Part 4 (1/2)

What then Condivi tells us about the first scheme is, that it was intended to stand isolated in the tribune of S Peter's; that it forle of a square and half a square; that the podiu dadoes supporting captive arts, ten in number; that at each corner of the platform above the podium a seated statue was placed, one of which we may safely identify with the Moses; and that above this, sur the wholein a sarcophagus supported by two angels He further adds that the tomb was entered at its extreme end by a door, which led to a little chamber where lay the body of the Pope, and that bronze bas-reliefs formed a prominent feature of the total scheme He reckons that more than forty statues would have been required to coh he has only mentioned twenty-two of the most prominent

More than this we do not know about the first project We have no contracts and no sketches that can be referred to the date 1505 Much confusion has been introduced into the matter under consideration by the atte I have just alluded to Heath Wilson even used that drawing to iard to the nuures on the platforreat importance for the subsequent history of the eneral aspect which the toned, was intended to present Two points about it, however, prevent our taking it as a true guide to Michelangelo's original conception One is that it is clearly only part of a larger scheus, not supported by angels, but posed upon the platform Moreover, it corresponds to the declaration appended in 1513 by Michelangelo to the first extant document we possess about the to, it is said, to his executors directions that his sepulchre should not be carried out upon the first colossal plan If he did so, they seearded his intentions Michelangelo expressly states in one of his letters that the Cardinal of Agen wished to proceed with the toned, at the end of which Michelangelo specified the details of the new design It differed from the former in many important respects, but most of all in the fact that now the structure was to be attached to the wall of the church I cannot do better than translate Michelangelo's specifications They run as follows: ”Let it be known to all elo, sculptor of Florence, undertake to execute the sepulchre of Pope Julius in ens and the Datary (Pucci), who, after his death, have been appointed to coolden ducats of the Camera; and the co: A rectangle visible from three of its sides, the fourth of which is attached to the wall and cannot be seen

The front face, that is, the head of this rectangle, shall be twenty pal up against the wall, shall be thirty-five palht Each of these three sides shall contain two tabernacles, resting on a basement which shall run round the said space, and shall be adorned with pilasters, architrave, frieze, and cornice, as appears in the little wooden model In each of the said six tabernacles will be placed two figures about one palm taller than life (_ie_, 6-3/4 feet), twelve in all; and in front of each pilaster which flanks a tabernacle shall stand a figure of similar size, twelve in all On the platforus with four feet, as may be seen in the els at his head, with two at his feet; er than life, that is, about twice the size Round about the said sarcophagus will be placed six dadoes or pedestals, on which six figures of the same dimensions will sit Furthers a little chapel about thirty-five palures larger than all the rest, as being farther from the eye

Moreover, there shall be three histories, either of bronze or of marble, as may please the said executors, introduced on each face of the toelo undertook to execute in seven years for the stipulated suht colossal statues; and, fortunately for our understanding of it, we may be said with al intended to represent it Part of this is a pen-and-ink sketch at the Uffizi, which has frequently been published, and part is a sketch in the Berlin Collection These have been put together by Professor Middleton of Cae, who has also ard to its proportions and dielo's specification, there remain some difficulties, hich I cannot see that Professor Middleton has grappled It is perhaps not i had been thrown off as a picturesque forecast of the monument without attention to scale Anyhow, there is no doubt that in this sketch, so happily restored by Professor Middleton's sagacity and tact, we are brought close to Michelangelo's conception of the colossal work he never was allowed to execute It not only answers to the description translated above from the sculptor's own appendix to the contract, but it also throws light upon the original plan of the toned for the tribune of S Peter's

The basement of the podium has been preserved, we may assume, in its more salient features There are the niches spoken of by Condivi, with Vasari's conquered provinces prostrate at the feet of winged Victories These are flanked by the ter consoles, stand the bound captives At the right hand facing us, upon the upper platform, is seated Moses, with a different action of the hands, it is true, froelo finally adopted Near hirouped upon the left angle seem to be both female To some extent these statues bear out Vasari's tradition that the platforures of the contemplative and active life of the soul--Dante's Leah and Rachel

