tude a sort of necessity to restore their exhausted spirits. Among the mountains of Spoleto, Michael Angelo found the tranquillity he desired; he was constantly surrounded by objects which at once elevated and soothed his expansive and contemplative mind; his age also tended to make the uninterrupted enjoyment of devotional meditation doubly pleasing and valuable; and on his return to Rome, he told Vasari in a letter, that he had received great delight from his visit to the monks in the mountains of Spoleto, and that, though he was returned to the capital, he had left his better self behind him;-there being, he says, no happiness in times so unsettled, except what is to be found in such a retirement. The influence which this seclusion had upon his thoughts appears to have been still more strongly felt after his return to Rome. The contemplation of death, to a man so naturally serious, must have been long habitual, but he now began to look for its rapid approach, and his chief employment on returning home was the execution of a monument for the chapel in which he was to be buried. The design consisted of a representation of Christ taken from the cross, and supported by the Virgin Mary, who is joined in her pious duties by Mary Magdalen and Nicodemus. This work, it is said, occupied his leisure hours for a considerable period; but unfortunately, after expending upon it great labour, he found that the marble was bad: and not willing that what would probably be his last production in his favourite art should appear imperfect, he ceased from prosecuting it in disgust. Soon after his return also, a circumstance occurred which put his patience to a still further trial. The pope, influenced, it seems probable, by the party opposed to Michael Angelo, engaged an architect, Pietro Ligorio, to assist him in his labours at the cathedral. This person, however, was altogether a theorist, and the vast field opened to him in St. Peter's offered too great a temptation to a man of his character to be resisted. Scarcely had he entered upon his office when he began to conduct himself towards Michael Angelo with a degree of superciliousness which would have been wholly unwarranted had the venerable old man been indeed in his dotage, but which was the strongest proof Ligorio could have given of his own utter incapacity, when all who were disinterested and free from envy were looking with equal wonder and delight at the gradual developement of the noble plan on which the painter of the Last Judgment had founded the structure, and which he was now rapidly, and without any diminution of the sublimity of his conceptions, bringing to its completion. To the last hour that the mind of a great man can take an interest in any thing earthly, such an object as that which Michael Angelo had now in view might surely engage his most anxious attention. But in the present case, the exercise of his genius, and the interest which it was natural and right that he should feel in seeing one of the grandest productions of his intellect perfected, had a degree of sanctity given to them by the principles with which he had commenced the undertaking. As if no earthly rewards could be sufficient to repay him at nearly eighty years of age, for the sacrifice of freedom and repose, he refused, as we have seen, to bear the burden, except as a matter of piety and devotion. This feeling, combined with the desire of seeing his design secure from the contamination of inferior minds, now made the completion of St. Peter's the constant object of all his thoughts; and he was roused to indignation when he beheld the unwarrantable liberties which Ligorio was preparing to take with his plan. As he found that it would be in vain to employ the force of argument with such a man, he appealed directly to the Pope, and at once desired him to decide whether he or Ligorio should remain the architect of St. Peter's cathedral. Paul IV. had sufficient discrimination and justice to decide aright in this case; and the presumptuous Ligorio was dismissed. Michael Angelo now resumed his occupations with the same steadiness as before; losing, it appears, none of the resolution with which he had begun the undertaking, supported as he was by his high principles of piety and professional enthusiasm. In another letter, written to Vasari about this time, he remarks, that to leave St. Peter's in the state in which it now was, would be to ruin the structure, and thereby be guilty of a great sin; that he hoped he should shortly see the execution of his plans brought to such a point that they could no longer be interfered with, and that this was the prime object of his wishes, "if he did not," he sarcastically observes, "commit a great crime by disappointing the cormorants who were daily hoping to get rid of him." In the same letter he also remarks, "it is God's will that I should still drag through existence, and I know that you will call me an old and silly fellow to wish to make sonnets; but as many people say I am a child again, I like to do childish things. I am convinced by your letter of the love which you feel towards me, and I therefore beg you to know that I should esteem it a most kind office if you would lay these my feeble bones near those of my father." The state of his mind may be clearly discerned in this short but expressive letter; and the view of such a mind, at all times worthy of the deepest attention, is doubly so when it begins to anticipate the transition to another state of existence, but retains its faculties in undiminished strength and vigour. CHAPTER XII. Progress of the Edifice of St. Peter. THE cathedral was by this time so far advanced, that the thoughts of the architect were now engaged in forming plans for the dome; the splendid frieze and row of double columns from which it was to rise being already completed. His friends were not deficient in offering him their congratulations at the admirable manner in which he had succeeded in bringing his plans to so great a state of perfection; and many of them used their utmost influence to persuade him to proceed immediately with the cupola. But aware of the importance of this part of the edifice to its general effect, and of the difficulties of executing the noble designs which had been floating in his mind, it was several months before he could determine upon commencing this portion of his labours. length, however, he overcame his relucAt tance, and began to form a little earthen model of the dome*. By dint of thought It is stated that M. Angelo, when he set out from Florence to build the dome of St. Peter's, turned his horse round on the road to contemplate, once more, that of the cathedral, as it rose in the gray of the morning from among the pines and cypresses of the city, and that he said, after a pause, Come te non voglio, meglio di te non posso," (Like thee I will not build one, better than thee I cannot.) He never spoke of it without admiration, and he desired that his tomb should be so placed in the Santa Croce, as that from it might be seen, when the doors of the church stood open, that noble work of Brunelleschi. 