Michelangeloin Rome

A tour around thesights of Rome todiscover theMasterpieces ofMichelangeloBuonarroti.

1. SAN PIETRO

2. THE SISTINA CHAPEL

3. THE PAULINE CHAPEL

4. CASTEL SANT’ANGELO

5. FARNESE PALACE

6. SANTA MARIA SOPRA

MINERVA

7. PIAZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO

[The Capitol Square]

8. SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI

9. SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE

10. SANTA MARIA DEGLI

ANGELI

11. PORTA PIA

tourism

Roma for youCollection of information by the Roma City Council

Published by Cosmofilm s.p.a. - Elio de Rosa, EditorEditorial director: Paolo GaleottiText: Sofia BarchiesiEditor: Emanuela BosiLayout: Antonio D’AlessandroGraphics: Marco C. MastrolorenziTranslations by: Protos Translations & Communication (Naples - Italy)

Photos:Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro Archives: 29, 30, 31, 32Roma Sacra Archives: 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25Artistic and Historical Treasures Service of Roma (SBAS): 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 20Maria Teresa Natali: 24Claudia Primangeli/Soriani f.c.v:Francesca Sinagra/Soriani f.c.v.:Paolo Soriani: 12, 13, 14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 33

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A series of specialistic guides aim to prolong one’s

stay in Rome; a suggestion for people who have

“a few extra” days and desire to deepen the

knowledge of our city.

Carefully studied itineraries to accompany the visitor in the

discovery of the great patrimony of the Renaissance in Ro-

me through the testimonies of great artists such as Cara-

vaggio, Raffaello, Michelangelo.

Walks through baroque art, to admire the splendid architec-

tures by Bernini and Borromini.

Advice for everyone, alike tourists and Romans, in order to

quietly discover and enjoy the testimonies of ages that

played a major part in constructing the extraordinary pre-

sent image of our city.

Tourism OfficeMunicipality of Rome

The m

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1. SAN PIETRO

2. THE SISTINA CHAPEL

3. THE PAULINE CHAPEL

4. CASTEL SANT’ANGELO

5. FARNESE PALACE

6. SANTA MARIA

SOPRA MINERVA

7. PIAZZA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO

[The Capitol Square]

8. SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI

9. SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE

10. SANTA MARIA DEGLI ANGELI

11. PORTA PIA

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CastelSant’Angelo

PiazzaNavona

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Piazza delRisorgimento

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La Pianta

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Fium

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ever

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Piazzadel Popolo

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PiazzaVenezia

Villa Borghese

Piazzadi Spagna

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Pantheon

Colosseo

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San Pietro

The Apostle Paul was martyredon the Vatican hill near the Cir-cus of Nero. A memorial to the

first Pope was soon built. Constan-tine built a basilica with 5 aisles overthe venerated tomb in the 4th centu-ry. In 1503, after centuries of at-tempts at restoration, Pope Julius IIdecided to destroy and rebuild thenew St. Peter’s, following the plansof Donato Bramante. The Architectput up four pillars which were thenused to support Michelangelo’s greatdome. The present basilica housesworks and monuments of art and faith.

The dome

The Interior

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Michelangelo planned the dome takinginspiration from those of the Pantheonand of St. Maria del Fiore in Florence.

While the interior vaulting was later modifiedwith mosaics on the design by Cavalierd’Arpino, Della Porta completed the exteriorprofile, for the most part faithful to the originalMichelangelo design, between 1588 and 1593with the lantern.The Pietà, considered “a wonderful thing” (Vas-sari), is the youthful work by the artist that helaid claim to with pride, the inscription along thebelt that crosses the bust of the Virgin containshis name and Florentine origins. The sculpturalgroup made from a single block of marble, com-missioned on the 27th August, 1498 by CardinalJean Bilhères de Lagraulas and completed bythe end of the century, was probably for the bur-ial of the prelate in the chapel of St. Petronilla,known as the “Chapel of the King of France”through the concession by Innocent VIII. After the demolition of the chapel, the sculpturewas housed in the new choir and, from 1749, ex-hibited in the chapel of the Crucifix, today dedi-

1 stVisit

Saint Peter dome

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cated to the Pietà. The style, typicallyNordic, was transformed into a symbolic visionin which the youth of the Virgin alludes to theeternal action of the Church contemplating herdead son, the promise of redemption. After themad attempt in 1972, this precious work is heldbehind a solid crystal screen.