This great schened to it are the Moses at S Pietro in Vincoli and the two bound captives of the Louvre; the Madonna and Child, Leah and Rachel, and two seated statues also at S Pietro in Vincoli, belong to the plan, though these have undergone considerable alterations Soments of the sculptor's work ures roughly hehich are norought into the rock-work of a grotto in the Boboli Gardens, together with the young athlete tra on a prostrate old man (called the Victory) and the Adonis of the Museo nazionale at Florence, have all been ascribed to the sepulchre of Julius in one or other of its stages But these attributes are doubtful, and will be criticised in their proper place and time Suffice it now to say that Vasari reports, beside the Moses, Victory, and two Captives at the Louvre, eight figures for the toelo at Ro the history of this tragic undertaking, we come to the year 1516 On the 8th of July in that year, Michelangelo signed a new contract, whereby the previous deed of 1513 was annulled Both of the executors were alive and parties to this second agreement ”A model was made, the width of which is stated at twenty-one feet, after the monument had been already sculptured of a width of aln was adhered to with the sa cornice of the first story There were to be six statues in front, but the conquered provinces were now dispensed with There was also to be one niche only on each flank, so that the projection of the monument from the as reduced more than half, and there were to be only twelve statues beneath the cornice and one relief, instead of twenty-four statues and three reliefs On the summit of this basement a shrine was to be erected, within which was placed the effigy of the Pontiff on his sarcophagus, with two heavenly guardians The whole of the statues described in this third contract amount to nineteen” Heath Wilson observes, with ular fact about these successive contracts is the departure from certain fixed proportions both of the architectural parts and the statues, involving a serious loss of outlay and of work Thus the two Captives of the Louvre becaiven away to Ruberto Strozzi in a ures detailed in the deed of 1516 are shorter than the Moses by one foot The standing figures, now at S Pietro in Vincoli, correspond to the specifications Whatthe contract under date July 8, 1516, Michelangelo in November of the same year ordered blocks ofto the specifications of the deed of 1513

The ed on for another sixteen years During this period the executors of Julius passed away, and the Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere replaced thelected the toh the fault lay not with the sculptor, but with the Popes, his taske sued, had been disbursed without due work delivered by theanxious to e matters with the Duke

On the 29th of April 1532 a third and solened at Rome in presence of the Pope, witnessed by a nues This third contract involved a fourth design for the toelo undertook to furnish, and at the same time to execute six statues with his own hand On this occasion the notion of erecting it in S Peter's was finally abandoned The choice lay between two other Roman churches, that of S Maria del Popolo, where monuments to several members of the Della Rovere family existed, and that of S Pietro in Vincoli, froelo decided for the latter, on account of its better lighting The six statues proun and not completed, extant at the present date in Rome or in Florence” Which of the several statues blocked out for the monument were to be chosen is not stated; and as there are no specifications in the document, we cannot identify them with exactness At any rate, the Moses must have been one; and it is possible that the Leah and Rachel, Madonna, and two seated statues, now at S Pietro, were the other five

It ed on to its conclusion But no; there was a fifth act, a fourth contract, a fifth design Paul III succeeded to Cleelo's workshop, declared that this one statue was enough for the deceased Pope's tomb The Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere died in 1538, and was succeeded by his son, Guidobaldo II The new Duke's as a granddaughter of Paul III, and this may have made him amenable to the Pope's influence At all events, upon the 20th of August 1542 a final contract was signed, stating that Michelangelo had been prevented ”by just and legitie hi new conditions

The Moses, finished by the hand of Michelangelo, takes the central place in this new monument Five other statues are specified: ”to wit, a Madonna with the child in her arms, which is already finished; a Sibyl, a Prophet, an Active Life and a Contemplative Life, blocked out and nearly coiven to Raffaello da Montelupo to finish The reclining portrait-statue of Julius, which was carved by Maso del Bosco, is not even mentioned in this contract But a deed between the Duke's representative and the craftsmen Montelupo and Urbino exists, in which the latter undertakes to see that Michelangelo shall retouch the Pope's face

Thus ended the tragedy of the tomb of Pope Julius II It is supposed to have been finally completed in 1545, and was set up where it still remains uninjured at S Pietro in Vincoli

IV

I judged it needful to anticipate the course of events by giving this brief history of a work begun in 1505, and carried on with so h forty years of Michelangelo's life

We shall often have to return to it, since the htly diselo's ht but small if any profit to his purse In one way or another it is always cropping up, and raphers and the students of his life as much as it annoyed himself We may now return to those early days in Rome, when the project had still a fascination both for the sculptor and his patron

The old Basilica of S Peter on the Vatican is said to have been built during the reign of Constantine, and to have been consecrated in 324 AD It was one of the largest of those Roreat door to the end of the tribune A spacious open square or atriuave access to the church This, in the Middle Ages, gained the name of the Paradiso A kind of tabernacle, in the centre of the square, protected the great bronze fir-cone, which was formerly supposed to have crowned the suelo Dante, who saw it in the courtyard of S Peter's, used it as a standard for his giant Nirossa, Come la pina di San Pietro a Roma

--(Inf_ xxxi 58)

This mother-church of Western Christendom was adorned inside and out with mosaics in the style of those which may still be seen at Ravenna

