[Frontispiece: THE DAVID.]
Bell's Miniature Series of Painters
MICHELANGELO
BY
EDWARD C. STRUTT
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1908
First Published, January, 1904.
Reprinted, 1908.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SOME BOOKS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST'S LIFE
LIFE OF MICHELANGELO
THE ART OF MICHELANGELO
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST OF THE ARTIST'S CHIEF WORKS IN PUBLIC GALLERIES
SOME BOOKS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
"Carte Michelangiolescheinedite." Milano, 1865.
"Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti," by A. Condivi. Pisa, 1823.
"Michelangelo," by H. Knackfuss. Berlin, 1895.
"Michel Ange," by E. Ollivier. Paris, 1892.
"The Lives and Works of Michelangelo and Raphael," by Quatremere de
Quincy.
"Michelangelo," by L. von Scheffler. 1892.
"Michelangiolo in Rom, 1508-1512," by A. Springer. Leipzig, 1875.
"Life and works of M. A. Buonarroti," by Charles Heath Wilson.
London, 1876.
"Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti," by John Addington Symonds.
London, 1893.
"Michelangelo Buonarroti," by Sir Charles Holroyd. London, 1903.
"An account of the drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo in the
University Galleries of Oxford," by Sir J. C. Robinson.
"Michael Angelo," by Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower. London, 1903.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE DAVID _Accademia, Florence, Frontispiece_
PORTRAIT OF MICHELANGELO _Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
THE CREATION OF MAN _Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome_
TOMB OF LORENZO DE' MEDICI _New Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence_
CENTRAL GROUP OF THE LAST JUDGMENT _Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome_
THE MADONNA DELLA PIETÀ _St. Peter's, Rome_
THE HOLY FAMILY _Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
THE MOSES _San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome_
CHRONOLOGY OF MICHELANGELO'S LIFE
1475. Born at Caprese.
1488. Is apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandajo.
1489-92. Studies sculpture under the patronage of Lorenzo il
Magnifico.
1504. Enters into competition with Leonardo da Vinci.
1505. Goes to Rome at the invitation of Pope Julius II.
1508. Begins painting ceiling of Sistine Chapel.
1512. Completes it.
1521. Commences Medicean Tombs in San Lorenzo.
1529. Fortifies Florence against Charles V.
1535-41. Paints Last Judgment.
1547. Begins building Cupola of St. Peter's.
1564. Dies in Rome.
THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO
In the quaintly written diary of Messer Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, a
well-to-do Florentine citizen, the following entry, dated March 6th,
1475, may still be found: "To-day there was born unto me a male
child, whom I have named Michelagnolo.[1] He saw the light at
Caprese, whereof I am Podestà, on Monday morning, 6th March, between
four and five o'clock, and on the 8th of the same month he was
baptized in the church of San Giovanni." Messer Lodovico had been
appointed _Podestà_, or Governor, of Chiusi and Caprese in the
Casentino by Lorenzo de Medici only a few months before penning this
memorandum, so that, by a strange caprice of fate, it was here, in
the little town overshadowed by the rugged Sasso della Verna,
hallowed by the ecstatic visions of St. Francis of Assisi, and not in
Florence, in the Athens of the Italian Renaissance, where resurrected
Paganism ran riot and triumphed, that the longest and most glorious
career in the history of art and of human endeavour began.
[1] This is the archaic form of _angelo_. The name is also sometimes
spelt _Michelangiolo_, but I have thought it advisable to adopt the
modern and more generally accepted _Michelangelo_.
Vasari and Condivi, Michelangelo's pupils and enthusiastic
biographers, maintain that the Buonarroti family was closely related
to the great house of the Counts of Canossa, a conviction fully
shared, curiously enough, by the artist himself, who rather prided
himself on his aristocratic connection. But recent genealogical
researches have proved beyond all doubt that, although of gentle
birth (both his father and his mother, Madonna Francesca di Miniato
Del Sera, coming of ancient Florentine stock), Michelangelo could not
in reality lay claim to even distant ties of kinship with the Canossa
family.
On the expiration of his term of office as Podestà of Caprese, which
extended little over a year, Messer Lodovico returned with his family
to Settignano, the picturesque little village built on a vine-clad
slope overlooking Florence, where, in an old-fashioned mansion
nestling among olive trees and surrounded by a well-cultivated
_podere_, many generations of the Buonarroti had lived and died.
Before leaving Caprese, however, the proud father had the child's
horoscope cast, and greatly did he rejoice when the astrologer
announced that a singularly lucky combination of the planets had
presided over the birth of his boy, who was destined "to perform
wonders with his mind and with his hands," a prophecy which was amply
fulfilled.
FIRST FLORENTINE PERIOD
The removal of the Buonarroti family to Settignano, the little
village almost exclusively inhabited by stonemasons and workers in
marble, exercised a most decisive influence on the child's future
career. Indeed, Michelangelo himself used to say half jestingly,
that as he had been given out to nurse to a stonemason's wife, the
mania for sculpture must have entered his blood together with the
milk which he had sucked as a babe. A mallet and a chisel and bits
of marble were the only toys that the infant Michelangelo cared for,
and it is recorded of him that when he grew up to be a sturdy boy of
ten he could use his tools almost as skilfully as his foster-father
himself. He soon became more ambitious, and would pass whole hours
with chalk and charcoal, trying to copy the marble figures and
ornaments plentifully strewn about.
