Yale University Library 111 min mi I II III 39002004657087 IIP WKmi- WKm WmSks 1111 ;;& '.-'¦:¦, -:--'• Xx : ¦ .'¦,-,;.. : ; ¦»; . ¦¦ ... ^^^» ¦'¦:¦ \ p^^^^^S lllllillls Willi?'' * XXi . . 11§1» iB Wm llllflillff§llllllt' « e iLmsKAiarar • 1933 Study for Portrait of Julius II. (Raffaello) ROME AND The Renaissance THE PONTIFICATE OF JULIUS II FROM THE FRENCH OF JULIAN KLACZKO AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY JOHN DENNIE AUTHOR OF " ROME OF TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY " With 52 Illustrations G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON Ube ftnfcfterbocfeer press 1926 Copyright, 1903 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS ys> Made in the United States of America CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. MELOZZO'S FRESCO (1475). PAGE The Popes of the Renaissance. — Sixtus IV. — Platina and the humanists of the Vatican. — The Nepoti. — Giuliano della Rovere, Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli . . . . 1 CHAPTER II. THE STORY OF A TOMB (1505-1506). Gigantic design of the Sepoltura (April, 1505). — Question of its place.— Decision to rebuild S. Peter's. — The Rovinante. — Laying of the corner-stone of the new Basilica (April 18, 1506). — Michelangelo's flight from Rome (April 17, 1506) 10 CHAPTER m. THE OLD BASILICA (1505). The Mons Vaticanus. — The mediaeval S. Peter's. — The steps, the atrium, the guadriporticus, and the cantharus. — Con struction of the interior. — The Con/essio, the Cancelli, and the Cathedra Petri. — The oratories of the four Great Relics.— Tombs of the Popes. — The Sagre Grotte . . 28 CHAPTER IV. THE STATUE AT BOLOGNA (1506-1507). Julius II.'s first " crusade," taking of Perugia and Bologna. — Terrors and hallucinations of Michelangelo. — He talks of taking service with the Sultan. — Is compelled to come to Bologna (Nov., 1506).— Bronze statue of the Pope for the facade of San Petronio. — Inaugurated Feb. 21, 1508 ; the statue is destroyed in 1511 47 iv Contents. CHAPTER v. ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE SISTINA (1508). PAGE Return of Michelangelo to Rome (March, 1508).— He begins work (May 10th). — Original relations between the Pope and the artist. — The question of money. — Michelangelo's family pride. — His portrait.— His character. — Influence of Rome upon his geuius 58 CHAPTER VI. ROMAN MARBLES (1496-1508). Michelangelo's first residence in Rome (1496-1499). — The antique marbles. — The Apollooi the Belvedere.— The Pieta and Savonarola's downfall (1498-1499).— The three great principles derived by Michelangelo from classic sculpture. — Discovery of the Laocoon (Jan. 14, 1506) . . .77 CHAPTER VII. A VIEW OF THE RINASCIMENTO. The Genius of Antiquity and the Cinquecento ... 97 CHAPTER VIII. A FAMILY SANCTUARY (1505-I508). Nero's tomb on the Pincio. — Santa Maria del Popolo. — Andrea Sansovino. — The monuments of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza and Cardinal Girolamo Basso. — Character of these two works. — The mausoleum of the Medici and the Pieta of the Cathedral of Florence 103 chapter ix. "belvedere" (1509). Donate Bramante da Urbino. — His character. — Unreasonably hated by Michelangelo. — Bramante's Lombard past.— His arrival in Rome (1500).— His new style. — The Tempietto Contents. v FAGS (1502).— The cloister of the Pace (1504).— Cardinal Oliviero Caraffa. — Bramante in the service of Julius II. — S. Peter's, San Biagio, and the "Belvedere."— The Court of San Da- maso, the Nicchione, and the winding staircase.— Julius II. 's Viridarium 117 CHAPTER X. MIRABILIA (1509). Bulletin from the army of Charles VIII. (1495)— Roman guide books in the Middle Ages. — The Mirabilia of Canon Albertini (1509).— The Nova Urbs.—Li Nuptiali of Mar- cantonio Altieri (1509) 142 CHAPTER XI. THE " UPPER ROOMS " (1508-1509). I. The appartamento Borgia and the Camera superiores. — Perugino's ceiling. — Arrival of Raffaello. — II. The two great powers of the painter of the Stanze. — The pre-Rotnan Raffaello. — The Deposizione of the Borghese Gallery and the frescos of the first Stanza 151 CHAPTER XII. IN THE CAMERA DELLA SEGNATURA (1509-1511). I. The hypothesis of a Library. — The Signatura, a high court of appeal. — The Cam bio in Perugia. — Sigistnondo de' Conti and Tommaso Inghirami. — II. The symbolic and synthetic painting of the Trecento. — Raffaello's innovation. — The four great medallions. — The Disputa. — III. The seven dis ciplines of the trivium and quadrivium in Italian Art. — Raffaello's innovation. — The disciplina disciplinarum. — Aristotle and Plato. — The architecture of the Scudla d'Atene and the future S. Peter's.— IV. The Partiasso— Mantegna's picture and Raffaello's fresco. — 'The Homer and the Apollo.— The three Cardinal Virtues.— Roman Law and Canon Law : Pandects and Decretals. — Restora tions in the Camera della Segnatura 170 vi Contents. CHAPTER XIII. THE WORLD'S GAME (1509-1512). PAGE I. The League of Cambrai and the battle of Agnadello (May 14, 1509). — The absolution of Venice (Feb. 24, 1510). — Louis XII.'s exasperation. — Fuori i barbari / (May 17, 1510). — II. The camp at Bologna. — Appearance of Julius II. during this war. — Taking of Mirandola (Jan. 21, 1511) — Europe and Italy. — Disapproval of the Pope's beard. — Re volt of Bologna and defeat of the pontifical army (May 21, 1511). — The assassination of Cardinal Alidosi (May 24, 1511). — La Magliana. — The Convento dei Penitenzieri. — Con- ciliabulum of Pisa.— Julius II. 's return to Rome (June 27, 1511). — III. Bull Sacrosanctce (July 28, 1511). — Secret ne gotiations and artistic interests of the Pope (July-August). — His serious illness (Aug. 17). — Pompeo Colonna and the proposal to establish a Republic (Aug. 27th). — Federico Gonzaga, the young hostage. — The recovery of the Pope and proclamation of the Holy League (Oct. 5th) . — Gaston de Foix, and the winter campaign of 1512.— Battle of Ra venna (Apr. ir, 1512). — Alarm at Rome and great remon strance of the cardinals (April 14th) . — Descent of the Swiss and expulsion of the French (May-June) . — Triumph of Julius II. — Council of the Lateran andTe Deum of Dec. 3, 1512.— The three portraits ofjulius II. in the Stanze . 218 CHAPTER XIV. UNDER THE SISTINE VAULT (1508-1511). I. Michelangelo's "bridge." — The Tuscan frescanti. — The labour of three years.— Julius II.'s return to Rome (June 27, 1511). — Partial view of the frescos in the week of the Assumption (1511). — Universal enthusiasm. — The voice of Savonarola.— II. The frieze of the Sistina and the paintings of the vault. — The Old Testament with Michelangelo's predecessors. — The Jehovite spirit. — Genesis. — The Proph ets and Sibyls. — III. The decorative element, — Reliefs, Caryatides, and statues.— The figures in camaieu, the Patti, and the Ignudi , 270 Contents. vii CHAPTER XV. THE SECOND STANZA (1511-1512). PAGE I. The vespers of Orvieto (Sept. 7, 1506). — Programme of the second Stanza (Sept., 1511).— The leading thought of the reign. — H. The four biblical subjects of the ceiling.— Their Michelangelesque aspect and decorative character. — III. La Messa di Bolsena. — The figure of Julius II. — The sacerdos teutonicus of the year 1512. — IV. La Storia di Eliodoro. — Extraordinary impetuosity of the scene. — The architecture of the temple. — V. Unity of the second Stanza. — Its dramatic style. — Its colouring.— Collaboration of pupils 318 CHAPTER XVI. THE EPILOGUE OF THE VAULT (1512) I. The year of terror. — The Congress of Mantua, and the resto ration of the Medici to Florence (June-August, 1512). — Letters of Michelangelo during this year. — II. The Ances tors of Christ. — The Capricci. — Vigil of All Saints (1512).— III. Bitter feeling of Michelangelo. — The Slave of the Louvre (1513) 341 CHAPTER XVII. THE LAST CARNIVAL (FEB., 1513). Death of Julius II 360 Index 367 ILLUSTRATIONS Note. — The photographs reproduced for this work are (with two exceptions: the "Bound Captive" and the "Portrait of Raf faello") from the atelier of Messrs. Alinari, Florence. Study for Portrait of Julius II. (Raffaello) ..... Frontispiece Corsini Gallery, Florence Sixtus IV. Giving Audience to Platina (Me- lozzo da Forli) Vatican Gallery Detail of Fresco : Cardinal della Rovere Statue of Moses (Michelangelo) . Church of San Pietro in Vincoli Bound Captive (Michelangelo) Museum of the Louvre, Paris A Victory (Michelangelo) .... Bargello, Florence Tapestry from Cartoon by Raffaello . Galleria degli Arrazzi, Vatican Portrait of Michelangelo (artist unknown) Gallery of the Capitol Cappella Sistina ...... Vatican Palace FACING PAGE 5 1617 363748 49 x Illustrations FACING PAGE Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (Raffaello) . 