Part 5 (1/2)

Of the Cartoon and its great reputation, Cellini gives us this account: ”Michelangelo portrayed a nuone to bathe in the Arno He drew them at the very moment the alarm is sounded, and the men all naked run to ar 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 Lionardo 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 reh the divine Michelangelo in later life finished that great chapel of Pope Julius (the Sistine), he never rose halfway to the saenius never afterwards attained to the force of those first studies”

Allowing for sos enjoyed in early youth, this is a very remarkable statement Cellini knew the frescoes of the Sistine well, yet he maintains that they were inferior in power and beauty to the Battle of Pisa It seeend of Michelangelo's being unable to execute his own designs for the vault of that chapel falls to the ground

VII

The great Cartoon has becoht to leave it in the lis inchoate and unaccomplished But this it was not, most emphatically Decidedly it had its day, lived and sowed seeds for good or evil through its period of brief existence: so rand style took their note from it; it did so much to introduce the last phase of Italian art, the phase of efflorescence, the phase deplored by critics steeped inof its potency from the description of contemporaries is therefore our plain duty, and for this we elo filled his canvas with nudeat the time of summer heat in Arno, were suddenly called to ar them

The soldiers swarmed up from the river to resume their clothes; and here you could behold depicted by theto clasp his liive assistance to his co this or that weapon, with cavalry in squadrons giving the attack Aures, there was an old man, ore upon his head an ivy wreath for shade Seated on the ground, in act to draw his hose up, he was has; and while he heard the cla of the druht; all the muscles and sinews of his body were seen in strain; and as ony of haste he suffered, and how his whole frame laboured to the toe-tips Then there were druare postures too: this fellow upright, that ; all in the air foreshortened with full conquest over every difficulty

In addition, you discovered groups of figures sketched in various methods, some outlined with charcoal, some etched with strokes, some shadoith the stuht to prove his ehtsn re the furthest reaches of their art revealed to them by this unrivalled masterpiece Those who examined the forms I have described, painters who inspected and compared them orks hardly less divine, affirm that never in the history of human achievement was any product of a man's brain seen like to theht to believe this; for when the Cartoon was finished, and carried to the Hall of the Pope, a fas froh many years in Florence, became men of mark in several branches This is obvious, for Aristotele da San Gallo worked there, as did Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Francesco Granaccio, Baccio Bandinelli, and Alonso Berughetta, the Spaniard; they were followed by Andrea del Sarto, Franciabigio, Jacopo Sansovino, Rosso, Maturino, Lorenzetto, Tribolo, then a boy, Jacopo da Pontora: all of them first-rate masters of the Florentine school”

It does not appear froreat Cartoon Born in 1512, he could not indeed have done so; but there breathes through his description a gust of enthusiasrandeur Some of the details raise a suspicion that Vasari had before his eyes the transcript _en grisaille_ which he says wasby Marcantonio Raiiven to the ivy-crowned old soldier troubled by his hose confirms the accuracy of the Holkha But none of these partial transcripts left to us convey that sense of multitude, space, and varied action which Vasari's words iination The fullest, that at Holkhaures, and these are sche subjects in foreground and background Reduced in scale, and treated with the arid touch of a feeble craftse aesthetic charm It is siorously studied ether with the scientific view of illustrating possibilities and conquering difficulties in postures of the adultsuperhuman, produced by the Cartoon upon contemporaries, and preserved for us in Cellini's and Vasari's narratives, th in conception, draughtse of artists who had abandoned the representation of religious senti for technical triumphs and masterly solutions of ure We all kno ive, and how unjust it would be to judge a masterpiece from his hand by the miserable relics now at our disposal Still I cannot refrain fro that the Cartoon for the Battle of Pisa, taken up by him as a field for the display of his ability, must, by its very brilliancy, have accelerated the ruin of Italian art Cellini, , placed it above the frescoes of the Sistine In force, veracity, and realism it may possibly have been superior to those sublirowth of Michelangelo's genius leads us to suppose that he departed gradually but surely from the path of Nature He came, however, to use what he had learned frohts This, the finest feature of his genius, no artist of the age was capable of adequately co a cartoon which displayed his faculty of dealing with _un bel corpo ignudo_ as the cliht be expected, there was no landscape in the Cartoon

