Florentine territories, and putting all into good and serviceable order.
By the favour and assistance of Pope Julius, the House of Medici was subsequently reinstated in the government of Florence, from which that family had been expelled on the incursion made into Italy by Charles YIII., king of France. Piero Soderini was then compelled to abandon the palace, but the Medici did not fail to acknowledge the services which Giuliano and Antonio had rendered in earlier times to their illustrious house, and when, on the death of Pope Julius, Giovanni, cardinal de’ Medici, ascended the papal throne, Giuliano was induced once again to visit Rome.
No long time after the arrival of the latter in that city, the architect Bramante died, when the Pope resolved to entrust the building of San Pietro to Giuliano >;[1] but worn by his many labours, oppressed by the weight of years, and suffering cruel torments from internal disease, the Florentine architect declined that charge, which was then made over to the most graceful Raffaello da Urbino,[2] and Giuliano returned by permission of his Holiness, to Florence.[3] Two years later Giuliano da San Gallo, grievously oppressed by the force of his malady, also died at the age of seventy-four, and in the year 1517, leaving his name to the world, his body to the earth, and his soul to God, who gave it.
The departure of Giuliano, left his brother Antonio, who loved him tenderly, in the deepest grief, as it also did a son named Francesco; the latter already engaged in the study of sculpture, although he was then very young. This Francesco
- ↑ Platner and Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., affirm Giuliano to have been appointed architect of St. Peter’s before the death of Bramante, but that event must have taken place very shortly after. —See Fea, Notizie intorno a Raffaello Sanzio, who also considers Giuliano to have received the appointment during the life of Bramante.
- ↑ Associated with the architect, Fra Giocondo, who continued in office from February, 1514, to March, 1518. Raphael received his appointment in April, 1514, and in August of the same year, after having presented his model, he appears to have been appointed first architect, and so placed over his associate in the work.— See the Notizie and Beschreibung as cited above.
- ↑ According to the documents extracted by Fea from the books of the works at St. Peter’s, Giuliano retained his appointment about a year and a half, to the 1st July, 1515, namely.
