Cupola of St. Peter's.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 13

Cupola of St. Peter's.

The greatest of the architectural enterprises Michael Angelo was called upon to take up was the completing of St. Peter's, and he devoted himself through pure obedience to this task, refusing all compensation, offering his unpaid services in that way both to his master and to the service of religion.

Ho had to struggle against the opposing ideas of the architects in charge of the Monument, who held by later plans than those of the first deviser, and their enmity and misapprehension of what was best aimed at a continual thwarting of all his intentions. He managed, however, to bring back the building to its original plan, that of his greatest enemy, Bramante, upon whom he has left this noble judgment. 'It cannot be denied,' said he, ' that Bramante laid the first plan of St. Peter's clear and simple, and all tyho have departed from this scheme have departed from the truth. We have not the great Cathedral as Michael wished i/t, nor can we see in it the creation of his genius. But the one thing that Michael Angelo left to his successors in the work is the cupola, whose outline remains as an unparalleled idea, as an important landmark in architecture as his other records of achievement in painting and sculpure. It is the mark of Home and the expression of Rome's grandeur.