It was at that time that the Pope asked Michelangelo for a design for the Porta Pia. He made three very beautiful and lavish designs and of these the Pope chose the least costly, which may now be seen completed and is greatly praised. When he saw that the Pope had it in mind to restore the other gates of Rome as well Michelangelo made still more drawings for him; and he also made one, at the pontiff’s request, for the new church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the Baths of Diocletian, which were to be converted into a place of Christian worship. Michelangelo’s design was preferred to many others furnished by various excellent architects, including as it did so many fine and appropriate features for the convenience of the Carthusian friars (who have now brought the work almost to completion) that his holiness and all the prelates and nobles of the papal court marvelled at his judgement. His ideas made use of all the skeleton of those baths, out of which was formed a truly beautiful church with an entrance surpassing the expectations of all the architects, who gave him unstinted praise and honour. Michelangelo also designed for his holiness, who wanted it for the new church, a bronze ciborium which has now been executed for the most part by Jacopo Ciciliano, a rare craftsman who was greatly admired by Michelangelo and whose castings are so delicate and smooth that they hardly need polishing.
Several times the Florentines living in Rome discussed how best to make a start on the church of San Giovanni in the Strada Giulia, and at one of their meetings the heads of the wealthiest families among them each promised to contribute to the building according to his means, and a good sum of money was collected. Then, after they had argued whether they should follow the original plans or try to do something better, it was decided to raise a new edifice on the old foundations; and eventually they put three people in charge of the project, namely, Francesco Bandini, Uberto Ubaldini, and Tommaso de’ Bardi. They in turn asked Michelangelo for a design, pleading that it was a shame that the Florentines had spent so much money in vain, and adding that if his genius did not avail to finish the work then there was nothing they themselves could do. Michelangelo promised that he would do what they wanted as devotedly as he had ever done anything, both because in his old age he was glad to be occupied with sacred things, redounding to the honour of God, and then because of his love for his country, which had never left him.
At the discussion Michelangelo had with him a young Florentine artist called Tiberio Calcagni who was very anxious to study sculpture and who also, after he had gone to Rome, started to give his time to architecture. Being fond of him, Michelangelo, as was mentioned earlier, had given him to finish the marble Pietà he himself had broken, as well as a bust of Brutus in marble, much larger than life-size, of which he had executed, using light chisels, only the head. This is a work of rare beauty which Michelangelo had copied for Cardinal Ridolfi (at the request of his close friend Donato Giannotti) from a portrait of Brutus cut on a cornelian of great antiquity belonging to Giuliano Cesarino.
So for his architectural work, since his old age meant that he could no longer draw clear lines, Michelangelo made use of Tiberio, who was a modest and well-mannered young man. He wanted to use his services for the church of San Giovanni and he asked him to take the ground-plan of the original foundations. This was brought to him as soon as it was ready; and then, through Tiberio, Michelangelo informed the commissioners (who had not expected him to have anything ready) that he had been working for them; and finally, he showed them the drawings for five beautiful churches which left them amazed. They were reluctant to choose one themselves, as Michelangelo suggested, and they preferred to rely on his judgement; but he insisted that they should make up their own minds and then, unanimously, they picked out the richest. After the choice had been made, Michelangelo told them that if they put the design into execution they would produce a work superior to anything done by either the Greeks or the Romans: words unlike any ever used by him, before or after, for he was a very modest man. At length it was resolved that Michelangelo should supervise the work and that it should be executed by Tiberio; Michelangelo promised to serve them well, and with this arrangement the commissioners were fully content. Tiberio was then given the plan to produce a fair copy, with interior and exterior elevations, as well as a clay model which Michelangelo advised him how to set up. In ten days Tiberio finished a model of eight spans, which pleased the Florentine colony so much that they then had him make a wooden model which is now in the consulate: here is a building as rare in its ornate variety as any church ever seen. But after work had been started and five thousand crowns had been spent, the funds failed, much to Michelangelo’s annoyance, and the project has remained suspended ever since.
Michelangelo also procured for Tiberio the commission to finish under his direction a chapel for Cardinal Santa Fiore in Santa Maria Maggiore; but this remained unfinished because of the unhappy death of Tiberio himself as well as of the cardinal and Michelangelo.
