SCULPTURE. 



and the duke of Urbino, oppofite to each other ; with three 

 ftatues on the north fide, the Virgin and Child, St. Peter, 

 and another faint. Both architefture and fculpture are 

 llill admired among the fined produftions of this artifl. 



The fortification of the city of Florence was committed 

 to him : he fortified mount St. Miniati ; but when the 

 wars of Italy in 152J obliged the artilts to leave Rome and 

 Florence, Michael Angelo was one of the number, and 

 went to Venice ; where' the doge Gritti employed him, 

 and he made the defign for the bridge of Rialto, which is 

 one of the matter-pieces of architedure. He painted in 

 that city fome piftures, and among otherj that of Leda, 

 which he gave to the duke of Fcrrara, who fent it to 

 Francis I. 



The wars of Italy being ended, Michael returned to Rome, 

 and there finifhed the fepulchre of Julius II., after which 

 lie painted, by order of Paul III., the great front of the 

 allar, whereon he reprefented the Lall Judgment, it being 

 this only which was not finifhed of all the paintings in the 

 chapel. 



The Laft Judgment, and the cieling of the Silline cliaptl, 

 may be confidcred, together, as the noblett production ot 

 modern painting exilting in the world ; and it is to be 

 doubted whether any work of antiquity could he compared 

 with it for grandeur of conception and power of execution. 

 He painted alio, in the Pauline cliapel, the Converfion of 

 St. Paul, in which the Saviour defcends in the midil of his 

 lieavenly minitters, as he addrellcs the fallen convert, who is 

 furroundcd by flying horfemen, and thofe on foot in dif- 

 ferent directions and inexpreffiblc terror. The Crucifixion 

 of St. Peter, on the oppofite fide of the chapel, exhibit? t!ie 

 horror ot the aftion, the patience of the faint, the grief of 

 attending friends, and tlie dolorous folemnity of the fur- 

 rounding multitude. 



Michael Angelo, in his old age, applied himfelf more to 

 architefture than to fcnlpture and painting. After the 

 death of Anthony San Gallo, the pope appointed him chief 

 architeft of St. Peter's, and of the apoltolic chamber, al- 

 though he would have excufed himfelf from it ; but having 

 accepted tiie cliarge, he went to St. Peter's to examine 

 San Gallo's model, which not approving, on account of its 

 being a compofition of parts, without fuflicient reference to 

 a whole, he caufed another model to be made, which not 

 only produced a much urrander and more magnificent fabric, 

 but at one-eighth of the expence. And this great church 

 was finifhed according to the defign of Michael Angelo, 

 excepting the front, which is not his. While he carried on 

 this building he made alfo feveral others, which conflituted 

 part of the beauty of Rome ; fuch as the palace of Farnefe 

 and the Capitol. 



After he had arrived at the age of 80, and had withdrawn 

 himfelf from mofl works fif importance, except the buildintr 

 of St. Peter's, he gratified the piety of his own mind, and 

 amufed his leifure hours in working on one large block of 

 marble a group of four figures, reprefenting the dead body 

 of our Saviour fupportedby Jofeph of Arimathea, attended 

 by two of the Maries ; a pathetic and noble compofition, 

 which he did not liv - to finilh. It is now to be ieen on the 

 back of the high iltar in the cathedral of Florence. 



Michael Angelo died at Rome in 1564. He was almoll 

 go years of age. This great man, befides the affeftion of 

 feven popes, whom he ferved, is faid to have gained very 

 great reputation among the following princes ; Solyman, 

 emperor of the Turks; Francis 1., king of France; the 

 emperor Charles V. ; the princes of the republic of Venice ; 

 and all the princes of Italy, particularly with the great 

 5 



duke of Tufcany, who reigned when he died ; for when his 

 body was in the church of the holy apoftles, and the pope 

 was about to fet up a fine fepulchre tor him, this great dukcr 

 caufed his body to he privately fetched away to be buried 

 in his capital city, and performed his funeral obfequies with 

 all imaginable pomp and fplendour. This pomp was cele- 

 brated in the church of St. Crois, at Florenc", attended by all 

 the academy of defign, who on that occafion gave fufficient 

 tettimony of the elleem they had for their matter by the 

 magnificent reprefeutation which the Italians call Catafalco, 

 and adorning the whole church with painting, and fculpture, 

 and lights. A panegyric was there pronounced over him 

 by MefFer Benedetto Varchi. 



Michael Angclo's charatter, as a man and an artifV, was 

 equally honourable to painting, fculpture, and architefture ; 

 his integrity is unimpeached ; his geiierofity and gratitude 

 were princely ; his piety and temperance were exemplary ; 

 his ttudies were indefatigable ; his genius was fublime 

 and original ; and his execution equally powerful, beyond 

 all thofe who went before him and all his fubfequent 

 imitators. 



John of Bologna was a fculptor of great merit, both in 

 bronze and marble, who lived rattier later than Michael 

 Angelo : his groups are remarkable for the good compofition 

 and fine undulation of his lines, of which the Rape of the 

 Sabines, in the market-place of Florence, is an inflance. 

 His itatue of Mercury rifing from the point of his toe into 

 the air is alfo juflly admired. Many fmaller works by this 

 artitl partake in the fame grace and beauty, and may be 

 fludied with advantage. 



Bciivenuto Cellini, who was a goldfiniih and fculptor in 

 metals, executed a fine coloflal group, of Perfeus holding 

 the iiead of Medufa in his left hard, with the fword in his 

 right, and ttanding on the body from which the head has 

 been feparated : the pedeftal is moft whimfically adorned 

 with bas relief and chimerical figures relating to the fubjecl. 



After thele avtills, the Florentine fchool of fculpture 

 lingered into a Itate of inanity. 



Bernini was employed in Rome by pope Urban VIII., 

 and built the noble femi-clrcular porticoes of St. Peter's 

 churcii. Hisbett work of fculpture is the group of Apollo 

 and Daphne : he defigned and modelled innumerable figures 

 for the colonnade of St. Peter's and the bridge of St. An- 

 gelo ; he executed the monuments of Alexander VII. and 

 Urban VIII. in St. Peter's ; the coloffal ttatue of St. Lon- 

 ginus ; and four doftors, which fupport the chair of St. 

 Peter. 



This fculptor, whofe works were fo numerous, as he was 

 firft a painter, and formed in the Lombard fchool, endea- 

 voured to embodv Coreggio's ttyle of painting in fcnlpture, 

 forgetting the impofTibility of reprefenting flying draperies 

 and the extremitie,-. of hair in marble, which is fo eafily done 

 on canvas ; and which, when univerfally attempted, remains 

 an equal teftimony of the fculptor's want of judgment, and 

 the impofTibility of the attempt. Although there are fine 

 ideas in the general conception of both the papal monu- 

 ments above-mentioned, by this artift ; yet his allegorical 

 figures are affefted in their attitudes, fmirking and con- 

 ceited in their countenances ; their forms are flabby and in- 

 correA, and their draperies confufed : yet this flyle, de- 

 praved and flimfy as it was, in fpite of the beauties of 

 Nature, which continually appear before our eyes, and the 

 Grecian examples of rigid perfeAion which adorn the city 

 of Rome ; notwithftanding thcfe, it produced a train of 

 followers, Rufconi, Algardi, Moco, &c. &c. who continued 

 to be employed, till within thefe fifty years, in Italy, 



where 



