There is yet another inconvenience: the circle of buildings
with their adjuncts outside added to Bramante's plan would make it
necessary to pull down to the ground the Capella Paolina, the offices of
the Piombo and the Ruota, and more besides; nay, even the Sistine Chapel
would, I believe, not escape." May it not have been that this malicious
arrangement of Sangailo's to destroy Michael Angelo's masterpieces made
the great artist so bitter against him.
Paul III. conferred the post of architect-in-chief at St. Peter's upon
Michael Angelo on January 1, 1547, "commissary, prefect, surveyor of the
works, and architect, with full authority to change the model, form, and
structure of the church at pleasure, and to dismiss and remove the workmen
and foremen employed upon the same." For all this work Michael Angelo
refused payment, declaring that he meant to labour, without recompense,
for the love of God and the reverence he felt for the Prince of the
Apostles. Speaking broadly, the former architects had designed ground
plans of St. Peter's on two lines, the Greek and the Latin crosses.
Bramante, and Baldassare Peruzzi used the Greek cross; Raphael, the
Basilica form, the addition of a long nave made the plan like a Latin
cross; and Sangallo, by adding a huge portico to Peruzzi's design, made
his ground plan a Latin cross. Michael Angelo followed the lines of
Bramante, the Greek cross, designed so that the cupola should be the
dominant note of the building and its principal feature, whether from
within or without, and from whichever side the building was approached.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252