Michelangelo had been seventeen years in the construction of St Peter’s, and several times the superintendents had tried to have his authority taken away from him. When they failed in this they sought to oppose him in every other matter, now on one far-fetched pretext and now on another, in the hope that as he was so old that he could do no more they would force him to retire from sheer weariness. Then it happened that the overseer, Cesare da Casteldurante, died, and for the sake of the building Michelangelo sent there, while he was looking for a suitable successor, Luigi Gaeta, who was too young but very competent. Some of the deputies had often tried to get Nanni di Baccio Bigio put in charge (for he was always urging them and promising the earth) and in order to get their own way the same men sent Luigi Gaeta away. After he had heard of this, in his anger Michelangelo refused to go to St Peter’s any more; and they then started to spread it abroad that he was no longer competent and that a replacement must be found; and they also alleged that he had told them he no longer wanted to be troubled with the building. All this came back to Michelangelo who sent Daniele Ricciarelli of Volterra to Bishop Ferratino, one of the commissioners, who had informed Cardinal Carpi that Michelangelo had told one of his servants that he no longer wanted to be troubled with the building. Daniele told him that this was not Michelangelo’s wish, and in reply the bishop said that he was sorry Michelangelo had not discussed what was in his mind, but that a replacement was needed and he would have gladly accepted Daniele himself. With this arrangement, Michelangelo showed himself satisfied. However, after he had given the commissioners to understand that they would be offered a replacement of Michelangelo’s choice, Ferratino then put forward not Daniele but Nanni Bigio. Then after Bigio had been accepted and installed, not long after he arranged for a scaffolding of beams to be raised from the Pope’s stables, on the side of the hill, to the great tribune on that side of the church, because he argued, too many ropes were being consumed in drawing up the materials and it was better to transport them this way. However, when Michelangelo heard of this, he straight away went to see the Pope, whom he found on the piazza of the Capitol; and when he started to make his protest his holiness took him along to a private room where he said:
Holy Father, the commissioners have found to replace me someone I know nothing about. However, if they and your holiness have decided that I am no longer capable I shall withdraw to Florence where I can stay near the Grand Duke, who has so often desired my presence, and end my life in my own house. So I beg for your kind dismissal.
The Pope was incensed by what he heard and after he had consoled Michelangelo he told him to come back and talk to him the following day at Araceli. Then he called together all the commissioners and demanded to know the reasons for what had happened. They argued that the building was going to ruin and that mistakes were being made in the construction; but knowing that this was untrue, the Pope ordered Agabrio Scierbellone to examine the structure and require Nanni, who was making the accusations, to point out the errors. This was done; Agabrio discovered that the complaints were inspired by envy and were completely unfounded;
and Nanni was contemptuously dismissed in the presence of many noblemen. Nanni was also reproached for having ruined the bridge of Santa Maria and, after promising to clean the harbour at Ancona at little cost, having choked it more in one day than the sea did in ten years. This was the end of Nanni’s connexion with St Peter’s, where, for seventeen years, Michelangelo had devoted himself entirely to settling the essential features of the building so as to frustrate those whose envious hostility made him think they would make changes after his death. Today, in consequence, the building is secure enough to be safely vaulted. Thus we see that God, who looks after good men, favoured Michelangelo during his lifetime and never ceased to protect both him and St Peter’s. Then Pius IV, who survived Michelangelo, told the superintendents to alter nothing that Michelangelo had laid down. His successor, Pius V, followed the same policy even more emphatically; and to avoid confusion he told the architects Pirro Ligorio and Jacopo Vignola to follow Michelangelo’s designs with unswerving fidelity. Indeed, when Pirro was presumptuous enough to propose several changes he was discharged in disgrace. Pius V was as zealous for the glory of St Peter’s as for the Christian religion; so much so that in 1565, when Vasari went to kiss his feet, and again when he was summoned in 1566, he talked only of how to make sure that Michelangelo’s designs were followed. Then to avoid any confusion his holiness commanded Vasari to go with his private treasurer, Guglielmo Sangalletti, and on his authority tell Bishop Ferratino, who was supervising the builders, to pay strict attention to all the important memoranda and records that Vasari would give him, so that the words of malignant and presumptuous men would have no power to upset the arrangements or details left to posterity by Michelangelo’s genius. Giovanbattista Altoviti, a friend of Vasari and of the arts, was present on this occasion; and after Ferratino had heard what Vasari had to say, he eagerly accepted every available record and promised that everyone, including himself, would without fail observe all Michelangelo’s arrangements and designs in the building; he would, he said, protect, safeguard, and maintain the work of the great Michelangelo.
