Michael Angelo

by M.F. Sweetser

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 ...with his clerk of works, Stefano, yet he dared not turn him away, because both of them had been enrolled among the Piagnoni, or followers of Savonarola. Stefano was, however, a practical architect of great skill, and his master would not plan the Library until he had consulted with him. Angelo was a great admirer of the three famous Florentine architects who had preceded him. Of Ghiberti's gates to the Baptistery, he said, "They are so beautiful, that they are worthy of being the gates of Paradise." Standing before Donatello's statue of St. Mark, he cried out, "Mark, why don't you speak to me?" and on another occasion he said, "If St. Mark looked thus, we may safely believe what he has written." When he was advised to vary the lantern on the Medici Chaple from that which Brunelleschi had built on the old sacristy of San Lorenzo, he remarked, "It may be varied, but not improved." Of other artists he spoke no less pleasantly, saying of Gentile da Fabriano that his name corresponded with the grace of his style; and of Cesari's medals, that "Art has reached its last hour, for beyond this it cannot go." In 1525 the master went to Rome to discuss with the Pope his plans for the chapel and the new Laurentian Library, and was menaced by the Duke I A COLOSSUS. 79 of Urbino, for having made no returns for the 16,ooo crowns which he had received on account of the Julian monument.. On his return to Florence, the dome of the chapel was completed, but further work was delayed by troubles about the supply of marble. So much annoyance did this cause, that he abandoned the undertaking, though Salviati wrote him a long letter, filled with kindly good sense, begging him, in the Pope's name, to resume the work, and to disappoin...

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2010

About the author

Moses Foster Sweetser (1848-1897)