Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 16:52:21 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      Duerer and Michelangelo (6 April and 18 February)
X-To:         CHRISTIA@ASUACAD.BITNET, BSTUDY-L@UTARLVM1.BITNET,
              IVCF-L@UBVM.BITNET

ALBRECHT DUERER, ARTIST (6 APRIL 1528)

Albrecht Duerer, born in 1471 in Nuremberg, Germany, visited Italy
in 1494 and again in 1505, and was the first northern European
artist to immerse himself in the art of the Italian Renaissance.

A deeply religious man, he was affected both in his thought and in
his work by the apocalyptic spirit of the time in the face of
famine, plague, and social and religious upheaval. His paintings and
woodcuts are a close examination of the splendor--as well as the
potential terror--of creation: the human body, animals, grasses, and
flowers.

Although he remained a Roman Catholic throughout his life, he was a
warm admirer of Martin Luther, and expressed regret that he had
never been able to paint him "as a lasting memorial to the Christian
man who has helped me out of great anxiety." He died at Nuremberg on
6 April 1528. Luther wrote to a friend:

   Affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men, yet
   you may well consider him happy that he has made so god an end,
   and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of
   trouble.... May he rest in peace with his fathers. Amen.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, ARTIST (18 FEBRUARY 1564)

Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, poet, and architect, was
born near Florence, Italy on 6 March (as we have recently been
reminded) in 1475.  When he was 21, he went to Rome and there carved
the PIETA ("Compassion"), a statue of the Virgin holding the dead
body of her Son in her lap after He was taken down from the cross.

Five years later he returned to Florence and there carved a giant
statue of the youthful DAVID going out to meet Goliath. His
best-known work is his painting of the walls and ceiling of the
pope's chapel--the Sistine Chapel-- with a sequence of frescoes
prortraying the Creation and the Last Judgement, accompanied by
portraits of prophets and sybils. He carved a set of statues for the
tomb of the de Medici family, and another for the tomb of Pope
Julius II, including a magnificent and awe-inspiring portrayal of
Moses.  He also designed the dome of St. Peter's basilica, and then
spent his last years with poetry, architecture, and drawing. He left
more than 300 sonnets, which contain his spiritual autobiography.

The following sonnet by him (trans. J. A. Symonds) is called

        On the Brink of Death.

 Now hath my life across a stormy sea
   Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all
   Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
 Of good and evil for eternity.
 Now know I well how that fond phantasy
   Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
   Of earthly art, is vain; how criminal
 Is that which all men seek unwillingly.
 Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed,
   What are they when the double death is night?
     The one I know for sure, the other dread.
 Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
   My soul that turns to His great love on high,
     Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.

   PRAYER

   O God, who by thy Holy Spirit dost give to some the word of
   wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word
   of faith:  We praise thy Name for the gifts of preaching
   through visual representation that thou didst bestow upon thy
   servants Albrecht and Michaelangelo, and we pray that thy
   Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus
   Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and
   reigneth, one God, for ever and ever.