Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/575

 The Italian Cities and the Renaissance 539 retouch some portions of the work a seccof as had been done by the older masters who had painted the stories on the walls. He would also have gladly added a little ultramarine to the draperies and gilded other parts, to the end that the whole might have a richer and more striking effect. The pope, too, hearing that these things were still want- ing, and finding that all who beheld the chapel praised it highly, would now fain have had the additions made ; but as Michael Angelo thought reconstructing the scaffold too long an affair, the pictures remained as they were, although the pope, who often saw Michael Angelo, would sometimes say, "Let the chapel be enriched with bright colors and gold; it looks poor." When Michael Angelo would reply familiarly, "Holy Father, the men of those days did not adorn themselves with gold; those who are painted here less than any, for they were none too rich ; besides which they were holy men, and must have despised riches and ornaments." [In 1546, San Gallo, who was in charge of the building operations at St. Peter's in Rome, having died, Pope Paul III asked Michael Angelo to undertake the office.] The mas- ter at first replied that he would not, architecture not being his vocation ; but when entreaties were found useless, the pope commanded him to accept the trust, and to his infinite regret he was compelled to obey. He did not approve of San Gallo's plan. He would often publicly declare that San Gallo had left the building without lights, and had heaped too many ranges of columns one above the other on the outside ; adding that, with its innumerable projec- tions, pinnacles, and divisions of members, it was more like a work of the Teutons than of the good antique manner, or of the cheerful and beautiful modern style. 2 He further- more affirmed that fifty years of time, with more than three 1 That is, after the damp plaster upon which the paint had been originally laid al fresco had dried. 2 That is, that it resembled the Gothic rather than the Classical or Renaissance style. Michael Angelo required by the pope to carry on the work of St. Peter's.