49 and perseverance, he gradually gave it the appearance which he wished to secure, and then employed an ingenious artist to construct from it another model in wood; all the parts of which were to be formed after the exact measurement he had laid down. pressed at the beauty of this model, and The greatest satisfaction was exMichael Angelo had thus effected another very important step towards the completion of his grand design. His daily declining strength, added to the tardy manner in which the sums neplied, rendered it hardly probable that cessary for the building were suphe would live to itself perfected. But he had at least the see the cathedral satisfaction to know that the noble idea which had occupied his mind was rightly appreciated by those whose approbation he thought worth his regard; that it had now a real and palpable existence; and that should his plans be put aside after his death, by the envy or bad taste of his enemies, posterity would have the means of doing justice to his conceptions. model, however, Paul IV. ceased to live, Soon after the completion of the change. The character of the late ponand public affairs underwent another tiff had exposed him to almost universal hatred; the zeal with which he had endeavoured to support the church assumed the most terrific forms of private revenge; and while those whom he esteemed his enemies bled under the instruments of torture, the people of his own states groaned under as heavy ayoke as the tyranny of any despot had ever the signal for the most tumultuous poimposed. His death was consequently pular rejoicings. In the first excitement, the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open; the intended victims of the holy office set at liberty, and the building itself immediately after burnt to to hurl down his statue, which, after rollthe ground. The people next proceeded ing with every mark of ignominy through all the principal streets, they cast headlong into the Tiber. lutions and strange events, and survived Though he had witnessed many revoseven pontifical reigns, Michael Angelo had little expected to live to be an eyewitness of scenes like these; so derogatory then to the character of the Catholic church, and which gave to the giantspirit of reformation an almost irresistible impulse. So great was the confusion E occasioned, and the uproar among the people, that four months elapsed before the college of cardinals were able to close their election of another pope. Their choice, however, at length fell on the Cardinal de' Medici, a native of Milan, and no relation of the illustrious family of Florence. The new pontiff, on ascending the pontifical chair, took the title of Pius IV. and from the commencement of his reign manifested the most decided inclination to cultivate the arts. The ancient monuments of the city were estimated by him at their true value; the streets were repaired, the churches fitted up with extraordinary care, and the palace of the Vatican was embellished in a style of costly magnificence. Had this pontiff been more enlightened in his general views, and less inclined to amass wealth for the purpose of aggrandizing his family, he would have been a worthy successor of Leo X. Michael Angelo experienced his earliest attention, and was restored by him to the chancellorship of Rimini. Besides this mark of favour he received several others highly complimentary to his genius, and which proved how greatly his talents were still prized, notwithstanding his advanced age and the increasing machinations of his opponents. Pius, having formed the idea of rebuilding the gates of the city, directed him to make designs for one which was to be erected without delay. When the drawings were given in, the pontiff fixed on the one which could be followed at least expense, and the celebrated Porta Pia was erected, to his great satisfaction and that of the Romans in general. It is uncertain whether the designs of Michael Angelo for any of the other gates were followed; the façade of the Porta del Popolo has been supposed to afford some traces of his hand; but the most careful antiquarians deny his having had any share in that structure. Struck with admiration of the powers of the aged sculptor, and eager to gather with as much speed as possible more designs from the unexhausted wealth of his mind, the pontiff employed Michael Angelo in several other works of importance. Among these was a church formed out of the ruined baths of Dioclesian, in constructing which its great architect proved, in an extraordinary degree, the quickness with which his intellect was still capable of conceiving the noblest plans, and the force with which it could overcome the difficulties opposed to their execution. This beautiful church, however, was suffered to fall into decay, and the designs of Michael Angelo were destroyed to make room for those of a more modern artist. About the same period, also, he was engaged by the cardinal, Santa Fine, to build a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, but the cardinal dying it was left in an unfinished state. Nor were his labours confined even to Rome. The Florentines, being desirous of reerecting the church of San Giovanni in the street of Giulia, the three architects employed on the occasion applied to Michael Angelo for a plan, assuring him that, if he