VIII

Vasari at this epoch becomes one of our most reliable authorities regarding the life of Michelangelo.  He corresponded and conversed with him continuously, and enjoyed the master’s confidence.  We may therefore accept the following narrative as accurate:  “It was some little while before the beginning of 1551, when Vasari, on his return from Florence to Rome, found that the sect of Sangallo were plotting against Michelangelo; they induced the Pope to hold a meeting in S. Peter’s, where all the overseers and workmen connected with the building should attend, and his Holiness should be persuaded by false insinuations that Michelangelo had spoiled the fabric.  He had already walled in the apse of the King where the three chapels are, and carried out the three upper windows.  But it was not known what he meant to do with the vault.  They then, misled by their shallow judgment, made Cardinal Salviati the elder, and Marcello Cervini, who was afterwards Pope, believe that S. Peter’s would be badly lighted.  When all were assembled, the Pope told Michelangelo that the deputies were of opinion the apse would have but little light.  He answered:  ’I should like to hear these deputies speak.’  The Cardinal Marcello rejoined:  ‘Here we are.’  Michelangelo then remarked:  ’My lord, above these three windows there will be other three in the vault, which is to be built of travertine.’  ‘You never told us anything about this,’ said the Cardinal.  Michelangelo responded:  ’I am not, nor do I mean to be obliged to tell your lordship or anybody what I ought or wish to do.  It is your business to provide money, and to see that it is not stolen.  As regards the plans of the building, you have to leave those to me.’  Then he turned to the Pope and said:  ’Holy Father, behold what gains are mine!  Unless the hardships I endure prove beneficial to my soul, I am losing time and labour.’  The Pope, who loved him, laid his hands upon his shoulders and exclaimed:  ’You are gaining both for soul and body, have no fear!’ Michelangelo’s spirited self-defence increased the Pope’s love, and he ordered him to repair next day with Vasari to the Vigna Giulia, where they held long discourses upon art.”  It is here that Vasari relates how Julius III. was in the habit of seating Michelangelo by his side while they talked together.

Julius then maintained the cause of Michelangelo against the deputies.  It was during his pontificate that a piece of engineering work committed to Buonarroti’s charge by Paul III. fell into the hands of Nanni di Baccio Bigio.  The old bridge of Santa Maria had long shown signs of giving way, and materials had been collected for rebuilding it.  Nanni’s friends managed to transfer the execution of this work to him from Michelangelo.  The man laid bad foundations, and Buonarroti riding over the new bridge one day with Vasari, cried out:  “George, the bridge is quivering beneath us; let us spur on, before it gives way with us upon it.”  Eventually, the bridge did fall to pieces, at the time of a great inundation.  Its ruins have long been known as the Ponte Rotto.