66 Pitti Gallery, Florence Statue of Apollo 67 Vatican Museum La PietX (Michelangelo) 82 Basilica of San Pietro Laocoon 83 Vatican Museum Statue of David (Michelangelo) ... 88, 89 Accademia, Florence Church of Santa Maria del Popolo Monument of Cardinal Pallavicini Church of Santa Maria del Popolo Monument of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza (San sovino) Church of Santa Maria del Popolo Detail of La Disputa : Bramante (Raffaello) Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican La Tempietto .... Cortile of San Pietro in Moutorio Detail of II Parnasso, i (Raffaello) Stanza della Segnatura Stanza della Segnatura . Vatican Palace Portrait of Raffaello (by himself) Gallery of the Louvre, Paris 104105112 "3128 129 152 153 Illustrations Ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura (Raf faello) xi FACING PAGE Detail of Ceiling : La Theologia . La Disputa del Sacramento (Raffaello) Stanza della Segnatura Detail of La Disputa, 2 Detail of La Disputa, 3 La Scuola d' Atene (Raffaello) Stanza della Segnatura Detail of La Scuola, i Detail of La Scuola, 2 Detail of La Scuola, 3 IL Parnasso (Raffaello) . Stanza della Segnatura Detail of II Parnasso, 2 The Cardinal Virtues (Raffaello) Stanza della Segnatura Detail of the Cardinal Virtues: La Temper- antia Detail of La Scuola: Francesco Maria della Rovere, 4 Gregory IX. Proclaiming the Decretals (Raffaello) ....... Stanza della Segnatura The Erythraean Sibyl (Michelangelo) Cappella Sistina 170 171 182 183 194 195 198 199 204 2052IO 211 2l6217234 235 xii Illustrations The Prophet Ezekiel (Michelangelo) . FACING PAGE • 256 Cappella Sistina The Libyan Sibyl (Michelangelo) . • 257 Cappella Sistina The Prophet Daniel (Michelangelo) . • 274 Cappella Sistina The Delphic Sibyl (Michelangelo) • 275 Cappella Sistina Detail of Creation of Adam (Michelangelo) • 294 Cappella Sistina The Prophet Isaiah (Michelangelo) • 295 Cappella Sistina One of The Ignudi (Michelangelo) • 312 Cappella Sistina The Mass of Bolsena (Raffaello) • 313 Stanza di Eliodoro, Vatican Palace The Punishment of Heliodorus • 332 Stanza di Eliodoro Detail of Deliverance of S. Peter . • 333 Stanza di Eliodoro The Ancestors of Christ (Michelangelo) .. • 348 Cappella Sistina Portrait of Julius II. (Raffaello) • 349 Pitti Gallery, Florence Basilica di San Pietro CHRONOLOGY 1496=1500. First residence of Michelangelo in Rome. 1498. (May 23). Death of Savonarola. 1498-99. Michelangelo's Pieta for Cardinal Villiers de la Groslaie. 1500. Michelangelo's return to Florence. " Bramante at Rome. 150a. The Tempietto, Bramante's first work in Rome. 1503. (November). Julius II. elected Pope. " The portico of the Pace by Bramante. 1505. Michelangelo enters the service of Julius II. (March). Plan of the Sepoltura. " (April-November). Michelangelo at Carrara. " " Decision to rebuild S. Peter's. " Bramante undertakes San Biagio, the Belvedere, and the rebuilding of S. Peter's. " (December). Michelangelo's return from Carrara. 1506. (January 14). Discovery of the Laocoon. " (April 17). Michelangelo's flight to Florence. " (April 18). Laying of corner-stone of the new S. Peter's. " Andrea Sansovino employed for the monument of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. " (August 26). Julius II. marches against the Baglioni and Bentivogli. " (September 7). The vespers of Orvieto. " (September 16) . Occupation of Perugia. " (November 10). Taking of Bologna. xiv Chronology 1506. (end of November). Michelangelo goes to Bologna to ask pardon from the Pope. " Begins statue of the Pope for facade of San Petronio. 1507. (March 28). Julius II.'s triumphal return to Rome. " Andrea Sansovino employed for the monument of Cardinal Basso della Rovere. " (November 26). The Pope occupies the Upper Rooms of the Vatican. 1508. Perugino, Sodoma, Peruzzi, and others are engaged for the decoration of the Upper Rooms. " (February 21). Inauguration of the statue at Bologna. " (end of March) . Michelangelo's return to Rome. " (May 8). He begins painting in the Sistina. '5<>9. (January?) Arrival of Raffaello in Rome. " (March). Julius II. dismisses the artists employed in the Upper Rooms and commits the decoration to Raffaello. " (March 23). The Pope joins the League of Cambrai against Venice. " (April 14). Battle of Agnadello, and humiliation of Venice. " The Mirabilia of Canon Albertini (finished June 5, 1509, and printed in 1510). ISio. (February 24). Absolution of Venice and rupture with France. " (August 7) . Julius II. goes to his headquarters at Bologna. " (October). Michelangelo at the Pope's headquarters. (He goes thither a second time near the close of the year). 1511. (January 21). Taking of Mirandola. " (May 21). Revolt of Bologna, and defeat of the pontifical army. " (May 24). Assassination of Cardinal Alidosi by the Duke of Urbino. " (May). Announcement of a schismatic council at Pisa. " (June 27). Julius II.'s return to Rome. " (Jnly 18). The bull Sacrosanctcs convokes a council at the Lateran for April 9, 1512. Chronology xv 151 1. (July). Julius II. negotiates for the forming of the Holy League, and poses for his portrait in the fresco of the Decretals. " (August, week of the Assumption). Opening of the Camera della Segnatura, and partial unveiling of the Sistine vault. " (August 17). Serious illness of the Pope. " (August 27). Attempt at a Republic made by Roman nobles. " (September). Raffaello begins the decoration of the Sec ond Stanza, and Michelangelo resumes his work in the Sistina. " (September 23). Florence laid under interdict. " (Octobers). Proclamation of the Holy League. 1512. (January to July?) The Mass 0/ Bolsena, fresco of the Second Stanza. " (April 11). Battle of Ravenna. " (April 14). Remonstrance of the Sacred College in favour of Peace. " (May 10). First session of the Lateran Council. " (May 17). Second session, and adjournment to November. " (May-June). Arrival of the Swiss, and expulsion from Italy of the French. " (July 4-9). Alfonso of Ferrara in Rome. " (July-December?) Punishment of Heliodorus, fresco of the second Stanza. " (August). Congress of Mantua and restoration of the Italian princes " (August 29). Sack of Prato, and return of the Medici to Florence. " (August-October). Completion of Michelangelo's frescos on the Sistine ceiling. " (November 2). Feast of All Saints, and definitive opening of the Sistine Chapel. " (November 4). The bishop of Gurk in Rome. " (December 3). Third session of the Lateran Council; the Te Deum. 1513. (Februarys). Carnival and grand procession in Rome. " (February 20). Death of Julius II. ROME AND THE RENAISSANCE CHAPTER I melozzo's fresco This fresco by Melozzo da Forli — Sixtus IV., Founder of the Vatican Library ' — is a great page of history, as well as a great page of painting. It helps us marvellously to understand those Popes of the Renaissance, with all their qualities and their faults, their political rather than religious turn of mind, their humanist predilections, their passion for building and beautifying the city of Rome, their nepotism. In the haughty old man seated there, nothing recalls the Francesco della Rovere of earlier days, the humble monk of the Order of the Minor Brethren, born of obscure parentage in Ligurian Savona. He sits like a king, in a splendid hall, surrounded by high dignitaries of Church and State, all very young, — all, furthermore, his nearest kinsmen. His profile is singularly clear-cut, and singu larly hard, also — as is not unsuited to the all too clearly 1 Picture gallery of the Vatican, Hall III. Melozzo's fresco was transferred to canvas early in the last century. Up to that time it had remained in its original place in the Latin Hall of Sixtus IV.'s Vatican Library (now the Floreria). See Paul Fabre, La Vaticana de Sixle IV (Mttanges de I'Mcole frangaise a Rome, vol. xv.). 