VIII

The year 1556 was marked by an excursion which took Michelangelo into the mountain district of Spoleto.  Paul IV.’s anti-Spanish policy had forced the Viceroy of Naples to make a formidable military demonstration.  Accordingly the Duke of Alva, at the head of a powerful force, left Naples on the 1st of September and invaded the Campagna.  The Romans dreaded a second siege and sack; not without reason, although the real intention of the expedition was to cow the fiery Pope into submission.  It is impossible, when we remember Michelangelo’s liability to panics, not to connect his autumn journey with a wish to escape from trouble in Rome.  On the 31st of October he wrote to Lionardo that he had undertaken a pilgrimage to Loreto, but feeling tired, had stopped to rest at Spoleto.  While he was there, a messenger arrived post-haste from Rome, commanding his immediate return.  He is now once more at home there, and as well as the troublous circumstances of the times permit.

Later on he told Vasari:  “I have recently enjoyed a great pleasure, though purchased at the cost of great discomfort and expense, among the mountains of Spoleto, on a visit to those hermits.  Consequently, I have come back less than half myself to Rome; for of a truth there is no peace to be found except among the woods.”  This is the only passage in the whole of Michelangelo’s correspondence which betrays the least feeling for wild nature.  We cannot pretend, even here, to detect an interest in landscape or a true appreciation of country life.  Compared with Rome and the Duke of Alva, those hermitages of the hills among their chestnut groves seemed to him haunts of ancient peace.  That is all; but when dealing with a man so sternly insensible to the charm of the external world, we have to be contented with a little.

In connection with this brief sojourn at Spoleto I will introduce two letters written to Michelangelo by the Archbishop of Ragusa from his See.  The first is dated March 28, 1557. and was sent to Spoleto, probably under the impression that Buonarroti had not yet returned to Rome.  After lamenting the unsettled state of public affairs, the Archbishop adds:  “Keep well in your bodily health; as for that of your soul, I am sure you cannot be ill, knowing what prudence and piety keep you in perpetual companionship.”  The second followed at the interval of a year, April 6, 1558. and gave a pathetic picture of the meek old prelate’s discomfort in his Dalmatian bishopric.  He calls Ragusa “this exceedingly ill-cultivated vineyard of mine.  Oftentimes does the carnal man in me revolt and yearn for Italy, for relatives and friends; but the spirit keeps desire in check, and compels it to be satisfied with that which is the pleasure of our Lord.”  Though the biographical importance of these extracts is but slight, I am glad, while recording the outlines of Buonarroti’s character, to cast a side-light on his amiable qualities, and to show how highly valued he was by persons of the purest life.