United States or Pitcairn Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Michael Angelo was much troubled, came before the Pope, and bitterly complained of the injury Bramante was doing him; and in his presence grieved over it with the Pope, discovering to him all the persecution he had suffered from him, and afterwards unfolded to him many of Bramante’s shortcomings, principally that in pulling down the old church of Saint Peter’s he threw to earth those marvellous columns that were therein, not respecting them or caring whether they were broken to pieces or not, when he might have lowered them gently and preserved them whole; explaining how it was an easy thing to pile brick on brick, but to make such a column was most difficult, and many other things that it was most necessary to relate; so that the Pope, hearing of all these sad doings, willed that Michael Angelo should continue the work, showing him more favour than ever.
This construction at the Belvedere was executed by him with extraordinary speed, and such was his eagerness as he worked, and that of the Pope, who would have liked to see the edifice spring up from the ground, without needing to be built, that the builders of the foundations brought the sand and the solid foundation-clay by night and let it down by day in the presence of Bramante, who caused the foundations to be made without seeing anything more of the work.
Style was refined; the construction of large buildings was better understood, and the instinct for what lies within the means of a revived and secondary manner was more true. To Bramante must be assigned the foremost place among the architects of the golden age.
The Pope intermitted his visits to the sculptor's workshop, and began to take but little interest in the monument. Condivi directly ascribes this coldness to the intrigues of Bramante, who whispered into the Pontiff's ear that it was ill-omened for a man to construct his own tomb in his lifetime.
Bramante was thus able to gratify the whims and caprices of his impatient patron, who desired to see the works of art he ordered rise like the fabric of Aladdin's lamp before his very eyes.
Do not make the mistake, however, of supposing that this splendid watering-place, sometimes spoken of as "the handsomest city in Britain," is only a city of refuge for people that have seen better days. Lord Macaulay speaks of it as "that beautiful city which charms even eyes familiar with the masterpieces of Bramante and Palladio."
"It is impossible to deny that Bramante was as great in architecture as any man has been since the days of the ancients. When he first laid the plan of S. Peter's, he made it not a mass of confusion, but clear and simple, well lighted, and so thoroughly detached that it in no way interfered with any portion of the palace."
Another of his friends as a youth was Andrea del Sarto. From Florence he passed to Rome, where he came under the patronage of the Pope Julius II, of Bramante, the architect, and of Perugino, the painter, and learned much by his studies there. Returning to Florence, he became one of the most desired of sculptors and executed that superb modern-antique, the Bacchus in the Bargello.
Julius II., though now seventy-four, was as impatient of contradiction as fiery in temper, as full of magnificent and ambitious projects as if he had been in the prime of life; in his service was the famous architect, Bramante, who beheld with jealousy and alarm the increasing fame of Michael Angelo, and his influence with the pontiff, and set himself by indirect means to lessen both.
He lived at the last, not in the house on the Roman side, which belonged to him and is still called his, but in another, built by Bramante, close to the old Accoramboni Palace, in the Piazza Rusticucci, before Saint Peter's, and that one has long been torn down.
Word Of The Day