Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/476

* MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 434 MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. another in the Royal Academy, London. While exrcuting the "David" he was also engaf;ed in painting a "iladonna" for Angelo Doni (llBzi). Thoufih deficient in color, this picture is wonder- ful in drawing and in the sturdy realism of the figures, and is original in conception. Somewhat earlier than this is the unfinished Madonna in the National Gallery, London. Michelangelo's .second manner is characterized by an increasing departure from the realism of his early days and a reliance upon an unbridled imagination, nis first work in which this new style prevails was his cartoon for the fresco of one of the long walls of the hall of the Great Council in the Palazzo Vecchio. executed in ri- valry with Leonardo da Vinci (q.v.), to wliom the other wall had been assigned. l?egun in August, l.')4. the cartoon was not completed till 150G, the fresco never having been carried out. The subject was the so-called "Battle of Pisa," an in- cident from the war between Florence and Pisa, in I.SC4, when four hundred Florentines were sur- prised by the enemy while bathing in the Arm at Anghiari. This was considered by contem- poraries as his greatest painting, and practically revolutionized Florentine art. The cartoon was destroyed in 1.510. and only surives in drawings at Holkham and 'ienna (Albertina), and in the well-known line engraving of a single group by Marcantonio. entitleil "Les Grimpeurs." Its execution was interrupted early in 1.50.5 by a summons to the artist from Rome by Pope Julius IL, who of all Michelangelo's patrons best understood the man and his art. His first com- mission was for his own sepulchral monument, to be placed in the tribune of the new Church of Saint Peter's, and to contain forty colossal stat- ues, besides bronze reliefs and other decorations. Michelangelo spent over eight months in Carrara procuring the marble for this, the darling scheme of liis life. But wlien, after his return to Rome, the Pope, inoved by the intrigues of Bramante, wished to defer the execution of the monument, anil the artist was sliglitinglv treated, he left Rome in a rage, sending the Pope word to seek him (dsewhere. Xotwithstanding the latter's ef- forts and the mediation of the Florentine govern- ment, a reconciliation was not effected till the end of 1.50(i, at Bologna, which the Pope had just added to the Papal domains. X'ntil February 21, 1.50S. the artist was occupied with the bronze stathe of .Julius TL, three times life size, which was destroyed when the P.entivogli recovered the citv three years later. I'pon rejoining the Pope at Rome, he was iniluced, much against his will, to undertake the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel. It was a task of colossal proportions (the ceiling alone measuring l.'?2 feet by 44 feet), and he did it practically alone. In Oc- tober, 1.521, the scaffolding was removed. Im- mediately upon its completion it was hailed as the greatest piece of work ever done by painter's hand. Fven Raphael's style was transformed after he had .seen it. Michelangelo arranged the vast space as though it had been roof- less, framing it with architecture in per- spective delusion, and filling the open spaces with paintings. .Tust above the windows are the figures of the ancestry of Christ in attitudes of onger waiting: above them, twelve gigantic fig- ures of the Prophets and .'Sibyls; in the comers, four reprcsontations from the history of Israel; while in the centre of the vault the stories of the "Creation of the World," the "Fall of Man," and of the "Deluge," are told in nine pictures. The spaces of the architecture are tilled with figures of nude boys and genii in various altitudes. Among the central pictures the "Creation of Adam" is preeminent. Adam is depicted just on the point of rising, just as God's touch sends the first thrill of life through his veins. His body is the perfection of anatomical form and action, and the representation of the Almighty as the incarnation of omnipotence and mild com- passion has never bieii e(]ualed. The "Delphic Sibyl" is young and licautiful, with an upturned look of rapture, the "Cunuean" is old and with- ered, the wisdom of the ages in her counte- nance. Of the prophets. .Jeremiah is the image of deep thought and Zacliarias a type of mental ab-sorption; .Jonah, the type of restored life, is a nude figure of remarkable foreshortening. On the deatli of .Julius II. in lol.?. Michel- angelo resumed work on his mausoleum, in ac- cordance with a second plan on a slightly reduced scale, a pen and ink drawing of which is in the L'llizi. Jle was tlius occupied till loll): during tliis time he executed, at least in jiart. the most important of the statues intended for it. Fore- most of these is the ".Moses" — certainly the great- est colossal statue in modern art. Moses is por- trayed at the moment when, enraged at the idoiatry of the Israelites, he starts, with threat- ening brow, to quell and crush them. The tech- nical execution is perfect, even to such details as the mighty bearcl, which his hand grasps con- vulsively, the nuiscular foreariii, and the wonder- ful fold of dra|icry upon his knee. The two "Captive Youths" in the Louvre, also termed '■Prisoners" and "Slaves." are ideal representa- tions of the arts, dying and c;iptive because of the death of their great patron.* In December. 1510. Micliclangelo was com- pelled by the wishes of Pope Leo X.. a iledici. to remove to Florence and busy himself with a facade for San Lorenzo, the family church of the Medici. He wasted three years of liis life in the quarries of Carrara and Pietra Santa procuring llie marble for this colossal design, when in 1520 the Pope gave up the jilaii. Then Cardinal Giulio de' Medici conimandeil his services for the iledicifan Chapel in the same church, upon which work was begun in 1521. During this period he found time for the "Christ Risen," now in the Church of the Jlinerva, Rome, upon which the finisliing touches were put by the sculjitor Frizzi — a figure which may justly be termed mannered, since it is rather an athlete than a Christ. Upon Cardinal Meilici's elevation to the Papacy as Clement VII. in 1.52."?. the artist's entire time was taken up by the designs and statues for the Medica-an Cliajiel and plans for the Laurentian Library. Tliis work, however, was interrupted by the last great struggle of Florence for liberty. Upon the sack of Rome by the army of Cliarles v., in 1527, the citizens arose and drove the Medici from Florence. Though he had never taken active part in public life. Michelangelo was an ardent patriot, willing to serve his country. On .laniiary 25. 152!). he was chosen one of the nine .-ifizens in charge of the defense of the citv, and on .pril Oth he became governor of the fortifications. His work took him to Pisa and l.ivorno. and he visited the Duke of Ferrara, the greatest Italian authority on fortifications.