Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/340

328 of the master. He designed a Ciborium for the Sacrament also, which the Pope desired to have made for this church; it has been executed, for the most part, by Jacopo Ciciliano, an excellent artist in bronze, whose castings succeed so well and are so delicately fine, that they require but little chiseling, for in this respect Jacopo is a distinguished artist, and greatly pleased Michelagnolo.

Now the Florentines in Rome had often talked of beginning in good earnest to set about the Church of San Giovanni in the Strada Giulia. All the heads of the richest families among them assembled with that view, promising to contribute according to their means for that purpose, and a good sum of money was got together. A discussion then arose as to whether it were better to pursue the old plans or to have something newer and better; when it was at length determined that a new edifice should be raised on the old foundations; the care of the whole being committed to three persons, Francesco Bandini, Uberto Ubaldini, and Tommaso de’ Bardi. By these persons an application for a design was made to Michelagnolo, to whom they represented that it was a disgrace for the Florentines to have spent so much money without any profit, adding, that if his genius did not avail to finish the work, they should be wholly without resource. The master assured them, with the utmost kindness, that the design they required should be the first thing he would lay hand on; remarking, moreover, that in this his old age he was glad to be occupied with things sacred, and such as might contribute to the honour of God. He furthermore declared, that it rejoiced him to do something for his own people, to whom his heart was ever true.

At this time Michelagnolo had with him the Florentine sculptor Tiberio Calcagni, a youth who greatly desired to improve in his art, and who, having gone to Rome, had also given his attention to architecture. Being pleased with his manners, Michelagnolo had given him the Pieta which he had broken, as we have said, with a head of Brutus in marble, larger than life, which he had copied, at the request of his friend Messer Donato Giannotti, for the Cardinal