430 
FLETCHER. 
vas the lovely youth, so ruthlessly torn away, before decay 
should touch him. There is no doubt of the authenticity 
of this story, but it is remarkable that in a Latin poem by 
Vincent Bourne a like action is attributed to Apelles. It is 
probable, however, that the name is used generically for a 
painter, and that the incident referred to is the one just re¬ 
lated. Cowper has translated the poem. One knows not 
which to marvel at the most, the devotion of the artist or 
the stoicism of the father. 
The exquisite taste of Leonardo da Vinci, the great prede¬ 
cessor of Michelangelo and Raphael, saved him from any 
obtrusive display of his knowledge of anatomy, which was, 
perhaps, unequalled in his day. The anatomical sketches 
by this master still preserved at Venice are masterly draw¬ 
ings of great accuracy. 
How Michelangelo obtained the knowledge of anatomy 
which he employed with such wonderful effect we do not 
know. His sketches of the partially dissected body and of 
the skeleton are often incorrect, and it is probable that he 
trusted to his memory of what he had seen in the hospitals 
or graveyards. He rarely introduces any portion of land¬ 
scape. The human form was all to him. In one of his son¬ 
nets to Victoria Colonna he says : 
“Nor hath God deigned to show himself elsewhere 
More clearly than in human forms sublime; 
Which, since they image him, compels my love.” 
(Symonds’ translation.) 
It is an old saying “Ars est celctre artem ,” It is art to con¬ 
ceal art. Anatomy should not be learnt to parade it. The 
muscles in some of Michelangelo’s figures are so enormously 
developed as to seem distorted. Quatremere de Quincy says 
of him that while he made his figures show the very life of 
motion as no other artist ever has done, none of them seem 
to be capable of thought or feeling. Physical strength in 
perfection in every posture there was, but a sombre expres¬ 
sion of face characterized them all. While there is some 
ground for this criticism, it is too general when applied to 
