o returned to Florence. He had not made friends in
Bologna; his forbidding manner did not encourage others to associate with
him; but we now know from his letters that he had great trials. His family
was poor, and all relied on him; indeed, his life was full of care and
sadness.
In 1508 he was again summoned to Rome by the Pope, who insisted that he
should paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican. Michael
Angelo did not wish to do this, as he had done no great painting. It
proved to be one of his most famous works; but he had a great deal of
trouble in it. On one occasion the Pope threatened to throw the artist
from the scaffolding. The Pope complained also that the pictures looked
poor; to this the artist replied: "They are only poor people whom I have
painted there, and did not wear gold on their garments." His subjects were
from the Bible. When the artist would have a leave of absence to go to
Florence, the Pope got so angry that he struck him; but, in spite of all,
this great painting was finished in 1512. Grimm, in his life of Michael
Angelo, says: "It needed the meeting of these two men; in the one such
perseverance in requiring, and in the other such power of fulfilling, to
produce this monument of human art."
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. _By M. Angelo. From the
Sistine Chapel._]
It is impossible here to follow, step by step, the life and works of this
master. Among the other great things which he did are the tomb of Julius
II. in the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in Rome, of which the famous
statue of Moses makes a part (Fig. 40).
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--STATUE OF MOSES. _By M. Angelo._]
He made the statues in the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo, in
Florence, the painting of the Last Judgment on a wall of the Sistine
Chapel, and many works as an architect; for he was called upon to attend
to fortifications both in Florence and Rome, and at last, as his
greatest work of this sort, he was the architect of St. Peter's at Rome.
Many different artists had had a share in this work; but as it now is
Michael Angelo may be counted as its real architect. His works are
numerous and only a small part of them is here mentioned; but I have
spoken of those by which he is most remembered. His life, too, was a
stormy one for many reasons that we have not space to tell. While he lived
there were wars and great changes in Italy; he served also under nine
popes, and during hi
|