My name is Jacopo Galli. I currently live in Rome in an isola, also known as a a block of adjoining houses on
a corner which looks out across the piazza where San Lorenzo in Damazo stands (Spike 1). The streets
around where I live are full of stalls and passersby and the interior holds a path of grassy ground, and any
number of alcoves and stables that could accommodate a sculpture who wished to chisel stone any time he
wished, be it day or night (Spike 2). I am one of the bankers to the Riario family, a well-known family here
in Rome and in Genoa. Rome, Florence and many other of the prominent cities have flourished greatly due
to this current period that many people refer to as the “Renaissance”. The Medici family currently has the
greatest amount of power in Florence, this is due to their creation of the Medici bank, as well as many other
political ties they have. Many artists have begun to humanize religious subject, even more so then
previously, while also mixing in classical thoughts. While also being an important banker, I am also close
friends with the well-known artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (Symonds 1), as well as one of his patrons
(Snaije 1).
He was born on March 6th 1475, in Caprese, a village where his father had been serving as a Florentine
government agent (Encyclopedia of World Biography 1). From what he was told me, his mother passed
away when he was about six years old, though he does remember what he could of her fondly. His father
being a distant cousin of Maecenas Lorenzo de'Medici was what allowed him to spend two years in the
Medici household, where he received the beginnings of a humanistic education (Europe 1). After some
schooling when he was about thirteen he become the apprentice of Domenico Ghrilandaio, one of the most
fashionable painters in Florence (Encyclopedia of World Biography 2). His first sculpture would come to
when he was around the age of seventeen, which was a stone relief (Encyclopedia of World Biography 3).
This would help fuel what he calls his life passion, sculpting. For Michelangelo believes that sculpting is one
of the finest and hardest arts to be, quickly throwing away painting as “something that he simply does not
do”. He did tell me once that his father and step-mother greatly disapprove of his want to be an artist and
thus believed that he should have aspired to a more elevated profession, to political office, and to a socially
advantageous marriage (Europe 2). The tension between his father and his fundamentally manual
profession occasionally caused Michelangelo to experience doubt about his art and to encounter conflict
with his patrons. (Europe 3).
He arrived in Rome on the 25th of June in the year 1496 at the age of 21(Snaije 2). He has told me that
this was due to tedious affairs, as he puts it, concerning the Medici family and their expulsion, the attempt
to set up a theocratic dictatorship under Savonarola (Peter & Linda Murray 1), as well as the an invitation
from Cardinal San Giorgio, whom he stayed with for almost a year(Vasari 1). Upon hearing of this young
artist who had recently moved here I quickly recognized his talent and commissioned a life sized Cupid and
following that a Bacchus holding a cup in his right hand, and in his left a tiger's skin along with a cluster of
grapes, which a little satyr is trying to eat. (Vasari 2). The Bacchus currently resides in my garden, a show
of my pleasure with the outcome of this particularly piece. From that moment we continually had encounters
with each other, talking in my garden about various things.
I am proud to say that I personally helped him acquire a very important commission from the Cardinal Jean
De Billheres for a sculpture of a Pieta for his tomb, which was the Chapel of Old Saint Peter's. (Kleiner 1).
While not any people know much about Cardinal Jean De Billheres, what we do know is that he is the Abbot
of Saint-Denis and bishop of Lombes and that the he had become the French king's envoy to the pope(Bull
1). This sculpture is one of his most meticulously finished sculptures. (Murray 1). One of the deciding
factors of the Cardinal choosing Michelangelo to create this sculpture that was to be placed within his tomb
was the Cardinal's interest in the Bacchus that I had commissioned. I helped them draw up a contract on
August 26 1498 which states: “Let it be known and manifest to whoso shall read the ensuing document,
that the most Rev. Cardinal of S. Dionigi has thus agreed with the master Michelangelo, sculptor of
Florence, to wit, that the said master shall make a Pieta of marble at his own cost; that is to say, a Virgin
Mary clothed, with the dead Christ in her arms, of the size of a proper man, for the price of 450 golden
ducats of the Papal mint, within the term of one year from the day of the commencement of the
work”(Symonds 2). A year before I had drawn up this contract the Cardinal wrote to the officials of the
small republican city-state of Lucca asking them to assist Michelangelo in obtaining the perfect block of
marble for this piece(Bull 2). In November of that year Michelangelo went to Carrara to search for the
marble and came back with a block he deemed suitable. (Bull 3). While he did promise to complete the
sculpture within one year, it took him exactly two years to complete the piece. Though sad as it is the
Cardinal had passed away long before he had the chance to see it's completion. (Bull 4). Because of this it
ended up Saint Peter's Basilica, it was in many other locations before it finally reached there to stay for
good.
