up by Ser Giovanni di Guasparre da Montevarchi,
Florentine notary, on the 27th of the month of July, 1508." Another
instance of Michael Angelo's generosity to his family. If Michael Angelo
at once proceeded to Rome, he and his assistants may have begun work
towards the end of August. During all this period we must notice how
troubled he was by the affairs of his family and his household
arrangements. Michael Angelo, while living like a poor man in Rome, sent
money to, and purchased land for, his family in Florence, and helped to
establish Buonarroto in business, but they were never satisfied, and his
letters to his father and Giovan Simone show how his mind was troubled.
There is a letter in the British Museum that belongs to this summer of
1508.
"MOST REVEREND FATHER,--I have learnt by your last how things go
with you, and how Giovan Simone behaves himself. I have not had
worse news for ten years than on the evening when I read your
letter, for I thought that I had arranged their affairs so that
they had reason to hope they would make a good shop with my aid.
Now, I see, they do the contrary, especially Giovan Simone. From
this I know that it is profitless to try and do him good. Had it
been possible on the day when I received your letter I should have
mounted on horseback and by this time should have settled
everything; but not being able to do so, I write him such a letter
as appears to me to be necessary, and if from now he does not
change his nature, or if ever he takes from the home so much as a
stick, or does anything to displease you, I pray you to let me
know, because I will obtain leave from the Pope to come to you,
when I shall show him his error. I wish you to be certain that all
the labours which I have continually endured have been more for
your sake than for my own, and the property which I have bought I
have bought that it may be yours whilst you live. Had it not been
for you I should not have bought it. Therefore, if it please you
to let this house or the farm, do so; and with that income and
with what I shall give you you will live like a gentleman. Were it
not that the summer were coming on I would say come and live with
me here, but it is not the season, for here in summer you would
not live long. It has occurred to me to take from him (Giovan
Simone) the money which he has in the shop, and to give it to
Gismondo, so that he and Buonarroto may get on together as well as
they can ... and if you let these said houses and the farm of the
Pazolatica, and with that income and with the help that I will
give you besides, you will take refuge in some place where you
will be comfortable, and you will be able to keep some one to
serve you either in Florence or outside Florence, and leave that
good-for-nothing ... I pray you to consider yourself, and in all
things whatever you wish to do--that is, for yourself in all you
desire--I will aid you all I know and can. Let me hear about
Cassandra's affairs. I am advised not to go to law about it here.
I am told that I shall spend here three times as much as there;
and this is certain, for a grosso goes further there than two
carlini here. Besides, I have no friend here to trust to, and I
could not attend to such things. It seems to me, when you desire
to attend to it, that you should go by the usual way, as reason
demands, and you must defend yourself as well as you are able and
know how; and for the money that is necessary to spend I will not
fail as long as I have any. Have as little fear as you can, for it
is not a case of life and death. No more. Let me know, as I told
you above.
"From MICHAEL ANGELO, in Rome."(107)
[Image #18]
THE DELUGE
A DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig. D. Anderson, Rome_)
Truly his family did all they could to disturb his mind during this
important period of the development of his greatest work. The mind that
wrote the following letter to Giovan Simone cannot have been in a good
state for work; but as he never lets a thought about his art appear in his
letters, so, no doubt, when once the mood of work was upon him, all other
thoughts were left without the workshop door:
"ROME, _July_ 1508.
"GIOVAN SIMONE,--It is said that when one does good to a good man
it makes him become better, but a bad man becomes worse. I have
tried now many years with words and deeds of kindness to bring you
to live honestly and in peace with your father and the rest of us.
You grow continually worse. I do not say that you are a bad man,
but you are of such sort that you have ceased to please me or
anybody. I could read you a long lesson on your ways of living,
but they would be idle words, like all the rest that I have wasted
on you. To cut the matter short, I will tell you for a certain
truth that you have nothing in the world. What you spend and your
house-room I give you, and have given you these many years, for
the love of God, believing you to be my brother like the rest.
Now, I am sure that you are not my brother, else you would not
threaten my father. Nay, you are a beast; and as a beast I mean to
treat you. Know that he who sees his father threatened or roughly
handled is bound to risk his own life in this cause. Enough, I
tell you that you have nothing in the world; and if I hear the
least thing about your goings on, I will come post-haste and show
you your error, and teach you to waste your substance and set fire
to houses and farms you have not earned. Indeed, you are not where
you think yourself to be. If I come, I will open your eyes to what
will make you weep hot tears, and let you know on what false
grounds you found your pride.
"I have something else to say to you which I have not said before.
If you will endeavour to live rightly, and to honour and revere
your father, I will help you like the rest, and make you able
shortly to open a good shop. If you do not do so, I shall come and
settle your affairs in such a fashion that you will know what you
are better than you ever did, and will understand what you have in
the world, and it will be seen in every place where you may go. No
more. What I lack in words I will supply with deeds.
"MICHAEL ANGELO, in Rome.