2 Rome and the Renaissance proven accomplice of the Pazzi. It is 1475, ' and but three years later came that fatal conspiracy which was to re main the ineffaceable blot upon his pontificate. I am well aware that indulgent historians plead extenuating cir cumstances here: in reply to his nephew, Girolamo Ri- ario, who had said that every endeavour would be made to prevent bloodshed, but that in enterprises of this kind there could be no certainty about this, the Pope is said to have exclaimed: " Tu £ una bestial I tell you I will have nobody killed in Florence, I only will have a change of government." ' I confess this defence produces but little effect on me. " We cannot govern a state with pater nosters," old Cosimo, the Father of his County, loved to say, as the excuse of certain acts of violence in his rule on the banks of the Arno: Sixtus IV. must have known that it was not with paternosters that a mutasione dello stato could be brought about in Florence. With the aristocratic, shrewd, cold profile of the old Rovere is ingeniously contrasted in Melozzo's picture the plebeian, square, wrinkled, sensual, and rather sly face of Platina who receives, kneeling, his investiture as Librarian, and represents here in masterly fashion that humanist tribe of the Quattrocento which had become so important and so importunate. They filled the courts, the academies and the chanceries of the peninsula; they were the official poets and publicists of governments, the 1 Date of the foundation of the Library. The fresco was painted in 1477- 8 Deposition of Montesecco. Capponi, Storia di Firenze, vol. ii., P- 552. Melozzo's Fresco 3 accredited "orators" of all illustrious embassies; and from among them the Roman Curia also drew the Cice ronian pens judged indispensable for the proper prepara tion of briefs and bulls. In 1464, the Vatican had no less than seventy of these abbreviatores, all richly paid; and when Paul II. (Barbo) felt that he must reduce their number there was a general outcry. Making himself the spokesman of his dispossessed colleagues, Bartolommeo Platina addressed an insolent letter to the pontiff, threat ening him with a Council if he did not recall the decree. Nothing could equal the pride and audacity of these rhetoricians and phrase-makers who believed themselves to be the great justiciaries of history, the sole and sov ereign dispensers of fame and immortality. " It was Homer who made Achilles known to the world ; it was the authors of the Gospels who made known the Christ," the excellent Bartolommeo wrote, in 1468, to the Pope; he wrote from a dungeon of Sant' Angelo, charged with a capital crime and undergoing the most humiliating and degrading of punishments. It would be difficult to deny that the leaders of the Academy, Pomponius Leto, Platina, Buonaccorsi and their like, were Epicureans and free thinkers in the full force of the term, worshipping only antiquity and the Genius of Rome, forming among them selves, as has so well been said, a sort of Free-Masonry, profoundly hostile to the Christian dogma and, in fact, to every form of revealed religion. In a moment of frankness, or of prostration, Platina himself avowed to Pomponius that, as Head of the Church, Paul II. could not but be displeased at their 4 Rome and the Renaissance underhand proceedings. Nevertheless, the successor of Paul II. made haste to conciliate the good will of this world of lettered men, as formidable then as the world of journalists is now. Sixtus IV. fixed the number of ab- breviatores at seventy-two, he reopened the Academy, reinstalled in his chair the famous Pomponius, and con ferred on Platina the double duty of historiographer of the Popes and superintendent of the Vaticana. The entente cordiale between the Papacy and Humanism, for a moment compromised by Barbo, "the Barbarian," was renewedly affirmed by the former general of the Fran ciscans, and it was destined to last till the Council of Trent. With the index finger of his right hand, Platina calls the spectator's attention to an inscription placed at the bottom of the frame; they are distichs of his own com position which, in elegant Latin, celebrate the other Roman creations of the Rovere : churches, hospitals, aqueducts, and bridges; broad streets, extensive squares, convenient harbours, and walls.1 None of the Popes pre ceding or following Sixtus IV. did as much as he for the restoration, the sanitation, and the enlargement of the Eternal City ; and it was with good reason that Albertini dates from this reign the Nova Urbs of his Mirabilia. To these great building operations, of a kind that the Seven 1 Templa, domum expositis, vicos.fora, mcenia, pontes, Virgineam Trivii quod repararis aquam, Prisca licet nautis statuas dare commoda portus Et Vaticanum cingere, Sixte,jugum. Plus tamen Urbs debet : nam, quos squalore latebat Cemitur in celebri Bibliotheca loco. ' -, ¦ 'M >* FCT -i MO rm pontes fi Rf COM* oQa I'oftfvs VATIC Ml n",.; gnu : " " ' iu Sixtus IV. Giving Audience to Platina (Melozzo da Forli) l, ' wy\ Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli (Melozzo da Forli) Melozzo's Fresco 5 Hills had not seen since the time of the Caesars, were added the artistic splendours of the Quattrocento: it is enough to name the magnificent cycle of frescos executed in the palace chapel by Ghirlandajo, Signorelli, Botticelli, Rosselli, Perugino, and Pinturicchio. Only one complete work of Melozzo da Forli, unfortunately, remains in Rome, this picture of the Vaticana, of which we have been speaking; but it is very much to the honour of Sixtus IV. that he was able to distinguish above the rest this strong genius, perhaps the most original and innovating painter of the epoch.' We must do him also the justice to remember that the Vaticana was the first public Library, the Capitoline collection of bronzes the first public Museum that Italy had known, and that, while setting the example of a deplorable nepotism, the old Franciscan monk did not fail to communicate his passion for embellishing Rome to more than one of these Rovere and Riarii, who had flocked with all haste to the city that they might bask in the sunshine of their kinsman, the Ligurian Pope. In this fresco of Melozzo, which contains in all but six figures, there are four of these "nephews"; and that alone is a sign of the times.3 The showy youth with slender figure and aquiline nose 1 The tribune of the church of the Santi Apostoli in Rome, with Melozzo's paintings, was destroyed in 1711 ; there remain to us of them only a few admirable fragments, now in the sacristy of S. Peter's and above the stairway of the Quirinal Palace. Melozzo's chapel at Loretto is still almost entire. This is most unjustly attributed by Cavalcaselle to Palmezzano. 8 Schmarzow, Melozzo, pp. 42 et seq. 6 Rome and the Renaissance who stands behind Platina, wrapped in a rich cloak and wearing a heavy gold chain around his neck, is Girolamo Riario, the all-powerful favourite of the Pope and the evil genius of his reign. A petty tradesman at first or a cus tom-house clerk in his native city of Savona, then Count of Imola and Forli, and husband of the famous Caterina Sforza, Girolamo was the soul of the Pazzi conspiracy and of many other violent and unfortunate enterprises of Sixtus IV. The sworn enemy of the Medici during his whole life, he was destined to perish, ten years later, by the hands of his Forlivian subjects, and to be avenged by his widow in a frightful carnage. But vain are our strifes here below, our loves as well as our hatreds: this aveng ing virago nevertheless married, for fourth or fifth hus band, one of the most obscure of the Medici, and became the mother of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, the grand mother of Cosmo I., lo stampo* of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany ! A commonplace, thick-set figure, but with a very intel ligent face, Giovanni della Rovere wears also rich dress, and a gold chain around his neck. He is ' ' prefect of Rome," Lord of Sinigaglia, and will later be the ancestor of sovereigns. Thanks to the celebrity which came to him through his uncle, he was soon after to marry the heiress of the Montefeltri, and his son, Francesco Maria, will presently reign over the duchy of Urbino. The two other nepoti belong to the Church. Raffaello 1 A me rimane lo stampo per fame altri ! is the traditional reply of Caterina Sforza when the Forlivians threatened, in 1488, to put to death her children if she did not surrender the castle. Melozzo's Fresco 7 Riario, at the right of Sixtus IV., is a boy scarcely sixteen, and wears merely the robe of the apostolic prothonotary; in two years he will wear the purple and will be known as the Cardinal di San Giorgio, will be the papal legate