THE LAST ACT OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE TOMB, AND THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
As soon as Michael Angelo arrived in Rome, in 1535, he set to work to
complete his contract for the Tomb of Julius, and marbles that had waited
in silence for his liberating hand began to resound with the clink of the
iron. The two Slaves in the Louvre appear to have been worked upon once
again at this date, if we may judge by their likeness to the work in the
Dawn and the Day. After the death of Clement the new Pope, Paul III.,
Farnese, sent for him and requested him to enter his service, as Condivi
tells us.(147) Paul III., in a brief dated September 1, 1535,(148)
appointed Michael Angelo chief architect, sculptor, and painter at the
Vatican; he became a member of the Pope's household, with a pension of
1200 golden crowns, raised on the revenue from a ferry across the river
Po, at Piacenza. This was so unremunerative, however, that it was
exchanged for a post on the Chancery at Rimini. And now the doors of the
Sistine Chapel once more close upon the master, not to be opened again
until the Christmas of 1541.
[Image #43]
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
(_From a print in the British Museum_)
Michael Angelo had to destroy three frescoes by Perugino and two lunettes
of his own upon the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel for his new scheme.
He is said to have had the wall rebuilt of well-baked bricks, so possibly
the old frescoes had suffered from damp and dirt. Vasari says Fra
Sebastiano del Piombo prepared the wall for Michael Angelo, and secretly
had it grounded for oil painting, no doubt hoping himself to be employed
in the work, as oil was his special medium. Michael Angelo was very wroth
with his old friend for this, and declared that oil painting was an art
only fit for women and crazy fellows. We hear of no further intercourse
between Michael Angelo and the jovial frate. Vasari attributes their
coolness to this incident.
Hieronimo Staccoli wrote a letter in July 1537,(149) to the Duke of
Camerino, son and heir to the Duke of Urbino, about a salt-cellar designed
for him by Michael Angelo. This prince was afterwards a good friend to the
master, and his letter of September 7, 1539, informs us of the position of
affairs with regard to the Tomb of Julius during the progress of the large
painting in the Sistine:--
"DEAREST MESSER MICHAEL ANGELO,--It always has been, and now is,
more than ever our infinite desire, as you will naturally imagine,
to see the Tomb to the sainted memory of Pope Julius, my uncle,
brought to a good conclusion by you, and we know well that it
belongs to our duty to have good care of it, and see it ultimately
finished, being held to it as you so well know by that sainted
spirit: nevertheless, having heard by letters from our ambassador
at Rome the great desire of our Lord, we must comfort ourselves
with all patience whilst this said work is passed over by you. As
long as His Holiness holds you busy in finishing the picture in
the said chapel of Sisto; not being able or willing, but by our
duty and our natural inclination in this as in all things to
otherwise than comply with his wishes, we are contented to agree
with a good grace, on reflection and by the reverence we bear to
His Holiness. You may, therefore, fairly go on with the painting
until the work is finished; but with a firm hope and belief that
when it is done you will give yourself up entirely to finishing
the said Tomb, redoubling your diligence and care to make up for
the loss of time, as His Holiness has also promised you shall,
kindly offering himself to urge you to do it; and to this end we
have written you this letter. So long a time has passed since this
said Tomb was begun that we cannot persuade ourselves but that you
are equally desirous with us to see it finished; and esteeming you
an honourable man, as we certainly believe you are--you cannot be
otherwise with your singular virtue--we judge it superfluous to
give you any admonition except that you keep yourself in good
health, in order that you may honour those sainted bones that
living honoured you and the other gifted men of that age, by all
that we have so often heard. We beg you will make use of us if
there is any other matter in which we can do you pleasure, for we
shall do it with that good will which your most rare gifts
deserve. And keep well."
[Image #44]
THE JUDGE. FROM "THE DAY OF JUDGMENT"
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli, Alinari, Florence_)
Shortly before the fresco was finished, Vasari informs us that Michael
Angelo had a bad fall from the scaffolding, and injured his leg. He
returned home, shut himself up in his house, and would not allow any
doctor to come near him or even enter the house. A certain Florentine
physician and lover of the arts, Baccio Rontini, contrived to creep in by
a back door, and roamed about until he found the master. He then insisted
upon remaining with him, looking after him until he had effected a
complete cure.