Michelangelo handled his subject wholly from the point of view of sculpture A broken bank and a retreating platform, a few rocks in the distance and a feaved lines in the foreground, showed that the nakedcontee on which we live and move--his steady determination to treat h of solid substance beneath their feet to ible--is a point which y of the arded fro characteristic It gives the key, not only to his talent as an artist, but also to his temperament as a man

Marcantonio seems to have felt and resented the aridity of composition, the isolation of plastic form, the tyranny of anatomical science, which even the elo

Thismemento preserved to us frorove and far suavity to thethe sinuous lines and broken curves of Nature That the landscape was adapted fro It serves the soothing purpose which sensitive nerves, irritated by Michelangelo's aloofness froratefully acknowledge

While Michelangelo was finishi+ng his Cartoon, Lionardo da Vinci was painting his fresco Circuht the two chiefs of Italian art frequently together in the streets of Florence There exists an anecdote of one encounter, which, though it rests upon the credit of an anonyht upon the hero of this biography, cannot be neglected ”Lionardo,”

writes our authority, ”was a racefully endowed, and of fine aspect He wore a tunic of rose-colour, falling to his knees; for at that tith; and down to the middle of his breast there flowed a beard beautifully curled and well arranged Walking with a friend near S Trinita, where a co on about soed hi It so happened that just at thishailed by one of theelo; he will interpret the verses you require' Whereupon Michelangelo, who thought he spoke in this way to er: 'Explain them yourself, you who made the model of a horse to cast in bronze, and could not cast it, and to your shame left it in the lurch' With these words, he turned his back to the group, and went his way Lionardo re there, red in the face for the reproach cast at hi him to the quick, added: 'And those Milanese capons believed in your ability to do it!'”

We can only take anecdotes for what they are worth, and that ht when they are anonyinal Florentine diction, although it betrays a partiality for Lionardo, bears the aspect of truth to fact Moreover, even Michelangelo's adue, and was not incapable of showing his bad teiano smashed his nose, down to the last years of his life in Ros of his best and oldest friends, he discovered signs of a highly nervous and fretful temperament It must be adenerosity in his nature were alloyed by suspicion bordering on littleness, and by petulant yieldings to the irritation of the enius

CHAPTER V

I

While Michelangelo was living and working at Florence, Bramante had full opportunity to poison the Pope's mind in Rome It is commonly believed, on the faith of a sentence in Condivi, that Bra the to of the Sistine Chapel We are told that he proposed Michelangelo for this work, hoping his genius would be hampered by a task for which he was not fitted There areour certainty that the faelo's arrival in the first months of 1505 But the Cartoon did not prove that Buonarroti was a practical wall-painter or colourist; and we have reason to believe that Julius had hi the Sistine to his sculptor A good friend of Michelangelo, Pietro Rosselli, wrote this letter on the subject, May 6, 1506: ”Last Saturday evening, when the Pope was at supper, I showed hins which Bramante and I had to test; so, after supper, when I had displayed the to Florence to-elo back with him' Bramante answered: 'Holy Father, he will not be able to do anything of the kind I have conversed elo, and he has often told me that he would not undertake the chapel, which you wanted to put upon hi, he meant only to apply hi' To this he added: 'Holy Father, I do not think he has the courage to atteures, and these will be raised high above the line of vision, and in foreshortening (ie, because of the vault) That is soround'

The Pope replied: 'If he does not co; and so I think that he is sure to return' Upon this I up and gave thein the Pope's presence, and spoke as I believe you would have spoken for h he felt that he hadas he did I proceeded as follows: 'Holy Father, that elo, and if what he has just said is the truth, I beg you to cut elo; also I feel sure that he is certain to return, if your Holiness requires it'”

This altercation throws doubt on the stateelo as painter of the Sistine He could hardly have turned round against his own recommendation; and, reat a work in the hands of his own set, Raffaello, Peruzzi, Sodoelo's friends in Roht that he was hazarding both profit and honour if he stayed away But Michelangelo, whether the constitutional timidity of which I have spoken, or other reasons dae, felt that he could not trust to the Pope's mercies What effect San Gallothis architect arrived in Florence at the middle of May, can only be conjectured The fact rethy autobiographical letter written to soelo relates what followed: ”Later on, while I was at Florence, Julius sent three briefs to the Signory At last the latter sent for o to ith Pope Julius because of you You must return; and if you do so, rite you letters of such authority that, should he do you harly I took the letters, and went back to the Pope”

