Michelangelo’s square: the Campidoglio
The Campidoglio https://roma-bella.com/tours/rome-on-scooter/ square is Michelangelo’s masterpiece as an Architect, created just after he conclude the Last Judgement (1541) in the Sistine chapel. In the pope Paul III’s intention had to become Rome’s civic centre not only ritually but visually. The space that Michelangelo saw was informed and chaotic, still with a medieval shape.
His proposal was first to create a classic layout, symmetrical, in fact he suggested the construction of a new building, the Palazzo Nuovo,https://roma-bella.com/tours/rome-museums/ that would fulfil his purpose. This resulting new space ought to be opened as a telescope toward the “papal street” that meandering through the different neighbourhoods would arrive to the Vatican. The ramp designed was an invitation for those coming from the Rome’s XVI century centre as well as those pilgrims that from the Vatican were heading toward the civic centre.
Michelangelo’s space was conceived for the people as a dynamic space, in fact his pavement design departing from a 12 edges star would expand the space through the sequence of rhombus up to the square edges and would extol Marcus Aurelius equestrian statue.
Moreover, Michelangelo curated each detail, like the proportion of the new façades for the symmetrical buildings, recalling the ancient basilicas and the decoration of the entire space, to reinforce the architecture. Several ancient sculptures were selected accurately by Michelangelo like the two fluvial lounging figures matching with the ramps , Minerva’s sculpture as a column of the Senate entrance and the two magnificent sculptures of Castor and Polux, facing today, the Vatican, differently to Michelangelo’s conception: to flanked the people’s arrival.