The Last Judgment was shown to the public upon Christmas Day, 1541. In
this picture of the Day of Wrath, Michael Angelo has concentrated all his
energies to represent the terror of the wrath of God. It is Jehovah with
His thunders that rises before the frightened mass of human souls. The
Holy Mother crouches beside Him, turning her face away so as not to see
the wrath to come. Even the saints look with dread towards the great
Judge, fearing lest they too should be condemned. Martyrs brandish the
emblems of their martyrdom before His eyes to plead for them, and, as some
have said, claim vengeance for their pains. Michael Angelo would have us
realise that no human soul is innocent beside the Holiness of Heaven. The
gentle happiness of the redeemed, as represented by the blessed Frate
Angelico is absent from the scene--it could not appear without destroying
the unities of the tragedy. Peace will follow as the blessed walk in the
Elysian fields after they have passed, with a fearful joy, from the
judgment seat. Michael Angelo has followed the traditional composition of
the subject in all its lines and details, adapting it with the least
change possible to the space at his command, and to the superior knowledge
of the drawing of the human form that he possessed. It is most interesting
to compare this rendering with the same subject in the Campo Santo at
Pisa. Every part of the composition is repeated, the action of the Judge,
the Madonna beside Him on His right, Apostles on either side, the
resurrection of the dead, the descent into hell, the angels blowing the
trumpets in the centre of the lower part, the angels bearing the cross and
other implements of the Passion in the upper corners. This crowded mass of
figures is divided into nine several parts, all the figures and groups
having room enough to move, and to spare. The more this work is studied in
detail the more beautiful the forms appear, and the more daring and
skilful the foreshortenings are found to be. Every figure is beautiful,
and every one of them noble. The picture is full of symbolism in the
details, and may be studied every day, and new thoughts and new meanings
found in it. Souls that help each other in their upward struggle. Beads of
prayers with which one good righteous man draws souls to heaven. The wife
who lifts up her despairing husband; his expression of awe and doubt as he
rises upward. Souls long separated by death rush together in close
embrace; father and son, husband and wife. Dante is there thirsting for
deepest mysteries, his face positively thrust between St. Peter and St.
Paul. Souls driven down to hell, beautiful and noble as are those destined
for heaven; even their despair is dignified as if they assented to their
doom as just. Old Charon, in his boat, "with eyes of brass, who beats the
delaying souls with uplifted oar," is taken directly from Dante:--
Caron demonio con occhi di bragia
Loro accenando, tutte le raccoglie,
Batte col remo qualunque si adagia.
[Image #45]
SPIRITS OF THE BLESSED, PART OF "THE DAY OF JUDGMENT"
SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
Those portions of the fresco in the semicircular spaces at the top, angels
bearing implements of the Passion, appear to have been painted the last.
They approximate in style to the works afterwards done in the Pauline
Chapel, and are not so absolutely true in drawing as the rest of the work.
Here, for the first time, is a sense of fatigue in the workmanship. They
appear to have been treated as two separate compositions filling their
lunettes. Michael Angelo has used the favourite device of Raphael to give
movement, direction, and force of line, two figures pointing almost side
by side in almost exactly parallel actions. Nothing gives so much sense of
rush, as may be seen in many of the compositions in the Loggia. One
instance here is the angel bearing the Crown of Thorns and the figure near
him. Another is just below, two figures near the right arm of the Judge.
One of the finest and most superb groups ever designed by Michael Angelo
is the group of angels blowing the trumpets of doom in the forefront of
the fresco. Their energy and power, compared with the placid angels of
Pisa and Orvieto, exhibit the different aims of the artist most
effectively. It must be noticed how carefully Michael Angelo has arranged
his composition, so that the baldacchino used behind the High Altar upon
great occasions shall not injure his composition. The group of angel
trumpeters, the Charon and the devils in a cave, are all hidden and cut
off exactly by the curtains, and the composition generally is positively
improved by their absence. Michael Angelo, no doubt, thought the fresco
would be most seen on such occasions, and designed his work accordingly.
The space hidden, however, he did not neglect, but placed in it some of
his finest work.
The prophet above this end of the chapel is Jonah, whose history is a
symbol of the resurrection of the dead. His presence there makes us
suppose that Michael Angelo always contemplated the possibility of his
having to paint the Last Judgment upon this wall, although he himself
painted the lunettes now covered by the larger composition. The colour of
this fresco is very much darkened by dust and by smoke from the altar
candles; and, as it is more within reach than the vault, it has been
retouched. It should be a source of comfort to those who get tired with
looking upward at pictures in high places, if they will but remember that
their beloved paintings have often been protected from the restorer by
their high position. There is an interesting early copy of this fresco in
the Corsini Gallery in Florence, which, though rather crude, gives us a
good idea of the light tone of the painting in its early state.
This work was received by artists with enthusiasm, reflected in the pages
of Vasari. They came from all parts to study it; in fact, most of the
drawings attributed to Michael Angelo in collections are their studies
from it, and not his studies for it, as they are called. As a general
rule, whenever there are two or more figures drawn in a group, all equally
finished and accurately in the same position as the figures in the fresco,
the drawing may be assumed to be a copy.