[Image #19]
ATHLETE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
"I cannot refrain from adding two lines. It is this: I have gone
these twelve years past, drudging about through all Italy, borne
every shame, suffered every hardship, worn my body in every toil,
put my life into a thousand dangers, solely to help the fortunes
of my house, and now that I have begun to raise it up a little,
you alone choose to destroy and ruin in one hour all that I have
done in so many years, and with such labours. By Christ's body
this shall not be! for I am the man to confound ten thousand such
as you whenever it be needed. Be wise in time then, and do not try
one who has other things to vex him."
So with hindrances enough, private and public, we must imagine the great
artist climbing his scaffolding to the vault of the Pope's chapel,
followed by his assistants, and setting them their task, transferring his
full-size outline cartoons, prepared from the general designs, to the
roof. We may fancy L'Indaco, Buggiardini, and the rest, staring with
amazement at the huge figures and the great flowing lines before them, and
trying to fit their dry manner of painting to the new grandeur of design.
It could but end in one way. The clause prepared beforehand by Michael
Angelo in the contracts came into effect, and they had to be sent away,
with plenty of grumbling on their part, no doubt. Michael Angelo was too
exacting in the perfection of his taste to allow any work short of the
absolute ideal he had imagined. Unlike Raphael, who was working in the
neighbouring stanze, and who was contented to pass, and some would have us
believe to execute, ill-turned foreshortenings and false drawing, so long
as his general effect was preserved and the work done in reasonable time.
Perhaps his gentle and sunlike genius could not bear to use harsh words
and shut the door against the mediocre men with whom he was surrounded.
Michael Angelo could brook no imperfection of whatever kind, so that he
destroyed all that his assistants had done and shut himself up alone in
the chapel. He was the only man who could do the work to his satisfaction;
so he did it, alone and unaided, as to the actual painting, and produced a
work unequalled in perfection since Phidias worked in Athens.
The dismissal of his assistants appears to have begun about the New Year
1509. It is hinted at in this letter:--
"DEAREST FATHER,--I have to-day received one of yours. When I read
it I was sufficiently displeased. I doubt that you are more timid
and fearful than you need be. I should like you to tell me what
you imagine they can do to you, that is, if it should come to the
worst. I have no more to say. It grieves me that you should be in
such fear, so I comfort you by advising you to be well prepared
against their power, with good advice, and then think no more
about it; for if they took away all you have in the world you
should not lack means to be comfortable as long as I was there.
Therefore be of good cheer. I am still in a great quandary, for it
is now a year since I received a groat from the Pope, and I do not
ask for it, for my work does not go forward in such a fashion as
to deserve it, as it seems to me. And this is because of the
difficulty of the work, and also that it is not my profession. And
so I lose my time fruitlessly. God help me. If you are in need of
money go to the Spedalingo(108) and make him give you anything up
to fifteen ducats, and let me know what remains. Jacopo,(109) the
painter whom I brought here, has just left, and as he has been
grumbling here about my doings, I expect he will grumble there
also. Turn a deaf ear to him. It is enough. For he is a thousand
times in the wrong. I have good reason to complain of him. Take no
notice of him. Tell Buonarroto that I will reply to him another
time.
"The day twenty 7 of January.
"MICHAEL ANGELO, in Rome."(110)
[Image #20]
ATHLETE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
Buggiardini appears to have fared better than L'Indaco. He painted a
portrait of Michael Angelo with a towel tied round his head like a turban,
now in the Casa Buonarroti, at Florence. From the age of the sitter it
appears to belong to this period; the towel may have been used to protect
the hair and head of the artist from falling colour as he painted the roof
above him. It is an energetic head, with jet black hair and sallow
complexion, with many lines and wrinkles for so young a face, determined,
sad, and scornful in expression; a slight weakness and affectation may be
due to the personality of the painter. Buggiardini also executed a
painting from the cartoon of the master, the Madonna and Child with
Angels, number 809, of the National Gallery. The beauty and grandeur of
the lines of this design are far above the imagination of any one except
Michael Angelo, but the details of the execution of the hands and the feet
are inferior to any authentic work of his. The hatchings in the shadows,
especially of the draperies, are made up of short and feeble lines, and do
not express the form of the folds at all in the same way as we are
accustomed to see Michael Angelo express them, even in his earlier
drawings, the copies from Giotto and the primitives. The form of the
mouths, and the expression and shape of the heads, especially in the
second angel on the right, are similar to the work of Buggiardini as seen
in Florence, Milan, and the Cathedral of Pisa. Buggiardini is the only one
of the assistants who seems to have reaped any benefit, beyond their
wages, from the work they did for the great master. This trouble with his
assistants was not the only difficulty that Michael Angelo had to contend
with in the execution of his work. Vasari says that he shut himself alone
in the chapel, without any one to help him even in the grinding of his
colours; but, as he adds, that he took great precautions to prevent the
workmen informing the public as to what he was doing, we must assume that
Vasari was repeating a fable that had grown up about the marvellous work
forty years after it was executed, much as we might at this day repeat
stories of the making of the Wellington Monument by Alfred Stevens. The
carpenters and plasterers Michael Angelo employed would soon learn to
perform the more mechanical part of his work, such as laying the intonaco,
pricking the cartoons, and grinding colours, and as they could not have
inserted into the work any tradition contrary to the new manner of the
artist, would be preferred by him to second-rate artist assistants; no
doubt, too, the boy he employed in household work would be made to help.