in Florence, and on Sunday, April 27, 1478, will be present in the Cathedral at "the bloody mass" of the Pazzi. Not at all aware of the plot, he will, however, be kept a prisoner for nearly two months by Lorenzo the Magnifi cent, will expect from moment to moment to be hung like his colleague, Archbishop Salviati, and from these days of anguish his face will contract a livid pallor lasting through life. It is he to whom will be sold in 1496, as an antique marble, a statue of Cupid, the work of the young Michelangelo, and this will bring the sculptor to Rome for the first time; we have still Buonarroti's letter, in which he speaks of the molte belle cose shown him by his Eminence, in the cardinal's Casa Nuova.' By a singular fatality the end of the career of this Prince of the Church will be marked by the same sinister complication as was its beginning. The 29th of May, 1517, the people of Rome were to learn with amazement of the arrest of Cardinal di San Giorgio, so well known for the last forty years for his wealth, his ostentation, his cavalcades through the streets at the head of three hun dred horsemen, his scenic representations, his collections of aniicaglie, and his magnificent palace of San Lorenzo in Damaso. The accusation against this dean of the Sacred College was of having plotted, with the young Cardinal Alfonso Petrucci, the assassination of the Pope, Leo X. , ' Letter of Michelangelo, ed. Milanesi, p. 375. 8 Rome and the Renaissance by poison and poignard. Petrucci was strangled in prison; Raffaello Riario was set free from the castle of Sant' Angelo only after having paid an enormous ransom in gold and given up to the treasury the ownership of his palace, the finest in Rome.1 He survived this catastrophe but a short time, dying in Naples (1521), deserted by every one. The last of the group to be named is Giuliano della Rovere, now thirty-one years of age, originally, like his uncle, a Franciscan monk, and since 147 1 Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli. It is upon this figure that Melozzo has concentrated all the vigour of his brush, with a pre sentiment, it would seem, of the great place that history was to give to his subject. What energy in the face, already so deeply marked by ambition ! What fire in the glance! And, withal, a certain veiled sadness, and that unsatisfied look which comes to the elect of destiny when their star too long delays its coming. Standing, and with face turned towards the founder of the Vaticana, the Cardinal holds in his hands a roll, doubtless the address which he is about to deliver to the Pope,' congratulating him upon the completion of a work which we may boldly affirm was common to them both. Kept out of politics by the superior influence, as jealous 1 The palace received from that time the distinction of being the official residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the Church, and hence is called the Cancellaria. From this confiscation date the Medici arms, to be seen in many parts of the palace. 5 The other roll, in the hand of Raffaello Riario, may have been supposed to contain the reply which was to be delivered by Sixtus IV. Melozzo's Fresco 9 as it was harmful, of the Count of Imola, Giuliano della Rovere was, in general, obliged to limit himself to being his uncle's adviser and inspirer in respect to all the great artistic and monumental creations of the reign. Under Innocent VIII. his influence was to be much more weighty — the ambassadors of the Powers even complaining, under Cibo, that they had " to deal with two Popes"; and in 1492 he was to be the candidate of France for the triple crown. It was, however, Alexander VI. who gained the election in that ill-omened Conclave, by means which are well known; and then began, between the nephew of Sixtus IV. and the father of Cesare Borgia, a ten-years' strife, passionate and full of exciting incidents. The Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli took refuge in France and urged Charles VIII. to the invasion of Italy. With the Most Christian King, he re-entered Rome, and be lieved himself at the goal of his wishes upon the death of Alexander. Disappointed in this hope, he again went into exile, and wasted long years in efforts more and more disappointing. At last his hour came: Alexander VI. and Pius III. being dead, the nephew of Sixtus IV. was elected Pope, in the Conclave of November i, 1503. He was then fifty-nine years of age; and the name that he took was Julius II. CHAPTER II THE STORY OF A TOMB I know of few books that are so misleading as the Le- gationes of Macchiavelli in which reference is made to Julius II. The Florentine Secretary of State, being his government's envoy to the Conclave of 1503, was a witness of the election and of the first acts of the new pontiff; but he shows himself in his despatches to have been, at the time, altogether preoccupied with his admired Cesare Borgia. The Secretary had seen this young man the pre ceding year in Romagna, at the summit of his factitious prosperity and abominable crimes, and had conceived for him that extraordinary enthusiasm which is a matter of history. Macchiavelli now finds him a prisoner in the Vatican, powerless, humiliated, and contemptible to the last degree, and despises him accordingly; but, for all that, he still feels the early fascination and will feel it while he lives. As for this Giuliano della Rovere, who has just been raised to Saint Peter's throne (November 26, 1503), — this Julius II. , soon to be called throughout Italy il pontefice terribile,* — the wily diplomat from the 1 By the word terribile the Italians of the Cinquecento expressed the idea of a fiery enthusiasm of character, combined with a cer tain loftiness of ideas. They spoke of the terribilitd in the art of Michelangelo. " E un uomo terribile," Leo X. said of Buonar roti, speaking to Sebastiano del Piombo. The Story of a Tomb 1 1 banks of the Arno makes no great account of him. Mac chiavelli has not the slightest interest in the new Pope, not even that of curiosity. He does not at all suspect that he is in the presence of an extraordinary man — an uomo singolare, to use a favourite expression of the times. At most, the envoy will but give him the credit and honour of some sagacious political assassination — for in stance, the murder of the due de Valentinois. A rumour to this effect is, in fact, current in Rome, and the Secre tary forthwith mentions it, in an airy way: " The Pope is beginning to pay his debts, and to pay them in full. " But the news, unfortunately, does not receive confirmation. Three years later, Macchiavelli, being again an envoy to the Roman Court, on his way thither meets the Pope (at Nepi), who is marching upon Perugia and Bologna, with intent to wrest these cities from the Bentivogli and the Baglioni. Preceded by the Host and attended by two- and-twenty cardinals, this Successor of the Apostles com mands his troops in person; and that, too, at a time when kings and emperors — a Maximilian of Austria, a Louis of France, a Ferdinand of Spain — remain afar from the tumult of battles and allow their generals to act for them. This piquant spectacle, however, suggests to the Tus can envoy no original reflections, nor any apprehension whatever. Even his strong and tenacious hatred of the Church fails to give him warning that the temporal power of the Popes is about to be made secure for cent uries! Certainly this statesman, this observer reputed infallible, manifests but little sagacity or foresight in the present instance. The man who does foresee — who sees, 12 Rome and the Renaissance rather — is quite another Florentine, no statesman, but a man of genius; himself, like the Pope, terribile. In the famous design for the monument of Julius II. , made by Michelangelo at the pontiff's command and in his honour early in the reign (March, 1505), the Pope already appears, as he is destined to stand in history, a fierce conqueror of provinces and a generous patron of art — a true Pontifex Maximus of the Renaissance. But the design is silent — and with good reason — as to the Christian, the priest, the shepherd of souls! The monument ordered is — strange to say — a tomb, a magnificent dwelling of the dead, where shall finally re pose this pontiff, but yesterday elected ; and he a Fran ciscan monk! Bramante and his friends consider the undertaking to be of evil omen ; but Julius II. puts into it