Part 16 (1/2)

One of the last acts of Clement's life had been to superintend the second contract with the heirs of Julius, by which Michelangelo undertook to finish the tomb upon a reduced scale within the space of three years He was allowed to co four months annually Paul, however, asserted his authority by upsetting these arrange the contract

”In the meanwhile,” writes Condivi, ”Pope Clement died, and Paul III

sent for hielo saw at once that he would be interrupted in his work upon the Tomb of Julius So he told Paul that he was not his ownbound to the Duke of Urbino until the ry, and exclaimed: 'It is thirty years that I have cherished this desire, and now that I ae it? Where is the contract? Ihimself reduced to these straits, ale in the Genoese, at an abbey held by the Bishop of Aleria, who had been a creature of Julius, and was hbourhood of the Carrara quarries, and the facility of transporting e at Urbino, which he had previously selected as a tranquil retreat, and where he expected to be well received for the sake of Pope Julius Some months earlier, he even sent a man of his to buy a house and land there Still he dreaded the greatness of the Pontiff, as indeed he had good cause to do; and for this reason he abandoned the idea of quitting Ro to pacify his Holiness with fair words

”The Pope, however, stuck to his opinion; and one day he visited Michelangelo at his house, attended by eight or ten Cardinals He first of all inspected the cartoon prepared in Clereat work of the Sistine; then the statues for the to in detail Thebefore the statue of Moses, cried out: 'That piece alone is sufficient to do honour to the h the whole workshop, renewed his request that Michelangelo should enter his service; and when the latter still resisted, he clinched the : 'I will provide that the Duke of Urbino shall be satisfied with three statues froned to soly, he settled on the terents of the Duke, which were confirmed by his Excellency, who did not care to displeasure the Pope Michelangelo, albeit he was now relieved fro for the three statues, preferred to take this cost upon himself, and deposited 1580 ducats for the purpose And so the Tragedy of the Tomb came at last to an end This h, truth to tell, it is but a inal design, the monument is still the finest to be found in Rome, and perhaps elsewhere in the world, if only for the three statues finished by the hand of the great master”

II

In this account, Condivi, has condensed the events of seven years The third and last contract with the heirs of Julius was not ratified until the autumn of 1542, nor was the tomb erected edy still cost its heroobtained his object, issued a brief, whereby he appointed Michelangelo chief architect, sculptor, and painter at the Vatican The instrument is dated September 1, 1535, and the terms hich it describes theAllusion is directly un about this date

Michelangelo was enrolled as member of the Pontifical household, with a perolden crowns, to be raised in part on the revenues accruing from a ferry across the Po at Piacenza He did not, however, obtain possession of this ferry until 1537, and the benefice proved so unreed for a little post in the Chancery at Riain in the Sistine Chapel, the wall above the altar was adorned with three great sacred subjects by the hand of Pietro Perugino In the central fresco of the assu in adoration before the ascending Madonna The side panels were devoted to the Nativity and the finding of Moses In what condition Michelangelo found these frescoes before the painting of the Last Judgment we do not know Vasari says that he caused the wall to be rebuilt ell-baked carefully selected bricks, and sloped inwards so that the top projected half a cubit from the bottom This was intended to secure the picture fro on his own responsibility, prepared this ith a ground for oil-colours, hoping to be eelo, but that the latter had it re The story, as it stands, is not very probable; yet weon the systeht fit to make experiments in several surfaces The painters of that period, as is proved by Sebastiano's practice, by Lionardo da Vinci's unfortunate innovations at Florence, and by the experiments of Raffaello's pupils in the hall of Constantine, not unfrequently invented low and richness of oil-colouring

Michelangelo e portion of his fresco to Sebastiano's executive skill, and afterwards have found the same difficulties in collaboration which reduced hi the Sistine vault in solitude

Be that as it may, when the doors of the chapel once closed behind the s till they opened again on Christ his oorks is one of the s about him It is true indeed that his correspondence between 1534 and 1541 almost entirely fails; still, had it been abundant, we should probably have possessed but dry and laconic references to matters connected with the business of his art