The trouble he had in his household arrangements before the time of his
trusted servant, Urbino, may be illustrated by a letter relating to the
boy he got from Florence about this time. He never would have a woman to
work for him in any way.
[Image #21]
ATHLETE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
"_To_ LODOVICO DI BUONARROTA SIMONI, _in Florence_.
"ROME (_January_ 1510).
"MOST REVERED FATHER,--I answered you about the business of
Bernardino, as I wished first to settle the affairs of my
household as you know, and so I now reply to you. I sent first for
him because I was promised that within a few days he would be
ready and that I might get to work. Afterwards I saw that it would
be a long business; in the meantime I am seeking another suitable
one to get out of it. I won't have any work done until I am ready,
but tell him how the matter stands. About the boy who came, that
rascal of a muleteer did me out of a ducat. He took an oath that
he had agreed for two broad golden ducats, and all the lads who
come here with the muleteers do not give more than ten carlinos. I
was more angry than if I had lost twenty-five ducats, because I
see it is the fault of the father, who wanted to send him on
muleback in state. Oh! I had never such good fortune! not I.
Although the father declared, and the son likewise, that he would
do anything, attend to the mule, and sleep on the ground if
necessary; and now I have to look after him. Did I need any more
bothers than I have had since my return? Here I have my boy, whom
I left here, ill since the day I returned until now. He is now
better it is true, but he has been between life and death, given
up by the doctors, so that for about a month I have not been in
bed, let alone many others. Now I have this nuisance of a boy, who
says, and says again, that he does not want to lose time, that he
must learn. And he told me that he would be satisfied with two or
three hours a day. Now all day is not enough, so that he will be
drawing all night also. These are counsels of the father. If I say
anything he would declare that I did not wish him to learn. I want
some one to mind the house, and if he did not feel like doing it
they should not have put me to this expense. But they are no good,
no good at all, and are working for their own ends; but enough. I
beg you to have him taken away from before me, for he annoys me so
much that I cannot stand him any longer. The muleteer has had so
much money that he can very well take him back again; he is a
friend of his father's. Tell the father to send for him. I'll not
give him another farthing, for I have no money, I will have
patience until he sends for him, and if he is not sent for I will
turn him out, for I have done so already, on the second day after
his arrival and other times as well, and he won't believe it.
"For the business of the shop I will send you a hundred ducats
next Saturday. With this, if you see that they are diligent and do
well, give it to them and make me their creditor, as I was to
Buonarroto when he went away. If they are not diligent, and do
badly, place it to my account at Santa Maria Nuova. It is not yet
time to buy.
"Your MICHAEL ANGELO, in Rome.
"If you are speaking to the father of the boy, put the matter
nicely, mannerly; that he is a good lad, but too genteel, and that
he is not fit for my work, and that he must send for him."(111)
[Image #22]
ATHLETE
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
The more gentle tone of the postscript is very characteristic. Outwardly
he would be rough, consumed with anger and indignation; but inwardly his
nature was kindly to a degree to those he had about him.
Condivi tells us of the delay in the works in the Sistine due to the mould
on the surface of the fresco, and of the haste of Julius. The progress was
fast enough, one would have thought, even for that exacting Pontiff; for
although the whole work consists, on counting heads, of some three hundred
and ninety-four figures, the majority ten feet high; the prophets and
sibyls, twelve in number, would be eighteen feet high if they stood up;
yet by the following letters to his brother Buonarroto, of October 1509,
we know he had finished the first half, consisting probably of some two
hundred figures, even then; or assuming that he began to paint when the
assistants were dismissed in January 1509, he worked at the rate of about
a figure a day.
_To_ BUONARROTO DI LODOVICO DI BUONARROTA, _in Florence_.
_From_ ROME, _the 17th of October, 1509._
"BUONARROTO,--I got the bread: it is good, but it is not good
enough to make a trade of, for there would be little gain. I gave
the knave five carlini, and he would hardly hand it over. I learn
by your last how Lorenzo(112) will pass this way, and how I am to
give him a good reception. It appears you do not know how I am
situated here, all the same I excuse you. What I can do, I will.
About Gismondo and how he intends to come here to advance his
business, tell him from me not to have any designs on me, not
because I do not love him as a brother, but because I am unable to
help him in anything. I am obliged to love myself more than
others, and I have not enough for my own needs. I live here in
great distress and with the greatest fatigue of body, and have not
a friend of any sort, and do not want one, and have not even
enough time to eat necessary food; therefore, do not annoy me any
more, for I cannot bear another ounce.