To return to Michelangelo himself: about a year before his death Vasari secretly prevailed on Duke Cosimo de’ Medici to persuade the Pope through his ambassador Averardo Serristori that, since Michelangelo was now very feeble, a careful watch should be kept on those who were looking after him, or helping him in his home. Vasari suggested that the Pope should make arrangements so that, in the event of his having an accident, as old men often do, all his clothes, his drawings, cartoons, models, money, and other possessions should be set down in an inventory and placed in safe-keeping for the sake of the work on St Peter’s. In this way, if there were anything there concerning St Peter’s or the sacristy, library, and façade of San Lorenzo, no one would make off with it, as frequently happens in such cases. In the event, these precautions proved well worth while.
Michelangelo’s nephew Lionardo wanted to go to Rome the following Lent, for he guessed that his uncle had now come to the end of his life; and Michelangelo welcomed this suggestion. When, therefore, he fell ill with a slow fever he at once made Daniele write telling Lionardo that he should come. But, despite the attentions of his physician Federigo Donati and of others, his illness grew worse; and so with perfect consciousness he made his will in three sentences, leaving his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his material possessions to his nearest relations. Then he told his friends that as he died they should recall to him the sufferings of Jesus Christ. And so on 17 February, in the year 1563 according to Florentine reckoning (1564 by the Roman) at the twenty-third hour he breathed his last and went to a better life.1
Michelangelo had a strong vocation for the arts on which he laboured, and he succeeded in everything he did, no matter how difficult. For nature gave him a mind that devoted itself eagerly to the great arts of design. And in order to achieve perfection he made endless anatomical studies, dissecting corpses in order to discover the principles of their construction and the concatenation of the bones, muscles, nerves, and veins, and all the various movements and postures of the human body. He studied not only men but animals as well, and especially horses, which he loved to own. Of all these he was anxious to learn the anatomical principles and laws in so far as they concerned his art; and in his works he demonstrated this knowledge so well that those who study nothing else except anatomy achieve no more. As a result everything he made, whether with the brush or the chisel, defies imitation, and (as has been said) is imbued with such art, grace, and distinctive vitality that, if this can be said without offence, he has surpassed and vanquished the ancients, for the facility with which he achieved difficult effects was so great that they seem to have been created without effort, although anyone who tries to copy his work finds a great deal of effort is needed.
Michelangelo’s genius was recognized during his lifetime, not, as happens to so many, only after his death. As we have seen, Julius II, Leo X, Clement VII, Paul III, Julius III, Paul IV, and Pius IV, all these supreme pontiffs, wanted to have him near them at all times; as also, as we know, did Suleiman, emperor of the Turks, Francis of Valois, king of France, the Emperor Charles V, the Signoria of Venice, and lastly, as I related, Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, all of whom made him very honourable offers, simply to avail themselves of his great talents. This happens only to men of tremendous worth, like Michelangelo, who, as was clearly recognized, achieved in the three arts a perfect mastery that God has granted no other person, in the ancient or modern world, in all the years that the sun has been spinning round the world. His imagination was so powerful and perfect that he often discarded work in which his hands found it impossible to express his tremendous and awesome ideas; indeed, he has often destroyed his work, and I know for a fact that shortly before he died he burned a large number of his own drawings, sketches, and cartoons so that no one should see the labours he endured and the ways he tested his genius, and lest he should appear less than perfect. I have some examples of his work, found in Florence and placed in my book of drawings; and these not only reveal the greatness of his mind but also show that when he wished to bring forth Minerva from the head of Jove, he had to use Vulcan’s hammer: for he used to make his figures the sum of nine, ten, and even twelve ‘heads’; in putting them together he strove only to achieve a certain overall harmony of grace, which nature does not present; and he said that one should have compasses in one’s eyes, not in one’s hands, because the hands execute but it is the eye which judges. He also used this method in architecture.