all the fire of his will, and Michelangelo all the ard our of his genius. A thought of Christian humility — the thought: memento mori, memento quia pulvis es — is, be it observed, as far from the mind of the crowned monk as from that of the immortal artist; the only motive of action, for the one as for the other, is the universal tend ency of the period, the primum mobile oi Humanism — that cult of personality, that appeal to posterity, which Dante has already called lo gran disio dell' eccellenza. Here, it is a Pharaoh's pride, served to its utmost desire by a Titan's daring; and that the work remained a fragment may perhaps suggest a certain Scriptural sentence about the mighty of the earth " who build unto themselves ruins . . ." Mark well, however: the association of these two fiery souls, these two lerribili, Rovere and The Story of a Tomb 13 Buonarroti, is nevertheless one of the greatest dates in the history of the ideal; it sums up the splendour and the disaster of the Renaissance arrived at its apogee. It is not forbidden us to reconstruct in imagination — vaguely, it is true, and very insufficiently — the work, as the sculptor beheld it, in that first moment of inspiration and enthusiasm. We have the accounts — agreeing in general, notwithstanding some divergences — of Condivi and Vasari, the former of whom wrote under the in struction, and almost at the dictation, of Michelangelo; we have also a small pen-and-ink drawing, carefully treasured in the UflBzi, in which part of the monument (the lower part) is represented, if not by Buonarroti's own hand, at least in accordance with authentic and con temporary documents.' We may, therefore, represent to ourselves an isolated construction, accessible on all sides, measuring twenty-four feet in width, thirty-six in depth, and over thirty-six feet in height. The base, thirteen feet high, and separated from the upper part by a massive and prominent entablature, presents on all four sides a continuous succession of immense niches flanked by enormous projecting pilasters: niches and pilasters proclaiming the mundane glory of Julius II. — his glory as ' The drawing in the collection of Herr von Beckerath, at Berlin, refers to a later period, and a design considerably reduced and attached to the wall. It is, however, of very great interest because it gives the upper part of the mausoleum, and explains the sculptor's expression, that Julius II. was to be represented " in sospeso " (suspended) : two angels hold him by the arms, and are lowering him into the tomb. 14 Rome and the Renaissance conqueror, and as patron of the arts. In each of the niches a winged Victory treads under foot a defeated and disarmed province; at each of the pilasters, an enchained athlete writhes, convulsed, shuddering, flinging to heaven a reproachful glance, or sinks exhausted and expiring. The two famous statues in the Louvre, so improperly called "The Slaves," were of this number. These en chained athletes personify the liberal arts, themselves become "the prisoners of death" in the death of the Rovere; their great benefactor gone, they despair and perish! The upper part of the monument, which has a height of nine feet, lifts us towards a higher world, towards re gions ideal and serene. In contrast with the Victories and athletes of the base, all represented standing and in attitudes heroic or pathetic, the eight principal statues above are either seated or stand in repose and solemn tranquillity. We distinguish among them Moses, S. Paul, Active Life, Contemplative Life, perhaps, also, Prudence and some other allegorical Virtue. In the midst rises the great sarcophagus, destined to receive the mor tal remains of the Pope. At the very summit of the monument is seen Julius II. himself, " held suspended" by two angels of contrasted aspect: the Genius of the Earth is sad, and weeps the loss which has just fallen upon this lower world; the Angel of Heaven rejoices, and is proud to introduce this new-comer into the abodes of the blessed. Two other angels stoop over the pontiff's feet. So far we have only the general outlines of this pyra- The Story of a Tomb 1 5 mid in marble, with its celestial and terrestrial person ages. Add to this hermce, putti, and masks, scattered everywhere and in great numbers, and a profusion also of arabesques, flowers, fruit, and other architectural orna ments. Add, moreover, important decorations in bronze : large rehefs with divers scenes, plaques with inscriptions, balustrades. Combining the data given by Condivi with the indications in the drawing of the Uffizi, Mr. C. H. Wilson' arrives at the prodigious number of seventy- eight statues, most of them as large as the Moses of San Pietro in Vincoli, and the Slaves in the Louvre — an Ossa of giants on a Pelion of colossi. Doubtless, certain tum- ulary monuments of pontiffs of the Quattrocento — notably those of Nicholas V. and Pius II. — have already shown us the ever-increasing proportions of sepulchres, once so modest and simple; but to find anything like this project of a tomb we must ascend the stream of time; we must go back as far as the period of the Caesars and take account of the gigantic mausolea of two emperors: that Mauso leum of Augustus, within which, in our day, a whole circus disports itself; and that Tomb of Hadrian, which lodges an entire fortress. The gigantic, the immoderate, the excessive, besets you at each step in this funereal vision. What hyperbole, for instance, in these Arts, " prisoners of Death " and expir ing because Julius II. disappears from the world ! and how surprising that the austere Buonarroti should invent a flattery so incredible! It must be remembered also that the new Basilica of S. Peter, the vault of the Sistine, and 1 Life and Works of Michelangelo, 2d ed., London, 1881, p. 79. 16 Rome and the Renaissance the Vatican Stanze— the three greatest titles to fame of the Msecenas-Pope— as yet are not. It is also entirely in advance of the Bolognese and the Mirandolan expeditions that Michelangelo celebrates the victories and conquests of the Rovere. " The Pope," observes Mr. Wilson, a little mischievously, " has then no secrets for the artist; he confides to him his great projects for the future; he is even so sure of success that he allows himself to be proclaimed ten times conqueror in a design made before there had been even a declaration of war." Perhaps, however, after all, and without any special confidence from the Pope, the artist grasped the entire meaning of a recent bull (January io, 1504) which had declared the inalienable rights of the Church against the usurpers of her domains. But these domains, plucked from usurpation and recovered in the name of the law, — why represent them as conquered enemies, trodden under foot and biting the dust? Why, in general, and in pre sence of death, extol solely strength, dominion, glory, — grant nothing to humility, devotion, charity? This absence of all religious sentiment, of all Christian thought — nay, even, of all emblems of the Catholic faith, upon a tomb destined for a pontiff, is assuredly one of the most curious phenomena of the Renaissance. Of the two solitary Biblical figures in this vast compos ition, the Moses whom we know has certainly nothing evangelical in his aspect; arid his pendant, the S. Paul Leaning on a Sword, in all probability scarcely differed from him in expression. Vainly one seeks those statues or medallions of the Virgin and Child, those reliefs of the Statue of Moses (Michelangelo Bound Captive (Michelangelo) See p. 358 The Story of a Tomb 1 7 Annunciation or the Assumption, which the Quattro- centisti never failed to place in such positions. In Con- divi's description, as in the Uffizi drawing, there is not so much as a crucifix to be found ! ' In two or three weeks the project of the monument had been elaborated by the sculptor and approved by the Pope; in the month of April, 1505, we see Michelangelo in the midst of work in the Carrara quarries. He remains there eight long months, directs the excavations, makes contracts for transportation, — many of these contracts have been preserved to us, — and sends to Rome the blocks as fast as they are quarried and roughed out. In one of his most beautiful sonnets, Buonarroti speaks magnificently of " those living figures which, from the silent depths of the stone, slowly emerge into the light of day under the repeated blows of the mallet." Deep within those belts of Ligurian marble, facing the azure sea, how many "living figures" were thus concealed, how many blows of the mallet were yet to be given! Once, even, he has the strange idea of cutting a mount ain into human form, an immense cliff in its proud position between Carrara and the sea, and making it a beacon for sailors off the Riviera di Levante ! These are visions kindred to the Rhodian Colossus and to Cyclo pean labours. Colossal and cyclopean, but in a very different style, 1 It is only in later designs for the monument, and after its size had been reduced, that the thought appears of placing the Virgin in medallion or statue. (See the drawing in the Beckerath col lection ; see also the monument in San Pietro in Vincoli.) 