Florence.[1] On the 23rd his sentence of banishment was annulled by the Seigniory, but it was decided that the Grand Council should be closed to him for three years.[2]
Henceforth Michael Angelo did his duty bravely. He went back to his post at San Miniato, which the enemy had been bombarding for a month. He again fortified the hill, invented new engines of war, and, it is said, saved the "Campanile" by protecting it with bales of wool and mattresses suspended by cords.[3] The last trace which we have of his activity during the siege is a piece of news of February 22, 1530, which describes him climbing on to the dome of the Cathedral, either to observe the movements of the enemy or to inspect the condition of the cupola.
However, the misfortunes which he had foreseen occurred. On August 2, 1530, Malatesta Baglione betrayed the city. Florence capitulated on the twelfth, and the Emperor handed it over to the papal commissary, Baccio Valori. Then the executions began. In the
- ↑ Four days before, his allowance had been suppressed by the Seigniory.
- ↑ According to a letter from Michael Angelo to Sebastiano del Piombo he had also to pay a fine of 1500 ducats to the Commune.
- ↑ "When the Pope Clement and the Spaniards besieged Florence," related Michael Angelo to Francis of Holland, "the enemy were long arrested by the machines which I had constructed on the towers. One night I covered the exterior of the walls with sacks of wool; on another, I had trenches dug and filled with powder to burn the Castilians. I had their torn members blown into the air … There, that is what painting is good for! It is good for machines and instruments of war; it is good for giving bombardes and arquebuses a convenient form; it is good for building bridges and ladders; it is especially good for the plans and proportions of fortresses, bastions, trenches, mines, and countermines …" (Francis of Holland's "Dialogue on Painting in the City of Rome." Third part, 1549.)