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Basilica of St. Peter • Piazza San Pietro • 00193 Vatican CityPhone 06 69883462 (St. Peter’s Building); 06 69885435 (ParochialOffice); 06 69883712 (Sacristy)

Times of opening: Basilica: winter from 7 am to 6 pm; summer to 7 amfrom 7 pm; Vatican Grottoes: winter from 7 am to 5 pm; sum-mer from 7 am to 6 pm; Dome: winter from 8 am to 5 pm; sum-mer from 8 am to 6 pm; Historic Museum of St. Peter’s Trea-sure: winter from 9 am to 5.30 pm; summer from 9 am to 6.30pm

The Pietà

The SistinaChapel

The chapel occupies the upper floor of a forti-fied centre in the Apostolic Palaces. Rightfrom the beginning (1474), the room dedicat-

ed to the Assumption – planned on the size of theTemple of Solomon – was the pontifical chapel andseat of the Conclaves. The restoration works pro-moted by Sixtus IV in 1477 gave it a precious mosa-ic floor and marble transennas, which were movedlater to enlarge the area reserved for the clergy. The two cycles of the Old and New Testaments,frescoed between 1481 and ’83 by Pinturicchio, Bot-ticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, by Ghirlandaio and stu-dents began with scenes, later destroyed, of thefinding of Moses and the Nativity of Christ complet-ed by Perugino on the wall behind the altar wherethe Michelangelo “The last judgment” is now.

2 ndVisit

9Reconstruction of the early Sistine Chapel

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After the appearance of cracks in the wallsof the Sistine Chapel in 1574, Michelan-gelo was commissioned to work on a new

decoration for the vault, in the place of the starrysky, painted by Pier Matteo d’Amelia during thetime of Sixtus IV. Despite the commission, itproved to be particularly onerous for the artist,engaged on the interminable project for thegrave of Julius II, the contract was stipulated on10th May, 1508. Right from the beginning, hewanted to emphasise the “difficulty of the work”,sustained by a only a small payment and the an-

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The Vault

2 ndVisit

guish of not succeeding in the titanic painting,that the sculptor knew was not his profession. Having overcome the early technical problems,special scaffolding was erected. The helperswho had arrived from Florence were a reason fordissatisfaction by Michelangelo who, in the end,decided to “throw out everything they haddone”. It has been possible to find, through theweaker details of the first scenes near the en-trance, the biggest operation by the helperswho, from the autumn of 1509, would be moreand more limited to the ornamental parts and

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The Sybil of Cuma

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tied to the works of much less able painters.The choice of subject was similarly complex,originally including only the series of twelveApostles arranged around the central area withgeometrical decorations, later changed into themost articulated iconographic programme im-posed by Buonarotti. It is possible to interpret the architectural frame-work of the ceiling as a symbolic path where the

12The last judgment

2 ndVisit

fate of mankind has already been marked, formprimordial chaos to the Redemption. An indis-pensable introduction to the events illustrated inthe two cycles of 15th century frescoes on thelower walls where there is a constant parallel be-tween the Mosaic events and the life of Christ.From the lunettes and the respective ribbingwhere Christ’s ancestors, beginning with Abra-ham, are portrayed, to the four corner-stoneswhich narrate the heroic undertakings of David,Judith, Moses and Esther as far as the marblethrones occupied by the series of Prophets andSibyls, the divine intervention for the salvationof man is always exalted. In the fields of the ceiling, flanked by monochro-ma reliefs of biblical episodes, five scenes ( theCreation of light, the Separation of the earth fromthe waters, the Creation of Eve, the Sacrifice andthe Inebriation of Noah) alternate with anotherfour episodes from Genesis. The decorationabove the cornice, in the large celestial ceiling, il-lustrates the mythical origins of the world (theCreation of the Stars and the Planets), populatedby the forefathers (the Creation of Adam and TheOriginal sin), up to the mythical Flood.The work method used, starting with the lastscene and, that is, from the first fresco done, al-lowed Michelangelo to proceed directly in theelaboration of the design and then to transposi-tion through the traditional technique of pounc-ing or pricking directly into the fresh plaster. Thefluid and transparent brushwork, soaked withlight, exalts the plasticity of the enormous bod-ies, while the gamma of cold and changingcolours emerged after the recent restorations(1980–89) offer an unedited version of Michelan-gelo’s art. Even if Julius II succeeded in seeing thegrandiose work finished after the opening of thechapel on 31st October 1512, the commitment incompleting the project with the Last Judge-ment on the wall behind the altar and in that ofthe entrance (where the Fall of the Rebelling An-gels was foreseen) was due to Clement VII. Al-though already begun, the entire work was then

