III. To some extent, his refusal of a salary was an accounting technicality. He was handsomely compensated as Paul’s magister operae. Later that same year he was awarded the proceeds from a ferry on the River Po. When the Duke of Parma refused to part with this revenue stream, his ambassador to Rome wrote: “Our Lord [the pope] spoke at length saying that if ever he had need of [Michelangelo] he had need of him now, in particular for the building of St. Peter’s and of his Palace here, since Sangallo is dead. . . .” (See Letters, II, app. 33, 267–68.)
IV. Michelangelo also clashed with the Sangalleschi over the design of the Palazzo Farnese, the opulent palace that Pope Paul III had commissioned. Begun by Sangallo, it was completed by Michelangelo, who again altered his predecessor’s plan. Among other things, the Sangalleschi complained of the cornice he designed, which they claimed violated Vitruvian decorum by being far too heavy.
V. This is not an entirely fair characterization of Leonardo’s approach. In many ways he was more scientific than Michelangelo. He had a deep interest in circulation and embryonic development, which held no interest for Michelangelo. But for Leonardo, such concerns were largely separate from his artistic ones. When it came to studying the human body for the purposes of art, he tended to follow Vitruvius’s fascination for abstract mathematical proportions.
VI. Alberti and Raphael had both deployed the colossal order before Michelangelo, but no one used it with such skill and to such dramatic effect.
VII. This three-part structure departs from Michelangelo’s original conception, which, following Brunelleschi’s lead, used only two separate shells.
VIII. A poem of c. 1534 is Michelangelo’s one attempt at a Virgilian idyll. Here Michelangelo evokes the pleasures of the “modest little hut of thatch and sod” where an old grandfather “basks in the dooryard sunshine.” (See Complete Poems, no. 67, p. 51.) Such images appear infrequently in Michelangelo’s work and seem more conventional than deeply felt.
IX. Peace came in April 1559 with the signing of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis—in which the French king Henry II renounced all claims on the peninsula—bringing to a close the more than sixty-year tragedy that began when Charles VIII’s army crossed the Alps in the fall of 1494.
X. In 1559, Michelangelo was approached by the leaders of the expatriate community to design San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Florentine church in Rome. His plans were never executed, but drawings show that he planned a domed, centrally planned structure similar to Bramante ’s plan for St. Peter’s. The ambitious proposal demonstrates the size and wealth of the Florentine expatriate community.
XI. This alliance was cemented by Cosimo’s marriage to Eleanora of Toledo, daughter of the Viceroy of Naples. Perhaps the most despised symbol of their subjugation was the immense Fortezza da Basso at the western edge of Florence. One explanation for Michelangelo’s falling out with Alessandro de ’ Medici had been his refusal to participate in building this instrument of suppression.
XII. Alessandro’s killer, his cousin Lorenzino, was dubbed by Florentine exiles “the new Brutus.” Giannotti intended to give the bust to his employer, Cardinal Ridolfi.
XIII. The Brutus is now in the collection of the Bargello Museum in Florence. A later inscription on the base of the sculpture suggests that Michelangelo abandoned the piece after meditating further on the nature of Brutus’s crime. Though the inscription is spurious, the confusion it reflects is genuine. In a dialogue written by Giannotti, the author engages Michelangelo in a friendly debate about whether Brutus was a villain or a hero. Noting that his beloved Dante placed the tyrannicide in the lowest level of Inferno, Giannotti goes on to make a case for Caesar’s assassin that is so convincing that the artist finally concedes, “I agree that Brutus and Cassius merit the praise that everyone has heaped upon them.” (Giannotti, Dialogi di Donato Giannotti, Second Dialog, 90–91.)
XIV. These two magnificent sculptures became obsolete after the tomb was reduced to its present dimensions. After del Riccio’s death, Michelangelo presented them to his boss, Roberto Strozzi, who took them to France, where they now reside in the Louvre.
XV. Of Lionardo and Cassandra’s many children, only a son named Buonarroto produced heirs. This branch of the family, the direct descendants of Michelangelo’s father, Lodovico, died out in the nineteenth century.
XVI. The figure of Mary Magdalene was completed at a later date by an inferior sculptor.
Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498–99.
Michelangelo, David, 1501–4. Nicolo Orsi Battaglini/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo, Sistine Ceiling, 1508–12. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, Sistine Ceiling, 1508–12. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo, Jonah, Sistine Ceiling, 1508–12. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo, Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici, Medici Tombs (New Sacristy), San Lorenzo, 1520–34. Scala/Art Resource, NY
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1536–41. © Ultreya / Takashi Okamura
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, Central Portion with Christ and St. Bartholomew, 1536–41. © Ultreya / Takashi Okamura
Michelangelo, St. Peter’s Basilica, Dome and Hemicycles, 1547–64. Scala/Art Resource, NY
Appendix
A GUIDE TO VIEWING MICHELANGELO’S ART IN FLORENCE AND ROME
Michelangelo’s life is a tale of two cities. Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, was his ancestral home, and he always thought of himself as the natural heir to its unmatched artistic legacy. It was in Rome, however—at the court of the popes who funded his most spectacular triumphs—that he achieved his greatest fame.
