L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 4 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE FRANCESCA BEZZONE I n her 2770 years of life, Rome has been home to rivalries, betrayals, creative crises and forbidden loves. To mercenaries who turned into holy defenders and unfinished tombs that turned into iconic monuments. To popes who had more lovers than Casanova, whose faces are today known to us because portrayed in works of art all over the city. To architects fighting against each other to gain the medal of true father of Renaissance Rome and many other little known, curious events and people, who may not always make it on popular tourist guides and itineraries. This is the first article in a short series dedi- cated to lesser known anecdotes, institutions and people of Rome, an homage to the city and hope- fully a stimulating read for all those who wish to get to know the Città Eterna more intimately. "La mia splendida tragedia" : Michelangelo, Julius II and the Moses Julius II's relationship with Michelangelo is the stuff of nov- els: strong willed - not to say stubborn - both, and used to get things done their way, the two often were at loggerheads with each other. Legends say that when an exasperated Julius II asked the artist when he was to finally finish the frescoing of the Sistine Chapel, at the impertinent answer "whenever I'll have the time for it" Julius reacted by hit- ting him several times with his walking stick. Real or not, the anecdote says a lot about the dynamics of their relationship, which had started in 1505, when the Pope commissioned to Michelangelo the design and real- isation of his monumental tomb, to be placed in Saint Peter's. You will not find it there, though, because things did not go as expected. Commissioned in 1505, it was meant to mirror the greatness of Julius II, well matched by Michelangelo's own majestic, luxurious style, but you see, della Rovere was a volcano of ideas and also a tad supersti- tious: "working on my tomb will lead me to it earlier", he apparent- ly said, so he decided to turn his attention, and fundings, to the frescoing of the Sistine Chapel. When the decision was taken, Michelangelo was in Tuscany sourcing the marble necessary for the tomb's sculptures, which was supposed to originally include 40 larger than life statues: you can imagine his surprise when Julius II told he had lost interest. A furi- ous Michelangelo packed his things and went back to Tuscany and for two years he had refused to consider the Pope's offers to come back and work on the Sistine Chapel. When he eventually did, in 1508, he spent the good part of 4 years eyes up to the ceiling paint- ing, with little or no time to dedi- cate, even in thought, to Julius's mausoleum. Point is that della Rovere died in 1513: and he had no tomb. His family almost immediately asked Michelangelo to bring the project to an end, but that was not to happen for another 30 years. It took three popes, a Last Judgement and several diplo- matic and political turmoils to write the words "the end" on the project, which reached comple- tion in a much smaller scale than originally thought. Only 17 of the 40 statues were realised and, whereas his owner is, indeed, buried in Saint Peter's basilica, the tomb does not rest upon his mortal remains, but in San Pietro in Vincoli. One of those 17 statues is Michelangelo's Moses: the breathtaking, god-like, magnifi- cent Moses, the statue with a soul that his own creator defined his own marvelous tragedy. Why? Because all in all it took him 40 years to complete it. "Why don't you speak to me?" the artist is said to have uttered while look- ing at his finished creation. And you really wonder, when on front of it, why indeed this precious, elegant stone giant does not move: it is so beautiful, you get to think, there must be blood run- ning in those veins. Vasari, Italy's first art histori- an, wrote the Moses' own beard was so masterfully sculptured to seem more the work of a painting brush than a scalpel. Michelangelo even managed to turn his head around after he sculpted it facing forward: now, if that is not sign of being a mas- ter, I do not know what it is. All true, all real: Moses is still there to bear witness to the talent of his creator and inspire us with higher thoughts, as it happened in 1914 to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, who dedicated to the statue a famous essay. See it at: San Pietro in Vincoli, Piazza San Pietro in Vincoli. The Swiss come to Rome Julius II is at it again: the energetic and apparently tem- peramental man we can thank for part of the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's own "marvelous tragedy," is also behind the cre- ation and officialisation of one of Rome's most popular institutions, the Swiss Guards. Officially called the Guardia Svizzera Pontificia (the Pontifical Swiss Guards), this - today - small army of 110 has a history dating back to the Renaissance. Since the late 15th century, Swiss soldiers had been known for their prowess in battle and for the fact they were, well, mercenaries: they fought for money, that is. Appreciated a bit everywhere in Europe for their skills, pope Sixtus IV was the first to think about them to support his army. However, it was, again alas, Julius II, who officially wel- comed captain Kaspar von Silenen and his 150 soldiers to Rome for the first time: his very own bodyguard contingent. The Swiss Guards participated to sev- eral military events, first of them all 1527's Sack of Rome, throughout the history of the Papal State: contrarily to what happened for the Papal Army, the Swiss Guards contingent was not dismantled, but maintained as the pontifex's personal guard even after Rome became part of the Kingdom of Italy. With the signing of the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, the Swiss Guards became the official army of the Vatican State, although their main duty remains, still today, that of pro- tecting the figure of the Pope, in the Vatican and around the world. Its ethics symbolised by the motto acriter et fideliter, with courage and faith, the corp is formed today by 110 men, 78 guards and 32 officers. All of them have to be men, Swiss and Catholic, aged between 18 and 30 and taller than 174 cm. Only officials can be married. Some curious information can be found around about their col- orful uniform: a well known leg- end tells the blue, red, and dark yellow combo was ideated by Michelangelo himself, probably because of the Renaissance-like allure of it and because the artist was, indeed, in Rome in the years the Swiss Guards reached it. However, the Guards' current uniform is a much more recent affair, as it was designed at the beginning of the 20th century by commander Jules Repond, who based his creation on the Guards' historical garments and …. Raffaello's, not Michelangelo's, paintings. Julius II is honored in the uniform: the colors of his coat of arms, blue and yellow, are part of it, and part of it is also repro- duced on the helmet. An ancient, élite army: think of it next time you see them crossing their spears in front of you, when mistakenly try to enter an area of Piazza San Pietro tourists are not allowed into. See them, of course in Piazza San Pietro. Pope Julius II ordering Bramante, Michelangelo & Raphael to construct the Vatican & St Peter's, 1827 by Horace Vernet (1789-1863). Paris, Musée Du Louvre The Eternal Enchantment of the Eternal City: Stories, People and Mysteries of Rome (Part I) From the Vatican vaults: Michelangelo's "marvelous tragedy" and the world's smallest army

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