For it was a busy time at Settignano, whose hundreds of stone-carvers
were hardly able to cope with the numerous commissions which poured
in upon them from the merchant princes of Florence, anxious to rival
Lorenzo the Magnificent in the building and decoration of splendid
palaces. A spirited drawing of a faun by Michelangelo's boyish hand
may still be seen on a wall of the Buonarroti Villa.
Messer Lodovico did everything in his power to discourage these
marked artistic tendencies, and in order the better to uproot what he
regarded as a worthless inclination, he sent the boy to a
grammar-school in Florence, away from the dangerous _milieu_ of
Settignano, with its unceasing din of hammer and chisel on
reverberating marble, which was sweet music to Michelangelo's ear.
But although Maestro Francesco da Urbino, to whose care Messer
Lodovico had entrusted his son, frequently had recourse to the most
persuasive and forcible arguments, they were entirely lost on young
Michelangelo, who had instinctively drifted into the company of the
garzoni and pupils of leading Florentine artists, and sadly neglected
his books in order to devote himself with growing enthusiasm to the
study of art.
Amongst his new friends was Francesco Granacci, a pupil of Domenico
Ghirlandajo, who often lent him drawings to copy, and took him to his
master's _bottega_ whenever any work was going forward from which he
might learn. "So powerfully," says Condivi, "did these sights move
Michelangelo, that he altogether abandoned letters; so that his
father, who held art in contempt, often beat him severely for it."
But it soon became apparent that blows and persuasion were equally
unavailing, and Messer Lodovico finally gave up the hopeless
struggle, apprenticing his thirteen-year-old son on April 1st, 1488,
to Domenico and David Ghirlandajo, reputed the best painters of the
time in Florence. Although a mere child, Michelangelo was evidently
already able to make himself useful in the studio, for instead of
paying a certain sum for his apprenticeship, as was usually the case,
it was stipulated that he should receive twenty-four florins, about
£8 12_s._, during the three years of its duration.
Michelangelo's first picture was a strikingly faithful copy of Martin
Schongauer's famous _Temptation of St. Antony_, which he painted with
a realistic force considered wonderful for a child of his age. A
number of anecdotes illustrative of the precocity of the boy's
genius, are related by Condivi and by Vasari. "Michelangelo," says
the latter, "grew in power and character so rapidly that Domenico was
astonished seeing him do things quite extraordinary in a youth, for
he not only surpassed the other students, but often equalled the work
done by his master. It happened that Domenico was working in the
great chapel of Santa Maria Novella, and one day when he was out
Michelangelo set himself to draw from nature the scaffolding, the
tables with all the materials of the art, and some of the young men
at work. Presently Domenico returned, and saw Michelangelo's
drawing. He was astonished, saying 'this boy knows more than I do;'
and he was stupefied by this style and new realism; 'a gift from
heaven to a child of such tender years.'"
Michelangelo derived very little advantage from his apprenticeship to
Domenico Ghirlandajo, who was actually jealous of his pupil and gave
him little or no assistance in his studies. He may have picked up
some practical knowledge, however, transferring cartoons for his
master in the church of Santa Maria Novella, painting draperies and
ornaments, mixing colours for fresco painting, and generally
fulfilling the rather menial duties which fell to the lot of an
artist's apprentice in those days. The boy had no fixed plan or
method of study, but devoted himself principally to drawing, in which
he soon acquired a boldness and security of line never attained by
his master, whose faulty cartoons Michelangelo often had the courage
to correct.
It was in the gardens of the Medici at San Marco, where Lorenzo the
Magnificent had collected many antique statues and decorative
sculptures, that Michelangelo finally discovered his real artistic
vocation, and here he would spend many hours every day, assimilating
the Hellenic spirit which emanated from the masterpieces before him.
Lorenzo's principal object in establishing a museum of antique
sculpture at San Marco had been to raise Florentine sculpture from
the state of comparative neglect into which it had fallen since the
death of Donatello. He therefore appointed one Bertoldo, who had
been foreman of Donatello's workshop, keeper of the collection, with
a special commission to encourage and instruct the young men who
studied there. But there was evidently a great lack of students, for
Lorenzo had recourse to Domenico Ghirlandajo, requesting him to
select from his pupils those he considered the most promising, and
send them to work in the garden of San Marco. Domenico, nothing loth
to get rid of his two most ambitious apprentices, selected Francesco
Granacci and Michelangelo, and it was thus that the latter came under
the influence of Donatello's school. Of Bertoldo, who must be
considered Michelangelo's first instructor in the art of sculpture,
and who doubtless had a great share in shaping his genius, very
little is known beyond Vasari's statement that "although he was old
and could not work, he was none the less an able and highly reputed
artist." The magnificent pulpits of San Lorenzo, begun by Donatello
and completed by Bertoldo, amply suffice to confirm Vasari's
eulogistic estimate.