1 8 Rome and the Renaissance was the work which, meanwhile, had been decided upon in Rome. In frequent conversations during the month of March, 1505, on the subject of the monument, the ques tion of its site had been many times discussed, and it had been finally settled, to the satisfaction both of the Pope and the sculptor. The tomb of Julius II. could be no where else than in that Basilica of the Vatican, where already reposed, around S. Peter's tomb, the most re nowned pontiffs of Christendom. The naves of this church are not broad enough, it is true, nor are they high enough, to receive the enormous pyramid which is in preparation, but Nicholas V., more than half a century earlier, had begun work for the enlargement of the choir; this work, long since interrupted, shall now be resumed and promptly completed in a manner to furnish the required space. After Michelangelo's departure for Carrara, the Pope continues to discuss this matter with his architects, notably with Giuliano di Sangallo and Bramante; but now objections are brought up, difficulties appear on every side; to complete the apse of Nicholas V. seems to be but a second-rate expedient, and of doubtful success; and thus, after a longrcontinued interchange of ideas, Julius II. arrives at a daring and never-to-be-forgotten decision. He decides to pull down the old Basilica com pletely; and to construct a new one, epiU bella e piu mag- nifica, as the excellent Condivi placidly remarks. Master Donato da Urbino, surnamed il Bramante, promises to construct a marvel, a prodigy, a very miracle in stone — nothing less than to lift in air Agrippa's Pantheon and The Story of a Tomb 19 to place it' upon that Basilica of Constantine whose ruins are the admiration and the dismay of every visitor to the Roman Forum. To destroy the church built by Constantine and Pope Sylvester ; to demolish a building around which clung the most august and ancient traditions of Christendom; to disturb the repose of Leo the Great, of Gregory the Great, of Nicholas I. and so many other heroes of the Faith; to touch the very tomb of Saint Peter! Infatuated as Humanism was with its own merits, its virtil, — disrespect ful as it was towards past ages, so long as they were not classic and pagan, — this plan did not fail to be a great shock to men's minds. The whole Sacred College pro tested, Mignanti tells us, who derived his information from authentic sources: " The Cardinals were of opinion that it would be very difficult to obtain the money necessary for a construction of such importance, since the powerful Constantine him self, with all the resources of the Empire at his command, had not without difficulty erected the present Basilica, a very simple building in comparison with the one now projected. Moreover, the reconstruction would destroy a multitude of precious and honourable memories, thus wounding the piety of the devout, and diminishing their zeal in visiting the sanctuary." Among the public at large, the excitement at the first moment was even much more intense; and to appease 1 Hadrian's Pantheon, by the indisputable testimony of brick- stamps found in every part of the great dome, in 1892-93, by M. George Chedanne, of the French Academy in Rome. — Tr. 20 Rome and the Renaissance it the Pope was compelled to announce that the pro ject was postponed for further consideration. As early as the month of November, 1505, however, he solemnly makes known his fixed resolution to the municipal au thorities of Milan, and asks them to assist in the great work by large gifts of money. I am well aware that in our day — but in our day only — the idea has been adopted that the demolition of the old Basilica was purely a technical question. But does not the great Leo Alberti, writing about the middle of the fif teenth century, aver, in his treatise De re adificatoria, that the Vatican Church at that time leaned towards the left in a manner to cause great anxiety; and is this not repeated, sixty years later, by Sigismond de' Conti ? Had not Nich olas V. proposed, according to his biographer Manetti, the complete rebuilding of S. Peter's ? Evidently, the edifice had long threatened to fall, and in ordering its destruction the Rovere yielded only to a necessity growing more and more imperious. Why, however, does no contemporary insist upon any such necessity? Why was not, in 1505, an argument so decisive brought to bear upon the recal citrant cardinals ? All the persons who at first speak to us of Julius II.'s colossal undertaking, whether historians, diplomats, or artists, with one voice agree in describing it as the result of a spontaneous inspiration of the Pope, of a desire on his part (which seems to them perfectly legiti mate) to do a grand, a magnificent thing — piu bello e piil magnifico. Nicholas V. was so far from meditating this destruction of the most ancient temple of the Christian faith in Rome, The Story of a Tomb 21 that during his whole reign he never ceased adorning it with new mosaics and paintings. His intention was solely and simply to enlarge its apse.1 All that can fairly be deduced from the assertions of Alberti or of Conti is that the Vatican Church was in need of sub stantial repairs. No Christian edifice — Bramante's least of all — has been secure from such a necessity. Finally, even if we admit the irremediable dilapidation of S. Peter's in 1505, did not a becoming respect for memories so grand, so august, command at least that the sanctuary be rebuilt in its ancient and consecrated form, — that, especially, the mosaics, the altars, and the tombs should be preserved and replaced ? And had not this been the invariable procedure in Rome during the mediaeval period when it was a question of restoring ecclesiastical edifices ? I shall venture to present still one other consideration, which perhaps is not entirely without importance. The sentence of Julius II. , having been pronounced, the old Basilica was not thereupon razed to the ground in a day and at a blow. It was demolished piecemeal, one portion after another, during an entire century, to correspond with the advance of the new edifice. During all this century also, and notwithstanding the accumulated ruins, it did not cease to be the theatre of the great pontifical functions, to the extreme displeasure of ambassadors and illustrissimi, vastly incommoded by draughts and dust 1 Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, i., 2, remarks very justly that Manetti, the too often boastful biographer of Nicholas V., while attributing to that pontifFthe most extraordinary projects in respect to the Leonine City, never speaks of S. Peter's as at all threatening ruin. 22 Rome and the Renaissance and the heat of the sun ; to the despair, also, of masters of ceremonies, who, on these solemn occasions, knew not which way to turn. Paris de Grassis, the master of cere monies under Julius II. and Leo X., the Dangeau of these two pontificates, is never done complaining, in his Journal, of the difficulties he had at each funzione in getting in place his scaffoldings, boards, and tapestries, in the midst of the maladetta fabbrica. The coronation of Sixtus V., in 1585, takes place, after the usual custom, on the great terrace of the old Basilica; the atrium, the fa cade of the church, and the long nave are still standing; the last of it is not demolished until 1609, under Paul V. Borghese. Now, during the whole course of this long and slow destruction, we hear of no accidental falling in, of no fragment of wall giving way of itself; up to the very last the noble old edifice yields only to blows of pickaxe and mattock : frangitur non flecKtur. We read in Bunsen