MICHELANGELO 



B399 



MICHELANGELO 



MK licl.uiL'clo had now to leave 

 I'...|..L'II:I nwiiix to the threats of 

 the jrulii> i-rattMiien nf (In- town ; 

 MI in t lie springtime- of 1 I'.i.'i he 

 returned to Florence to timl the 

 1 .1:1 ut if til Luigia dead and a re- 

 pul.hi- established. Though but 

 twenty. In- was made a member 

 of I In- L'enenil council of citizens. 

 Called to Rome by a cardinal 

 who hud bought his Sleeping Cupid 

 as an antique, the young sculptor 

 Inn lied eagerly to ride to the goal 

 of hi-i ambitions in the June of 

 1490 ; he was soon at work on the 

 super!) group of his Pieta. Un- 

 fortunately the money difficulties 

 of his father and family kept the 

 young artist poor in order to send 

 them constant relief ; neverthe- 

 hen at 26, in the spring of 

 1501, he again entered Florence, 



Fortran in Ikt Capitoline Gallery, Some 



he was hailed as the first sculptor 

 of his age. Finding a large dis- 

 carded block of marble, he wrought 

 out of it his mighty masterpiece 

 the colossal David. 



Summoned to Rome by Pope 

 Julius II in 1505, the young artist 

 eagerly set forth on his second 

 journey thereto. The great Pope 

 Julius II, an extraordinary man, 

 ordered a magnificent monument 

 to himself. Michelangelo's design 

 being too huge to set in S. Peter's 

 church, the pope decided to have 

 the church rebuilt by Bramante 

 on a vast scale. Tricked by the 

 pope over money, Michelangelo 

 took horse in a rage for Florence. 

 " Forgiven " and recalled by the 

 pope in 1508, he rode into Rome 

 for the third time, his heart set 

 on finishing the great sculptures 

 for the Julian tomb, only to find 

 that Bramante and Raphael and 

 others, playing on the old pope's 

 superstition, had maliciously sug- 

 gested Michelangelo being set in- 



Michelangelo. The Holy Family, an early work, painted 

 in tempera, 1501-5 



allery. Florenct 



stead to painting the Sistine 



chapel. Thus it came about that 



Michelangelo, shutting himself up 



in the chapel alone, with the fresco 



dripping on his upturned face, 



cramped by the terrible fatigue, put 



himself to the 



stupendous task, 



and, four years 



afterwards, on 



Nov. 1, 1512, 



there was re- 



vealed to Rome 



the masterpiece 



of painting of 



the Italian Re- 



naissance. 



Pope Julius, 

 feeling the end 

 at hand, now 

 ordered Michel- 

 angelo to finish 

 the great Julian 

 tomb. Julius, 

 dying four 

 months after- 

 wards, was suc- 

 ceeded by Pope 

 Leo X, a Medici, 

 who ordered 

 Michelangelo in- 

 stead to Florence 

 to the erection of 

 his great Medi- 

 cean tomb in 

 honour of the 

 Pope's two bro- 

 thers lately dead. 



Then came 

 the sack of Rome 

 in 1527. Florence 

 shook off the 

 yoke of the 

 Medici, and, 

 Mich e 1 a n g e 1 o, 

 now 52, flung 

 himself into the 

 war of liberty. 



But the fall of the 

 city through trea- 

 chery saw Alesan- 

 dro de Medici 

 enter in triumph 

 and Michelangelo 

 a fugitive. How- 

 ever, the anger of 



the Mi-di ' an pop'- 



soon cooled, and 

 Miehelangelo was 

 lorn thin way and 

 that by the jeal- 

 ousies rampant 

 over the comple- 

 tion of the two 

 great tombs. 

 Finishing the 

 masterpiece of the 

 Tomb of Giuliano 

 and Lorenzo de' 

 Medici in 1534, he 

 left Florence for 

 ever. 



On his reaching 

 Rome for the 

 fourth time, now on the edge of 60, 

 the new pope, the crafty Paul III, 

 compelled Michelangelo to the 

 painting of the vast Last Judg- 

 ment. It was now in his sixties 

 that he met the second woman 



Michelangelo. La Pieta : marble group representing tbe 

 Madonna tending tbe body o! the dead Christ. Executed 

 in 1499, tbis is the only work ever signed by Michelangelo, 

 whose name appears on the band crossing the breast 

 of the Madonna 



8, Pttir't. Komt 