It is not to say that it took him this long to complete it to due the fact that he was not working on it, in fact
he worked on it everyday. He drew out meticulous sketches and tried to make sure that this was one of his
most detailed sculptures. He did take on an assistant about his ago a year prior to this piece being
commissioned. (Spike 3), there is not much to talk about this young man. It seems though that he was no
longer his assistant by the time the Pieta was asked to be made. Michelangelo was very eager to begin this
piece at once. Throughout the time that he worked on this piece I watched as he sculptured amazing detail,
which incorporated the styles of Greek and Roman statues, and worked very hard to complete this and
make it as perfect as he could. I watched him daily working in my workshop painstakingly on what is now
one of his most monumental sculptures made while he was here in Rome. The whole piece in itself looks
not that of marble but of actually flesh, that if one were to go up to it and touch it, it would be hard like the
material it is made out of suggest but soft like the way it appears. The lines carved into the marble give the
clothing they are both wearing, Christ less than marry, the sense and depth of actually folds in normal
clothing, something many artists try to obtain. Not only did he use a chisel to create this piece but he was
also still using a drill, which this piece shows heavily in many places(Bull 5). With his technique
Michelangelo was able to create a type of shading known as chiaroscuro in the statue giving it more life like
characteristics. The figure of Mary looks quite younger than that of Christ laying dead in her arms, which
represents her to the world the virginity of perpetual purity she has as the mother of Christ. (Snaije 3).
Christ in her lap though lacks this youthfulness about him which in order to show that the Son of God truly
assumed human form he was submitted to all that an ordinary man undergoes, save for Sin. (Snaije 4). The
gesture of the Virgin's hand is made in an Exposition of the Body of Christ rather than a lament, and at the
same time, Michelangelo was able to relate the two figures in such a way that the disparity of the size was
not apparent.(Peter & Linda Murray 2). With this piece he transformed marble from a hard material into
flesh, hair and fabric with a sensitivity for texture that no one so far has been able to achieve.(Kleiner 2).
There is barely any negative space between Christ's body and Mary's, which helps exemplify Michelangelo's
knowledge in knowing how to place the forms without overlapping them or foreshortening them without
obscuring. (Renaissance Quarterly 1). The lack of negative space also makes them appear as an abstract
symbol; Mary does not turn towards Christ in order to cradle his head with tenderness but instead holds
one of his dead hands in her living one, which may seem to show her reluctance to relinquish physical hold
of Christ's body. (Renaissance Quarterly 2). Christ's body has an inescapable beauty with no signs marring
its surface, except for the slight signs of the stigmata, which are seemingly bloodless, while Mary's face is
tearful but holds no actual tears. Previous Pietas' were seen as focused on grief of the Virgin Mary,
Michelangelo altered the meaning by giving Mary a serene expression and restrained hand gestures which
suggests her acceptance of a divinely ordered destiny.(Snaije 5). This piece is an unsurpassed expression
of the resigned acceptance of suffering, of the acquiescence of the divine will in the sacrifice, of God's
surrender of himself to be martyred by man. (Murray 2).
After completing this piece, which became his most famous and life-changing piece, he moved back to
Florence. This piece gave Michelangelo the start to a wonderful and famous career that I am sure he will
enjoy to it's fullest. He continues to send me various letters, the most recent one tells me of how he was
commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, though he says he would much rather sculpt than have to
do such a tedious task, wishing that they would allow this young artist by the name of Raphael to complete
the Sistine Chapel ceiling instead