Almost all Michelangelo’s most important works can be found in these two cultural capitals, and in each a host of minor masterpieces helps to flesh out the portrait of the man and his art. The center of Florence looks very much as it did at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and tourists today can walk in the footsteps of genius by wandering the ancient streets and piazzas where Michelangelo felt most at home. Florence owes its remarkable preservation partly to the fact that by the time Michelangelo reached maturity the city was already beginning its long slide into political irrelevance. Its importance would be revived in the eighteenth century when it reinvented itself as a cultural mecca, an essential stop on the Grand Tour.
Rome, by contrast, remained a vital political center. As the seat of the papacy, Rome ’s building boom continued throughout the seventeenth century, transforming the Renaissance city Michelangelo knew into a showcase of Baroque magnificence. Even so, Michelangelo’s vision continues to shape many a Roman vista, particularly through the soaring dome of St. Peter’s, visible from almost any neighborhood.
FLORENCE
The historic center of Florence is only a few square miles, and everything is within easy walking distance. A Michelangelo-inspired visit to the city should begin at the Casa Buonarroti. This modest palazzo on the Via Ghibellina (among the properties Michelangelo purchased in 1508) is located in the neighborhood of Santa Croce, near his boyhood home. Here one can see his two earliest surviving sculptures, the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs, as well as models for the Hercules and Cacus and one of the river gods for the Medici tombs. Across the river, in the sacristy of Santo Spirito, hangs Michelangelo’s wooden Crucifix, the work of the eighteen-year-old sculptor, who donated it to the prior in thanks for allowing him to dissect corpses in the church’s morgue.
The Bargello National Museum houses one of the world’s great collections of Renaissance sculpture. Here one can see the early Bacchus and Pitti Tondo, as well as two late, unfinished pieces, the head of Brutus, and the enigmatic work usually referred to as the Apollo/David. A few blocks south is the Uffizi Gallery, home to numerous masterpieces of Renaissance painting. The museum contains Michelangelo’s only surviving panel painting, The Holy Family (aka the Doni Tondo).
At the Piazza della Signoria visitors can see a life-size replica of th
e David, on the site where it stood as a monument to civic pride. The Hall of the Five Hundred in the palace itself contains Michelangelo’s so-called Victory, a work of obscure origins and mysterious significance. The young man depicted is said to be his beloved Tommaso de ’ Cavalieri.
The original David is now housed in the Accademia Gallery on the Via Ricasoli, just south of the Piazza San Marco. Up close, one can marvel at the delicate carving as well as the heroic proportions of this early masterpiece, but equally compelling are the four unfinished Captives intended for Pope Julius’s tomb, as well as the unfinished St. Matthew for the Duomo. In these works one can follow along as the artist releases the figure from the block.
Just behind the Palazzo Medici, where the young man spent the happiest years of his life, lies the sprawling complex of San Lorenzo. Here, Medici patronage and Michelangelo’s genius came together to form a remarkable ensemble. The entrance to the Medici Tombs in the New Sacristy is at the rear of the building (a separate entrance and separate fee are required to view Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy just across the nave). Though never completed, the Medici tombs represent Michelangelo’s most successful attempt to merge the arts of sculpture and architecture. The Laurentian Library is located in the cloister on the southern flank of San Lorenzo. With its famous cascading staircase and elegant reading room, the library offers perhaps the best opportunity to study Michelangelo’s idiosyncratic approach to architectural form.
In the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, just behind the Cathedral, one can find Michelangelo’s late Pietà, the unfinished statue the artist originally intended for his own tomb. Michelangelo carved his own features onto the face of Nicodemus.
Beyond these major works, Michelangelo’s contributions to Florence are woven into the very fabric of the city, from the so-called kneeling windows of the Medici Palace to his design for a small “reliquary balcony” in the nave of San Lorenzo. As a final tribute, visitors might want to make a pilgrimage to the great man’s tomb in the church of Santa Croce, where the artist lies alongside such Florentine greats as Machiavelli and Galileo. In no other city is the spirit of the Renaissance master as fully alive as it is here, in the place that he called home.
ROME
Rome in Michelangelo’s day was less compact than Florence, consisting of splendid edifices and moldering ruins separated by large tracts of rustic countryside. But despite the city’s greater size, Michelangelo’s contributions here are more concentrated, clustered for the most part in and around St. Peter’s in the Vatican.
The great basilica itself is home to his Pietà, though standing before the sculpture can be a disappointing experience. Set into an inappropriately ornate Baroque chapel and behind bulletproof glass, his early masterpiece is all but lost.
