Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the FlemingsVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the Flemings
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Michelagnolo departed for Rome in haste, harassed once again by
Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, the nephew of Pope Julius, who
complained of him, saying that he had received sixteen thousand crowns
for the above-named tomb, yet was living a life of pleasure in
Florence; and he threatened in his anger that, if Michelagnolo did not
give his attention to the work, he would make him rue it. Having
arrived in Rome, Pope Clement, who wished to make use of him, advised
him to draw up his accounts with the agents of the Duke, believing
that after all that he had done he must be their creditor rather than
their debtor; and so the matter rested. After discussing many things
together, they resolved to finish completely the library and new
sacristy of S. Lorenzo in Florence. Michelagnolo therefore departed
from Rome, and raised the cupola that is now to be seen, causing it to
be wrought in various orders of composition; and he had a ball with
seventy-two faces made by the goldsmith Piloto, which is very
beautiful. It happened, while Michelagnolo was raising the cupola,
that he was asked by some friends, "Should you not make your lantern
very different from that of Filippo Brunelleschi?" And he answered
them, "Different it can be made with ease, but better, no." He made
four tombs in that sacristy, to adorn the walls and to contain the
bodies of the fathers of the two Popes, the elder Lorenzo and his
brother Giuliano, and those of Giuliano, the brother of Leo, and of
Duke Lorenzo, his nephew. And since he wished to execute the work in
imitation of the old sacristy that Filippo Brunelleschi had built, but
with another manner of ornamentation, he made in it an ornamentation
in a composite order, in a more varied and more original manner than
any other master at any time, whether ancient or modern, had been able
to achieve, for in the novelty of the beautiful cornices, capitals,
bases, doors, tabernacles, and tombs, he departed not a little from
the work regulated by measure, order, and rule, which other men did
according to a common use and after Vitruvius and the antiquities, to
which he would not conform. That licence has done much to give courage
to those who have seen his methods to set themselves to imitate him,
and new fantasies have since been seen which have more of the
grotesque than of reason or rule in their ornamentation. Wherefore the
craftsmen owe him an infinite and everlasting obligation, he having
broken the bonds and chains by reason of which they had always
followed a beaten path in the execution of their works. And even more
did he demonstrate and seek to make known such a method afterwards in
the library of S. Lorenzo, at the same place; in the beautiful
distribution of the windows, in the pattern of the ceiling, and in the
marvellous entrance of the vestibule. Nor was there ever seen a more
resolute grace, both in the whole and in the parts, as in the
consoles, tabernacles, and cornices, nor any staircase more
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