several accidents the original design was never put into execu tion. Immediately after the death of Julius, the cardinal's > nephew calculated the expense, and ordered Michael Angelo to make another monument on a limited scale, and at a stipulated price. For many years however the work was altogether laid aside, and it was but under the pontificate of Paul III. the fourth successor of Julius, that Michael Angelo entered into the last agreement with the Duke of Urbino, and on a still smaller scale, the work was completed without interruption. In this monument, however, there are of Michael Angelo only two female figures representing Rachel and Leah, and the famous statue of Moses. Of this exquisite statue an anecdote is told of Cardinal di Mantova, which shews how deservedly it has commanded the admiration of all nations. Pope Paul III. one day accompanied by ten cardinals, went to pay a visit to Michael Angelo, and Cardinal di Mantova seeing the Moses, exclaimed ❝ this statue alone is sufficient to honour the tomb of Julius." Of the original design no part exists but this, for of the two statues which had been completed, and the four which had been begun under the pontificate of Julius, none was used. Indeed the whole monument, as it is at present, is but a very indifferent production; it consists of seven statues, including that of the Pope, lying on a sarcophagus, nor has it been placed as it was originally intended in the church of St. Peter, but in that of St. Pietro in Vincola. But whatever may be said of the causes which occasioned so great a change in the execution of this monument, certain it is that the original cause which at first put a stop to the work came from Julius himself. Michael Angelo was still working at some of the statues, when he received orders to decorate with pictures the ceiling and walls of the Sistine chapel, which had been built by Sixtus IV. He felt his disappointment, and made every possible objection to engage in an undertaking where his want of practice and experience diminished his hope of success. But the Pope was determined. It has been asserted, that the machinations of those who wished to injure the sculptor in the esteem of his patron were the causes of this change; but this assertion, though plausible, has not been sufficiently proved. To proceed with the work a scaffold was necessary, and the architect of St. Peter received the order to erect it. Michael Angelo, however, found the whole of the machinery very objectionable, and especially from certain holes pierced in the ceiling for cords to pass through to suspend a part of the machinery. For this reason, having had permission to construct one as he thought best, he invented a machine so simple and o admirable, that it was afterwards adopted in the building of St. St. Peter's. Here Mr. Duppa, supposing himself to translate Condivi, says "this invention Michael Angelo gave to the poor man whom he employed as his carpenter, and from the commissions he received for making others on the same construc tion, he realized a small fortune." So far Mr. Duppa; but unluckily for him to prove his assertion he has put into a note the very text of Condivi. Now the Italian biographer does not say either that the poor man realized a small fortune, or that Michael Angelo gave him this invention, but he merely and simply says, that on taking down the scaffold which had been raised by the architect, the canapi, that is the ropes, were so many, that being given to a poor man, he was enabled to marry two of his daughters. "By his gains, Condivi says, he was enabled to give marriage portions with his daughters. Disfece Michel Angelo il ponte e ne cavò tanti canapi, che avendogli donati a un pover uomo, che Paiutò, fu cagione, ch' egli ne maritasse due sue figliuole. Così fece senza corde il suo, così ben tessuto e composto, che sempre era più fermo quonto maggior peso aveva.' P. 70. Michael Angelo had never painted in fresco, and when the cartoons were finished, he sent to Florence, and engaged the most experienced persons in this branch of the art. But their efforts proved so little satisfactory that he dismissed them all, and locking himself in the chapel he destroyed their work, and commenced painting. "From the commencement to the conclusion of this stupendous monument of human genius, twenty months only were employed.. So short a time for the completion of so vast a work could hardly be credited, if it were not more difficult to refuse the testimony on which it stands, than to believe the fact. Nevertheless the Pope harassed its progress with impatience; for he was an old man; and as his designs, of every kind, were always planned with the enthusiasm of youth, so they were hastened by a consciousness that he had no time to lose. To comply, therefore, with this impatience, Michael Angelo removed the scaffolding before he had put the last finish to his work; and on All Saints' day, in the year 1512, the chapel was opened; and the Pope officiated at high mass to a crowded and admiring audience." P. 78. We are sorry we have it not in our power to give a full de scription of this stupendous performance; and indeed we must regiet the want of room which hinders us from continuing our details of the long life of this great man. For this reason we shall confine ourselves to only two more of his most celebrated productions, and they are the painting of the Last Judgment, and the building of the Church of St. Peter. However before не we proceed we must express our astonishment at the censure which Mr. Duppa has lavished on Pope Leo X. and at the criticism which he has passed on Mr. Roscoe's life of this pontiff. Why our author should have espoused such an opinion, and why he should have selected Mr. Roscoe individually, is to us a matter of some surprise. Now Mr. Roscoe is not the only writer who has passed an eulogium on Leo X.; all the most learned and inquiring historians who have treated of the history of Italian literature, have been inexhaustible in their praises of Leo. The names alone of Quadrio, Mazzucchelli, and above all of Tiraboschi should have been more than sufficient to deter any man from controverting an opinion so well and so strongly established, without the greatest cause and the strongest arguments. And though Mr. Duppa has employed five and twenty pages on this subject, yet we must confess that his reasonings are far from being conclusive. We now return to the picture of the Last Judgment. This wonderful production, in which Michael Angelo has/ surpassed himself, was begun and completed under the pontificate of Paul III. and the chapel opened on Christmas day, 1541. Persons are described to have come from the most distant parts to see it, and the public and the court were rivals in admiration. "The composition of this picture, in its general design, is con formable to the doctrines and tenets