Two sections of the public, even then, were unable to receive Michael
Angelo's message of the beauty and purity of the human figure. Not only
scandalous persons, like Aretino, objected to them, but pious people, who
could not and cannot yet be brought to believe in the splendour and
holiness of the Creator's work. Vasari tells us that when Michael Angelo
had almost finished the work Pope Paul came to see it, and Messer Biagio
da Cesena, Master of the Ceremonies, a very particular person, was with
him in the chapel, and was asked what he thought of it. Messer Biagio da
Cesena replied that he considered it highly improper to paint so many
shameless, naked figures in such an honourable building, and that it was
not a fit work for the Pope's chapel, but more suitable to a bagno or an
inn. Michael Angelo nettled by this resolved to revenge himself at once.
As soon as they left the chapel he set to work and drew Messer Biagio's
portrait, from memory, in hell as Minos, with a great serpent twisted
round his legs, surrounded by a crowd of devils. Messer Biagio complained
to the Pope, who asked him where he was placed? "In hell," was the reply.
"Then I can do nothing to help you," said the Pope; "had the painter sent
you to purgatory I would have used my best efforts to get you released,
but I exercise no influence in hell, _ubi nulla est redemptio_." Some
years afterwards Paul IV. objected to the naked figures, and employed
Daniele da Volterra to patch draperies on to some of them, with Michael
Angelo's consent, whereby Daniele obtained the nickname of Il Braghettone,
or the breeches-maker. Daniele did his work with a good deal of
discretion, hiding as little of the original fresco as possible: the
additions are unfortunately offensive in colour. The early engravings show
the picture in its original state, and show that the additions are not so
many or so important as might be supposed, as most of the larger masses of
draperies are seen to be Michael Angelo's own work. When the Pope obtained
Michael Angelo's consent to this alteration, the artist replied to his
messenger: "Tell his Holiness this is a small matter, and can easily be
set right. Let him look to setting the world in order: to reform a picture
costs no great trouble." Pius V. also employed Girolamo da Fano to make
some further alterations. These retouches _a secco_ have destroyed to a
great extent the atmospheric quality and the relation of the planes in
Michael Angelo's suave true-fresco method, which, as may be seen in the
vault, gives the grey half-tints of the flesh-tones in a way only equalled
by Andrea del Sarto in fresco and Rembrandt in oil painting.
As soon as Michael Angelo had finished the Last Judgment, Paul III. set
him to work again to fresco the walls of the chapel of the Holy Sacrament,
just completed by Antonio da San Gallo, and now known as the Cappella
Paolina. Michael Angelo had hoped to complete the Tomb of Julius at once,
with his own hand, but the Pope's determination necessitated further
negotiations with the Duke of Urbino. The Duke wrote to Michael Angelo
upon March 6, 1542, saying that he would be quite satisfied if the three
statues by his hand, including the Moses, were assigned to the Tomb, the
execution of the rest being left to competent workmen under him.(150)
There is also a petition from Michael Angelo to Paul III.(151) stating
that his Holiness the Pope's commission for Michael Angelo to work and
paint in his new chapel prevents him finishing the Tomb as agreed with the
illustrious signor Duke of Urbino. "Already Raffaello da Monte Lupo, the
Florentine, considered one of the best masters of the time, was well
forward with the standing group of the Madonna with the Child in her arms,
and a Prophet and a Sibyl seated, for four hundred scudi. The rest of the
decoration, excepting the part in front, was in the hands of Master
Giovanni de' Marchesi and Francesco da Urbino, chisellers and carvers in
stone, for seven hundred scudi. But there still remained to be supplied
the three figures to be carved by Michael Angelo's own hand, that is to
say, a Moses and two captives. But as the two said captives were designed
for the work when it was to have been on a much larger scale, they would
not fit in the reduced design, nor could they in any way be made to look
well there. Accordingly the said Messer Michael Angelo, not to lose his
honour, had blocked out two new statues to go on either side of the Moses,
representing the Active and Contemplative Life, which are well advanced,
so that they may be easily finished by another master. Michael Angelo
desires and supplicates his Holiness our Lord the Pope Paul the Third, in
order that he may work in his chapel, which needs all his energies and his
entire care, and he being aged, and desiring to serve the Pope with all
his power, to free him from his obligation to the signor Duke of Urbino
with regard to the said Tomb, cancelling and annulling every obligation.
