176 



MICHELANGELO 



MICHKLET 



initiated that the marble was of inferior quality, n ml 

 tU.it to c.'iivcv it to Florence roads must IK- <-nl 

 tin. mull mountains and laid upon stakes over marsh- 

 lnn.1 nml w amp. Leo X. was deaf to reason, ami 

 for eight years Michelangelo wax forced lo devote 

 himelf In toil an iille a* that of Si-\ |.!IM- ; from 

 l.'iU to 1.VJJ lii" arti-tir record is a blank. Nor 

 were tin- next years fruitful of achicvi mcut. The 

 sculptor remained in Florence still working on the 

 tomii of Julius ami building the Sacristy of SUM 

 l...r-11/.o. In l.vjs tin' WMNMMd (tate of lib native 

 i-ity turned him again from the practice of his art. 

 He devoted hiin-i'lf heart anil soul to the science 

 of fortiliration, ami when in 1529 Florence wag 

 besieged Michelangelo wan foremost in ite defence. 

 The city wa forced to surrender in the following 

 year, a"nd for some time Michelangelo, fearing 

 treachery, lay in concealment His safety, how- 

 ever, hems assured, he resumed his work upon the 

 tonila of the Medici, and OMpMld tin- monu- 

 ments to Giuliano and Lorenzo tie' Medici, which 

 are aiming the greatest of his works. In 15,'<3 yet 

 another compact was entered into concerning Pope 

 Julius's ill-fated sepulchre ; it was at last deter- 

 mined to nil uce it to a mere facade, and Michel- 

 angelo would doubtless have carried it to completion 

 had he not been once again commissioned to adorn 

 the Sistine ('Impel with frescoes. After a delay 

 of some years he liegan in 1537 to paint 'The Last 

 Judgment.' The design was finished and displayed 

 on the Christmas-day of 1541, and was the master's 

 last pictorial achievement. In the following year 

 he was appointed architect of St Peter's, nnd 

 devoted himself to the work with loyalty and 

 devotion until his death, which took place on the 

 Isth February 1564. 



Michelangelo is by far the most brilliant repre- 

 sentative of the Italian Renaissance. He was not 

 only supreme in the arts of sculpture and painting, 

 but wax learned in all the learning of his age, a poet 

 of powerful individuality, an architect and military 

 engineer. From an artistic |H>int of view his was 

 by far the greatest |M>rsonality, his the most ttotent 

 influence, the modern world had seen. His debt to 

 the antique was immense, yet it must be remem- 

 bered that he knew only the decadence of classical 

 art ; had he seen the masterpieces which have 

 since been brought to light, it is possible that his 

 style might have been largely modified. But. 

 though in the lim-t examples of his art classical 

 inlluriire is con-piciiims, he was rarely able to 

 exclude hi* personality. As he was violent in 

 his life, so there is ever a touch of violence in his 

 art. He is making, as it were, an emphatic protest 

 gainst the dark ages which lay behind him ; he 

 is discovering to the world the utmost possibilities 

 of the reawakened arts. There is generally to 

 be observed in hit work a profound learning, 

 an extraordinary knowledge of perspective and 

 foreshortening, a firm conviction that there is 

 nothing in heaven or on earth that art cannot 

 s. At beauty Michelangelo docs not aim. 

 (irandeiir, sublimity, power, these arc his them.-. 

 And hi- recur* to them again and again with 

 the persistence which characterises a man of 

 transcendent genius lloth Donatello, who came 

 before him, and Raphael among his contem- 

 poraries, were more richly endowed than he with 

 the artistic temperament. Neither the one nor the 

 other was wont to overstep the limits of art. Their 

 ambition was to attain |H-ifeetion ; they did not 

 chafe against the restraints iin|M,scd by licanty and 

 impliriiy. Hut Michelangelo, though their in 

 fi nor in art, had a far greater, if less governable, 

 genius. He was not content to model a perfect 

 statue, to paint a perfect form ; he was ever striving 

 to throw himself and his intelligence into marble 

 or on to canvas. And so, though his works will be 



ranked till the end of time among the masterpieces 

 of the world, he is neither for sculptor nor for 

 painter the moot valuable model. As an inlluence 

 lir was more |Mitent than any of his OontooiporariMf, 

 and it can hardly l>e said that his influence was 

 wholesome. The Flemish and I hitch jiainteis, 

 who visited Italy in the 16th century, carried home 

 with them his love of distorted limbs and twisted 

 drn|>eries, but failed to catch a breath of his inven- 

 tion and vigour. It is easy, even for the mediocre, 

 to parody a strongly-marked talent. 



