The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-21

4 NEW ADAIs 4I4CI4OIl grew I'LL
L able to work except with free
hand, Brunelleschi feigned illness
and stayed at home. Soon the work
stopped, and the wardenS of the
cathedral came to Brunelleschi and
reported, "Ghiberti will not do any
thing without you"
But" said Brunelleschi, Il could
do it we'll enough without him."
The wardens saw, as Vasari puts
it, that Filippo was sick only of the
desire to work alone, and they
promised that Ghiberti would with
draw. But Ghiberti did not Brun-
elleSchi then proposed that the
work should be divided into two
parts, one to be directed by Ghiberti,
the other by himself. The proposal
was accepted, but soon the wardenS
saw that Ghiberti was a great
sculptor but only a middling archi-
tect, and that his half would have
to be undone.
They made Brunelleschi sole di-
rector of the work, and content at
last he produced a masterpiece. The
dome he built for the cathedral at
Florence became the model for the
dome of st. Peter, and though
Michelangelo improved upon the
original, there is a stern simplicity
about the earlier dome which led
Vasari, though himself an architect
and friend of Angelo, to say that
from the time of the Greeks and
Romans to the present, there has
appeared no more excellent or ad-
mirable genius than Filippo Brunei
leschi."
With julius II the center of
Renaissance architecture passed
from Florence to Rome. When he
decided to rebuild st. Peters, he
thought only of the art problems
involved; he never dreamed that
the undertaking would be the indi-
rect contributory cause Of the
reformation.
He called first upon Bramante
da Urbino, who had made the Bel
vedere wing of the Vatican, with
its magnificent interior and famous
winding stairway. Bramante now
drew a spacious design for a new
cathedral, and work was begun on
it in 1906. But his plan called for
more money than Peters Pence had
in hand, and the work stopped till
the peddling of indulgenceS under
Leo x brought in the requisite gold,
and divided Christendom.
THE work was resumed. but not
l. till the papacy of Paul III was
it carried on with any resolution.
The pope had heard Michelangelo
criticise the design of Bramante for
the cathedral; now he made the
natural retort, and asked Mcclellan
gelo, could he do better?
The old artist did not care to ac-
cept the challenge; he was 81 now,
and had thought that his work was
done. The pope tried to bride him
with a generous stipened, but the
unaccountable Angelo, who cared
for nothing but art, religion, Wit
toria Colonna and Tommaso Cava-
lieri, refused the stipened, and I'M
dertOok the work. To the end of his
days he devoted himself to the new
task unpaid, saying that he had now
conSecrated himself to God.
He labored on st. Peters inter-
mittently for twenty-Seven years,
and yet even at his death it was in
complete, and had to be finished
from the wooden model which he
had made With all the care that
was lavished on the dome, it is al
ready in danger of collapse; an
American architect recently warned
that the vast weight-of almost a
million tons-must soon fall, unless
serious defects are repaired.
The design was good, but the
workmanship of the contractors,
and the materials which they SUPP
piled, were far below the mark
which Angelo wished to set. He
writes to his aides, after being
cheated time and again with in
ferior materials, IT beg of you, from
this time forward, by the authority
which hold from the pope, not to
accept anything which is not suita-
BILE, even though it comes to you
from heaven" The spirit was will
ing, but the flesh was weak.
Through all this labor and pre-
eminence the artist lived in a sim
plicity that was almost restitution
He had money; he supported his
father and his brothers, helping
them to rise to the rank of mobiles in
Florence; and he left 5000 gold
| crowns at his death.
But he himself led the life Of a