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carried out on a smaller scale, at the expense ofhis successor, Paul III Farnese, maybe portrayedby the artist in the clothes of St. Peter. The construction of the scaffolding and the re-moval of the frescoes, including the pair oflunettes in the ceiling that Michelangelo himselfhad painted, was begun on 16th April, 1535.Michelangelo was disposed to continue only af-ter the demolition of the plaster that, on the ad-vice of the Venetian, Sebastiano del Piombo, hadbeen set up for oil painting and not, as the artistwanted, for the more traditional fresco tech-nique. The tremendous apocalyptic vision – cer-tainly relating to the Sack of Roma in 1527 –turned around the supreme gesture of Christ theJudge who marks the resurrection by the ascentof the appointed to the left and, to the right, theinexorable fall of the damned, into the violentmaelstrom which the same angels are involvedin, now transporting the instruments of the Pas-sion, now to drive back the sinners to the pres-ence of Minos wrapped round by a serpent. Inhis clothes, Michelangelo wanted to portray, ac-cording to Vassari, one of the first censors of thework, according to whom, the fresco “was not awork for the Chapel of the Pope but of stovesand taverns”! The decision to destroy the frescoes pointed outby Paul IV – mitigated by the Council of Trent onthe 21st January, 1564 shortly before the death ofBuonarotti –was carried out the year after withthe veiling of the nudity by his disciple Danieleda Volterra, from then on known by the nick-name of “Braghettone”.

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Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 100 • 00165 RomaPhone 06 69884947 • 06 69884676Times of opening: from november to february: from monday to fri-

day from 8.45 am to 12.20 am (1.45 pm); from march to oc-tober: fron monday to friday from 8.45 am to 3.20 pm (4.45pm); Every saturdays and the last sunday’s mounth from8.45 to 12.20 am (1.45 pm)

Entrance: complete e 12,00; under 14 years, schools and studentsup to 26 years e 8,00.

Services: The museums have special access facilities for handicapped people.

The PaulineChapel

3 rdVisit

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The Crucifixion of St. Peter

The Chapel was built on the plans of Antonio da San-gallo the Younger in the spring of 1538. It was laterdecorated by Michelangelo as soon as he had fin-

ished work on the Sistine Chapel. The chapel which is stillprivate, is decorated with frescoes. On the left-hand wall isthe Conversion of St. Paul, a theme which certainly alludesto the name of the pontiff client (Paul III Farnese), as theCrucifixion of St. Peter on the opposite wall from 1546 to1550, recalls the morale weight of the apostolate. Other works in the Vatican are also due to Michelangelo,like the project of the Fortifications already started bySangallo and of the double Staircase in the BelvedereCourtyard, modified at the beginning of the 18th centurythrough the elimination of the peperino balustrade.

The Pauline Chapel can only be visited with special permission(Apply to 06 69884947 – 06 69883333)

Castel Sant’Angelo

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Begun around 133 AD., Hadrian’s mausoleum wascompleted by Antonio Pio in 139 d.C. and used asthe imperial tomb. The dedication of the building

is due to the miraculous appearance of the ArchangelMichael, in 590 – and with it the Pons Ælius, the presentday Sant’Angelo Bridge – becoming an integral part ofthe Aurelian defensive system.From on high, the 18th century work by Verschaffelt re-calls the first statue erected after the plague of 1348.Converted into a prison it was the theatre for the es-cape by Benvenuto Cellini and the disturbing presenceof Cagliostro. During the Sack of Roma, Clement VIIsucceeded in escaping the siege through the “Passet-to” which still joins it today to the Vatican. It was givenup by the pontifical troops in 1870 and was restored atthe beginning of the 1900s to house, from 1927, a richcollection of antique arms and a picture gallery.

