1821.] L'Ape Ilaliana. — No. XX.— Michael Angela. 



poet, that he not only wished to adorn 

 his memory with a magnificent sepul- 

 chre, as appears from a supplication 

 made to Leo the Tenth, but also when 

 the Mediceau Academy demanded the 

 bones of the illustrious bard, the name 

 of Mi(-hel Angiolo, with his superb 

 offering, was i-ead amongst the subscri- 

 bers. "La ctii memoria voile ornare 

 con un maguifico sepolero, siccome 

 costa da una snpplica a Leon X. Ivi 

 I'Academia Medicea richicde le ossa 

 del divino poeta ; fra 'soscrittori si 

 legge il nome di Michel Angiolo e la 

 sua offerta." 



His sculpture. It maybe accounted 

 perhaps, a propitious occurrence for 

 the future excellence of Buonarroti, 

 that Dominico Giiirlandaio, the master 

 of this angel in sculpture, not less than 

 in painting, jealous of the too visible 

 superiority of his spleadid genius in 

 the latter art, succeeded in his endea- 

 vours to direct liis uncommon disposi- 

 tiou towards the former. Whoever 

 has seen his Moses at the sepulchre of 

 Julius the Second, at St. Pietro in 

 Vincoli at Rome, his Christ at the 

 Minerva, or his Pieta at the Vatican, 

 to say nothing of those statues which 

 Florence possesses of hina at St. Lo- 

 renzo, and the various palaces of the 

 sovereign, must confess with Condivi 

 and others, that, however towering 

 upon the summit of the thi-ee arts, his 

 chissel is still preferable to his pencil. 

 Herein, indeed, he appears certainly to 

 have exerted himself the most to the 

 purpose, and to have laid the founda- 

 tion of his never-dying fame. It would 

 be too much to follow Vasari, who 

 speaking of the great David, placed 

 near the old palace, (Palazzo Vecchio) 

 of Florence, says, " that it took away 

 the reputation from all antieut or mo- 

 dern statues, Greek or Roman, as they 

 may be (^tolse il grldo a tutte le statue 

 modenie ed antiche, Greche o Lritiiie, 

 ch'elle sifossero.) Nor should Bottari 

 be too much indulged, whose opinion 

 is, that Buonarroti has very much 

 surpassed the Greeks, whose statues, 

 however larger than nature, have not 

 succeedetl so excellently, " ha saperato 

 (Passat i Orece, le cue statue, quandoo 

 sono 7naggiori del naturcde, non sono 

 rinscite cost excellenti^'' but without 

 trespassing upon the splendid fame of 

 Greek masters, by comparing moderns 

 with fJK^m, it may be safely asserted, 

 that the bohliiess and life of the propor- 

 tions, the attitude, tlic majesty of de- 

 portment in tliat colossal figure, have 



215 



rarely been surpassed. In all his works 

 of sculpture, there is a grandeur united 

 with nature most happily his own. So 

 anxious was he about (his noble art, 

 and so delicate was his taste in the 

 utensils even that he employed, that 

 no workman could satisfy him, and his 

 own hands made every wimble, every 

 file, every chissel that he used, account- 

 ing no labour too great that had for its 

 object the attainment of that almost 

 preternatural excellence in which he is 

 a prince, and which has formed so bril- 

 liant a school for the sculptors of our 

 own days. 



His painting. Thus Micliel Angiolo, 

 without a rival in sculpture, dreaded 

 the possibility of appearing in painting 

 in a second or third character. Fe\v 

 are his designs, and the greater part of 

 his compositions liave remained tiaced 

 out only by liim, whilst succeeding 

 artists have followed to the completion 

 of his grand beginnings ; hence many 

 of the paintings givea for those of Buo- 

 narroti in the galleries, are almost all 

 of them of other masters. Not so, 

 however, in the various pontificates 

 which followed Pope Julius the Second, 

 when the indifference towards painting 

 of Michel Angiolo, occupied always in 

 works of sculpture and architecture, 

 may be well conceived by the frequent 

 unavailing entreaties made to him to 

 resume the pencil, by sovereigns and 

 by princes. Still Clement the Seventh, 

 wishing to have represented by him in 

 the Sixtine chapel, (cappella Sistina) 

 of the Vatican, two great histories, 

 that of the Fall of the Angels, over the 

 door, and the Universal Judgment on 

 the opposite front, over the grand altar, 

 prevailed upon Michel Angiolo to study 

 for the latter, which, upon the decease 

 of Clement the Seventh, was abandoned ; 

 but Paul the Third, who had come to 

 the knowledge of it, after various in- 

 efl'ectual persuasions, finally resolved 

 upon entreating him to the conclusion, 

 by going personally to his house ac- 

 companied by ten cardinals, an honour 

 without example in the history of ar- 

 tists, however great, and altogether 

 unique in the glories of the art. Michel 

 Angiolo, however, although obliged to 

 yield to such splendid solicitations, 

 evinced that independent and lofty 

 spirit which his happy pre-eminence in 

 sculpture had assured to him, by re- 

 plying to the Pope, that lie would not 

 Jindei take the conclusion of the work 

 at all, unless on fresco; that oil painting 

 he deemed a fit occupation for women 

 alone, 



