The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-11-15
II6HAEL ANGELO. .

HIS father was gentleman OF famlly anu
responsibility. He, immediately after his
birth, was sent out to nurse to q woman at
the village of SettinianO, whose husband
was q sculptor, circumstance which gave
origin to the noted saying respecting the
illustrious subject of this memoir, that 'he
sucked IN sculpture scith his milk. As soon
as little Michael was able to walk alone, the
workshop of his foster-father was his IA
vorite resort, and the mallet and the chisel
became his favorite and amusing play
things. Here he manifested the first indi-
cation Of that mighty genins which after
ward astonished the world-here the child
who carved baby-heads from splinters, was
the colossal timage Of the gods upon Fecks
of marble!
When he returned to his fathers house,
in his sixth year, he became so unhappy by
the deprivation of his wonted delightful
amusement, that his parent and his tutor,
dreading the effects Of melancholy ON his
mind, judged it prudent to permit him to
spend an hour every day in the sculptor's
shop. In the tenth year of his age, he made
such progress in the art of sculpture, that
he cut out of marble several human and
animal figures; consequently, we may as
sert that his love of sculpture was instinc-
tive. In order to indulge his enthusiastic
propensity, his father procured some an
tique> models for him-one of which, the
FGUn, he copied SO successfully, that the
celebrated Lorenzo de Medicl, on seeing
the felicitous effort of the young artist, pre-
vailed on his father to let him devote his
future life to sculpture. In consequence OF
this entreaty, he became the disciple of
Chirlandaigo, who was principal of acade-
my of Painting and Sculpture ut Florence.
Under the instruction of this artist, and the
encouraging patronage Of\Lorenz0 de Me-
dici, he made SO wondrous a proficiency IN
the sister arts of painting and >sculpture, as
not only excited the admiration of his mas
ter, but the envy and hostility of his fellow
students whose fame he had eclipsed and
above whose competition his genius tower
ed. The jealousy and deadly resentment
of one of them, TorciagianO, drove him into
80 ungovernable q rage of passion, that he
inflicted a deep wound on Angeles nose,
which left a disfiguring mark on it that he
carried with him to the grave.
While he was making gigantic strides in
the career of Improvement, the disturbances
and dissensions of the house of Medicis,
compelled him to remove to Bologna, where
he did not sojourn long, but went to Venice
and there studied for some time and fur
nished the design of the bridge of the Rial
to. Tranquility being restored in Florence,
he came back to that city, then the empo-
rum of the fine arts, where he continued
his application to painting and sculpture
with unwearied diligence. Pope Julius II.
employed him to lavish all his skill on the
sculptural establishment of his tomb. At
ter completing this structure, he was reluc-
family obliged to commence adefning the
walls of the Sistine Chapel, and of the cham
bers of the Vatican, with fresco paintings,
which, though first in his efforts in that
branch of the art, are its glory and pride. 1t
is said that Raphael, growing envious, in
stigated the Pope to assign this task to An
| CELLO, as he dreaded his rising celebrity, and
hoped that his failure in fresco painting,
with which he was very little acquainted,
would cast him into the shade of 0bscurity
and neglect. But his envy only gave new
plumage to the pinions of his rivals fame,
and served to light a splendid torch in the
sublimity of his genius, whose discriminate
| ing blaze convinced the Roman critics that,
in originality of conception and grandeur
of design, Angelo bore away the palm of
perfection from his competitor, Raphael.
Raphael, no doubt, excelled him in the play
of light and shade-in elegant simplicity,
grace of coloring and truth of nature. Ra-
phael, it is true, would descend, in trifling
detail, to paint the wings of a butterfly
but the soaring genius of Angelo could only
repose on the pinions of an arch-angel. His
daring sublimity and magnificence of con-
ception were too gigantic to be borne by
the still elements of tameness and minute
lttleness. "He," says Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Carried painting into the regions of poetry
and he emulated that art in its most adven-
turous flights; for the grandeur of charac-
ter, air and attitude, which he threw into
all his figures, and which SO well CORES
ponds with the magnifcence of his outline
is the original creation Of a sublime poetic
Imagination"
His genius formed, indeed, a new epoct
in the history of the art; for his mighty
) designs, grasping, as it were, in their eagle
talons. time, space, natural and supernatu.
raj agency, reused the emulation of Raphae
from its inglorious slumber on the proto
types of Pietro Perugino. We are told tina
while Angelo was occupied in painting
/ treachery of Bramante, an inferior arts
who attended the great painter, obtained
admission, and on beholding the graphic
) delineations, he was at once seized will
the spirit of wonder and emulation-for the