Under such a master Michelangelo made rapid progress, and by his
first attempt at sculpture, a mask of a grinning Faun, attracted the
attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who took the keenest interest
in the art school which he had founded. So struck was Lorenzo with
the boy's genius, that he prevailed upon Messer Lodovico, not without
the greatest difficulty, to entrust the talented young sculptor to
his care. Vasari tells us that "he gave Michelangelo a good room in
his own house with all that he needed, treating him like a son, with
a seat at his table, which was frequented every day by noblemen and
men of great importance."
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MICHELANGELO.]
Michelangelo's daily companions at this hospitable board were such
men as Pico della Mirandola, surnamed "the prince of wisdom,"
Marsilio Ficino, the expounder of Plato, and the poets Luigi Pulci
and Angelo Poliziano. It was the latter who suggested the subject of
Michelangelo's first important work, a bas-relief, now in the Casa
Buonarroti, representing the _Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae_.
It is a singularly powerful composition, conceived and carried out
with a freedom and originality little short of miraculous in a boy of
fifteen. The struggling groups of combatants, instinct with life and
energy, the masterful treatment of anatomical problems, and the
already profound knowledge of the human frame, reveal the future
author of the _Last Judgment_.
Michelangelo himself, when at the height of his artistic greatness,
used to say that he had never quite fulfilled the splendid promise
contained in this youthful work of his. Apart from its intrinsic
merit, this bas-relief is interesting as illustrating Michelangelo's
complete independence from the school and methods of Donatello. His
bold and original genius had sought inspiration directly from the
antique, and the _Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae_ might easily
be taken for a fragment from some Roman sarcophagus. In view of
these very pronounced characteristics, it is difficult to understand
why another bas-relief, also in the Casa Buonarroti, representing a
seated Madonna with the Infant Jesus, and chiefly notable for its
almost servile imitation of Donatello's manner, should be ascribed by
most critics to this same period. Indeed, the execution and design
of this _Madonna and Child_ are so inferior as to render it a work of
extremely doubtful authenticity.
Although he applied himself principally to the study of sculpture,
Michelangelo continued to devote many hours every day to drawing,
and, like most young artists of his age, he drew and studied
assiduously in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of the Carmine,
containing the famous frescoes of Masaccio and his followers.
Conscious of his own superiority, Michelangelo was, it appears, in
the habit of frankly criticizing the work of his fellow-students in
the Brancacci Chapel, and one of these, named Piero Torrigiani, a
brutal and proud fellow, got so angry one day that he hit
Michelangelo a formidable blow on the nose, breaking the cartilage
and disfiguring his critic for life. For this act of temper
Torrigiani was banished from Florence, but it is pleasant to know
that Michelangelo successfully interceded with Lorenzo on behalf of
the man who had assaulted him.
Michelangelo had just completed the _Battle of the Centaurs and
Lapithae_ when he lost his best friend and munificent patron, to whom
he had become deeply attached. On April 8th, 1492, Lorenzo the
Magnificent died at Careggi, sincerely mourned, not only in Florence,
but throughout Italy. The generous encouragement which he gave to
art and letters, the power and splendour which he bestowed on
Florence in exchange for her lost liberty, more as an infatuated
lover dowering a wayward bride than as a conqueror imposing his will,
the consummate ability displayed in his diplomatic dealings with the
other Italian States, these were the principal merits which justified
the proud title of _Il Magnifico_, conferred on him by his
contemporaries, and which caused Lorenzo's death to be regarded as a
public calamity throughout Italy.
So much grief, says Condivi, did Michelangelo feel for his patron's
death, that for some time he was quite unable to work. He left the
Medicean palace, which had been his home during three years, and
returned to his father's house. But his love for art was stronger
than his grief, and after a few weeks, when he was himself again, he
bought a large piece of marble that had for many years been exposed
to the wind and rain, and carved a Hercules out of it. This statue
was placed in the Strozzi Palace, where it stood until the siege of
Florence in 1530, when Giovanni Battista della Palla bought it and
sent it into France as a gift to King Francis I. It has
unfortunately been lost.
At this time Michelangelo applied himself most diligently to the
study of anatomy, a profound knowledge of which is apparent in all
his subsequent works. He was indebted to the Prior of Santo Spirito
for many kindnesses, amongst others for the use of a room where he
dissected the subjects, for the most part executed criminals, which
the Prior placed at his disposal. "Nothing," says Condivi, "could
have given Michelangelo more pleasure, and this was the beginning of
his anatomical studies, which he followed until he had completely
mastered the secrets of the human frame."
It is surprising that artists of the Cinquecento should have enjoyed
privileges for practically studying anatomy which were denied to
physicians. When the famous Dr. Hunter saw Leonardo da Vinci's
anatomical drawings and their descriptions, preserved in the library
of George III., he discovered with astonishment that the artist had
been a deep student, "and was at that time the best anatomist in the
world." Michelangelo, as Vasari tells us, "dissected many dead
bodies, zealously studying anatomy," whereas Cortesius, professor of
anatomy at Bologna, who wrote a century later, complains that he was
prevented finishing a treatise on "Practical Anatomy" in consequence
of having only been able twice to dissect a human body in the course
of twenty-four years. To please his friend the Prior, Michelangelo
carved a crucifix in wood, a little under life size, which was placed
over the high altar of the church of Santo Spirito, but which has
since been lost.
