MICHELER 



539O 



MICHELHAM 



Michelangelo. Tomb of Giuliano tie' Medici, who is 

 represented as a general of the Church. On the sarco- 

 phagus are figures of Day and Night. The monument 

 inspired Swinburne's sonnet, In San Lorenzo 



Church of S. Lorenzo, Florence 



who was so greatly to influence his 

 life Vittoria Colonna, the first 

 woman of the age, the inconsolable 

 widow of the Marquis of Pescara, 

 was at forty-two to arouse a 

 strange platonic passion in him. 



In 1545, at 70, Michelangelo 

 completed his much modified 

 design of the huge Julian Tomb. 

 The following year, Pope Paul III 

 made him architect to complete 

 the great church of S. Peter that 

 Bramante had planned for Pope 

 Julius II. On the morrow of his 

 taking up the huge task, his ro- 

 mantic friendship with Vittoria 

 Colonna ended with her death. 



Family griefs fell fast, but his 

 devotion to his kin bore rich fruit 

 in his old age. Wealthy, frugal of 

 habit, he poured forth vast designs. 

 Sleeping little, working at night, a 

 candle in his cap, at his sculpture, 

 he lived hi lonely communion with 

 his own soul. But his vigorous 

 old body could not resist the severe 

 chill which took him to his arm- 

 chair, where he died a little before 

 five of the clock in the afternoon of 

 Feb. 18, 1564. Michelangelo, with 

 colossal gifts, uttered his age like 

 the giant he was. He claimed to 

 be a sculptor alone, yet as poet, 

 painter, and architect he reached 



to vast re- 

 p u t e he 

 signed his 

 immortal 

 paintings in 

 the Sis tine 

 chapel as 

 M i chelangelo, 

 sculptor. He 

 stands forth 

 rugged, stern, 

 honest, un- 

 compromising, 

 virile, as the 

 mighty seer of 

 the Renais- 

 s a n c e, like 

 some ancient 

 Hebrew pro- 

 phet. Over all 

 he wrought is 

 a tragic gloom, 

 for his stern 

 eyes saw the 

 failure of Italy 

 to reach to the 

 splendid realm 

 of L i b e r t y. 

 Entertaining 

 few friends, 

 and shunning 

 the society so 

 dear to Ra- 

 p h a e 1, he 

 wrought his 

 solitary art 

 with his own 

 wond rous 



,,,ce hands, scorn- 



ing thecourtier 



ways of Raphael, arrayed in 

 magnificence, and working amidst 

 his crowd of assistants. See Adam ; 

 Art ; Capitol ; Farnese Palace ; 

 Isaiah ; Jesus Christ ; Moses. 



Haldane HacFall 

 Bibliuyraphy. Life with trans, of 

 many of his poems and letters, J. S. 

 Harford, 1857; Life and Works, 

 C. Heath Wilson, 1876 ; Lives, 

 J. A. Symonds, 1899 ; A. Condivi, 

 Eng. trans, C. Holroyd, 1911. 



Micheler, JOSEPH ALFRED (b. 

 1861). French soldier. Born 

 at Phaisbourg, Sept, 23, 1861, and 

 educated at 

 St. Cyr, he 

 entered the 

 French army 

 as a lieutenant 

 of infantry 

 Oct., 1882. He 

 served in Al- 

 geria, 1890-98. 

 1903-5, and 

 1909-11, and 

 in Dec., 1912. 

 was colonel of 



the 29th infantry regiment. After 

 the outbreak of the Great War he 

 was promoted brigadier general, 

 and in Oct., 1914, was chief of the 

 staff of the 6th army corps. Early 

 in 1915 he became chief of the 



J. A. Micheler, 

 French soldier 



Jules Michelet, 

 French "historian 



staff of the First Army, and in 

 Aug. commanded the 53rd infantry 

 division. As temporary general of 

 division, he was placed at the head 

 of the 38th army corps in March, 

 1916, and in April commanded the 

 Tenth Army. Full general of divi- 

 sion in June, 1916, he took part in 

 the battle of the Somme. In Dec., 

 1916, he was appointed assistant 

 to the commandcr-in-chief, and in 

 1917 successively commanded the 

 First and Fifth Armies. He retired 

 in May, 1919. 



Michelet, JULES (1798-1874). 

 French historian. Born in Paris, 

 Aug. 21, 1798, he was educated at 

 the College 

 C h arlemagne, 

 and became a 

 teacher. In 

 1830 he was 

 head of the 

 historical sec- 

 t i o n of the 

 royal archives, 

 and deputy to 

 Gui/.ot at the 

 Sorbonne. At 

 this period 

 appeared the first volume of his 

 history of France (1837-67) which, 

 with the History of the French 

 Revolution (1847-53), gives him a 

 high place among French historians. 

 An ardent democrat, his lectures 

 were prohibited in 1851, and from 

 that time to his death on Feb. 9, 

 1874, he lived in retirement. 



Michelet wrote some polemical 

 books and pamphlets directed 

 against the party of reaction and 

 against the Jesuits. His concep- 

 tion of history has been defined as 

 a " resurrection of integral life." 

 His powers of picturesque and vivid 

 description are seen at their best in 

 the early volume of his great his- 

 tory, dealing with the Middle Ages. 

 He had the imagination and the 

 poetic genius to interpret the true 

 meaning of the Gothic period. He 

 loved the soil and the humble 

 people of France, and his portrait 

 of Joan of Arc is a classic. But 

 he had not the impartiality and 

 clearness essential to the making 

 of the perfect historian. His works 

 on nature: The Bird, 1856, The 

 Insect, 1858, The Sea, 1861, The 

 Mountain. 1868, though unscien- 

 tific, are elo- 

 quent and im- 

 aginative. 



Michclham 

 H B E-B E B T 

 STBBN, IST 

 BARON (1851- 

 1919). British 

 financier. Born 

 Sept. 28, 1851, 

 son of Baron 

 Hermann d e 

 Stern of the 



1st Baron Michelham. 

 British financier 



