Michelangelo's Notebooks by Carolyn Vaughan

Author:Carolyn Vaughan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

On the 4th day of February, 1542.

MICHELANGELO, in Rome.

FROM ROME, JULY 20TH, 1542.

Petition to Pope Paul III.

Whereas Messer Michelangelo Buonarroti undertook some time ago to make the tomb of Pope Julius in San Piero in Vincula [sic], under certain conditions and agreements duly set forth in a contract drawn up by Messer Bartolomeo Cappello under date of April 18th, 1532: and whereas, by reason of his being subsequently called upon and compelled by His Holiness Our Lord Pope Paul III to work upon and paint his own chapel, he is unable to continue with the task of furnishing the tomb as well as the said painting in the chapel: through the mediation of His Holiness a new covenant has therefore been made with the Most Illustrious Lord Duke of Urbino, to whom has fallen the charge of the said tomb, as may be seen from a letter of his bearing date the 6th day of March, 1542. In this letter it was agreed that, of six statues which are to form part of the said tomb, the beforementioned Messer Michelangelo should be at liberty to entrust three to a good and renowned master who should carve them and set them in their places; and the other three, among them being the statue of Moses, he agreed to furnish complete with his own hand. It was also agreed that the framework was to be carried out in the same manner—that is to say, the remainder of the decoration of the said tomb—in accordance with the beginning already made. Wherefore, in order to carry out the said agreement, the aforesaid Michelagnolo entrusted the making of three statues, which were already well forward—that is to say, a standing figure of Our Lady with the Child in her arms and seated figures of a Prophet and a Sybil—to Raffaello da Montelupo, a Florentine, considered to be one of the best masters of the day: and for these works the said Raffaello was to have the sum of four hundred crowns, as appeareth from the covenant made between them. In like manner the remainder of the framework and ornamental details of the tomb, with the exception of the topmost pediment, were entrusted to Maestro Giovanni de’ Marchesi and Francesco [degli Amadori] da Urbino, stone-cutters and carvers, for the sum of seven hundred crowns, as appeareth from the agreement also made between them. There would still remain the three figures which he [Michelangelo] was to supply with his own hand, that is to say, a Moses and two captives; and these three figures are nearly finished. But forasmuch as the said two captives were made when it was proposed to erect the tomb on a much larger scale and with a greater number of statues; and forasmuch as this design has been cut down and reduced in size by the terms of the contract aforesaid: for these reasons the said statues are no longer suited to the design, and could not in any wise look well therein.

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