For the shop I encourage you to be careful. It pleases me to hear
that Giovanni Simone begins to do well. Endeavour to advance a
little, or, at least, maintain what you have got, so that you will
know how to manage larger affairs afterwards; for I have a hope,
when I return to you, that you will be men enough to manage for
yourselves. Tell Lodovico that I have not replied to him because I
had not the time, and not to wonder if I do not write.
"MICHAEL ANGELO, Sculptor, in Rome."(113)
To the same.
_From_ ROME (_Oct. 1509_).
"BUONARROTO,--I hear by your last how that all are well, and how
Lodovico has another office. It all pleases me, and I encourage
him to accept it if it will allow him to return when necessary to
his post in Florence. I am here just as usual, and shall have
finished my painting by the end of next week, that is, the part of
it I began; and when I have uncovered it I believe I shall receive
my money, and I will endeavour again to get leave to come to you
for a month. I do not know whether it will be, but I need it for I
am not very well. I have no time to write more. I will tell you
what happens.
"MICHAEL ANGELO, Sculptor, in Rome."(114)
[Image #23]
THE DELPHIC SIBYL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig. D. Anderson, Rome_)
The work was exposed to view upon November 1, 1509. So at the longest
possible estimate of time from May 10, 1508, to November 1, 1509, Michael
Angelo took four hundred and sixty-two working days to paint it. The more
probable, in fact, almost certain estimate of the time occupied in
painting the fresco, as we now see it, is from the time his assistants
left him, about New Year's Day 1509, to November 1 in the same year, or
two hundred and thirty-four working days. As the plaster could only be
painted on whilst wet, we can tell, by the marks of the divisions between
the separate days' plasterings, how many days the larger individual
figures took. One of the largest and most prominent, as well as one of the
finest and most finished, the Adam in the Creation of Man, was painted in
three sittings only. The lines of the junctions of the plaster may be seen
in a photograph; one is along the collar bone, and one across the junction
of the body and the thighs. There is also a division all round the figure,
an inch or so from the outline, so we know that the beautiful and highly
finished head and neck were painted in one day; the stupendous torso and
arms in another; and the huge legs, finished in every detail, in a third.
Such power of work and of finish is utterly inconceivable to any artist of
to-day. Some will even excuse the imperfection of the study of a head by
saying that they had only three or four sittings.
Condivi asserts, and Vasari follows him, that the part uncovered in
November 1509, was the first half of the whole vault, beginning at the
large door of entrance and ending in the middle. But Albertini states in
his _Mirabilia Urbis_(115) that the upper portion of the whole vaulted
roof had been uncovered when he saw it in 1509, and this statement is
corroborated by the work itself. There is a distinct enlargement of the
style from the Sin of the Sons of Ham through the series of the Creation
and the Athletes to the Prophets and Sibyls, and again from the first of
these, near the large door, to those near the altar wall. So it may have
been the complete work on the flat part of the vault that was shown to the
world, including the story of the Creation and Fall of Man; and it was
not, therefore, so very unreasonable of Bramante to propose that Raphael
should continue the work, for he probably did not know of Michael Angelo's
intention of commemorating the promise of the Redeemer by his prophets and
sibyls upon the curved surface of the vaulting. Michael Angelo was
naturally indignant at his action, but Julius, who probably was the only
man who knew Michael Angelo's scheme, commanded him to complete his work.
We gather from a letter to his father that the scaffolding for completing
the painting of the vault was not put up on September 7, 1510.
[Image #24]
THE PROPHET JOEL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
_To_ LODOVICO DI BUONARROTA SIMONI, _in Florence_.
_From_ ROME, _September 7, 1510._
"DEAREST FATHER,--I have received your last, and hear with the
greatest anxiety that Buonarroto is ill; therefore, as soon as you
see this, go to the Spedalingo(116) and make him give you fifty or
an hundred ducats; you may need them. Arrange that all things
necessary be provided in good time, and that there be no lack of
money. Let me tell you how that I am waiting to receive from the
Pope five hundred ducats, well earned, and he should give me as
much again to put up the scaffolding and go on with the other part
of my work. And he has gone from here without leaving me any
orders. I have written him a letter. I do not know what will
follow. I should have come to you immediately on the receipt of
your last, but if I left without permission I doubt the Pope would
be angry, and I should lose all that I ought to have.
Nevertheless, let me know immediately if Buonarroto should still
be very bad, because if you think I ought to come I will ride post
and be with you in two days, for men are worth more than money.
Let me know at once, for I am very anxious.
"On the 7th day of September.