Piero de' Medici, the Magnifico's son and successor, had inherited
none of his father's brilliant qualities. He was proud and insolent,
and his coarse tastes and manners soon lost him that popularity which
had been Lorenzo's stepping-stone to greatness. Michelangelo, who
had been his companion as a boy, and whom he persuaded to accept his
hospitality, was ill at ease in the house of a Prince who could so
far insult the sensitive artist as to boast that he had two
remarkable men in his establishment, Michelangelo and a certain
Spanish groom remarkable for his athletic prowess, thus placing both
on the same level.
Too proud to tolerate such treatment, and foreseeing Piero's
approaching fall, Michelangelo left Florence early in the year 1494
and went first to Venice, where he failed to find employment, and
thence to Bologna. Here he was hospitably received by a gentleman
named Messer Gian Francesco Aldovrandi, who not only paid a fine of
fifty Bolognese lire to which the impecunious young sculptor had been
condemned for having neglected to provide himself with a passport,
but invited him to his house and honoured him highly, "delighting in
his genius, and every evening he made him read something from Dante
or from Petrarca, or now and then from Boccaccio, until he fell
asleep."
While staying with Aldovrandi, and thanks to his recommendation,
Michelangelo completed an unfinished statue of San Petronio in the
church of San Domenico and carved a statuette of a kneeling angel
holding a candlestick for the arca or shrine of the saint, begun by
Nicolò di Bari. It is a beautiful and highly finished work, which
was greatly admired and for which he received thirty ducats. His
success aroused the fierce jealousy of the Bolognese sculptors, and
it was under fear of personal violence from the native craftsmen, who
accused him of taking the bread out of their mouths, that
Michelangelo hastily left Bologna in the spring of 1495 and returned
to Florence.
In November of the preceding year Piero de' Medici had had to fly
from the city over whose destinies he was so unfit to preside, and
when Michelangelo returned to Florence he found that Savonarola had
established a popular government. The fiery Dominican, with his
inspired eloquence, his ascetic fervour and an energy bordering upon
violence, was exactly a man after Michelangelo's heart, and
Savonarola's impassioned and gloomy appeals made an indelible
impression upon him. The _Last Judgment_ in the Sistine Chapel might
almost be regarded as a pictorial rendering of one of the terrible
frate's sermons.
Although only twenty years of age, Michelangelo, of whom it has been
said "that he was never young," was made a member of the General
Council of Citizens. But his political duties did not take up much
of his time, for to this period must be ascribed the statue of a
youthful St. John the Baptist, executed for Lorenzo di Pier
Francesco, a cousin of the exiled Medici, and now in the Berlin
Museum. It is a charming but somewhat effeminate figure, differing
strangely from the powerful and rugged style to which we are
accustomed in Michelangelo's works. Lorenzo, however, was delighted
with it and became a staunch friend and admirer of the young
sculptor, whose studio he frequently visited. On one occasion he
found Michelangelo at work on a _Sleeping Cupid_ so perfectly
modelled and conceived in a spirit so truly Hellenic, as to appear a
masterpiece of antique art. Lorenzo suggested that Michelangelo
should make it look as if it had been buried under the earth for many
centuries, so that the statue, being taken for a genuine antique,
would sell much better, and the artist, more out of professional
pride than in hopes of gain, followed his friend's suggestion. _The
Sleeping Cupid_ was sent to Rome, where Raffaelo Riario, Cardinal di
San Giorgio, bought it as an antique for two hundred ducats, an
evidence not so much of the Cardinal's ignorance as of Michelangelo's
careful study of classical art.
This work was indirectly the cause of Michelangelo's first coming to
Rome, for the Cardinal having discovered that his Cupid had been made
in Florence was at first very angry at having been fooled, and
insisted on the dealer, Baldassare del Milanese, taking back the
statue and refunding the two hundred ducats (of which sum, by the
way, Michelangelo had only received thirty ducats), but when his
anger had subsided, the prelate, who was a liberal patron of art,
shrewdly concluded that a sculptor who could so well imitate the
antique was worth encouraging, and he forthwith despatched one of his
gentlemen to Florence for the express purpose of discovering the
mysterious forger and bringing him to Rome.
The Cardinal's emissary, after much fruitless search, chanced upon
Michelangelo in his studio, and was so struck with the masterful
manner in which the young sculptor made a pen-drawing of a hand in
his presence, that he began to cross-examine him discreetly about his
other works, and gradually learned all the story of the Cupid.
Michelangelo, who longed to see Rome, which his visitor extolled as
the widest field for an artist to study and to show his genius in,
readily consented to leave Florence. In fact it appears that he was
not very popular among his fellow-citizens owing to his former
intimacy with the exiled Medici, and so, towards the end of June,
1496, he set foot in Rome for the first time. As to the _Sleeping
Cupid_, nothing is known about its fate beyond the fact that it fell
into the hands of Cesare Borgia at the sack of Urbino in 1592, and
was by him presented to the Marchioness of Mantua, who in
acknowledging the gift describes it as "without a peer among the
works of modern times."