Castel Sant’Angelo

The elegant marble aedicule on thesouthern side of the Main Courtyardwas planned by Michelangelo be-

tween 1514 and 1516 as a view of the “newchapel” of Saints Cosma and Damiana erect-ed by Leo X, whose emblem can be seen inthe centre of the rosette. It was later modi-fied by Raffaello da Montelupo. After therestoration in 1987, the original plan byMichelangelo was restored, with the excep-tion of the seat which was added at the be-ginning of the century on the basis of de-signs then held to be authentic.

4 thVisit

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Castel Sant’Angelo National Museum, Lungotevere Castello00193 Roma • Phone 06 39080730 - 6819111 • pren. 0639967600Times of opening: Every day except Mondays from 9 am to 8 pm;Entrance: Ticket e 5,00, reduced e 2,50. Free of charge for under 18s

and over 65sServices: The museum has special access facilities for handicapped

people; Audio-guide: e 3,62 (Italian, English, French,Spanish, Japanese, German); Guided tours: e 3,10 Lire,Sunday 16.30

Chapel of Saints Cosma and Damiana, exterior

FarnesePalace

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Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had planned to erect thefamily palace, given to Antionio da Sangallo theYounger since 1513,on land acquired in 1495. The elec-

tion of the client who became pope with the name of Paul III in1534, caused the architect to make some modifications “ap-pearing to him to have to do more with the palace of a pontiffthan a cardinal”. The rear of the splendid residence was com-pleted by Vignola and later by Giacomo Della Porta and thenenriched by cardinal Odoardo Farnese with frescoes byAgostino and Annibale Carracci in the ceiling of the Gallery, atrue milestone for the Roman baroque style. In 1731, on thedeath of the last male descendant, the important works of artinherited by Charles of Bourbon were moved to Naples. Thepalace, given to France in 1874, is still today home of the Em-bassy to the Italian State.

Façade

M i c h e l a n g e l otook over onthe death of

Sangallo (1546), andcompleted the Farnesebuilding, finishing themain floor and part ofthe internal courtyard,probably joined to thesecond order. The sub-stantial modification tothe main elevation isdue to him, with thetransformation of theoriginal central win-dow to the present onecrowned by “a coat ofarms of pope Paul thethird: big, beautifuland of different mar-bles”, it was later flanked by two othersmaller coats of arms. The addition of themassive cornice, decorated with the Farneselilies would be decisive – according to theplan presented in the spring of 1547, bitterlycriticised by the followers of Sangallo – afterthe suitable corrections made adding to thefaçade, which a recent restoration has re-turned it to its ancient glory.In the courtyard, the influence of Michelan-gelo, who was replaced after the death of thepontiff by Vignola, can be seen in the refinedfrieze with garlands which completes themain floor and in the personal interpretationof the classic language of the upper floor,lined with Corinthian columns.

5 thVisit

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Balcony

Farnese Palace, French Embassy, piazza Farnese, 6700186 Roma • Phone 06 686011 - 06 68832818 • Fax 0668809791Times of opening: visitable on request (fax 06 68809791)Services: The building has special access facilities for handicapped people

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Santa Mariasopra Minerva

The name of the Dominican church erected in the area whichwas at one time reserved for Egyptian worship, the Iseumhas always been associated with the nearby temple of Min-

erva Chalcidica. The interior houses exceptional works from theend of the 13th century to the 19th century, when the building un-derwent a radical restoration. Besides the superb cycle of frescoesby Filippino Lippi, the funeral monuments of five Pontiffs from LeoX to Benedict XIII are important. The 1600s are well represented by the sculptures in the Aldobran-dini Chapel and a famous work by Bernini. Catherine of Siena, pa-tron saint of Italy and co-patron saint of Europe; and the Domini-can painter, Fra Angelico are buried in the church.