He1536 and 1537 Paul III was still in correspondence with the Duke of Urbino, who showed hiard to the Tomb of Julius, but also very well disposed toward the sculptor In July 1537, Hieronimo Staccoli wrote to the Duke of Caned at his request This prince, Guidobaldo della Rovere, when he afterwards succeeded to the Duchy of Urbino, sent a really warelo” He begins by saying that, though he still cherishes the strongest wish to see the monument of his uncle completed, he does not like to interrupt the fresco in the Sistine Chapel, upon which his Holiness has set his heart He thoroughly trusts in Michelangelo's loyalty, and is assured that his desire to finish the tomb, for the honour of his former patron's memory, is keen and sincere Therefore, he hopes that when the picture of the Last Judgment is terminated, the ill be resumed and carried to a prosperous conclusion In the meantime, let Buonarroti attend to his health, and not put everything again to peril by overstraining his energies

Signer Gotti quotes a Papal brief, issued on the 18th of September 1537, in which the history of the Toations toward the princes of Urbino are recited It then proceeds to declare that Clereat wall of the Sistine, and that Paul desires this work to be carried forith all possible despatch He therefore lets it be publicly known that Michelangelo has not failed to perforh any fault or action of his own, but by the express coes him and his heirs from all liabilities, pecuniary or other, to which he may appear exposed by the unfulfilled contracts

III

While thus engaged upon his fresco, Michelangelo received a letter, dated Venice, Septeenius, Pietro Aretino It opens in the strain of hyperbolical compliment and florid rhetoric which Aretino affected when he chose to flatter The man, however, was an admirable stylist, the inventor of a new epistolary manner Like a volcano, his mind blazed it, and buried sound sense beneath the scoriae and ashes it belched forth Gifted with a natural feeling for rhetorical contrast, he knew the effect of soeimcrack conceits Thus: ”I should not venture to address you, had not my name, accepted by the ears of every prince in Europe, outworn nity And it is but meet that that I should approach you with this reverence; for the world has e h but that you explore it with your art, should be impotent to stamp upon her works that majesty which she contains within herself, the immense power of your style and your chisel! Wherefore, e gaze on you, we regret no longer that we may not meet with Pheidias, Apelles, or Vitruvius, whose spirits were the shadow of your spirit” He piles the panegyric up to its clireat artists of antiquity that their elo's, since, ”being arraigned before the tribunal of our eyes, we should perforce proclaim you unique as sculptor, unique as painter, and as architect unique” After the blare of this exordium, Aretino settles down to the real business of his letter, and coment, which he hears that the supre ”Who would not quake with terror while dipping his brush into the dreadful the multitudes, with an aspect such as only you could li; I see the signs of the extinction of the sun, thefrom the elements; I see Nature abandoned and apart, reduced to barrenness, crouching in her decrepitude; I see Ti, for his end has come, and he is seated on an arid throne; and while I hear the truels with their thunder shake the hearts of all, I see both Life and Death convulsed with horrible confusion, the one striving to resuscitate the dead, the other using all histhe squadrons of the good and the cohorts of the wicked; I see the theatre of clouds, blazing with rays that issue fro his hosts Christ sits, ringed round with splendours and with terrors; I see the radiance of his face, coruscating fla the blest with joy, the damned with fear intolerable Then I behold the satellites of the abyss, ith horrid gestures, to the glory of the saints andto have trampled on the world, but more to have conquered self I see Fame, with her crowns and pal the wheels of her own chariots And to conclude all, I see the dread sentence issue from the mouth of the Son of God I see it in the form of two darts, the one of salvation, the other of damnation; and as they hustle down, I hear the fury of its onset shock the eles and voices, sloohts of Paradise and the furnaces of hell My thoughts, excited by this vision of the day of Doom, whisper: 'If we quake in terror before the handiwork of Buonarroti, how shall we shake and shrink affrighted when He who shall judge passes sentence on our souls?'”