"Your MICHAEL ANGELO, Sculptor, in Rome."(117)
The following note tells of the end of the work:
"I have finished the Chapel which I painted. The Pope is very well
satisfied, but other things do not happen as I wished. Lay blame on the
times, which are unfavourable to art." It is a note by Michael Angelo in
the Buonarroto manuscripts of the British Museum, but undated. It is
probably of October 1512, and marks the close of this period of enormous
work. The decoration of the Sistine Chapel now consisted, firstly, on the
flat of the vault, of Michael Angelo's history of the Creation and the
Fall of Man, of the Punishment of the Flood, and the Second Entry of Sin
into the World; secondly, on the pendentives, of the Prophets and Sibyls
proclaiming the coming of a Redeemer; and thirdly, of the Ancestors of
Christ, filling the arches of the windows and the arches on the two end
walls. Those on the altar wall are now covered by angels bearing the
instruments of the Passion of Christ, parts of the great fresco of the
Last Judgment, finished by Michael Angelo thirty years afterwards. At
Oxford there are two drawings after these two destroyed frescoes of the
Ancestors of Christ series. Fourthly, at the four corners the four great
Deliverances of the Chosen People, emblems of the Redemption; fifthly,
below, between the windows, a row of the figures of the Popes by Sandro
Botticelli and others; these are still in existence, except the three that
were on the wall of the high altar, now occupied by the Last Judgment.
They were the earliest of the Popes, St. Peter probably in the centre.
Lastly, below again, the great series of frescoes of the History of Christ
and the History of Moses by Sandro Botticelli, Domenico del Ghirlandaio,
Cosimo Rosselli, Pietro Perugino, Bernardino Pintoricchio, Luca
Signorelli, and Bartolomeo della Gatta. This splendid series forms a
worthy predella to the epic work of Michael Angelo above; that they are
worthy the one of the other is the highest compliment that can be paid to
either. These stories well repay prolonged study, and help to keep our
mind fresh to enjoy the idea of the advance Michael Angelo made in the art
of painting. It is very instructive to compare his work with these
frescoes of men who were almost his contemporaries. Above the altar three
of this series were destroyed to make way for the Last Judgment; they were
all three by Perugino, and represented the Assumption of the Virgin in the
centre, the Nativity on the right, and the finding of Moses on the left.
At the opposite end, over the great door, were two pictures by Domenico
del Ghirlandaio, representing the Resurrection of Christ, and Michael
contending with Satan for the Body of Moses, completing the series of the
lives of the Redeemer and of his prototype in the Old Testament: Moses,
the Deliverer. These last two works were destroyed for the ridiculous
caricatures of Arrigo Fiammingo and Mattei da Lecce. Ultimately the
Tapestry woven after the cartoons by Raphael, now at South Kensington
Museum, completed the cycle of decoration down to the ground level.
[Image #25]
THE PROPHET EZEKIEL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
When Pope Julius prevented Michael Angelo from going on with his beloved
project of the Tomb and made him paint the vault, the master set to work
to produce a similar conception to the Tomb in a painted form. The vault
became a great temple of painted marble and painted sculptures raised in
mid-air above the walls of the chapel. The cornices and pilasters are of
simple Renaissance architecture, the only ornaments he allowed himself to
use being similar to those he would have used as a sculptor. Acorns, the
family device of the della Rovere, rams' skulls, and scallop shells, and
the one theme of decoration that Michael Angelo always delighted in--the
human figure. The Prophets and Sibyls took the positions occupied by the
principal figures designed for the Tomb, like the great statue of Moses.
The Athletes at the corner of the ribs of the roof were in place of the
bound captives, two of which are now in the Louvre, and the nine histories
of the Creation and the Flood fill the panels like the bronze reliefs of
the Tomb. The detail and completeness of this fresco are the best
refutation of the frequent criticism that Michael Angelo did not finish
his work. The fact is, that he finished more than any one. Had Michael
Angelo done no work but this vault of the Sistine Chapel, it would have
represented an output equal in quantity alone to that of the most prolific
of his brother Italian artists. It is veritably a large picture-gallery of
his works in itself. An idea of its numerical magnitude may be got by
dividing it up into its component units and making an inventory of them.
The vault itself, according to Heath Wilson, is one hundred and thirty-one
feet six inches long, by forty-five feet two and a half inches wide at the
large door end, and forty-three feet two and a half inches at the altar
end, an area of nearly six thousand square feet, which apparently does not
represent the arch measurement but only the plane covered by the arch, nor
does it take account of the triangular and semicircular spaces above the
windows. This vast surface is divided into:--
Four large pictures stretching over more than one-third of the width of
the roof, and containing from five to more than forty-five figures, some
of them twelve feet in height.
Five pictures, half the size of the last, with from one to eight figures
in each.
Twenty colossal nude figures of Athletes.
Ten circular medallions.
Seven large figures of Prophets.
Five large figures of Sibyls; these Prophets and Sibyls would be eighteen
feet high if they stood upright, and most of them have secondary figures
of angel boys between them, twenty-three in all.
Twenty-four decorative pilasters of two children each, in monochrome.
[Image #26]
THE PROPHET DANIEL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
Four large triangular compositions representing the Redemptions of Israel,
and containing from five to twenty-two colossal figures.
Eight triangular spaces above the windows, representing the Ancestors of
Christ, containing from two to four colossal figures.
Twenty-four groups in the semicircular spaces above the windows, also of
the Ancestors of Christ, of from one to four colossal figures.
Ten large figures of children forming brackets under the figures of
Prophets and Sibyls, at the springing of the arches between the windows.