that the beams of the roof were esteemed strong enough to be used as timbers in an entirely new building of the time, the Farnese palace ! On his return from Carrara (January, 1506) Buonarroti saw the demolition already begun. He makes no objec tions to it, let us say at once; he will even all his life be proud of having been the occasion ( Venne ad esser cagione, is Condivi's expression) of the renewal of the Basilica. He is, moreover, full of ardour and confidence on the sub ject of the mausoleum ; he writes to Florence to have all his drawings sent to him; he has the blocks of marble trans ported from the bank of the Tiber to the great Piazza di San Pietro, " behind S. Catherine's church," where the The Story of a Tomb 23 Pope has assigned him a studio. Julius II. pays him frequent visits in this studio, and even has " a draw bridge" constructed, upon which he can cross directly from the Vatican to the artist's abode. The Pope, how ever, no longer has for the famous tomb the enthusiasm of the preceding year; he speaks of it less and less; he has quite new projects in mind, and proposes to the sculptor, already so famous by reason of the Pieth and the David, to adorn with frescos the vault of the Sistine. He insists; Michelangelo refuses, and with good reason, — " not being a painter," as he will have occasion to declare more than once. Why is the Pope on this new tack, why does he thus suddenly abandon his long - cherished design? — The caprice of a despot, whose whims change at the wind's will, some of his biographers have thought; an old man's superstition, Condi vi asserts, and Bramante' s infamous intrigues, which succeeded in making Julius II. afraid of having a tomb built for himself while he was yet alive. This I scarcely believe. Whatever judgment we may form of the Rovere, it is impossible to deny him a certain real grandeur of soul: in matters of art, as in matters of statecraft, the universal interests of the Church, as he understood them, always took precedence with him over considerations of expediency or of personal aggrandise ment. Once fired with the idea of building for the Catholic world a temple such as had never before been seen, is it wonderful that he lost his ardour about a strictly personal monument, destined for his own glory; that he felt even a certain remorse, possibly even shame 24 Rome and the Renaissance at it? Michelangelo did not fail to perceive the change, but without penetrating its cause; and he reproaches Bramante especially for having cut the ground from under his feet with the master. Also he reproaches him, and far more justly, with proceeding blindly in the de molition of S. Peter's, and destroying more than one pre cious column which might have been used for the new building. In truth, Bramante' s rage in destroying was worthy of Julius II.'s own fiery enthusiasm — worthy, also, of the pride of Humanism and its total failure to comprehend the great past of Christendom. A thing scarcely credible is that not until the reign of Sixtus V. did the idea occur to any man's mind to collect with some care the debris of the former sanctuary, — the altars, tombs, mosaics, statues, and reliefs, — and make something like an accurate re gister of them. For the eighty years preceding, no care had been taken of these glorious fragments; they had been left to be scattered to the winds or buried under, the ruins, to be broken up and wasted ; and Master Donato himself it was who set the deadly example of vandalism, at a date no earlier than the sixteenth century. The Romans, having no idea of the future S. Peter's, and see ing only the frightful ruins of the present one, — seeing, moreover, whole regions of the city torn up in laying out the new Via Giulia and the Lungara, and the Vatican itself all in disorder with the construction of the Belve dere, the Cortile of San Damaso, and galleries without end, — the Romans conceived a horror of this great de- molisher, the Haussmann of the Renaissance. Late in The Story of a Tomb 25 the reign of Julius II. , June 12, 1512, Paris de Grassis writes in his private Journal : "Architectum Bramantem, seu potius Ruinantem, ut communiter vocabilur. . . ." A curious pamphlet of the day ' represents the famous architect, after his death, knocking at the gate of Paradise, which S. Peter refuses to open: " Why did you destroy my temple in Rome which, by its very antiquity, called even the least devout to God ? You are the rascal to whom we owe this evil deed." After many subterfuges and evasions, the architect confesses that he likes to de molish, — that he should like to destroy the world ; that he tried, indeed, to ruin the Pope. " But you failed in that," says S. Peter. "Yes, for Julius-did not put his hand into his own pocket to build the new church, but relied on indulgences and the confessional." The con clusion of this jocose pamphlet is vastly amusing: Bra mante finally proposes to make his own conditions for effecting an entrance into Paradise. Impenitent and im pertinent, he will reconstruct Heaven itself: " I shall begin by getting rid of this road which is so steep and difficult, that leads up here from the earth; I shall make one broad and easy, so that feeble old souls can come up on horseback. Also I shall pull down this Para dise of yours and build another with much finer and more cheerful residences for your beati." "And where do you propose to lodge my people while you are constructing all 1 Simla, by Andrea Guarna da Salerno, Milan, 15 17. I quote from extracts given by Bossi (// Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci, 1810, 40, pp. 246-249). It has been impossible for me to find the Latin original in Rome. 26 Rome and the Renaissance this?" "Oh, your people are accustomed to incon veniences; they have had a great many in their time. Some flayed alive, some stoned to death, they obtained their citizenship here by all sorts of discomforts. Besides, in this salubrious air, they will not take cold. . . . You are not pleased with my plans ? Very good, I shall go to the other place then! " Notice the allusion to the indulgences which are to pay for building the new church ! And this arrow is aimed at Julius II. from Milan, a Cisalpine city, long before the theses of Martin Luther appeared! A hundred and fifty years later, let us hear what a Jesuit will say, a card inal, the eminent historian of the Council of Trent, Sforza Pallavicini: " This material edifice of S. Peter's has de stroyed a great part of his spiritual building. To procure the prodigious millions required by a construction so enormous, recourse was had to means which gave the first occasion to the Lutheran heresy, and inflicted upon the Church, in the end, the loss of many millions of souls." At the price of what a schism in the great Christian family was to arise the temple whose corner-stone Julius II. laid, the Saturday in albis, 1506! He came in solemn procession, attended by thirty-five cardinals. After a mass of the Santo Spirito by Cardinal Francesco Soderini, the Rovere approached a deep, broad trench, " like a chasm in the earth," which had been dug where now, beneath the dome, stands the statue of S. Veronica. The old man, with worn-out body and soul of iron, went down by a ladder into this chasm: " And as there was much anxiety felt lest the ground should give The Story of a Tomb 27 way," says Paris de Grassis, " the Pope called out to those above not to come too near the edge." The usual medals and inscriptions were deposited ; the foundations were consecrated; and Julius II. returned up the ladder. This took place on the 18th of April, 1506; the preced ing day, the 17th, Michelangelo had made his escape from Rome! Irritated, desperate, seized with inexplic able terrors, he went away suddenly and secretly, leaving his studio, his blocks of marble, and the fatal monument, which was destined to throw its shadow over his sad ca reer for many years to come. This tomb, he said later, had been the tragedy of his life. It was, perhaps, also, the tragedy of the Renaissance and of Roman Catholicism. CHAPTER III THE OLD BASILICA Crossing this morning, under a burning sun, the Piazza di San Pietro, I was more than ever displeased with the Emperor Henry IV. for destroying, during the siege of 1083, the imposing portico which, up to the time of Gregory VII., had united the Vatican Basilica with the western extremity of the bridge of S. Angelo. This