Above the lofty row of columns which flanked the central aisle ran processions of saints and sacred histories They led the eye onward to as called the Arch of Triu from the transept and the tribune The concave roof of the tribune itself was decorated with a colossal Christ, enthroned between S Peter and S Paul, surveying the vast spaces of his house: the lord and rims from all parts of Europe cae The coluan palaces and teilded bronze, torn in the age of Heraclius from the shrine of Venus and of Ro the eleven centuries which elapsed between its consecration and the decree for its destruction, S Peter's had been gradually enriched with a series of monuments, inscriptions, statues, frescoes, upon which ritten the annals of successive ages of the Church Giotto worked there under Benedict II in 1340 Pope after Pope was buried there In the early period of Renaissance sculpture, Mino da Fiesole, Pollaiuolo, and Filarete added works in bronze and ious tradition with quaint neo-pagan ies These treasures, priceless for the historian, the antiquary, and the artist, were now going to be ruthlessly swept away at a pontiff's bidding, in order to hty and self-laudatory monuelo's original conception for the tomb, the spirit was in no sense Christian Those rows of captive Arts and Sciences, those Victories exulting over prostrate cities, those allegorical colossi syhty ruler's character, crowned by the portrait of the Pope, over whom Heaven rejoiced while Cybele deplored his loss--all this poenuity harmonised but little with the hue The new temple, destined to supersede the old basilica, embodied an aspect of Latin Christianity which had very little indeed in common with the piety of the primitive Church S

Peter's, as we see it now, represents the majesty of Papal Rome, the spirit of a secular monarchy in the hands of priests; it is the visible symbol of that schism between the Teutonic and the Latin portions of the Western Church which broke out soon after its foundation, and became irreconcilable before the cross was placed upon its cupola It see away the venerable traditions of eleven hundred years, and replacing Ro the brand-new staan architecture, the Popes had wished to signalise that rupture with the past and that atrophy of real religious life which marked the counter-refor the entire reconstruction of his cathedral It ed in his defence that the structure had already, in 1447, been pronounced insecure Nicholas V ordered his architects, Bernardo Rossellini and Leo Battista Alberti, to prepare plans for its restoration It is, of course, impossible for us to say for certain whether the ancient fabric could have been preserved, or whether its dilapidation had gone so far as to involve destruction Bearing in mind the recklessness of the Renaissance and the passion which the Popes had for engaging in colossal undertakings, one is inclined to suspect that the unsound state of the building wasa hich flattered the architectural tastes of Nicholas, but was not absolutely necessary However this may have been, foundations for a new tribune were laid outside the old apse, and the wall rose soround before the Pope's death Paul II carried on the building; but during the pontificates of Sixtus, Innocent, and Alexander it see had been done to injure the original basilica; and when Julius announced his intention of levelling it to the ground, his cardinals and bishops entreated hiious The Pope was not aa deaf ear to these entreaties, he had plans prepared by Giuliano da San Gallo and Bramante Those eventually chosen were furnished by Bramante; and San Gallo, who had hitherto enjoyed the fullest confidence of Julius, is said to have left Roust For reasons which will afterwards appear, he could not have done so before the summer months of 1506

It is not yet the proper ti of S Peter's

Still, with regard to Braned in the fore circular dome and flanked by ters Bramante used to boast that he meant to raise the Pantheon in the air; and the plan, as preserved for us by Serlio, shows that the cupola would have been constructed after that type Coes, however, declare that insuperable difficulties n, while the piers constructed by Bramante were found in effect to be wholly insufficient for their purpose For the aesthetic beauty and the coest evidence in a letter written by Michelangelo, as by no means a partial witness

”It cannot be denied,” he says, ”that Bramante's talent as an architect was equal to that of any one from the times of the ancients until now He laid the first plan of S Peter's, not confused, but clear and sis, so that it interfered with no part of the palace It was considered a very fine design, and indeed any one can see with his own eyes now that it is so All the architects who departed from Bramante's scheme, as did Antonio da San Gallo, have departed froave this unstinted praise to Braenius as a builder, he blamed him severely both for his want of honesty as awith the venerable church he had to replace ”Bramante,” says Condivi, ”was addicted, as everybody knows, to every kind of pleasure He spent enorranted hie, he found it insufficient for his needs Accordingly hethe walls of poorqualities which fabrics on so huge a scale des at S Peter's, the Corridore of the Belvedere, the Convent of San Pietro ad Vincula, and other of his edifices, which have had to be strengthened and propped up with buttresses and si down” Bra his residence in Lo piers with rubble enclosed by hewn stone or plaster-covered brickwork This enabled an unconscientious builder to furnish bulky architectural masses, which presented a specious aspect of solidity and looked more costly than they really were It had the additionaleasy and rapid in execution Braratify the whims and caprices of his impatient patron, who desired to see the works of art he ordered rise like the fabric of Aladdin's laelo is said to have exposed the architect's trickeries to the Pope; what is nation of the wanton ruthlessness hich Braain quote Condivi here, for the passage seereat sculptor's verbal re down the old S Peter's, he dashed thosethe least attention, or caring at all when they were broken into fragently and preserved their shafts intact Michelangelo pointed out that it was an easy thing enough to erect piers by placing brick on brick, but that to fashi+on a column like one of these taxed all the resources of art”