he was compelled to obey. One day among others that he had gone to the building accordingly, to see the model in wood prepared by Sangallo, and to examine the fabric, the whole party of the Sangallicans came to meet him, and in the best terms they could find, expressed their satisfaction at his appointment, remarking that the model before them was a field on which he need never want pasture. “You speak well,” replied Michelagnolo, intending to imply (as he declared to one who was his friend) that the pasture was good for sheep and oxen and other animals who know nothing of art.[1] Nay, he would often publicly declare that Sangallo had left the building without lights, and had heaped too many ranges of columns, one above the other on the outside; adding, that with its innumerable projections, pinnacles, and divisions of members, it was more like a work of the Teutons than of the good antique manner, or of the cheerful and beautiful modern style; he furthermore affirmed that fifty years of time, with more than 300,000 crowns in the cost, might very well be spared, while the work might be completed with increased majesty, grandeur, and lightness, to say nothing of better design, more perfect beauty, and superior convenience.
He made a model also, to prove the truth of his words, and this was of the form wherein we now see the work to have been conducted; it cost twenty-five crowns, and was finished in a fortnight; that of Sangallo having exceeded four thousand, as we have said, and occupied several years in the making. From this and other circumstances, it was indeed easy to see that the Church had become an object of traffic and a means of gain, rather than a building to be completed; being considered, by those who undertook the work, as a kind of bargain to be turned to the best account.
Such a state of things could not fail to displease so upright a man as Michelagnolo; and, as the Pope had made him Superintendent against his will, he determined to be rid of them all. He therefore one day told them openly that he knew well they had done and were doing all they could, by means of their friends, to prevent him from entering on this
- ↑ See Plainer and Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., vol. ii. p. 151, where the opinion of Michael Angelo as to this model will be found in a letter from himself to a certain Messer Bartolommeo; or the original of that letter may be consulted in the Lettere Pittoriche, tom. vi. p. 26.
