The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Life of Michelangelo
Buonarroti

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Title: The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Author: John Addington Symonds
Release Date: February 23, 2004 [EBook #11242]
Language: English
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THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
By JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
TO THE CAVALIERE GUIDO BIAGI, DOCTOR IN LETTERS,
PREFECT OF THE MEDICEO-LAURENTIAN LIBRARY, ETC.,
ETC.
I DEDICATE THIS WORK ON MICHELANGELO IN RESPECT

FOR HIS SCHOLARSHIP AND LEARNING ADMIRATION OF HIS
TUSCAN STYLE AND GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
HIS GENEROUS ASSISTANCE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. BIRTH, BOYHOOD, YOUTH AT FLORENCE, DOWN TO
LORENZO DE' MEDICI'S DEATH. 1475-1492.
II. FIRST VISITS TO BOLOGNA AND ROME--THE MADONNA
DELLA FEBBRE AND OTHER WORKS IN MARBLE. 1492-1501.
III. RESIDENCE IN FLORENCE--THE DAVID. 1501-1505.
IV. JULIUS II. CALLS MICHELANGELO TO ROME--PROJECT
FOR THE POPE'S TOMB--THE REBUILDING OF S.
PETER'S--FLIGHT FROM ROME--CARTOON FOR THE BATTLE
OF PISA. 1505, 1506.
V. SECOND VISIT TO BOLOGNA--THE BRONZE STATUE OF
JULIUS II--PAINTING OF THE SISTINE VAULT. 1506-1512.
VI. ON MICHELANGELO AS DRAUGHTSMAN, PAINTER,
SCULPTOR.
VII. LEO X. PLANS FOR THE CHURCH OF S. LORENZO AT
FLORENCE--MICHELANGELO'S LIFE AT CARRARA. 1513-1521.
VIII. ADRIAN VI AND CLEMENT VII--THE SACRISTY AND
LIBRARY OF S. LORENZO. 1521-1526.
IX. SACK OF ROME AND SIEGE OF
FLORENCE--MICHELANGELO'S FLIGHT TO VENICE--HIS
RELATIONS TO THE MEDICI. 1527-1534.
X. ON MICHELANGELO AS ARCHITECT.

XI. FINAL SETTLEMENT IN ROME--PAUL III.--THE LAST
JUDGMENT AND THE PAOLINE CHAPEL--THE TOMB OF
JULIUS. 1535-1542.
XII. VITTORIA COLONNA AND TOMMASO
CAVALIERI--MICHELANGELO AS POET AND MAN OF
FEELING.
XIII. MICHELANGELO APPOINTED ARCHITECT-IN-CHIEF AT
THE VATICAN--HISTORY OF S. PETER'S. 1542-1557.
XIV. LAST YEARS OF LIFE--MICHELANGELO'S
PORTRAITS--ILLNESS OF OLD AGE. 1557-1564.
XV. DEATH AT ROME--BURIAL AND OBSEQUIES AT
FLORENCE--ANECDOTES--ESTIMATE OF MICHELANGELO AS
MAN AND ARTIST.

THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI

CHAPTER I
I
The Buonarroti Simoni, to whom Michelangelo belonged, were a
Florentine family of ancient burgher nobility. Their arms appear to
have been originally "azure two bends or." To this coat was added "a
label of four points gules inclosing three fleur-de-lys or." That
augmentation, adopted from the shield of Charles of Anjou, occurs
upon the scutcheons of many Guelf houses and cities. In the case of the
Florentine Simoni, it may be ascribed to the period when Buonarrota di
Simone Simoni held office as a captain of the Guelf party (1392). Such,
then, was the paternal coat borne by the subject of this Memoir. His
brother Buonarroto received a further augmentation in 1515 from Leo
X., to wit: "upon a chief or, a pellet azure charged with fleur-de-lys or,
between the capital letters L. and X." At the same time he was created

Count Palatine. The old and simple bearing of the two bends was then
crowded down into the extreme base of the shield, while the Angevine
label found room beneath the chief.
According to a vague tradition, the Simoni drew their blood from the
high and puissant Counts of Canossa. Michelangelo himself believed in
this pedigree, for which there is, however, no foundation in fact, and no
heraldic corroboration. According to his friend and biographer Condivi,
the sculptor's first Florentine ancestor was a Messer Simone dei Conti
di Canossa, who came in 1250 as Podestà to Florence. "The eminent
qualities of this man gained for him admission into the burghership of
the city, and he was appointed captain of a Sestiere; for Florence in
those days was divided into Sestieri, instead of Quartieri, as according
to the present usage." Michelangelo's contemporary, the Count
Alessandro da Canossa, acknowledged this relationship. Writing on the
9th of October 1520, he addresses the then famous sculptor as
"honoured kinsman," and gives the following piece of information:
"Turning over my old papers, I have discovered that a Messere Simone
da Canossa was Podestà of Florence, as I have already mentioned to the
above-named Giovanni da Reggio." Nevertheless, it appears now
certain that no Simone da Canossa held the office of Podestà at
Florence in the thirteenth century. The family can be traced up to one
Bernardo, who died before the year 1228. His grandson was called
Buonarrota, and the fourth in descent was Simone. These names recur
frequently in the next generations. Michelangelo always addressed his
father as "Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarrota Simoni," or "Louis, the
son of Leonard, son of Buonarrota Simoni;" and he used the family
surname of Simoni in writing to his brothers and his nephew