486 
mighty forms and proportions, irrefiftibly 
feize the fenfes, and the imagination is 
ftrained to embrace the infinity of thefe 
produftions. The fpectator thinks he 
ean never fufficiently imprefs thefle extra- 
ordinary performances on his fancy; he 
turns from one group to another, and, 
as if confined in a magic circle, he is 
unable to leave them. They are not 
figures copied from reality, or projected 
on its fcanty proportions; they are not 
the ideal produdtions of a lively Grecian 
imagination, which drew down to the 
earth Olympus with all its immortal in- 
habitants; they are the pure originals of 
an original genius, which, foaring above 
reality, and defpifing imitation, combined 
the lofty fpirit of the Sacred Writings and 
of Dante’s Poems, with the rude, ungo- 
vernable energy of his age, and boldly 
transfufed them into all his works, whofe 
wild, impofing, and majeitic giandeur is 
only an impieffion of his own individu- 
ality. And it is exaétly this which feems 
to augment the admiration of thefe works: 
you admire their magnitude, their origi- 
nal charaéter ; but you are attonifhed at 
the gigantic mind which could create 
juch a world. No artift has difplayed 
himfelf in his works with fuch truth, fuch 
ftrength, and fuch uniformity, as Michael 
Angelo. He every where appears the 
fame,but only at different moments and pr- 
riods of his life. Thus, for exampie, in the 
cieling of Sextus’s chapel, he appears in the 
flower of his genius ; in the Lait Judgment 
he is a vigorous old man, full of profound 
experience and matured energy ; but the 
bloffom of his genius has faded, and you 
may perceive that his art grows old with 
him. Laftly,in his two pictures in the Pau- 
line chapel, we view him, together with 
his art, in the weaknefs and decrepitude 
of hoary age. But while I am {peaking 
of the artift, I run the rifk of forgetting 
his works. I intended to fay fomething 
concerning the Four Periods of the Day, 
and his figure of Giuliano de Medici (who, 
inthe morning of life, was plunged into 
the sloomy empire of death), which, for 
the living and {peaking exprefMion in the 
pofition and attitude, is inimitable. On 
the farcophagus at his feet, he the two 
exquifite figures, Aurora, and Crepufculo. 
The former fhews that Michael Angelo 
was fenfible to female beauty, and knew 
perfectly well how to exprefs it; but 
beauty of a fublime, of a grave charaéter. 
The charming face of Aurora is animated 
by an expreffion of melancholy, which im- 
parts to it a moving intereft. \ The body 
and limbs of this figure are exquilitely 
State of Literature and the Arts in Ttaly. 
[arnwk, 
formed and difpofed. In the bofom, how- 
ever, Michael Angelo’s idea of female 
beauty does not appear founded oa the 
mott perfect model ; for in this figure, as 
well as in that of Night, the boiom is* 
‘faulty; the two hemifpheres are placed 
at too great a difance, and their form is 
not handfome. But fo much the more 
bold, powerful, and mafculine is the broad 
cheft of Crepufcu'o, who, as well as Day, 
is throughout of a gigantic, colofial na- 
ture, energetic and wonderful, fuch as 
Michael Angelo alone knew how to create, 
I cannot fay much in commendation of 
Night, though much celebrated by poets. 
Confidered impartially, fhe is ahuge cari- 
cature on woman, prefenting difagreeable 
forms and ftriking dif{proportions, whether 
you examine her unnaturally long, flat 
body, disfigured with folds and wrinkles ; 
or the leg, which is much too long for the 
thigh; or the ugly bdfom, or the ungrace- 
ful pofition; in which laft quality the is 
rivalled by Day, her companion on the 
fame farcophagus. Night has been praif- 
ed becaufe her fleep is fo perfectly natural ; 
the expreffion of the face is certainly a 
true reprefentation of a perfon in {und 
fleep; but who fleeps in fuch a conftrained 
pofture?* Next to the original magnitude 
of thefe figures, the manner in which they 
are executed demands the admiration of 
the connoifcur, and the ftudy of the artift. 
The figures are not quite finifhed in many 
parts, and ftill cleave here and there to the 
rade block of marble which ferves for their 
bafis; but where they are finifhed, the 
chifel has been employed with wonderful « 
ability. Michael Angelo knew not how 
paint in marble like Canora, but how to 
fketch and to medel with the chifel. All 
the. parts on which the light falls, and 
which are expofed to the view, are finifhed 
in the highett degree, almoft to a polith ; 
on the contrary, in thofe which recede into 
the thade, or are otherwife withdrawn fiom 
the view, the chifel is perceived without’ 
any farther polifh. No neglect appears 
in the form, which is every where equally 
perfect and complete, but merely in the _ 
parts which are concealed ; this negligence 
however, evinces the genius of a mafter. 
This liberty taken by Michael Angelo 
with the mechanical portion of his art, 
* That thefe four figures are intended to 
reprefent the four times of the day—-Day and 
Night, Avrora and Twilight—-we are in- 
formed only by tradition; and it fhould be ob- 
ferved,that,with the exception of Night, who 
is afleep, none of the figures have any charac~ 
teriftic to confirm fuch a fuppofition. 
this 
