like a beast ready to spring.[96] The lofty serenity of the dome of St.
Peter's is almost unique in the work of Michelangelo. He had lived so
long with the thoughts of Raphael and Bramante that at last their smile
was reflected in his work.[97]

Besides this great masterpiece other architectural works filled the end
of his life--the rebuilding of the Capitol, the Porta Pia, S. Maria
degli Angeli and S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini.

It was in 1548 that Michelangelo presided over the erection of the
statue of Marcus Aurelius in the square before the Capitol, but his
first sketch for the palaces were no earlier than 1546, and when he died
the buildings were far from finished.

He never saw the stairway or the colonnades. An engraving of Perac's
executed in 1559 after Michelangelo's own drawings, "ex ipso exemplari
Michaelis Bonaroti," and reproduced in the _Speculum Romanie
Magnificentiae_ of Lafreri, show exactly what his plan was and take from
him all blame for the incoherencies and vulgarities put into the
execution after his death. The beautiful double staircase of the
Senatorial Palace and the fountain with the river gods is all his own;
but he had meant to put a colonnade crowned by pilasters at the top of
the stairway, the windows of the upper story should have been higher and
the campanile crenellated.[98] The Porta Pia was at the end of a long
street which ran from the Monte Cavallo.[99] Michelangelo made three
designs for it in 1561, of which Pius IV chose the most reasonable,
according to Vasari. This was more to the credit of the pope than the
artist, for the plan which was carried out shows, with a few remnants of
massive and imperious power, a complete lack of good taste.

He also worked in 1560-1561 at the transformation of the great hall in
the baths of Diocletian into the church of S. Maria degli Angeli, but it
is almost impossible to judge this now, for his work was entirely
changed and disfigured in 1746 by Vanvitelli.

He was no more fortunate with the Church of S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini
at Rome, which was another of his great projects, undertaken with
enthusiasm and ending in nothing. S. Giovanni had been begun under Leo X
by Jacopo Sansovino. Antonio da San Gallo had worked on it later and had
made a model of the church, and then the construction had been
abandoned. In 1550, at the suggestion of Bindo Altoviti, Michelangelo
determined to consecrate himself to this work and had almost persuaded
Juli