Michelangelo in Bologna

L’Arca di San Domenico

In a March 2013 posting about Florence, I mentioned my “ongoing, lifelong, never-ending Michelangelo appreciation tour”…. and this visit to Bologna clearly offered an opportunity for further study. Michelangelo spent two periods in the city: the first a year-long stint (beginning in 1494) when he was only nineteen years old, and a second similar time span about ten years later.

Scholars have closely studied Michelangelo’s life and works, and have looked to see who held early influence…. and one obvious artist was Niccolo dell’Arca. I’ve already mentioned his Mary Magdalene in the nearby Compianto (see four postings below), and his very name today recognizes his contributions to one of Bologna’s artistic masterpieces: L’Arca di San Domenico.

This is a reliquary holding the remains of St. Dominic in the Basilica of his name, and Michelangelo created three sculptures for that stunning work of religious art: an angel, St. Petronius, and St. Proculus. Michelangelo’s angel on the right hand side of the L’Arca is opposite Niccolo dell’Arca’s (previous) work on the left, and comparisons are inevitable. Both have comparable soft drapery and a solid forward footing (none of these features seen on Michelangelo’s previous works), although there is also much focus on their differences (i.e., the gravitas of the Michelangelo version versus the delicacy of the Niccolo one…. although the latter might even have “contributed to the hair of the Christ or the face of the Virgin in Michelangelo’s Pietà,” according to one critic). It has also been suggested that the St. Proculus sculpture exhibits the same frown and concentration as St. John in Niccolo’s Compianto, and others see a forerunner of David’s penetrating gaze in these works.

Two angels: Niccolo’s on the left, Michelangelo’s on right.

There are many other Bologna influences as well – for example, St. Petronius is the patron saint of Bologna, a bishop who died approximately 450 CE. Michelangelo’s sculpture clearly pays homage to a decades earlier work by Jacopo della Querci on the doorway of the city’s main basilica, similarly holding the city of Bologna in his hands.

Michelangelo’s second visit to Bologna ten years later was made to obtain a pardon from the “Warrior Pope,” Julius II, the same pope who built the fortress pictured three postings below. Michelangelo had a tempestuous but also productive relationship with the Pope, resulting in such works as the Sistine Chapel and the Moses sculpture on Julius’s tomb. In Bologna, Julius II commissioned a bronze statue of himself to celebrate his victory in the city. According to one story, Michelangelo showed a sketch of the proposed statue to the Pope, showing one hand raised in blessing, and asking: “What should I do with the other one, Holy Father? Put a book there?” The Pope’s response: “A sword. I don’t know anything about books.”

Sts. Proculus and Petronius

Michelangelo finished the bronze statue, which was displayed in the city in 1508 – but it only lasted three years. It was destroyed the same year as the fort, and melted down by the Pope’s enemies to make a cannon.