Twenty-four bronze-coloured colossal figures filling up the spaces in the
architectural framework.
Thus, the vault may be regarded as a gallery of one hundred and forty-five
separate pictures by Michael Angelo. There is one reservation, and that
is, that the twenty-four groups of two children forming pilasters are in
pairs, of the same outline but reversed; as they are differently lighted
they may still be taken as different pictures. These pilasters form the
sides of the thrones of the Prophets and Sibyls, and repeating them in
reversed outline on either side of the same throne has a very valuable
decorative effect, well known to the old Italian workmen, who frequently
repeated the forms of their fruit and flower decorations in this manner,
by the expedient of reversing the paper-pricking from one and the same
cartoon. It is interesting to find Michael Angelo resorting to this simple
trick to get the effect of balance in figure decoration. The light and
shade of the reversed figures follow the general scheme of the
illumination, so that the figures traced from the same cartoons look very
dissimilar when painted, but if the outlines are traced from a photograph,
and reversed on the corresponding figures, they will be seen to coincide.
It seems impossible to explain the exactness in any other way, a few
measurements on the vault itself would make it certain. Probably the same
method was employed in transferring the twenty-four bronze-coloured
decorative figures also.
The historical sequence of the events in the nine pictures on the central
space of the vault represents the Story of the Creation, the Fall, the
Flood, and the second entry of Sin into the world, demonstrating the need
for a scheme of Salvation, promised by the Prophets and Sibyls in the
second part of the decoration. The series represented is an old invention,
and all the scenes may be found in Byzantine and early Italian works; but
the new treatment gives them a character of grandeur only equalled by the
Old Testament narrative which they illustrate. All the human figures and
most of the angels appear to be dominated by an idea of impending doom,
but they nobly act their part in a fateful present, although they know
that the future cannot be changed by any effort of theirs, however noble
it may be. They are all fatalists, but all noble in their pessimism; they
reflect the mind of the artist. The individual motives of the figures,
their grouping and their action, are frequently taken from earlier art,
especially sculpture, and they show how carefully and reverently Michael
Angelo studied the works of his predecessors, Massaccio, Lorenzo Ghiberti,
Donatello, and Jacopo della Quercia.
[Image #27]
THE LIBYAN SIBYL
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a Photograph by Sig. Anderson, Rome_)
[Image #28]
THE PROPHET JEREMIAH
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
The first division above the High Altar represents the creation of light.
God separates light from darkness, and brings order out of chaos. In the
second division, one of the larger pictures, God creates the sun and moon;
He passes on and spreads His hand in blessing over a segment of the earth
where the trees and herbs spring forth. In the third, God gathers together
in one place the waters which were under the firmament. In these works
Michael Angelo designed a figure of the Creator that has remained ever
since the only possible pictorial symbol of God the Father. He is like an
old man in appearance and in wisdom, but as alert and powerful as a young
man. The creation of Adam is the central composition of the ceiling. The
Deity, accompanied by six angels, gives life to Adam by the touch of
finger tips. The figure of Adam is the most beautiful in modern art. It
appears to have been inspired by a Greek intaglio. The angels are much
varied in type. They are without the tinsel and gold embroidery used by
earlier artists to represent celestial glory. The simple and solemn lines
of the landscape showing the curved surface of the globe give a cosmic
character to the scene, and the beautiful indigo blue of the distance
forms a fine background for the supremely modelled flesh. This composition
is the first in the order of execution in which Michael Angelo fully
realised his scheme of decoration, as to scale and form, making a few
figures fill the space allotted to them with ease and freedom of movement.
Truly the space occupied appears to have been arranged and cut specially
to suit the figures, and not the figures made, as was the fact, to fit the
space. The next compartment, the creation of Eve, is only less beautiful
than that of the Adam. It is small, and the space is a little crowded: the
composition is taken exactly from the beautiful bas-relief by Jacopo della
Quercia at Bologna. The Almighty is shrouded in a voluminous mantle; Eve
joins her hands in worship. The figure is modelled with a delicious
softness, and the pearly colour is a delightful rendering of the lighter
flesh tints of woman, something like the quality sought by Correggio in
later times. The Adam reclining in the corner fills that part of the space
as a good medal design fits its circumference; the grey of the shadow,
especially in the darker parts, envelops the figures in a way that had
never been attempted in fresco painting, but is somewhat like a hand in
shadow by Rembrandt. The representations of the Fall and the Expulsion
fill the next compartment, a large one. Here we have another rendering of
a female nude; the type, and especially the modelling of the flank, is a
prophecy of the figure of Dawn in the Sacristy of San Lorenzo. The upper
part of the serpent has a woman's form, and the junction is most admirably
managed after the manner of the sea maidens in Graeco-Roman art. In this
story is the only foreground tree in full leaf ever painted by Michael
Angelo, and yet it is as supreme as everything else. It is remarkable that
the Paradise of Michael Angelo should be such a rocky place, like the side
of a marble mountain, for in his time such places were regarded with
distaste. The landscape into which Adam and Eve are expelled is a lone
flat desert, where no marble could be found. This part of the composition
is taken almost exactly from Massaccio's version in the Brancacci Chapel.