Interior of the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.

6 thVisit

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The first version of the Christ carry-ing the cross, carried out on the 15th

June, 1514 for Metello Vari, was leftunfinished because of a fault in the marble.The present version, outlined in Florence byMichelangelo in 1518, was completed in Ro-ma by students in 1521. Despite the fact thatthe figure of Christ - whose nudity (later cov-ered by cloth) shows him, an almost paganhero, in the guise of the Redeemer whileholding the instruments of the Passion – ap-pears of great influence, even though it is nolonger in the aedicule which was originallyon the left-hand pillar of the presbytery, de-stroyed in the 18th century.

Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, 4200186 Roma • Phone 06 6793926 • Fax 06 6990672Times of opening: from monday to saturday from 7 am to 7 pm. On

sunday from 7 am to 12 am.Services: The church has special access facilities for handicapped people

Christ holding the Cross

Piazza del Campidoglio

(the Capitol Square)

A lthough the work of re-designing the ancientCapitoline hill, seat of civic power, had al-ready been started in the 15th century, it had

a new push during the pontificate of Paul III. Con-nected to the Farnese family, the entire area wasthe object of changes by 1535. Two years later, itwas decided to restore the Conservatives Palace

with the transfer ofthe famous equestri-an Statue of MarcusAurelius that the Lat-eran Chapter had, invain, asked not to bemoved from its origi-nal site. Michelange-lo also seemed to beagainst the move. Hewas probably al-ready involved in theproject, maybe limit-ed only to consultan-cy on the changes tothe pedestal request-ed in March, 1539.

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Piazza del Campidoglio

The square is characterised by the fa-mous twelve-pointed star shape re-calling religious reasons (the twelve

apostles). After the death of Michelangelo,with the appointment of Giacomo Della Por-ta, Michelangelo’s ideas – probably alreadyfixed in a group project – were carried outwith the completion, to the right of thesquare, by the elevation of the Conserva-tives Palace with the giant order, modifiedin part by Della Porta, who also built the fac-ing New Palace, finished around 1603.Heart of the entire Michelangelo architectur-al accomplishment is the Senatorial Palace,erected in 1573 on the structure with thedouble staircase of his designing, perfectlyin axis with the bell tower above, rebuilt onthe plans of Martino Longhi the Elder. Theeffect is amplified by the access steps to thesquare and by the central Fountain, flankedby the statues of the Nile and the Tiber,added to the feet of the building at the end ofthe 1580s.

7 thVisit

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Piazza del Campidoglio by night

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The equestrian stat-ue of Marcus Au-relius is one of the

rare works of its type com-ing down to us, probablybecause it was kept byConstantine, the firstChristian emperor. Built inhonour of Marcus Aure-lius, it was original at theLateran in the residence ofhis mother Domitia Lucil-la, where the emperor wasborn. It remained at thatsite al through the MiddlesAges, when a fountain wasplaced there. After the re-cent restoration, the splen-did bronze work, oncegilded, was moved insidethe Conservatives Palaceand replaced by a copy.

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Capitoline Art Gallery • Piazza del Campidoglio • 00186 Roma

Phone 06 67102475 • Fax 06 6785488 • www.museicapitolini.org

info.museicapitolini@comune.roma.it

Times of opening: every day except Monday, 25th December, the

1st January and 1 May from 9 am to 8 pm.

Entrance: complete e 6,20; free of charge for under 18’s and over 65’s;

singol prenotation e 1,50, school e 6,00, groups e 25,00;

e 3,50 free itineraries.

Marcus Aurelius

San Pietroin Vincoli

The old Eudoxian Basilica, rebuilt bySixtus III in 439-40 over older build-ings gets its name from the empress

Licinia Eudoxia whose mother had thechains of St. Peter brought from Jerusalemto unite them to those which had chainedthe apostle during his imprisonment in Ro-ma. Tradition has it that, on contact, the tworeliquaries miraculously welded together, asportrayed in the large painting in the centreof the ceiling of the nave (1705-6). Thebronze funeral urn with the venerated reli-

quaries is ondisplay in thecrypt, rebuilttogether withthe presbyter-ial area duringthe secondhalf of the 19th

century.

