Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in good condition. Some tanning and marking due to age. 2 blank cover pages have some marking otherwise the page faces are great for the age of the book. No notes or highlighting. Lovely example of this book. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Giuliano della Rovere was elected supreme Pontiff in Octo- ber 1503 on the death of Pius III. The pontificate of Julius II famous in history is equally if not more so in the annals of art. He loved it and distinguished artists with his favour and per- sonal friendship. He was gifted with imagination and his pro- jeets in art like those of his policy were characterised by dar ing and grandeur of idea. He strove to expel the barbarians from Italy and he planned the new church of St Peter com- missioned the painting of the vault of the Sixtine by Michel- angelo and of the Stanze of the Vatican by Raffael and on his monument sits the statue of Moses which he ordered and which is incomparably the greatest work of modern sculpture. The invitation of Julius to Michelangelo to visit him in Rome was an event of singular importance in the artist’s life; so much so that a vivid curiosity is aroused as to the nature of the mo- tives which induced him to accept it. The bald narratives of Vasari and Condivi do not satisfy this curiosity; they evi- dently both err as to the date of his leaving Florence which Michelangelo himself had forgotten when in 1542 he wrote in the first year of the election of Julius who commissioned the sepulchre I remained eight months at Carrara Now this took place not in 1503 when Julius was elected but in 1505. (MP)