Michelangelo was greatly disappointed in his hopes of obtaining
lucrative employment from Cardinal Riario. Indeed, the only work
which he did during the first few weeks of his sojourn consisted in a
cartoon for a _Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata_, to be painted
by the Cardinal's barber! Fortunately for the young artist a wealthy
Roman gentleman, Messer Jacopo Galli, came to his rescue,
commissioning a _Bacchus_, which is now in the National Museum at
Florence, and a _Cupid_, believed by some to be the statue now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. Of all Michelangelo's
works, this _Bacchus_ is certainly the most realistic and least
dignified, representing as it does a youth in the first stage of
intoxication, holding a cup in his right hand and in his left a bunch
of grapes, from which a mischievous little Satyr is slily helping
himself.
The statue was greatly admired in Rome and was the means of bringing
Michelangelo to the notice of the French king's envoy in Rome,
Cardinal De la Groslaye de Villiers, who commissioned him to carve a
marble group of _Our Lady holding the dead Christ in her arms_, for
the price of four hundred and fifty golden ducats. The contract,
dated August 26th, 1498, is still preserved in the Archivio
Buonarroti, and concludes with these words: "And I, Jacopo Gallo,
promise to his Most Reverend Lordship that the said Michelangelo will
furnish the said work within one year, and that it shall be the most
beautiful work in marble which Rome to-day can show, and that no
master of our days shall be able to produce a better." We shall see,
when describing this magnificent group, that Jacopo's boast and
promise were more than justified.
While in Rome, Michelangelo kept up an active correspondence with
Messer Lodovico, who, it appears, found himself in great financial
straits at this time. Being a most dutiful and affectionate son, the
young sculptor sent every available scudo of his money to succour his
father and his three younger brothers, namely Buonarroto, born in
1477, whom he placed in the Arte della Seta; Giovan Simone, born in
1479, who led a vagabond life and was a source of continual trouble,
and Sigismondo, born in 1481, who became a soldier. The letters
which Michelangelo, in the midst of his artistic labours, found time
to write home, full of tender solicitude and good advice and
invariably containing a remittance, give us a touching insight into
the beautiful and disinterested character which lay hidden underneath
his stern and decidedly unattractive exterior.
He lived not only very economically, but penuriously, in order the
better to help his family, and it appears that his health suffered
not a little from these privations. His father heard of it, and
wrote a letter, dated December 19th, 1500, in which these passages
occur: "Economy is good, but above all do not be penurious; live
moderately and do not stint yourself, and avoid hardships, because in
your art, if you fall ill (which God forbid), you are a lost man.
Above all things, never wash; have yourself rubbed down, but never
wash!"
When Michelangelo returned to Florence in the spring of 1501, the
fame of the great works which he had accomplished in Rome had already
preceded him, and he was generally admitted to be the first sculptor
of the day. Commissions came pouring in upon him, including one from
Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, who afterwards became Pope Pius III.,
for fifteen statues of saints to adorn the Piccolomini Chapel in the
Duomo of Siena.
But he completely neglected this work in order to devote himself with
characteristic ardour to a more congenial task, that of carving a
colossal statue of David out of a huge block of marble which had been
previously spoiled by an inferior artist and abandoned as useless in
the Opera del Duomo. Surmounting the enormous technical difficulties
which he had to contend with, Michelangelo succeeded, after nearly
two years of hard work, in evolving from the crippled block of marble
one of the greatest masterpieces of modern art.
On the 14th of May, 1504, _Il Gigante_, as it was called by the
Florentines, left Michelangelo's workshop and was dragged with much
difficulty to the Piazza della Signoria, where it stood until the
year 1873, when it was removed to the hall of the Accademia delle
Belle Arti. It has fortunately suffered very little from its
exposure in the mild Florentine air, but the left arm was shattered
by a stone during the tumults of 1527. The broken pieces were
carefully collected, however, by Vasari and a young sculptor,
Cecchino De' Rossi, who restored the arm in 1543. Another giant
David in bronze was commissioned to Michelangelo in 1502 by the
Republic, who wished to make a present of it to a French statesman,
Florimond Robertet, but although this work is known to have remained
for more than a hundred years in the château of Bury, near Blois, it
has since disappeared.
While wrestling with the difficulties of his _David_, Michelangelo
found time to accomplish many other important works, including two
marble tondi in bas-relief, the first of which is now in the National
Museum at Florence and the other in the Royal Academy, London. Both
represent the _Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John_, and
although lacking in finish they deserve to rank among the finest of
Michelangelo's works. The composition is beautiful and simple, the
modelling bold and the expression of the Madonna singularly noble and
striking.