The master's career is not without irony. Ill- 

 genius was plastic; by temperament and training 

 lie was a sculptor, and yet frescoes were the only 

 works he was destined to bring to fulfilment. He 

 has left behind him, it is true, not a few grandiose 

 statues, such as the 'Moses,' but none of his elaUi- 

 rate designs for sculptural monuments was ever 

 completed. His career, indeed, was, until he came 

 for the last time to Koine, a prolonged struggle 

 against fate and his patrons. Time after time hi-> 

 own projects were set aside at the pleasure of a 

 pope, tor this his own waywardness and excit- 

 ability were in some measure in blume, and t hrougli- 

 out Ins life he seems to have IKM>M unable to attack 

 any enterprise except at fever-heat. His sonnets, 

 the composition of which he, unlike the rest of 

 mankind, reserved for his old age, possess the same 

 qualities as his statues. Just as his 'David ' was 

 torn from the marble, so his verses are rough-hewn 

 out of the language. In all of them it is meaning 

 rather than form that ia sought after. Dr Johnson's 

 criticism of a production of Bentley's is precisely 

 applicable to them. 'They are the forcible verses 

 of a man of a strong mind, but not accustomed to 

 write verse." The best of them were inspired by 

 his friendship for the accomplished V'ittoria 

 Colonna, the widow of the Marcliese di Pescara. 

 Michelangelo's life was untouched by the passion 

 of love, and his one romance belongs to his old 

 age. He is said to have met Vittoria for the 

 (irst time in l.Vis, and until her death, which took 

 place in 1547, the closest ties of friendship bound 

 them. Her loss was the severest blow which ever 

 fell upon him. He painted her portrait, and this 

 honour he conferred on none other save Tommaso 

 Cavalieri, for whom he cherished a romantic attach- 

 ment and to whom also he addressed sonnets. 



Michelangelo's character was a strange medley of 

 conflicting qualities. Though kind and loyal to 

 those who depended on his care as is proved by 

 his untiring interest in his nephew and his devotion 

 to Urbino, his faithful servant he showed himself 

 resentful and even suspicious to his enemies. He 

 could brook no opposition to his wishes, and he 

 mercilessly attacked those who dared to withstand 

 him. But he lived in an ajge of treachery and 

 intrigue, and much may on this count lie forgiven 

 him. He loved solitude and n simple life. From 

 his earliest youth he was an eager student of litera- 

 ture, and applied himself with peculiar devotion to 

 Dante and Petrarch. Though Feared and attacked 

 by the envious among his contemporaries, he earned 

 his full meed of praise dm ing Ins lifetime, and at 

 his death universal honour was paid to his memoiy. 



See Lives by Vauri and Condivi. 'I be best edition of 

 the letter* ii Milaneii's Ltttm di Miehrl Angela ( 187:4). 

 The sonnet* have been edited by Cesare Guarti, Rimi ili 

 Mirhtlnngtlo Buonarroti (1S3), and translated into 

 English by J. A. Symonds. Of modem and critical liii>- 

 grupliics them ia no lack. The bent and moat compact 

 la that contained in Anton Springer's Kuff/id unri 

 Mir>irl,,,,rlo (2d ed. 1883): Hermann Grimm's L'>- K. 

 Mifkrlantjtlo'i (5th ed. 1879) includes much that is 

 valuable, but it is diffuse and not a little sentimental 



Mlchclet. JfLKS, a great French historian, 

 was liorn a printer's son at Paris, 21st August 1798. 

 After a brilliant course of study under Villemain 