of the Christian faith. Angels are represented as sounding trumpets, the dead as rising from the grave, and ascending to be judged by their Redeemer, who, accompanied by the Virgin Mary, stands surrounded by martyred saints. On his right and left are groups of both sexes, who, having passed their trial, are supposed to be admitted into eternal happiness. On the opposite side to the resurrection and ascension, are the condemned precipitated down to the regions of torment; and at the bottom is a fiend in a boat conducting them to the confines of perdition, where other fiends are ready to receive them. In two com partments at the top of the picture, made by the form of the vaulted ceiling, are groups of figures bearing the different insignia of the Passion." P. 160. The naked state of the personages has been considered by some as a reproach to Michael Angelo, and as an offence against morals. But it was not easy with any degree of consistency to feign a dress to the chosen and the condemned spirits. It is true that Pope Paul IV. was so much displeased that more than once he was near giving orders to have the wall white washed. To quiet him at last it was necessary for Daniello da Volterra to paint a drapery on some of the spirits. But from an anecdote of Paul III. it appears that this pontiff by no Cc means VOL. VI. OCTOBER, 1816. means thought as his successor did afterwards. Monsignore having very violently expressed himself against Michael Angelo on this account, our painter took his revenge by drawing his likeness, and placing him in hell, where he gave him the same office he held at the Vatican. The Mousignore, who recognised himself amongst the devils, and with a long tail that twisted round his breast, made violent representations to the Pope to oblige Michael Angelo to deface, or at least to alter his likeness, but Paul answered" that the authority of the Pope did not extend beyond purgatory; that in inferno nulla est redemptio." The other and last work of Michael Angelo, of which we hall speak, is the building of St. Peter's. "The history of the building of St. Peter's has been treated at large by Bonanni, and his work makes it the less necessary for me to enter into any detail upon that subject. The first stone was laid by Julius II. on the 18th of April, 1506, and Bramante was appointed sole architect. Upon his death, 1514, the appoint ment was conferred by Leo X. on Giuliano da San Gallo, Raffaello d'Urbino, and Giocondo da Verona. Giuliano being oppressed with age and infirmity, intreated that he might decline the employment, and he received permission to retire to Florence. Giocondo da Verona also quitted Rome soon after, and the whole charge devolved upon Raffaello. Antonio da San Gallo, the nephew of Giu liano, solicited the place of his uncle, not as chief architect, which seems originally to have been his appointment, but as an assistant to Raffaello: in this application he succeeded, and upon the death of Raffaello in 1520, the whole direction of the building was intrusted to his care. He laid aside the designs of his predecessors, and substituted one more complicated; and although the work advanced slowly for want of money, he made a model which of itself cost more than a thousand pounds sterling †. "This model, in the multiplicity and division of its parts, being more conformable to the principles of Saracenic than of Grecian or Roman architecture, Michael Angelo applied himself to make an original design, upon a reduced scale, on the plan of a Greek cross t. This met with the Pope's approbation; for, although the dimensions of the church were less, the form was more grand than that of "Those who wish for more extensive information, will find the works of Ferrabosco and Fontana very interesting, and the Memorie istoriche della gran Cupola, by Sig. Marchese Gio. Poleni." + "This model was executed by one Antonio Labacco, of which the carpenters' work cost four thousand one hundred and eighty-four crowns.' Vasari Vita di Antonio da Sangallo, vol. iii. p. 445." $ "Illustrations, Architecture, No. I." Saa San Gallo's model. It appears, from a letter of Michael Angelo's still extant, that he had a high opinion of Bramante's general plan, and would most probably have adopted it, with little variation, if the difficulty of raising money had not made it necessary to contract the original size of the building to meet the exigences of the times. Clement VII. left some jewels in the treasury, but no money. The disaffection of Germany had considerably diminished the Papal revenue; and Henry VIII. of England, had also withdrawn his allegiance from the Catholic church. In consequence of these defalcations, Paul III. was desirous that such a plan might be adopted, as to leave a reasonable hope of its completion; with this view, though not from the failure of resources, but from the extravagance of their application, Leo X. in his reign, commissioned Peruzzi to make a design to be executed at a less expense than that which was originally made by Bramante *. "During the reign of Paul III. Michael Angelo was wholly employed in works of painting and architecture, except the time he was occupied in executing the two statues for the monument of Julius II. From the death of San Gallo, the superintendence of St. Peter's was alone sufficient to occupy his time; besides the direct advancement of that stupendous fabric, he had much to undo, which was done by his predecessor, and to contend with a host of adverse interests. Agreeably to one of the conditions of the patent, he chose his own workmen, and dismissed those who had been formerly employed; for which he shared the fate of all reformers, to be maliciously spoken of, and constantly opposed." P. 165. It is indeed a very lamentable fact, that this building imbittered the remaining years of Michael Angelo, through the intrigues and the cabals of his enemies, who chequered his last days with vexation and trouble. "After this last discussion, the time left to him for the enjoy ment of his uncontrolled authority was short, for in the month of February, 1563, he was seized by a slow fever, which gave symp toms of his approaching death, and he desired Daniello da Volterra to write to his nephew Leonardo Buonarroti to come to Rome: his fever however increased, and in the presence of his physician and others who were in his house, whom he ordered into his bed-room, he made this short nuncupative will- My soul I resign to God, my body to the earth, and my worldly possessions to my nearest of kin; then he admonished his attendants, 'In your passage through * "Vide Vasari Vita di Baldassare Peruzzi, tom. iii. p. 197, et Bonanni Templi Vaticani Historia, tab. 13." +"According to Vasari, these two statues did not take up twelve months of his time, Le quali statue condusse di sua mano anno.'" Michelagnolo in meno di un $ "Vasari, tom. ii. ce 2 this |