it
necessary to pull down to the ground the Capella Paolina, the offices of
the Piombo and the Ruota, and more besides; nay, even the Sistine Chapel
would, I believe, not escape." May it not have been that this malicious
arrangement of Sangailo's to destroy Michael Angelo's masterpieces made
the great artist so bitter against him.

Paul III. conferred the post of architect-in-chief at St. Peter's upon
Michael Angelo on January 1, 1547, "commissary, prefect, surveyor of the
works, and architect, with full authority to change the model, form, and
structure of the church at pleasure, and to dismiss and remove the workmen
and foremen employed upon the same." For all this work Michael Angelo
refused payment, declaring that he meant to labour, without recompense,
for the love of God and the reverence he felt for the Prince of the
Apostles. Speaking broadly, the former architects had designed ground
plans of St. Peter's on two lines, the Greek and the Latin crosses.
Bramante, and Baldassare Peruzzi used the Greek cross; Raphael, the
Basilica form, the addition of a long nave made the plan like a Latin
cross; and Sangallo, by adding a huge portico to Peruzzi's design, made
his ground plan a Latin cross. Michael Angelo followed the lines of
Bramante, the Greek cross, designed so that the cupola should be the
dominant note of the building and its principal feature, whether from
within or without, and from whichever side the building was approached.
Michael Angelo's intention may be realised at the back of the present
building, and his work best judged as one walks round the great mass of
masonry to the old entrance to the Sculpture Galleries of the Vatican.
Those who approach Rome in the best way at present open to the newcomer,
by the light railway line from Viterbo, get a magnificent view of the
cupola, apparently rising out of a green hillside, just before they enter
the Eternal City, and then, on their way to the Trastevere station, they
pass behind the building and get their first impression of St. Peter's
from Michael Angelo's own work.(160)

Michael Angelo began his work by pulling down much of Sangallo's
construction, and by severely repressing all sorts of jobbery in
connection with the supply of materials.

Michael Angelo states in a letter to Cardinal Ridolfo Pio of Carpi,(161)
that the study of the nude human figure is necessary to an architect. If
he had also stated that it was an essential to all art workers,