418, the Corso, Rome. There is a cast of it in the
Belle Arti at Florence. The hanging limbs of the Christ have a most
pathetic effect, and so has the whole expression of the group. The effect
is obtained by the length of the principal lines.
There is a medallion of the Madonna clasping her dead son at the Albergo
dei Poveri, at Genoa, attributed to Michael Angelo; it may have been begun
by him during this long period of old age, but it cannot be called his
work. It has been entirely recarved by an imitator.
Michael Angelo made his famous report condemning the design of Antonio da
Sangallo for the rebuilding of the Farnese palace upon the shores of the
Tiber; it is a mysterious document, in Michael Angelo's own hand, and does
not leave Sangallo a single merit. All the theories are proved by the
precepts of Vitruvius. The adherents of Sangallo resented it very
naturally, and the "Setta Sangallesca" became his bitter enemies. The Pope
himself was dissatisfied with Sangallo, and the design for the cornice was
thrown open to competition. Perino del Vaga, Sebastiano del Piombo,
Giorgio Vasari, and Michael Angelo all competed. Michael Angelo's design
was eventually carried out after he had placed a wooden model of part of
his cornice in position. Vasari, who is the best authority upon this
period of the life of Michael Angelo, attributes to him also the exterior
of the palace from the second story upwards, and the whole of the central
courtyard above the first story, "making it the finest thing of its sort
in Europe.
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