8 thVisit

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Funeral Monumentof Julius II

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The Funeral Monument to Julius IIhad a complex genesis, documentedby a good five contracts, that began

with the commission by the pontiff in March,1505, for a payment of 10,000 ducats. Shortlyafter arriving in Florence, Michelangelo un-dertook the project with passion, originallydestined for the Vatican Basilica and studiedfor a very effective arrangement. The design,approved in the following April, describes itas a colossal isolated pyramid structure, em-bellished on three floors with more than thir-ty bronze statues and bas-reliefs. The monu-ment is characterised by a pedestal with twoniches with feminine figures inside, alludingto the virtue of the deceased and directly in-spired by prototypes of classic sculpture. TheMoses was sculptured around 1515 and thenre-used in the centre of the present monu-ment where, originally, there was a doorleading into the internal chapel. The modifi-cations made to the coronation were evenmore complex, it was initially conceived asan independent building with the sarcopha-

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Funeral Monument to Julius II, detail

gus and the statue of the pontiff supportedby allegorical figures, further simplified as anarchitectonic structure placed on a wall withthe Virgin and Child above. After the temporary escape to Florence causedby the disinterest of the client, what the artistcalled “the tragedy of the tomb” it accompa-nied him in the more tormented phases of hisexperience as man and artist. In 1532, he final-ly arrived at a solution and the entire monu-ment was rearranged, in February 1545, in theright transept of the Franciscan church of S.Peter in Vincoli of which the pontiff, belongingto the order, was owner. The pose of the pontiffis important, he is portrayed in the act of risingfrom the sarcophagus as if awakening fromthe torpor of physical death.

8 thVisit

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Church of St. Peter in Vincoli, piazza di S. Pietro in Vincoli, 4/a00184 Roma • Phone 06 4882865 • 06 4818969Times of opening: every day from 7 am to 12.30 am and from 3.30

am to 6 pmServices: The church does not have special access facilities for

handicapped people

Funeral Monument to Julius II, detail

Santa MariaMaggiore

Founded by Pope Liberius and, there-fore, known as the Liberian Basilica, itwas embellished by Sixtus III after the

recognition, in the Council of Ephesus (431),of the dogma of the divine maternity of Maryto which the building was dedicated. Thereis evidence of splendid mosaics in the nave,mostly modified by Nicholas IV who addedthe mosaic in the Torriti apse. The worshipof the Holy cradle was added to the Marianworship, tied to the image of the Salus Pop-uli Romani, in the oratorio decorated byArnolfo di Cambio. Covered by the new lacu-nar ceiling by Sangallo, it was completedwith the Sistine and Pauline chapels. The re-construction of the external apse was fol-lowed by a reconstruction both of the façadeand the sumptuous cibo-rium on the high altar,completed for the Ju-bilee of 1750.

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28 Façade

9 thVisit

The Sforza Chapel, already given toMichelangelo by Cardinal Guido As-canio Sforza, archpriest of Santa

Maria Maggiore, was complete much later,perhaps by Guglielmo Della Porta. The ex-treme liberty of the chapel, whose spaceseems enlarged thanks to the four angularcolumns, comes from the central plan,drawn up in projects for the Vatican Basilicaand in the contemporary church of the Flo-rentine Nation in Roma (St. Giovanni deiFiorentini, 1559-60).

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The Sforza Chapel

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Piazza di Santa Maria Mag-giore • 00185 Roma • Phone 06 483195 • 06 48904392Times of opening: every day from 7 am to 7 pmServices: The church has special access facilities for handicapped

people

Santa Mariadegli Angeli

The ancient baths of Diocletian

Built between 298 and 306 AD., the Baths of Diocletian were themost imposing of Imperial Roma, able to house double thenumber of users compared to the sumptuous building begun

by Caracalla about eighty years before. It is still possible to assess thesize of the entire complex – that source said were decorated with3,000 baths – taking into account that its external perimeter ismarked, to the south west, by the exedra formed of 19th centurybuildings at the Via Nazionale end and, further to the north by the halltransformed into the church of St. Bernard. Beyond the ex Carthusianconvent, the central area houses public offices, the Teaching Faculty,the ex planetarium and the premises of the National Roman Museum(The ex Museum of the Baths, formed in 1889) whose important col-lections of antiquity have been, in part, moved to the nearby, newhome of Massimo Palace and to the Altemps Palace.