In April, 1503, Michelangelo was commissioned by the Operai of the
Duomo to carve out of Carrara marble twelve colossal statues of the
Apostles, one to be finished each year, and a workshop was specially
built for the sculptor in the Borgo Pinti, but the contract could not
be carried out, the unfinished _St. Matthew_, now in the courtyard of
the Accademia, in Florence, being the only work which resulted from
this commission: "And in order not altogether to give up painting,"
says Condivi, "he executed a round panel of Our Lady for Messer
Agnolo Doni, a Florentine citizen, for which he received seventy
ducats." This tondo, representing _The Holy Family_, with nude
figures in the background, is now in the Uffizi Gallery, and apart
from its originality and artistic merit, it is especially interesting
as being the only easel picture which may be attributed with absolute
certainty to Michelangelo.
In August, 1504, Michelangelo was commissioned by his friend and
protector, Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of the Republic, to decorate
a wall in the Sala del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio, a most
flattering compliment to the young artist, as Leonardo da Vinci, then
at the height of his fame, was already engaged in preparing cartoons
for the opposite wall. Leonardo's designs represented the famous
_Fight for the Standard_, an episode of the battle of Anghiari,
fought in 1440, when the Florentines defeated Niccolò Piccinino.
Michelangelo selected for his subject an episode in the war with
Pisa, which gave him an opportunity to display his wonderful
draughtsmanship and his profound knowledge of the human frame.
Benvenuto Cellini, who copied the cartoon in 1513, just before its
mysterious disappearance, describes it as follows: "Michelangelo
portrayed a number of foot soldiers who, the season being summer, had
gone to bathe in the Arno. He drew them at the moment the alarm is
sounded, and the men, all naked, rush to arms. So splendid is their
action that nothing survives of ancient or of modern art which
touches the same lofty point of excellence; and, as I have already
said, the design of the great Leonardo was itself most admirably
beautiful. These two cartoons stood, one in the Palace of the
Medici, the other in the hall of the Pope. So long as they remained
intact they were the school of the world. Though the divine
Michelangelo in later life finished that great chapel of Pope Julius,
he never rose halfway to the same pitch of power; his genius never
afterwards attained to the force of those first studies."
Leonardo, after having begun painting a group of horsemen on the
wall, abandoned the task with characteristic fickleness, and
Michelangelo having been summoned to Rome in the beginning of 1505 by
Pope Julius II., left his work unfinished. It is said that a
worthless rival named Baccio Bandinelli, envious of Michelangelo's
greatness, destroyed the famous cartoon of Pisa. A sketch of the
whole composition may be seen in the Albertina Gallery at Vienna, but
perhaps the most complete copy of the cartoon is the monochrome
painting belonging to the Earl of Leicester, at Holkham Hall.
THE TRAGEDY OF THE TOMB
Michelangelo little suspected when he left Florence that he was
bidding adieu for ever to his happiness and peace of mind. Hitherto
he had had to deal with generous tyrants, such as the Medici, with
rivals whose envy was shorn of dangers by their cowardice, and with a
protector such as Piero Soderini, whom Machiavelli taunted with being
a weakling only fit for the Limbo of Infants. It was not until he
came to Rome that he was brought face to face with a man blessed or
cursed with indomitable energy, boundless ambition and a morbid
restlessness which was probably the resultant of these two forces.
Both Julius II. and Michelangelo were what their contemporaries
called _uomini terribili_, proud, passionate, given to sudden bursts
of fury, yet generous withal and truly great. For two such men to
live together in uninterrupted peace and goodwill would have been a
sheer impossibility.
After some months of hesitation, Julius II. finally decided upon the
best way of employing Michelangelo's talents. He resolved to have a
magnificent monument erected during his lifetime, and confided the
task to the young sculptor. In an incredibly short time Michelangelo
prepared his great design, which pleased the Pope so much that he at
once sent him to Carrara to quarry the necessary marble. During the
eight months which he spent at Carrara, Michelangelo blocked out two
of the figures for the tomb, so anxious was he to begin his colossal
work.
In November Michelangelo returned to Rome, where a house and spacious
workshop were as signed to him near the Vatican, and in January,
1506, most of the marble, which had come by water, was spread all
over the Piazza of St. Peter's: "This immense quantity of marble,"
says Condivi, "was the admiration of all and a joy to the Pope, who
heaped immeasurable favours upon Michelangelo, and was so interested
in his work that he ordered a drawbridge to be thrown across from the
Corridore to the rooms of Michelangelo, by which he might visit him
in private."
Michelangelo's original project of the tomb subsequently underwent so
many modifications and reductions, that Condivi's account of what the
monument should have been is deeply interesting: "The tomb was to
have had four faces, two of eighteen braccia, that served for the
flanks, so that it was to be a square and a half in plan. All round
about the outside were niches for statues, and between niche and
niche terminal figures; to these were bound other statues, like
prisoners, upon certain square plinths, rising from the ground and
projecting from the monument. They represented the liberal arts,
each with her symbol, denoting that, like Pope Julius, all the
virtues were the prisoners of Death, because they would never find
such favour and encouragement as he gave them. Above these ran the
cornice that tied all the work together. On its plane were four
great statues; one of these, the Moses, may be seen in San Pietro ad
Vincula. So the work mounted upward until it ended in a plane. Upon
it were two angels who supported an arc; one appeared to be smiling
as though he rejoiced that the soul of the Pope had been received
amongst the blessed spirits, the other wept, as if sad that the world
had been deprived of such a man. Above one end was the entrance to
the sepulchre in a small chamber, built like a temple; in the middle
was a marble sarcophagus, where the body of the Pope was to be
buried; everything worked out with marvellous art. Briefly, more
than forty statues went to the whole work, not counting the subjects
in mezzo rilievo to be cast in bronze, all appropriate in their
stories and proclaiming the acts of this great Pontiff."