The Sacrifice of Noah fills the next, a smaller compartment. It is placed,
historically, before the Deluge, and must be taken to represent how Noah,
the just man and perfect, and his family, found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. As there are five male persons present, this scene cannot represent
the sacrifice immediately after the Flood, nor is any rainbow to be seen
as was usual in the traditional representations of that subject, like the
one in the Chiostro Verde at Santa Maria Novella. Raphael also gives more
figures than can be accounted for as having been in the ark in his
composition of the sacrifice of Noah, in the series called the Bible of
Raphael in the Loggia. The large composition of the Deluge gives us some
idea of what the cartoon of Pisa may have been like. There never was a
collection of naked figures so many and so beautiful. One is filled with
sorrow at the idea of their being drowned. They are all, too, engaged in
noble works; charity, energy, and inventiveness are amongst the virtues
they exhibit; there is no panic, or struggling one with another; no anger
or selfishness, excepting only in the boat in the middle distance; a woman
helps her children, a man his wife, an old man bears a young man in his
arms, Priam carrying AEneas, an even more pathetic imagination than
Homer's; others attempt to save their household goods; others erect a
tent; others, again, attempt to scale the sides of the ark or break into
it with axes--one cannot but hope they will succeed. The female figures are
especially beautiful in this picture, and again we have a foretaste of
that wonderful modelling of the flank and thigh seen to perfection in the
tombs at San Lorenzo. The weird sea and sky, the ark and the dead tree,
show what Michael Angelo could do when he liked, in departments of art
other than the human figure. The individual figures in the Deluge are
difficult to see on account of the smallness of scale in this part of the
vault. It must have been after seeing them from the floor of the chapel,
by removing some of the boards of his scaffolding, that Michael Angelo
determined to alter the scale in the remaining compositions. In no other
way can we account for the change in the size of the Athletes, at any
rate. The difference of scale between those surrounding the Sin of Ham
over the large door, and those surrounding the separation of Light from
Darkness over the High Altar, must be almost two feet. The increase is
gradual along the ceiling. Similarly the Sybilla Delphica is very much
smaller than the Sybilla Lybica, and the Prophet Joel than the Prophet
Jeremiah. The last composition of this series--a small one--represents the
Sin of Ham, and was the first painted. The vat and the wine jug are
wonderful still-life, reminding us of Bassano.
[Image #29]
THE FLOOD
A DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig. D. Anderson, Rome_)
The twenty Athletes that decorate the corners of these central
compositions, and support bronze medallions held in place by oak garlands
or by draperies, are nothing but the most direct of transcripts from the
nude model, but the most noble that have been executed in the art of
painting. They are finished to the smallest detail, and are as truthful to
nature as it was possible for a man with an innate sense of grandeur of
line to make them. Italian models have been posed in the positions of most
of them, and drawings from them compared with the photographs of these
figures; they are marvellously true, to the very wrinkles of the skin
under the arms and about the knees, and the drawing of the curves and
creases of the torso as the body bends. So naturalistic are they that
Michael Angelo must have posed a model and made drawings in the chapel
itself, perhaps even on the scaffolding, and worked straight away. He
appears to have used only three models for this purpose. The Athletes
drawn from the same model can easily be distinguished; they are actual
portraits. One was the man who sat for the Adam, and was of a noble
proportion with a small head, a beautiful brow, and a solemn mouth. His
hair was wavy and of a wispy character; he had broad shoulders; his
extremities were small, the thighs large and well developed, showing the
individual muscles by large forms with flat planes. He may be seen, as we
have said, in the Adam, and in the four figures surrounding the fresco
representing God dividing the Light from the Darkness; in the two figures
near the Adam in his creation of Eve; and best of all, for comparison, in
the figures near the foot of Adam in the creation of Man. Another model
was of a rounder and more bacchanalian character, not unlike the Dancing
Fawn in the Uffizi; but he was not in such good training. He was decidedly
fat, his face was mobile, and very easily took jovial expressions, his
cheeks dimpled, his eyes round and large, the pupils very dark and the
whites very white; his hair went into short, soft, frizzy curls; his
shoulders were small and round, the arms feeble, the thighs short, round,
and formless; his back was well developed, the folds of the skin in the
torso, when he bent, were very large and fat in line. It was probably for
this that Michael Angelo chose him. He is well seen in three of the
figures surrounding the third panel from the High Altar representing The
Spirit of God upon the Face of the Waters, and the two figures nearest to
the Adam and Eve in the scene of the Expulsion. The other model was of
more ordinary but of still very fine proportion. His head was rather
large, and his mouth petulant in expression, the upper eyelids very thick;
his hair is broken into large, hard curls. He is seen in the figures
surrounding the Sin of Ham, and was probably the first employed for this
work. These Athletes are the very epitome of the work of Michael Angelo.