10th

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30 Baths of Diocletian

The old pro-ject by Ur-ban II for

the transforma-tion of the cen-tral area of theold Baths of Dio-cletian into aplace of worshipwas re-proposedin 1541 and con-firmed with thebull by Julius IIIon the 10th Au-gust, 1550, butthen abandoned. With respect to the newartery marked out by Pius IV, the Strada Pia;in 1561, the pontiff commissioned Michelan-gelo to complete the building, placed underthe patronage of Cardinal Carlo Borromeoand in the meantime given over to theCarthusians who were given the honour ofconstructing the annexed convent. Limitingthe modifications and, therefore, the ex-pense, the works began again two years lat-er and were completed in 1565. Respectingthe original axis of the imposing baths build-ing and using the tepidarium as a vestibule(originally with a dome and lantern), the im-age of the new church built over the paganremains would appear as a sign of the strongreligious contents, marked by the monu-mental transept vaults held up by the eightenormous red granite columns and by thedeep rectangular choir imposed by liturgicalneeds and enlarged in the second half of the18th century.

10 thVisit

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Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Piazza della Repubblica00185 Roma • Phone 06 4880812 • 06 4820964Times of opening: every day from 7 am to 6.30 pmServices: The church has special access facilities for handicapped

people

Interior

Porta Piain the Aurelian Walls

The tract of the walls, called Aurelian after the emperor who hadthem built between 271 and 275 AD., covered the oldest repub-lican and suburban city wall like the one over the Tiber. The

structure in brickwork – with external quadrangular towers aboutevery thirty metres – extended for almost 19 kilometres along whichthe most important gates opened (some rebuilt in modern times) andminor openings (posterulae). Reinforced by Massenzio, they werecompletely rebuilt first by Honorius, who doubled the height, then byBelisarius, with added backs, like those of Sangallo. Violated by Alari-cus in 410, the tract of the walls near Porta Pia was the theatre of thehistoric “breach” into which the Italian army penetrated on 20th Sep-tember, 1870. The Museum of the Walls, in the St. Sebastian Gate,documents the story of the ancient defensive structure.

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The Aurelian Walls

Museum of the Aurelian Walls, Via di Porta San Sebastiano,1800179 Roma • Phone 06 70475284Times of opening: from tuesday to saturday from 9 am to 7 pm. Sunday

from 9 am to 5 pm. On july and on august from tuesday to sat-urday from 9 am to 1.30 pm. every mondays close

Entrance: Complete e 2,60; reduced e 1,60Services: The Museum does not have special access facilities for handicapped people

I t was called Porta Pia in honour of PiusIV who, in replacement of the ancient No-mentana Gate, imposed the opening to

connect, by way of the new urban straightstretch of the Strada Pia, the pontificalpalace of Monte Cavallo (Quirinal) to the out-of-town basilica of Sant’Agnese. The project,already drawn up in January, was almostcertainly given to Michelangelo on the 2nd

July 1561, although it had already beenstarted on some months before. The exter-nal portal, on Michelangelo’s design, wasprobably constructed by Virgilio Vespignani,author, in 1853, of the complete re-workingof the attic which had, perhaps, fallen at theend of the century, crowned by the triangu-lar pediment.