As the monument would have covered an area of about 34½ feet by 23
feet, the church of St. Peter, although restored by Nicholas V., was
found to be too small to contain it, and Julius II. decided to
rebuild the whole church on a more magnificent scale, after designs
prepared by Bramante.
The eager enthusiasm with which Michelangelo attacked his colossal
task was not destined to last long. One day a quantity of marble
arrived from Carrara, and Michelangelo, desiring at once to pay the
freight and porterage, went to ask the Pope for money, but found his
Holiness occupied. He paid the men out of his own pocket, but when
he returned on several succeeding days he found access to the Vatican
more difficult than usual, and finally learned that the Pope had
given orders that he should not be admitted. Julius II., always
entangled in warlike adventures, was evidently short of money and
could not or would not pay Michelangelo at the time. The proud and
short-tempered sculptor flew into a passion, and exclaiming that
"henceforward the Pope must look for him elsewhere if he wanted him,"
took horse at once and returned to Florence, vainly pursued by five
messengers from the Pope.
It was thus that the gigantic work on which he had set his heart was
interrupted for the first time, and the curtain rose on the first act
of that "tragedy of the tomb," as Condivi appropriately calls it, by
which the rest of Michelangelo's life was darkened.
He had no sooner arrived in Florence than he received an imperative
order from the Pope to return immediately to Rome under pain of his
displeasure, but Michelangelo's blood was up, and he disregarded
alike the threats of the Pope and the exhortations of Piero Soderini,
who was greatly embarrassed, having received three official Briefs
from Julius II., demanding that the artist should be sent back either
by fair means or by force. Fearing actual violence, Michelangelo had
made up his mind to go to Constantinople, but the Gonfaloniere
dissuaded him, saying "that it was better to die with the Pope than
to live with the Turk."
In the meantime, Julius II., after subduing Perugia, had entered
Bologna in triumph on November 11th, 1506, and he had not been many
days in the town before he despatched another urgent message to the
Signoria asking for Michelangelo to be sent to him. The artist
finally gave in, and proceeded to Bologna, armed with a most
flattering letter from the Signoria, but feeling "like a man with a
halter round his neck." His misgivings, however, were unfounded, for
Julius II., who was only too glad to have won his artist back,
welcomed Michelangelo most cordially and commissioned him to make a
great portrait statue of him in bronze, to be placed in front of the
church of San Petronio. And thus were these two men, who had so many
points in common that they regarded each other with mutual fear, like
giants conscious of their strength, reconciled for the time.
[Illustration: THE CREATION OF MAN.]
The Pope returned to Rome in very good spirits, leaving Michelangelo
in Bologna to finish the colossal statue, which was only completed on
February 21st, 1508, after much hard work and many disappointments,
chiefly caused by the ignorance of the bronze-founder, who cast it
faultily. It is greatly to be regretted that this work, which cost
Michelangelo over a year of unremitting labour, should have been
destroyed in 1511, when the Bentivogli returned to Bologna and drove
out the Papal Legate. A huge cannon, ironically called La Giulia,
was cast out of the broken fragments. Michelangelo, having completed
his task, hurried back to Florence, and three days after his arrival
Messer Lodovico emancipated his son from parental control, as we
learn from a document dated March 13th, 1508.
It appears that Michelangelo intended to settle down for several
years in his native city in order to decorate the Sala del Consiglio,
for which he was to receive three thousand ducats, and to carry out
other important commissions, including that of twelve statues of the
Apostles for Santa Maria del Fiore, but "his Medusa," as he called
Julius II., would not suffer him to remain in peace, and summoned him
to Rome.
THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The artist obeyed, hoping that the Pope would allow him to go on with
the tomb, but, during his absence, Michelangelo's rivals had
persuaded Julius II. that it was unlucky to have a monument erected
during his lifetime, and that it would be much better to set
Michelangelo to work on the vault of the Sistine Chapel.
This they did maliciously, because they never suspected that
Michelangelo was as great a painter as he was a sculptor, and hoped
that he would prove himself inferior to the task, and thus lose the
Pontiff's favour. "All the disagreements which I have had with Pope
Julius," wrote Michelangelo to Marco Vigerio, "have been brought
about by the envy of Bramante and of Raphael of Urbino," who were the
cause that his monument was not finished during his lifetime.
Bitter, unscrupulous rivalry was the leper-spot that marked the
Italian Renaissance, especially at the Papal Court.