If a man does not love them he cannot care for the work of Michael Angelo.
They express his highest idea of beauty--man created in the image of God,
as he testifies in this vault, and in the sonnet ending:--
Ne Dio, suo grazia, mi si mostra altrove,
Piu che'n alcun leggiadro e mortal velo;
E quel sol amo, perche'n quel si specchia.
Nor hath God deigned to show himself elsewhere
More clearly than in human form sublime
Which, since they image Him, alone I love.(118)
No leaves or branches, minor works of the Great Artist, still less
draperies of cloth or even of gold brocade, the works of the hand of man,
shall cover any portion of the Divine Image. So all these figures are
frankly naked, the genii of the Beauty of the Human Race.
The festoons these Athletes carry support large medallions painted like
bronze. They were probably the portion that Michael Angelo intended to
finish with gilding, but owing to the impatience of the Pope they were
left in their present state. They are a most valuable part of the
decorative scheme. Continuity is given by the repetition of these
bronze-coloured circles.
[Image #30]
THE BRAZEN SERPENT
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
A great cornice divides the scheme of the flat part of the vault already
described, and perhaps the first portion executed, from the curved part
containing the Prophets and Sibyls. They are larger in scale and freer in
style than any portion of the flat part of the vault, as though with
practice Michael Angelo's hand had grown even bolder than before. He may,
too, have thought the new scale of figures easier to see from the floor of
the chapel, for we must remember that this was his first experiment in
vault painting, and no doubt he would be glad to see its effect from below
when he was ordered to remove the scaffolding, and he must have learnt by
it. The Prophets and Sibyls appear to be the last word of Michael Angelo
in decorative painting, as Raphael knew, for he assimilated the teaching
both in the beautiful figures of Sibyls at Santa Maria della Pace and the
Prophet Isaiah of San Agostino. The motives of the genii or angels, wise
children whispering in the ears of the foretellers, seem to be inspired by
the sculpture of Giovanni Pisano as seen in the pilasters of the pulpit of
the Church of San Andrea at Pistoia.
It would be endless to try and tell all the thoughts and emotions, both
literary and artistic, suggested by the contemplation of these figures and
by the groups representing the Ancestors of Christ. Suffice it to say,
that all the thoughts that come into the minds of the beholders are as
nothing compared to the thoughts that passed through the mind of the
solitary artist composing and painting upon the high scaffolding of the
quiet chapel.
The series of the Ancestors of Christ illustrate the life of a being upon
this earth, from the terrible moment when the pregnant woman first feels
the pangs of approaching labour, in the semicircle of the window
(inscribed Roboam, Abias) to the lean and slippered pantaloon, who needs a
stick to help him rise from his seat (over the window inscribed Salmon,
Boaz, Obeth); there is the happy mother sleeping with her infant wrapped
in swaddling-clothes (Salmon, Boaz, Obeth); and the old man playing with
the children, (Eleazr, Matthew); the student attentively poring over his
book regardless of the female figure, possibly Inspiration, speaking to
him from the other side of the window (Naason). These figures, the
Ancestors of Christ, are more slightly painted than the rest of the vault.
They loom out of the darkness, caused by contrast to the light of the
windows they surround, grow in and out of the background and have an
atmospheric effect unequalled in fresco painting. Those who walk from the
Ponte Saint Angelo up the Borgo to the Vatican any morning early may see
at the back of the dim recesses of the arched cellar-like shops such
groups as these. The series may be regarded as the sketch-book of Michael
Angelo, in which he recorded his impressions of the life about him as he
trudged to his work.
The four triangular compositions that fill the corners of the chapel, the
four great Redemptions of Israel, are absolute masterpieces of space
arrangement, different methods of overcoming the same difficulty being
used in each picture, from the two principal figures and the tent in the
David and Goliath to the marvellous crowd of twisted limbs in the story of
the Brazen Serpent. In the composition of the Death of Holofernes Judith
covers with a napkin the severed head, which is carried in a basket on the
head of her handmaid; a most lovely group, said to have been taken from an
intaglio representing a vintage scene, in which a nymph fills with grapes
a basket supported on the head of a companion.
Under each of the Prophets and Sibyls, upon the side walls, is a
decorative putto supporting the name plate, standing at the springing of
the arches, as in Donatello's bas-relief representing Christ before
Pilate, in the pulpit of San Lorenzo. These ten beautiful figures are
seldom noticed, but evidently Raphael thought them worthy of study, as may
be seen in the lovely child-figure attributed to him in the Accademia di
San Lucca.
[Image #31]
JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of Messrs. Braun, Clement & Co., in Dornach, Alsace_)
The whole vault contains hardly one unworthy human being, the only sins
they commit are the Sins of Adam and of Ham, necessary for the story. They
are all beautiful and all holy. Can Michael Angelo have had any thought of
the doom of these his creations, as exemplified by him on the altar wall,
twenty-two years afterwards? The great work was finished, the public saw
it, and, as Michael Angelo says, "the Pope was very well pleased."