Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Paul III, designs…
1538 CE
Michelangelo, commissioned by Pope Paul III, designs the Campidoglio, the plaza and its rebuilt classical structures atop the Capitoline Hill, on which construction begins in 1538.
The gigantic, two-story Corinthian order of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline is an idiosyncratic reordering of the Renaissance architectural vocabulary around outsize and overwhelmingly powerful elements.
Ignatius Loyola and his six associates, including Francis Xavier, had received ordination in 1537.
The group wishes to work in the Holy Land, but Europe's wars with Ottoman Turkey make this impossible.
As an alternative, they had decided to offer their services to the pope.
Paul III accepts the offer of missionary service; Ignatius draws up the rule of life for a new religious order in 1538.