The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican Museums, on the northern flank of the enormous basilica. Visitors should purchase tickets in advance, which will save standing in most, though not all, of the long lines. Once inside the museum, you have the option of heading straight for the chapel or exploring the magnificent papal collections, including the famous Apollo Belvedere and the gut-wrenching Laocoön, ancient sculptures that had an enormous impact on Michelangelo’s work. Also not to be missed are the magnificent frescoes painted by his rival Raphael, including the School of Athens, where the painter paid tribute to the sculptor by depicting him as the glowering philosopher Heraclitus.
The Chapel contains not only the famous ceiling with its endlessly reproduced image of God creating Adam, but also the awe-inspiring Last Judgment. The ceiling in particular is not easy to take in on a single visit. The space is always jam-packed, but resist the effort to run for the exits. Benches along each wall allow for a more leisurely viewing of masterpieces so rich and complex that sustained viewing is a must.
The best vantage from which to study Michelangelo’s architectural work at St. Peter’s is from the Vatican Gardens to the west of the basilica, where one can take in his innovative “hemicycles,” the richly decorated drum, and soaring cupola. The interior of the basilica, particularly the area beneath the dome, provides some suggestion of Michelangelo’s masterful handling of space, but only if one can avoid the distraction of the later (mostly Baroque) additions, including Bernini’s opulent baldachino.
Across the Tiber in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, just to the east of the Pantheon, is Michelangelo’s Risen Christ. For centuries regarded as one of his greatest masterpieces, it is now among his least popular works. A few blocks north of the Colisseum is the church of San Pietro in Vincoli containing the tomb of Pope Julius II. Michelangelo himself bemoaned the fact that he had wasted his youth on what he called the “tragedy of the tomb,” and visitors might well agree that the finished product does not justify the decades he spent on it. It does, however, contain one great masterpiece, the awesome Moses, which, according to Vasari, drew Jewish worshipers who paid homage to the Hebrew prophet.
Tucked behind the nineteenth-century monstrosity of the Victor Emmanuel Monument is the Campidoglio, Michelangelo’s most successful architectural ensemble and one of the world’s great urban spaces. This elegant piazza demonstrates not only Michelangelo’s sculptural approach to architecture but his unique ability to orchestrate the movement of the human body through space.
Other architectural fragments dot the city, including the peculiar Porta Pia, a city gate chock-full of Michelangelo’s playful deconstructions of classical forms, as well as the Palazzo Farnese (now the French embassy). Michelangelo took over this project after the death of Antonio da Sangallo at the request of Pope Paul IV. He designed the top floor and the ornate cornice that Sangallo’s followers complained was so heavy it would crush the structure below, and also designed much of the handsome courtyard.
More Great Renaissance History Titles by Miles J. Unger
Niccolò Machiavelli is the most influential political writer of all time. His name has become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power, but the real Machiavelli, says Miles Unger, was a deeply humane writer whose controversial theories were a response to the violence and corruption he saw around him. "Unger skillfully narrates the details of a life led during one of the greatest periods of artistic, political, and literary activity in Western history. . . . [He] does a wonderful job of bringing Machiavelli to life." —Alan Wolfe, The New Republic
Machiavelli
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A colorful portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, unparalleled patron of the arts (and discoverer of Michelangelo), poet, ruthless political operative, and the uncrowned ruler of Florence during its golden age, known to history as Il Magnifico (the Magnificent). “A wonderful feast for lovers of Renaissance history and art." —Chuck Leddy, The Boston Globe
Magnifico
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MILES J. UNGER is a former contributing writer for The New York Times and former Managing Editor of Art New England. His work has also appeared in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Artnews, The Boston Phoenix, and Boston Magazine. He is the author of three previous books, including Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Machiavelli: A Biography. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughters.
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> Notes
I. MICHELANGELO: THE MYTH AND THE MAN
“Tell the priest”: Michelangelo, Carteggio, IV, mcix, 299.
“[W]hat greater and clearer sign”: Condivi, Life of Michelangelo, 150–51.
“[H]e is terrible”: Michelangelo, Carteggio, II, cdlxxiv, 247.
“When Buonarroti comes to see me”: Scotti, Basilica, 168.
“I am not obliged”: Vasari, Lives, II, 708.
“If Your Holiness wishes me to accomplish anything”: Michelangelo, Letters, I, 151.
“I have too much of a wife”: In Goffen, Renaissance Rivals, 341.
This savage woman: In Scotti, Basilica, 98.
“[W]hile a man of so great genius”: Paolo Giovio in Goffen, Renaissance Rivals, 146–47.
“he almost withdrew from the fellowship of men”: Condivi, Life of Michelangelo, 161.
“I live to sin”: Michelangelo, Rime e Lettere, 94.
“And certainly I take you to be a God”: Stephen Campbell, “Fare un Cosa Morta Parer Viva: Michelangelo, Rosso, and the (Un)Divinity of Art,” Art Bulletin, vol. 84, no. 4 (December 2002): 597.
“Michel, più che mortale, Angelo divino”: Bull, Michelangelo: A Biography, 171.
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