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
Pope Paul, as has been related, had caused a chapel called the Pauline
to be erected on the same floor by Antonio da San Gallo, in imitation
of that of Nicholas V; and in this he resolved that Michelagnolo
should paint two great pictures with two large scenes. In one he
painted the Conversion of S. Paul, with Jesus Christ in the air and a
multitude of nude Angels making most beautiful movements, and below,
all dazed and terrified, Paul fallen from his horse to the level of
the ground, with his soldiers about him, some striving to raise him
up, and others, struck with awe by the voice and splendour of Christ,
are flying in beautiful attitudes and marvellous movements of panic,
while the horse, taking to flight, appears to be carrying away in its
headlong course him who seeks to hold it back; and this whole scene is
executed with extraordinary design and art. In the other picture is
the Crucifixion of S. Peter, who is fixed, a nude figure of rare
beauty, upon the cross; showing the ministers of the crucifixion,
after they have made a hole in the ground, seeking to raise the cross
on high, to the end that he may remain crucified with his feet in the
air; and there are many remarkable and beautiful considerations.
Michelagnolo, as has been said elsewhere, gave his attention only to
the perfection of art, and therefore there are no landscapes to be
seen there, nor trees, nor buildings, nor any other distracting graces
of art, for to these he never applied himself, as one, perchance, who
would not abase his great genius to such things. These, executed by
him at the age of seventy-five, were his last pictures, and, as he
used himself to tell me, they cost him much fatigue, for the reason
that painting, and particularly working in fresco, is no art for men
who have passed a certain age. Michelagnolo arranged that Perino del
Vaga, a very excellent painter, should decorate the vaulting with
stucco and with many things in painting, after his designs, and such,
also, was the wish of Pope Paul III; but the work was afterwards
delayed, and nothing more was done, even as many undertakings are left
unfinished, partly by the fault of want of resolution in the
craftsmen, and partly by that of Princes little zealous in urging
them on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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