The providential nature of Catholicism and the re-affirmation of papal supremacy against conciliar challenge find their fullest and most extraordinary expression in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. But with a twist: they were lashed to the tomb as slaves and captives, literally constrained by the death of their great patron. Ascanio Condivi, a contemporary and biographer of Michelangelo, wrote that the tomb was to be decorated with sculpted figures personifying the liberal arts. If completed to Michelangelo’s designs, this colossal freestanding monument would have been a dominant feature of St Peter’s. These are inescapable in the so-called “Julius Tomb” commission given to Michelangelo by Julius. Personal glory and mythology were undeniable motivations. Once finished, it was the central artistic achievement of the Roman Renaissance, and Julius was the decisive initial patron. Bramante declared that he wanted to place the dome of the Pantheon over the Baths of Caracalla. The rebuilding of St Peter’s was intended to be a statement about the place of Julius’s papacy in the course of universal history. It drew on imperial ruins such as those of the ancient Hippodrome of the Palatine and, for the new bank of loggias, the Septizodium on the Palatine. The design references and reinterprets cultural and architectural forms not seen inRome since Antiquity and thus created new forms to be emulated: it was to house the first architectural garden, the first permanent theatre and the first museum since that time. His 1503 commission for the Cortile del Belvedere was the most ambitious architectural undertaking since Antiquity. In Bramante Julius found an architect to give form to his architectural visions. If, as many believe, this was the greatest constellation of artists ever to work for one patron at the same time, then, as art historian Howard Hibbard memorably wrote some 40 years ago, we must indeed “hail Julius as the most perspicacious as well as the most fortunate patron the world has ever known”. It was designed by Bramante, the vault was painted by Pinturicchio, the tombs were carved by Andrea Sansovino and the stained glass was made by French artist Guillaume de Marcillat. If we close our eyes to these most famous commissions for a moment and look only at the apse of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, we really do begin to appreciate the point. All three of these artists responded to the energy and agenda – the challenge – of Julius. These works are keystones in the history of art. From this triumvirate Julius commissioned the Belvedere, the so-called “Julius Tomb”, the beginnings of the new St Peter’s, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Vatican Stanze. His legacy is forever entwined with that of three artistic geniuses: Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphael. Julius the general founded the Swiss Guards, but Julius the benefactor commissioned Michelangelo to design their uniforms. Contemporaries saw it and Vasari called him “a patron of genius”. Is this a controversial view? It shouldn’t be it certainly isn’t a new one. It is almost unthinkable to imagine the patrimony of the Church without Julius. It is his staggeringly ambitious and successful patronage of art and architecture which most often touches our lives today. He was one of the most important patrons in the history of European art. It was Julius who issued the dispensation allowing the future Henry VIII to marry Catherine of Aragon.īut are the political and military events of his reign why Julius is most interesting to us today, or should we perhaps look elsewhere for his lasting legacy? Surely it is his contribution to the art of the High Renaissance which endures. As one Venetian ambassador is said to have remarked, Julius believed himself “lord and master of the world’s game”. There were great victories and hard losses. He was a formidable man of action, riding at the head of his armies and leading troops into battle. Julius’s pontificate is well known for its domestic, foreign policy and military achievements, and for its consolidation of papal power. It could do so again with Julius, the successor of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). The television channel Showtime had a huge hit in 2011-2013 with its series The Borgias. This is with good reason: his pontificate, which lasted from 1503 to 1513, was an action-packed and often terrifying Renaissance blockbuster. Pope Julius II, born Giuliano della Rovere, has come down to us as “the Warrior Pope”.
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