"(86)
Bramante was not far wrong in what he said about vault painting. He
alluded to the method of foreshortening employed by his fellow countryman,
Melozzo da Forli, by which he made figures painted on domes and vaults
look as if they were suspended in the air really above the spectators, and
not simply a pattern painted on the surface of the plaster; this method
was perfected by Correggio, but was never practised successfully by a
Florentine.
CHAPTER V
THE COLOSSAL BRONZE FOR THE FACADE OF SAN PETRONIO
The Pope entered Bologna in triumph on November 11, 1506, after the
marvellous campaign by which he restored two rich provinces to the Church
with only five hundred men-at-arms and his twenty-four Cardinals. Less
than ten days afterwards he inquired for his artist. The Cardinal of Pavia
wrote an autograph letter to the Signory of Florence on the 21st, urgently
requesting that they would despatch Michael Angelo immediately to that
town, inasmuch as the Pope was impatient for his arrival, and wanted to
employ him on important works. On November 27 Soderini wrote to the
Cardinal of Pavia introducing Michael Angelo and praising the cartoon the
artist had to leave unpainted, and to the Cardinal of Volterra more
formally as follows:--
"The bearer will be Michael Angelo, the sculptor, whom we send to
please and satisfy his Holiness our Lord. We certify your Lordship
that he is a worthy young man, and in his own art without a peer
in Italy; perhaps also in the universe.
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