Abstract
Michelangelo's design for the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, which essentially dates from the late 1530s, articulates the functional and symbolic character of the existing building. It had two stories, with the offices of the municipal government housed in the upper one and those of the leading local guilds in the ground floor portico. The new facade reflects this distinction between political order and reason and the city's commercial life. The facade is strictly architectural; statuary is confined to the balustrade. The assertively heterodox Ionic order of the portico contrasts sharply with the Vitruvian Corinthian ordi of the upper story. Yet the hierarchical ordering of forms of human activity and of artistic idiom is deconstructed by the subtle insinuation of transgressive motifs from the lower into th upper story. The resultis a dynamic composition that expresses both Michelangelo' s artistic commitments and his response to the evolving sociopolitical environment.
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