Michelangelo would gladly have declined the commission, for which he
considered himself unfit, but, seeing the Pope's obstinacy, he
reluctantly set to work on May 10th, 1508. The difficulties which he
had to surmount were enormous, but he was not a man to be frightened
by obstacles, however formidable. Knowing little or nothing of the
technicalities of fresco painting, Michelangelo at first called six
Florentine painters to his aid, including his old friends Francesco
Granacci and Giuliano Bugiardini. But he was too exacting, and aimed
at an ideal of perfection which his assistants could never attain, so
that in January, 1509, he sent them all away, and destroying the work
done by them, shut himself alone in the chapel to wrestle
single-handed with his gigantic task.
The result fully justified his confidence in his own powers. To
attempt an adequate description of the vault of the Sistine Chapel in
this little book would be a hopeless task. The stupendous frescoes
which adorn it, although described in hundreds of volumes, still
afford material for much original study and research, but we must
here content ourselves with a mere enumeration of the principal
motives which go to make up this grand pictorial symphony.
Michelangelo chose for his subject the Story of the Creation, the
Fall of Man, the Flood, and the Second Entry of Sin into the World,
illustrated by a series of nine compositions on the central space of
the ceiling. Twenty magnificent nude figures, representing Athletes,
decorate the corners of these central compositions, and support
bronze medallions held in place by oak garlands and draperies. The
shape of the ceiling is what is commonly called a barrel vaulting
resting on lunettes, six to the length and two to the width of the
building. The second part of the decoration demonstrates the need
for a scheme of Salvation, promised by the Prophets and Sibyls, whose
majestic figures are painted alternately in the triangular spaces
between the lunettes, in the lower part of which is a series of
wonderful groups representing the ancestors of Christ.
Michelangelo, although engaged on a great pictorial work, never
considered himself as anything but a sculptor, and followed in
painting the same systems that he would have adopted in his own art.
Sir Charles Holroyd, in his recent most valuable contribution to
Michelangelesque literature, very justly remarks: "When Pope Julius
prevented Michelangelo 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
Michelangelo 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."
Michelangelo must have toiled with almost superhuman energy at his
great work. In a letter to his favourite brother, Buonarroto, dated
October 17th, 1509, he writes: "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." This is not surprising when we remember that as early as the
1st of November, 1509, the first and most important part of this
colossal work, which comprises three hundred and ninety-four figures,
the majority ten feet high, was exposed to view, and greatly admired
by the Pope, who, being vehement by nature and impatient of delay,
insisted upon having it uncovered, although it was still incomplete.
Such was the impatience of Julius II. that on one occasion he
threatened to have Michelangelo thrown down off the scaffolding if he
did not hasten the completion of the work, and even went so far as to
strike the artist with a stick. Thus urged, Michelangelo uncovered
his work on the 1st of November, 1512, although he used to say in
after years that he had been prevented by the hurry of the Pope from
finishing it as he would have wished. "Michelangelo's fame and the
expectation they had of him," says Condivi, "drew the whole of Rome
to the chapel, whither the Pope also rushed, even before the dust
raised by the taking down the scaffolding had settled."
SECOND FLORENTINE PERIOD
Julius II. died on February 21st, 1513, four months after the
completion of the great work with which his name will remain as
indelibly associated as that of Michelangelo. Shortly before his
death he had ordered that the tomb which Michelangelo had begun
should be finished, and had instructed his nephew, Cardinal Aginense,
and Cardinal Santi Quattro, to see that everything should be carried
out according to the original designs. But his executors, finding
the project far too grand and expensive, had it altered, so that
Michelangelo began all over again.
He set to work with great energy and goodwill, determined to finish
the monument now that its completion appeared to him almost as a
sacred debt to the memory of his dead patron. But the strange
fatality that presided over the tragedy of the tomb again interfered.
Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who had been Michelangelo's friend and
fellow-pupil at the Medicean Court, succeeded Julius II. on the
pontifical throne and assumed the name of Leo X. No sooner were the
magnificent festivities over with which he celebrated his accession,
than he sent for Michelangelo and ordered him to proceed to Florence
to ornament the façade of San Lorenzo with sculpture and marble work.
It was in vain that Michelangelo protested, saying that he was bound
by contract to finish the tomb before undertaking any other
commission, for Leo X. was as self-willed and imperious as his
predecessor, and "in this fashion," says Condivi, "Michelangelo left
the tomb and betook himself weeping to Florence."
It is not surprising that the artist should have wept tears of bitter
disappointment, for we learn from a letter to his brother Buonarroto,
dated June 15th, 1515, that at this time not only had he completed
the Moses and the Captives in marble, but the panels in relief were
ready for casting. Had he been left in peace, Michelangelo would
certainly have finished the monument to Pope Julius in its modified
form in half the time which he wasted quarrying marble from Carrara
and Pietrasanta for the façade of San Lorenzo. For over two years
Michelangelo was engaged in the tedious work of roadmaking and
quarrying. In August, 1518, he wrote: "I must be very patient until
the mountains are tamed and the men are mastered. Then we shall get
on more quickly. But what I have promised, that will I do by some
means, and I will make the most beautiful thing that has ever been
done in Italy if God helps me."