refused to comply with their request, the undertaking must be abandoned. In his reply Michael Angelo told them that he would do whatever lay in his power to further their wishes, both from the natural love which he bore his country, and from his desire now, in his old age, to employ his abilities to the honour of God. His bodily infirmities, however, obliged him to seek manual assistance, though he retained the same vigour in his mental exercises; and he was now in the habit of employing Tiberio Calcagni, a Florentine sculptor to whom he was attached, in drawing out or copying his plans. Having, by the aid of this artist, completed three designs, he sent them to Florence that the directors of the building might make their choice; but their surprise and admiration at the beauty of the plans are said to have been so great that they were unable to decide which it would be best to follow. They, therefore, returned them to Michael Angelo, with a request that he would himself determine the question, to which he immediately assented. observing, that if his design was completed, the structure would surpass anything that had been ever seen by Greeks or Romans, or by any other people. Unfortunately domestic troubles and difficulties prevented the prosecution of the work, and the model which had been made for the church of San Giovanni, after having been preserved some time, was destroyed. The building of St. Peter's was in the meantime proceeding with as much speed and regularity as the nature of the edifice and the funds allowed for it would permit. But the opponents of the aged architect had lost none of their jealous ill-will towards a man who so It is proper to state here, that, although drawn nearly to the same scale, the dimensions given to St. Paul's are rather less than the true relative proportions of the two edifices would require. ciously, that they hoped they were at length on the point of succeeding in their object. The first step they now took was to send away Luigi Gaeta, one of his assistants, and this provoking Michael Angelo to express himself with considerable warmth, they interpreted his language into a declaration of his willingness to retire. As soon, however, as he became acquainted with the measures they were pursuing, he sent his friend Daniello Ricciarelli da Volterra to the bishop Ferratino, one of the committee of management, to contradict what was alleged respecting his wish to retire. The bishop, on hearing this, expressed his regret, and observed that if Michael Angelo would resign his charge, certainly too heavy for a man of his age, the managers would willingly accept any one whom he should himself name as his substitute. The proposition, thus made in apparent good faith, was such as Michael Angelo, or even the most jealous person, could scarcely fail to receive with good humour, as it secured to him that degree of influence which was almost everything desirable, situated and infirm as he then was. Without hesitation, therefore, he acceded to the offer, and naturally supposed that Daniello would be immediately appointed his substitute; but the bishop, instead of acting according to his promise, presented Nanni Bigio to the committee, simply mentioning that Michael Angelo had agreed to appoint a substitute. The venerable architect heard of this transaction with mingled anger and disgust, and hastening to the pope, he expressed his determination to proceed instantly to Florence, and there end his days, if his holiness would grant him a licence to leave Rome. Pius, however, sought in the kindest manner to soothe his irritated feelings, and promised to inquire into the whole affair. Instead, therefore, of giving credence to the assertions of the architect's enemies that he was ruining the edifice, he sent a person in whom he could place confidence to examine the parts of the structure which were said to be defective. The investigation, it need scarcely be mentioned, ended to the complete satisfaction of both Michael Angelo and the Pope, and Messer Bigio was once more driven away in disgrace. It is impossible to contemplate, with out indignation and regret, the persecutions to which Michael Angelo's inflexible integrity exposed him. The greatest genius of the age, advanced in years, bestowing gratuitously his talents in the erection of a fabric unrivalled in any age, was persecuted by every crafty peculator who found himself thwarted; and the directors of the works, wishing to have under their guidance some one whom they could more easily control, or make subservient to their own dishonest views, repeatedly annoyed him, and brought false charges against him. CHAPTER XIII. Death of Michael Angelo. THE event above related was the last circumstance of any importance in Michael Angelo's life. Shortly after its occurrence, his health was observed rapidly to decline; and it was now thought requisite by the pontiff and others of his friends, that arrangements should be made to prevent the dispersion of his effects by improper means, in case of sudden dissolution. Examples are on record of the most barbarous spoliations having taken place on the death of eminent artists, among which what occurred on the decease of Titian is not the least memorable; and from the vast quantity of valuable designs, pieces of sculpture, and antiquities, which were accumulated in Michael Angelo's house, it was feared lest the rapacity of his attendants might deprive his rightful heirs of their expected inheritance, and the lovers of art of many valuable relics. At the beginning of the year 1563, the apprehensions entertained from the impaired state of his health were considerably increased; a slow fever assailed him; and he became conscious himself that his mortal career was at an end. By his directions, Daniello da Volterra wrote off immediately to desire his nephew Leonardo to come with all haste to Rome; and the physician Federigo Donati being present, with several of his other friends, he made his will, which simply stated that he resigned his soul into the hands of God, his body to the earth, and his property to his nearest relations. He closed his brief testament with the exhortation, that in their journey through life they should remember |