gal lery was not of conspicuous regularity, making an angle near the church of Santa Maria Transpontina ; I imagine that it may have resembled that succession of arcades in Bologna which ascends from the Porta Saragozza to the heights of the Madonna di San Luca: but it must have been very much appreciated by those who Dali' un lato tutti hanno lafronte Verso il Castello, e vanno a San-Pietro, Dali' altra sponda vanno verso 'I monte. Why had not the successors of Pope Alexander VII. thought of reconstructing a work which, besides its man ifest utility, would have further enhanced the splendour of this square, already unequalled in the world ? Imagine, instead of the shabby block of houses between the two streets, the Borgo Vecchio and the Borgo Nuovo, a double portico extending from the Piazza Pia to Bernini's col onnade: what superb Propylaea for a Christian Parthenon, 28 - The Old Basilica 29 and how Michelangelo's dome, now crushed for lack of suitable points of view, would then become visible from afar, in all its majestic grandeur! It was no fault of the Comte de Tournon, the vigilant and intelligent Prefect of Rome during the captivity of Pius VII., that this im mense plan failed of execution at the beginning of the present century: the decree of Napoleon sanctioning the project is dated August 8, 181 1; the fatal Russian cam paign reversed this decision. I have allowed myself to-day the melancholy pleasure of reconstructing in thought, and here upon the very spot, the old Basilica of S. Peter's as it was known to the gen eration of Julius II. before the fatal sentence of 1505. The second volume of Bunsen ' has been to me one of the most valuable of guides in this " Archaeological Prom enade," and especially has made very visible to my mind the extraordinary fortune of this little space of earth, of origins so humble, of destinies so marvellous! The Capitol and the Palatine, the Quirinal, the Aventine, the Coelian, the Esquiline, and the Viminal had already shone with a glory ten times secular, while the Mons Vaticanus was still fuori le mure and outside of history; Livy scarcely mentions it. Two names especially, one, the purest, the other, the most ignoble, in Roman story, had left their trace in the region beyond the Tiber: here Cincinnatus cultivated his modest field (prata Quinctia); here Nero lighted up his living torches of Christian 1 Which, however, must be corrected at many points in accord ance with the more recent works of De Rossi, Miintz, Stevenson, Kirsch, and others, and especially with the valuable Codex Gri- maldi (of the Barberini Library), of the year 1619. 30 Rome and the Renaissance martyrs. The region was malarial, in spite of the exten sive gardens which covered its surface; even the wine it produced was regarded with suspicion. Vaticana bibis, bibis venemum, says Martial. The German and Gallic soldiers of Vitellius paid with their lives, according to Tacitus, for the imprudence of camping infamibus Vati- cani locis. In this ill-famed region, however, on the edge of Nero's horrible Circus, Pope Sylvester erected his Christian temple, after Constantine's great victory over Maxentius. And soon, among all the hills of Rome, the world remembered no other but this desert slope which held the tomb of a poor Galilean fisherman ! Innumerable buildings have sprung up since, in the long course of centuries, to people and even to encumber the region once so solitary ; descriptions which we have of the Vatican Piazza, at the close of the Middle Ages, give the idea of an excessive crowd. To the right, on the north, the pontifical palace reared its crenelated walls, and multiplied its towers, its courts, and its loggie. At the left, annexes and dependencies innumerable clinging to the side of S. Peter's crowded upon the noble monu ment with their diffuse and incongruous masses. As far as the eye could penetrate, there were sacristies, presby teries, oratories, chapels, churches circular or rectangular, — there were convents, hospitals, mausolea, and ceme teries; these buildings obstructed the avenues, spreading out especially towards the south, on the side of the Nero- nian Circus, and surrounded its guglia.' In the midst, 1 Guglia (acuglia, needle) was the name given by the populace to the obelisk which crowned the spina of Nero's (or rather Calig- The Old Basilica 31 however, of all this parasitic growth of buildings, Pope Sylvester's Basilica retained its primitive form, keeping intact its great architectural lines. The decoration and the fitting-up may have been often changed and renewed, but the constituent parts of the edifice remained the same up to the time of Julius II. ; indeed, we may say, until the close of the sixteenth century. A stately flight of steps (thirty-five in number, divided into five sections), all of marble and porphyry, led from the ground to the immense plateau on which the Basilica stood. At the top of this flight of steps there was an ex tensive terrace, over fifty feet deep; here took place the Benedictions urbi et orbi, the papal coronations, the solemn receptions of kings and emperors, and many other great public displays; here Charlemagne was received by Adrian I., on Palm Sunday, 774, after having ascended the steps on his knees, kissing each step on the way. The Loggia of the Benedictions, with its three stories of arcades, — which the old views of S. Peter's represent on the right, on a corner of this platform very near the pontif ical palace, — dates only from later times; it was the work of Pius II., and of his successors in the last half of the fifteenth century. On the opposite side, at the left, — that is to say, on the south, — the extensive palace of the arch- priest, also a work of the fifteenth century, seems to have occupied the site of an ancient hospital for pilgrims. ula's) Circus of the Vatican. It is well known that this obelisk was transported by Sixtus V. to its present position. An inscrip tion on a stone in the pavement near the present sacristy is in these words: Sito dali' obeliscofino all' anno MDLXXXVI. 32 Rome and the Renaissance In front of the Basilica, properly so called, there was an oblong, open court, the atrium,1 extending from the terrace as far as the threshold of the present church, beyond Ma- derna's vestibule. The court had suffered much from the ravages of time and the violence of man: at the begin ning of the sixteenth century, it appeared shorn of the splendour that it formerly had when its interior was filled with a profusion of symbolic trees,— palms, cypresses, olive and rose-trees, — and ornamented on all sides with a handsome Corinthian portico. However, the western row of columns of the quadriporticus was yet entire; op posite, at the right of the church door, a bell-tower of the Carlovingian date lifted its graceful outline against the sky, and the famous cantharus of tbe centre never failed to excite admiration. It was a magnificent fountain sur rounded by eight porphyry columns arid protected by a gilded roof, with a great display of dolphins, peacocks, and dragons thereon. A colossal pine-cone in bronze, reputed to have been brought from Hadrian's mausoleum, formed the core for the fountain : Petrus Mallius, a canon of the twelfth century, speaks pertinently of a leaden pipe intro- , duced into this cone, and of apertures made in its scales. Dante, to give a measure of the formidable Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, whom he encounters in the lowest 1 The ancient Christian basilica consisted of an atrium, a nar- thex, and the church properly so called. The atrium was a great unroofed court, with a fountain for lustration (cantharus) in the middle; in this court, the "penitents" remained. The narthex, a vestibule, covered, and of much smaller dimensions, was part of the church building, and was appropriated to the catechumens. The Basilica of San Clemente at Rome gives a perfectly clear idea of these arrangements. The Old Basilica 33 circle of the Inferno, says that the giant's head appeared to him " long and large as the pine-cone of S. Peter's in Rome, and the rest of him to correspond." This enorm ous mass of bronze remains to our time, an embarrassment to archaeologists; the pigna shows no trace of the holes mentioned by Petrus Mallius! Let us not dwell upon this vexed topic. Dante terminates his episode as to Nimrod, with the imperative words: Lasciamolo stare e non