So put it in a
cover and direct it to Giuliano da San Gallo on my part, and
desire him to deliver it with his own hand.
"Di Bologna (the 18th day of February, 1508)."(102)
On February 21, 1508, the statue of Pope Julius II. was hoisted on to its
pedestal above the great central door of San Petronio. Alas! this work
which cost Michael Angelo a year and three months of hard, unremitting
labour only existed for about twice that period. It was destroyed by the
worst enemy of art--war. The Papal Legate fled from Bologna in 1511 and the
Bentivogli again entered the city. The people of their party dragged the
heavy bronze to the ground and broke it into pieces on December 30. The
broken fragments were sent to Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who cast a
huge cannon with the metal, which the Italians, with their usual mocking
spirit, immediately called La Giulia. The Duke kept the head only, and
said he would not take its weight in gold for it; it weighed six hundred
pounds. This head has disappeared too; there is no drawing, engraving, or
any fragment to help us to reconstruct in our minds this mighty bronze;
only, perhaps, we may imagine that we have an echo of this Pope by Michael
Angelo when we turn our eyes from the bare front of San Petronio to the
niche on the Palazzo Comunale to the right of the square, where a bronze
Pope, Gregory XIII., stretches his hand to curse the iconoclastic people.
In the Piazza Dante, at Perugia, is the bronze statue of Pope Julius III.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146