Especially, to allow him to hand over the two statues that remain to be
done to the said Raffaello da Montelupo, or to some one pleasing to his
Excellency, for a good price, which it is thought would be 200 scudi. The
Moses will be finished entirely by Michael Angelo, and arrangements will
be made by Michael Angelo to pay the money due for these workers ... and
so he will be free in all things and able to serve and satisfy his
Holiness." Finally, he deposits a sum of 1200 crowns, and guarantees that
the work shall be efficiently executed in all its details. The final
contract in agreement with this petition was signed upon August 20,
1542.(152)
The mighty design of Michael Angelo's early years of enthusiasm dwindled
down to the Moses, but what a height above other men's biggest designs is
this single figure! The Cardinal was right who said the statue of Moses
alone was a sufficient memorial of Julius. In a letter to Salvestro da
Montauto, of February 3, 1545(153), Michael Angelo says that the Duke of
Urbino ratified the deed, and the five statues were given to Raffaello da
Montelupo to be carved. "Of these five statues my Lord the Pope having at
my earnest prayer and for my satisfaction conceded to me a little time, I
finished two of them with my own hand, that is to say, the Contemplative
Life and the Active Life for the same sum that the said Raffaello was to
have had." From the works themselves we may be sure that there is a good
deal of Raffaello da Montelupo about these figures all the same.
Notwithstanding all this evidence of the desire of Michael Angelo to carry
out his contract, we have a letter(154) from Annibale Caro to Antonio
Gallo as late as 1553 entreating him to plead with the Duke of Urbino for
Michael Angelo. "I assure you that the extreme distress caused him by
being in disgrace with his Excellency is sufficient to bring his grey hair
with sorrow to the grave before his time."
In the finished work there are statues not yet accounted for, that is to
say, the recumbent portrait of the Pope which was executed by Maso del
Bosco, the coat of arms of the Della Rovere by Battista Benti of Pietra
Santa, and the terminal figures by Giacomo del Duca. The greatest drawback
to the effect of the whole is the change in the architectural treatment
and decorations. The lower part belongs to the period when the work was
begun in 1505, and the upper, with no transition but a joint in the stone,
to the heavier and coarser style of the period when it was finished, 1545.
The jointing and the masonry generally are not of a satisfactory
character,(155) and Michael Angelo's assistants cannot be congratulated
upon the way they did their share of the work. With the exception of the
figures of Active and Contemplative Life, the work of the assistants would
be better away.
The two bound captives which were too big for the altered monument are now
the glory of the Italian sculpture galleries of the Louvre. They were
presented by Michael Angelo to Roberto degli Strozzi, because, when the
sculptor was ill in 1544, Luigi del Riccio, his friend, nursed him and
looked after him in the Strozzi Palace. They were taken to France and
offered to the King of France, who gave them to the Connetable de
Montmorenci; they were placed by him in Ecouen. They were bought for the
French nation by M. Lenoir when the Republic put them up for sale in 1793.
Four unfinished colossal figures, which still appear to be wrenching
themselves from their prison of stone, now lurk in the corners of a
repulsive grotto in the Boboli Gardens. They are supposed to have been
also for the Tomb of Julius. Heath Wilson suggests that they may have been
intended for the facade of San Lorenzo. The difficulty as to scale that
caused a doubt as to their being intended for the Tomb does not really
disprove it; for Michael Angelo was never very particular as to the
comparative size of the figures in his monuments, and the many alterations
of his schemes for the Tomb make it possible for them to have been worked
in somehow. It is very probable that when he was at Florence, and after
some of the more threatening letters of the executors, he set savagely to
work upon some blocks ready to his hand, with the idea of having them
conveyed to Rome afterwards. They belong to about the time of the siege of
Florence, and are more suggestive of his method of work, and of his
thoughts in the presence of the stone, than any other of his statues. If
they were removed from their ugly surroundings and placed, say, in the
Tribuna of David in the Belle Arti at Florence instead of the plaster
casts that represent the master in his own city, they, with the other
fragments, such as the Saint Matthew, the Apollo, the Victory, and the
other works in the Bargello, would make a gallery of his art even worthy
of Michael Angelo. Failing such a possibility, they might, at least, be
placed under the Loggia dei Lanzi, away from the repulsive grotesque of
stucco and stalactite that grins at them in the grotto. If something must
be left as a companion to the ugly thing, plaster casts would be quite
good enough.
The Victory, of the Bargello, was said by Vasari to have been designed for
the Tomb, but it may just as well have been intended for an angel
overcoming a demon, part of the ruined scheme for the facade of San
Lorenzo. The lower figure is still left in the rough, and is supposed to
be like the artist. The head of the upper figure is so dull that it cannot
have been carved by the sculptor who finished the torso so exquisitely. It
may have been left a mere block, like the head of one of the captives of
the Boboli. The man who carved the head, and also worked on other portions
of the group, turned the neck round too much. If we imagine the head less
turned and looking down towards the crouching figure, conquered by the
young genius of beauty and victory, we shall see the grace in the pose of
the torso to greater advantage. We imagine a somewhat similar story for
the figure in the Bargello, called the Adonis. The boar cannot be by
Michael Angelo's hand, and, indeed, very little of the figure suggests his
grasp of plastic possibilities; the figure cannot have been much more than
blocked out by him, and was finished after his death by some artist of the
type of Vincenzio Danti.