Condivi gives a graphic account of the transaction which ensued

”During the months he stayed in Florence three papal briefs were sent to the Signory, full of threats, co that he should be sent back by fair means or by force Piero Soderini, as Gonfalonier for life at that tiainst his own inclination to Roly, when the first of these briefs arrived, he did not coer would calm down But when the second and the third were sent, he called Michelangelo and said: 'You have tried a bout with the Pope on which the King of France would not have ventured; therefore youyourself be prayed for

We do not wish to go to war on your account with him, and put our state in peril Make your ht to this pass, and still fearing the anger of the Pope, bethought hiht hih the means of certain Franciscan friars, to coe froreat works When the Gonfalonier got wind of this intention he sent for Michelangelo and used these arguments to dissuade him: 'It were better to choose death with the Pope than to keep in life by going to the Turk Nevertheless, there is no fear of such an ending; for the Pope is well disposed, and sends for you because he loves you, not to do you harnory will send you with the title of aes are never treated with violence, since this would be done to those who send thenory of Florence It is dated Roelo the sculptor, who left us without reason, and in , though we for our part are not angry with hienius In order, then, that he may lay aside all anxiety, we rely on your loyalty to convince him in our name, that if he returns to us, he shall be uninjured and unhurt, retaining our apostolic favour in the same measure as he formerly enjoyed it” The date, July 8, is ielo's life Soderini sent back an answer to the Pope's brief within a few days, affirelo the sculptor is so terrified that, notwithstanding the promise of his Holiness, it will be necessary for the Cardinal of Pavia to write a letter signed by his own hand to us, guaranteeing his safety and io back; assuring your Lordshi+p that, unless he is gently handled, he will quit Florence, as he has already tanted to do” This letter is followed by another addressed to the Cardinal of Volterra under date July 28 Soderini repeats that Michelangelo will not budge, because he has as yet received no definite safe-conduct It appears that in the course of August the negotiations had advanced to a point at which Michelangelo illing to return On the last day of the nory drafted a letter to the Cardinal of Pavia in which they say that ”Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, citizen of Florence, and greatly loved by us, will exhibit these letters present, having at last been persuaded to repose confidence in his Holiness” They add that he is co may have happened to renew his terror, for this despatch was not delivered, and nothing more is heard of the transaction till toward the close of November It is probable, however, that Soderini suddenly discovered how little Michelangelo was likely to be wanted; Julius, on the 27th of August, having started on what appeared to be his na On the 21st of Noveraph letter fro that they would despatch Michelangelo immediately to that town, inasmuch as the Pope was impatient for his arrival, and wanted to employ him on important works Six days later, November 27, Soderini writes two letters, one to the Cardinal of Pavia and one to the Cardinal of Volterra, which finally conclude the whole business The epistle to Volterra begins thus: ”The bearer of these present will be Michelangelo, the sculptor, e send to please and satisfy his Holiness We certify that he is an excellent young man, and in his own art without peer in Italy, perhaps also in the universe We cannot recoood words and kindness, if these are given hi; one has to show his which will make the whole world wonder” The letter to Pavia is writtenlike a private introduction In both of the the Pope by alluding to the elohis reception at Bologna, it may be well to quote two sonnets here which throw an interesting light upon Michelangelo's personal feeling for Julius and his sense of the corruption of the Ro this residence at Florence; and the autograph of the second has these curious words added at the foot of the page: ”_Vostro Michelagniolo_, in Turchia” Rome itself, the Sacred City, has becohts are turned to the Levant, implies that he would find himself no worse off with the Sultan than the Pope

_My Lord! If ever ancient saw spake sooth, Hear this which saith: Who can doth never will

Lo, thou hast lent thine ear to fables still

Rewarding those who hate the nae, and have been from my youth-- Thine, like the rays which the sun's circle fill; Yet of my dear time's waste thou think'st no ill: The more I toil, the less I move thy ruth

Once 'twas ht; But 'tis the balance and the powerful sword Of Justice, not false Echo, that we need