11 thVisit

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Porta Pia

The l

ife

The life of the Artist

M ichelangelo was born on the 6th March, 1475 in thesmall Tuscan village of Caprese to the podestà, Lu-dovico di Leonardo di Buonarroto Simoni and to

Francesca di Neri di Miniato del Sera. The youth, left orphanby his mother at the age of six, was introduced into the Flo-rentine artistic circle, a long way removed from the paternalactivity, in 1488, by his friend Francesco Granacci, throughwhom he gained a period of apprenticeship in DomenicoGhirlandaio’s studio. His uncommon qualities allowed him,immediately afterwards, to become part of the Medici circlein the garden at St. Mark’s and to frequent, in the MediciPalace, the elite of the humanists chosen by Lorenzo the Mag-nificent. Together with his first experiences in the field of ancient stat-uary, drawn up in the relief of the Battle between the Centaursand the Lapiths, Michelangelo cultivated his poetic passion,encouraged by scholars and philosophers. The arrival ofCharles VIII’s army in 1494 forced him to escape from the cityand take refuge in Bologna, where he completed some stat-ues for the altar of St. Dominic’s. Only during his first stay inRoma (1496 – 1501) did he succeed in getting important com-missions with the patronage of the rich banker, Jacopo Galli,the buyer of his Bacchus (Florence, Bargello Museum) andguarantor for the commission for the Vatican Pietà requestedby the ambassador to the king of France. By now famous, in Florence, his impetuous and suspiciousnature gained him his first disagreements with his more illus-trious colleagues, including Leonardo, concerning his under-takings: the David (Florence, the Academy Galleries), symbolof civic virtue, and the Battle of Cascina, the great fresco pro-ject which he left unfinished in 1504. The Tondo Doni preced-ed the grandiose Roman commissions that the newly electedJulius II gave him from 1505 on. These were the years of theinterminable project for the papal tomb that would tormenthim for 40 years and risk damaging the relations with the pon-

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Michelangelo

The life

tiff after the suddenrunning away of theartist to Florence. Itwas resolved throughthe intervention ofthe gonfalonier, PieroSoderini. Haughty andproud to the point ofsigning his youthfulmasterpiece, the Pietà,only to hear it attrib-uted to someone elseand disposed to con-front the anger of thepontiff, impatient tosee the Sistine chapel ceiling finished. He was a solitary genius and rebel, loved, but also hated byhis rivals, including Sangallo. After the important Florentineprojects for the façade of St. Lorenzo’s (unfinished), with theannexed New Sacristy, the Medici Tombs and the prodigiousarchitectonic intuition shown in the Laurentian Library,Michelangelo would be once again called to Roma to the in-terminable Vatican building site, even to start basic urban in-terventions but, above all, to finish the decoration of the Sis-tine Chapel. The religious anxiety can be seen in this work bythe artist, by now elderly - already influenced by the preach-ing of Savanarola – who materialises in the sublime “unfin-ished” of the last Pietàs. His spiritual association with VittoriaColonna dates back to those years and, even before, thefriendship with the nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri towhom he gave his designs, acquired in 1587 by the Farnesefamily. Many of them would be destroyed by Michelangelohimself before dying on the 18th February, 1564, in his Romanhouse near Santa Maria di Loreto, demolished for the con-struction of the General Assurance Building (tablet on thewall). The body, on the wishes of his nephew, was interred inthe church of the Holy Cross at Florence.

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Pietro Malandri portrait of Michelangelo

The w

orks

• Bologna, St. DominicSaints Petronio, Procolo and angel candelabra

• Bruges, Notre DameMadonna with child (Madonna di Bruges)

• Florence, Buonarotti HouseBattle between the Centaurs and the LapithsMadonna della scala

• Florence, Uffizi GalleryHoly Family with St. Giovannino (Tondo Doni) (temperaon canvass)

• Florence, Academy GalleryDavid

• Florence, Bargello National MuseumMadonna with child (Tondo Pitti)Bacchus

• Florence, St. Lorenzo, New SacristyFuneral monuments of Giuliano duke of Nemours andLorenzo de’ Medici, duke of UrbinoLaurentian Library

• London, Royal AcademyMadonna with child and St. Giovannino (Tondo Taddei)

• London, National GalleryBurial of Christ (tempera on panel)

• Milan, Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Antica (CastelloSforzesco)Rondinini Pietà

• Paris, The Louvre MuseumDying Prison and Rebel Prison

• Siena, CathedralSaints Peter, Paul, Pious and Gregory (Piccolomini Altar)

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The main works by Michelangeloin the main museums andchurches around the world