This description of the Last Day, in which it is more than doubtful whether a man like Aretino had any sincere faith, possesses considerable literary interest In the first place, it is curious as co from one who lived on terms of closest intimacy with painters, and who certainly appreciated art; for this reason, that nothing less pictorial than the iain, in the first half of the sixteenth century it anticipated the rhetoric of the _barocco_ period--the eloquence of seventeenth-century divines, Dutch poets, Jesuit pulpiteers Aretino's originality consisted in his precocious divination of a whole new age of taste and style, which was destined to supersede the purer graces of the Renaissance

The letter ends with an assurance that if anything could persuade him to break a resolution he had forreat anxiety to view the Last Judgelo sent an anshich may be cited as an example of his peculiar irony Under the form of elaborate compliment it conceals the scorn he must have conceived for Aretino and his insolent advice Yet he kne dangerous the nificent Messer Pietro, ave ly, since it came from you, who are without peer in all the world for talent Yet at the sae part of the fresco, I cannot realise your conception, which is so coment had come, and you had been present and seen it with your eyes, your words could not have described it better

Now, touching an answer to my letter, I reply that I not only desire it, but I entreat you to write one, seeing that kings and ehest favour to bethat you would like, I offer it with all my heart

In conclusion, do not break your resolve of never revisiting Ro, for this would be too much”

Aretino's real object was to wheedle soreat master This appears from a second letter written by him on the 20th of January 1538 ”Does not my devotion deserve that I should receive fro, one of those cartoons which you fling into the fire, to the end that during life I may enjoy it, and in death carry it with enuine feelings of admiration toward illustrious artists like titian, Sansovino, and Michelangelo Writing many years after the date of these letters, when he has seen an engraving of the Last Judgant indeed, but apparently sincere, about its grandeur of design Then he repeats his request for a drawing ”Why will you not repay ift of so, the least valuable in your eyes? I should certainly esteem two strokes of the chalk upon a piece of paper s and princes gave elo continued to correspond with hie of letters But no drawings were sent; and in course of tiot the better of the virtuoso in Aretino's rapacious nature Without ceasing to fawn and flatter Michelangelo, he sought occasion to da in January 1546 to the engraver Enea Vico, bestowing high praise upon a copper-plate which a certain Bazzacco hadthe picture as ”licentious and likely to cause scandal with the Lutherans, by reason of its immodest exposure of the nakedness of persons of both sexes in heaven and hell” It is not clear what Aretino expected from Enea Vico A reference to the Duke of Florence seereat and influential persons regarding the religious and elo's work

This malevolent temper burst out at last in one of the most remarkable letters we possess of his It was obviously intended to hurt and insult Michelangelo as much as lay within his power of innuendo and direct abuse The invective offers so ard to both men, that I shall not hesitate to translate it here in full

”Sir, when I inspected the coraciousness of Raffaello in its agreeable beauty of invention

”Meanwhile, as a baptized Christian, I blush before the license, so forbidden toideas connected with the highest aims and final ends to which our faith aspires So, then, that Michelangelo stupendous in his faelo whom all admire, has chosen to display to the whole world an iion only equalled by the perfection of his painting! Is it possible that you, who, since you are divine, do not condescend to consort with hureatest tehest altar raised to Christ, in the es of the Church, the venerable priests of our religion, the Vicar of Christ, with solemn ceremonies and holy prayers, confess, contemplate, and adore his body, his blood, and his flesh?

”If it were not infamous to introduce the comparison, I would plume myself upon my virtue when I wrote _La Nanna_ I would demonstrate the superiority ofthee comely and decorous, speak in terms beyond reproach and inoffensive to chaste ears You, on the contrary, presenting so awful a subject, exhibit saints and angels, these without earthly decency, and those without celestial honours

”The pagans, when they ave her clothes; when they made a naked Venus, hid the parts which are not shoith the hand of modesty And here there coher than the faith, deeins in ied down by their shas houses of ill-fame would shut the eyes in order not to see thenio, certainly not in the highest chapel of the world Less cri a believer, thus to sap the faith of others Up to the present tione unpunished; for their very superexcellence is the death of your good na the indecent parts of the damned to flames, and those of the blessed to sunbeams; or imitate the modesty of Florence, who hides your David's shailded leaves And yet that statue is exposed upon a public square, not in a consecrated chapel