Michelangelo's Marble Troubles

While the Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti painted some of the most famous frescoes in art history —the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and The Last Judgment on the Chapel's altar wall— he considered himself first and foremost a sculptor. During his lifetime, he created around 40 sculptures, with two of his best-known works, the Pietà (1498–1499) and David (1501-1504), completed before he even reached the age of 30.

The marble that Michelangelo used for some of his most famous work was sourced from the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. In 1497, he travelled to the town of Carrara for the first time to select marble for his Pietà. The high-quality white marble found in the quarries near Carrara remained his preferred material throughout his artistic career, although he also used marble from other quarries, particularly those near the town of Seravezza.

It was from the quarries near Seravezza that Michelangelo sourced marble between 1516 and 1520, after being commissioned by Pope Leo X to design the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. The project was both ambitious and technically challenging, as the entire façade of San Lorenzo was to be constructed in marble, including a dozen massive columns. During the years he worked on the project, Michelangelo personally travelled to the quarries numerous times— not only to select and inspect the marble, but also to supervise its difficult extraction and oversee its transport to Florence.

To cut the large blocks of marble from the mountainside and lower them down the mountain, Michelangelo relied on stonecutters and other workmen. Much to his frustration, however, he often had difficulties hiring skilled workers. Many of the men lacked experience in quarrying marble, which resulted in multiple accidents, sometimes even with fatal consequences. In addition, the workers were not always reliable, delivering poor-quality work and then abandoning the job prematurely, yet still taking their pay.

In the following two letters, Michelangelo discusses some of the problems he was facing while working on the San Lorenzo façade project. In the first letter to his brother Buonarroto, he expresses his frustration with workers who left the job, fearing they might damage his reputation. Eight months later, he wrote to his assistant Pietro Urbano, describing an accident involving a massive column as it was being lowered down the mountain; the metal used to hold the column was far from solid and had been supplied by a blacksmith hired by Donato, one of Michelangelo's other assistants. While Michelangelo was a perfectionist, he obviously couldn't do everything himself. These letters show his dependence on others and the frustration and annoyance it provoked.

[August, 1518]
Buonarroto,— Only two of the stone-cutters who came here, Meo and Ciecone still remain: the others came and then went away. When they arrived I gave them four ducats, and I promised to keep them supplied with money for the means of subsistence so that they might be able to do all I wanted. They worked only for a few days, in a halfhearted manner, with the result that that scoundrel of a Rubechio nearly spoiled a column I have excavated. But I am still more annoyed that they should come there [to Florence] and give both me and the quarries a bad name, in order to clear their own reputation; for if I should require workmen later on I shall not be able to get them. I wish at least, seeing they have cheated me, that they would keep their mouths shut. Therefore I ask thee to make them keep silence by holding some threat over their heads; threaten them with Iacopo Salviati, or anything that is likely to be effective, for these greedy knaves are doing great harm to the work and to me.
MICHELAGNIOLO,
in Seraveza.

[April 20th, 1519]
PIETRO, — Matters have gone exceedingly ill. This morning — Saturday — I was about to lower a column with the utmost care, and had provided for every emergency: but when I had let it down about fifty braccia one of the rings of the lewis bolt holding the column gave way, with the result that it fell into the river and broke into a hundred pieces. Donato had entrusted the making of the ring in question to the smith Lazzero, a friend of his; and as to its being sufficiently strong, to judge from external appearances it seemed strong enough to lift four columns, as it undoubtedly would have been if it had been properly made. But when it broke the rascally trick played upon us became apparent, for the ring was nowhere solid, and there was not so much metal in it as would have sufficed in thickness for the ring of a knife handle, so that I marvel it held so long as it did. All who were on the spot had the narrowest of escapes from death, and a magnificent block of stone is ruined. I left the ordering of this tackle to Donato during the Carnival, telling him to go to the blacksmiths and see that all the metal used was good and sound: thou seest how he has behaved to me. Then too the blocks of every one of the pulleys he had made for me cracked at the ring while the column was being lowered and are already on the point of giving way : yet they are twice the size of those used at Santa Maria del Fiore, so that if they had been made of sound metal they would have borne any load. But the iron used was crude and defective, and could not possibly have been worse. All this has come about because Donato wished to oblige his own friend, and left him to select the metal, serving me as thou seest. One must have patience. I shall be back for the feste [Easter], and if it please God shall begin work. Salute Francesco Scarfi in my name. The 20th day of April.
MICHELAGNIOLO,
in Seravezza.

In 1520, the San Lorenzo façade project was abandoned. Michelangelo had spent years designing it, organising the quarrying of marble blocks and columns, and overseeing the construction of roads to transport the marble. The Pope's loss of interest in the project and financial difficulties were among the main reasons for the project's cancellation. Michelangelo was deeply disappointed, and the failure of the project is often cited as the low point of his career. Some of the marble blocks that were quarried and transported to Florence for the San Lorenzo façade were later used by Michelangelo for other works.