No one should think it strange that Michelangelo loved solitude, for he was deeply in love with his art, which claims a man with all his thoughts for itself alone. Anyone who wants to devote himself to the study of art must shun the society of others. In fact, a man who gives his time to the problems of art is never alone and never lacks food for thought, and those who attribute an artist’s love of solitude to outlandishness and eccentricity are mistaken, seeing that anyone who wants to do good work must rid himself of all cares and burdens: the artist must have time and opportunity for reflection and solitude and concentration. Although all this is true, Michelangelo valued and kept the friendship of many great men and of many talented and learned people, when it was appropriate. Thus, the great Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici loved him dearly, and on one occasion, having heard that a beautiful Arab horse of his had taken Michelangelo’s fancy, he sent it to him as a gift, along with ten mules laden with fodder and a groom to look after it; and Michelangelo accepted it with pleasure. Another great friend of his was the illustrious Cardinal Pole, whose goodness and talents Michelangelo especially revered. He could also claim the friendship of Cardinal Farnese and of Santa Croce (who afterwards became Pope Marcellus), of Cardinal Ridolfi, Cardinal Maffeo, Monsignor Bembo, Carpi, and many other cardinals, bishops, and prelates whom there is no need to name. Other friend; were Monsignor Claudio Tolomei, the Magnificent Ottaviano de’ Medici (a crony of his whose son he held at baptism), Bindo Altoviti (to whom Michelangelo gave the carto
on for the chapel, showing the drunken Noah being mocked by one of his sons while the other two cover up his nakedness), Lorenzo Ridolfi, Annibale Caro, and Giovan Francesco Lottini of Volterra. But infinitely more than any of them Michelangelo loved the young Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, a well-born Roman who was intensely interested in the arts. To show Tommaso how to draw Michelangelo made many breathtaking drawings of superb heads, in black and red chalk; and later he drew for him a Ganymede rapt to Heaven by Jove’s eagle, a Tityus with the vulture devouring his heart, the chariot of the Sun falling with Phaëton into the Po, and a Bacchanal of children, all of which are outstanding drawings the like of which has never been seen. Michelangelo did a portrait of Tommaso in a life-size cartoon, but neither before nor afterwards did he do any other portrait from life, because he hated drawing any living subject unless it were of exceptional beauty. Because of the great delight that he took in these drawings, Tommaso was subsequently given many others that Michelangelo once did for Fra Sebastiano Viniziano to carry into execution. These were truly miraculous, and Tommaso treasures them as relics, generously making them available to craftsmen. Michelangelo, indeed, always lavished his affection on people of merit, nobility, and worth; for in everything he was a man of judgement and taste. Tommaso also persuaded Michelangelo to execute many drawings for his friends, among others a panel picture of the Annunciation for the Cardinal di Cesis, in a new style, which was later painted by Marcello of Mantua1 and placed in the marble chapel built by the cardinal in the church of the Pace at Rome. Another Annunciation, also painted by Marcello, is to be found on a panel in the church of San Giovanni in Laterano; and the drawing for this is in the possession of Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, who was given it after Michelangelo’s death by his nephew Lionardo Buonarroti and who treasures it as a jewel. His Excellency also has a Christ praying in the Garden and many other drawings, sketches, and cartoons by Michelangelo, along with the statue of Victory with a captive beneath, ten feet in height, and four other captives in the rough which serve to teach us how to carve figures out of marble by a method which leaves no chance of spoiling the stone. This method is as follows: one must take a figure of wax or some other firm material and lay it horizontally in a vessel of water; then, as the water is, of course, flat and level, when the figure is raised little by little above the surface the more salient parts are revealed first, while the lower parts (on the underside of the figure) remain submerged, until eventually it all comes into view. In the same way figures must be carved out of marble by the chisel; the parts in highest relief must be revealed first and then little by little the lower parts. And this method can be seen to have been followed by Michelangelo in the statues of the prisoners mentioned above, which his Excellency wants to be used as models by his academicians.
Lives of the Artists Page 45