Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-12-04
MICHAEL ANGELO.
MICIaAEa4 AN6ELO. !.
the child, The Artist, The Hero
wM. PARSONS AT THE OPERA HOUSE.

= T. Eel 4 e p q
The Hon. VIM. Parsons, of ireland,
delivered his lecture on the above sub
iect, at the Opera House last night, to q
good sized audience. The lecturer was
introduced by Joel d.. Haven, Esq,
and commenced. as follows :; 3 u 81,
We are about to consider, perhaps,
the most universal genius the world has
ever beheld. In whatever capacity he
appeared he excelled. Criticism stands
mute in presence of this great master.
Art has high, q sacred mission, to pre-
sent an idea through the finite, of the
infinite. The painter who can present q
view that gives you an idea OF the IN
finite in the fixed finite, isa true artist.
The object of art is to place before every
one great and sublime truth. The arts
are divided into those of use and beauty,
| fine arts and useful arts, of hand and
head. Political economists say that an
artist is one of the real working class-a
producer The man who can make two
| thoughts in the soul where one or none
/ grew before is real benefaetor of his
| kind. The speaker here gave the history
/ of Angeles birth, four hundred years
| ago. He was the son of the mayor of q
small town IN the north of ItalY-he
/ grows in grace, he feeds his mind on
| Dante, the. seyerest and most graphic
writer Of his day, until he begins to re-
semble him. If Dante was the spirit of
/ the middle ages Angelo was the body.
| His father intends that he shall be
] fitted for some lucrative profession, and
i is yel.y Indignant that he rebels and fire.
/ euents the art studios. He finally al
/ lowed hi il to enter the academy of Lor-
/ EMO de Medici. He was the most en-
/ thusiastic student ever there. BE then
/ devoted twelve years to the study of an
atolny, and arises from his study with,
first, the fear of God, and second, great
| poet. In making statue the model
comes first, and is the particular part.
/ Angelo, in making model, first formed
q perfect skeleton, then muscle, then
| flesh, then fibre, and thus it. grew into q
| perfect human form. His great statue
the 'tDaEid, = in Florence, the largest
statue in the world; great surgeons have
measured and pronounced perfect in
form. The chief ofthe Republican. gov
! ernmeDt Of Florence now gave. him q
I commission to paint a picture in which
i the finest artist. in Italy was pitted against
him, and the best of the pictures was
to be handed down to posterity. Leon
/ ardo da Winch was his opponent, the man
who invented and introduced the lifting
/ jack which is now in universal use the
world over in raising houses the man
! who painted a picture for a. war shield
I so dreadful and kideous that the man
| who went to his studio for it, could not
! touch il until he had covered
| the picture from sight. Here
! the speaker compared the. appliances
and methods Of taking portraits now and
i in the dark ages-re ferring in very
| amusing manner to a portrait gallery of
to-day and in which the method of the
| dark ages had a decided advantage over
the present method When Da Ninci
4 learned that Angelo was his competitor,
he told him he would rue the day. he
ever entered into competition with him.
They both chose subjects from the siege
/ of Ria. Angelo chose the scene of q
number OF soldiers bathing in the river,
and Da V5inci, soldiers fighting for the
standard. The pictures were completed
/ and hung up and the artists stood be
meath. Tae.pubic were. divided as to
the respective merits. Next day Angelo
comesto look at the works; first examines
! his rivals and then tgrning.to his. own,
behold it lay at bis feet torn in pieces.
/ A friend OF Da STinci's, Jealous of his
| reputation, had unknown to hin come
and destroyed If, Angelo was summoned
/ to Rome in 1892. AS he turned to GO
east another great light turned TO go
west and the sailor of Genoa discovered
/ America After his arrival at Rome be
was commissioned by the Pope to paint
a picture in the Sistine chapel and en-
! ploy the best artists in Italy. He replied
that he never employed others, but did
! his work himself he enters on bis
| work, drives all the daubers away
/ grinds his own paint and prepares bis
own colors. Then the difficulty came
of painting on q. depressed arch, a con-
cave surface, and this was the first time
picture was to be fofmd on curve. He
..
/ divides the ceiling into twelve seriptural
subjects. In this age of the world there
were no printing presses and no books,
and pictures had to do the work of
! books Therefore, this picture was to
serve instead of the bible, thus the neees-
sity Of power in conception and execu-
ton. His last great effort in this pic
ture was the scene, '"The last judy
ment" This scene has a most terrific,
! most tremendous effect The last mo-
ment on earth is supposed to have arriy-
ed !; the trump sounds, the surface of the
earth is upturned the faces Of the dead
appear, and fearful fends lay hold to
drag them back; the clouds above break
and the judge appears in terrible SPLEEN
dor. The scene is finished, criticised,
he is asked to modify it, but will not
retouch what he has spent six years in
doing. After he had completed this
work his eyes had become SO habituated
to look upward that he could not look
horizontally.
Raphael, the painter of female lowell
ness, now enters into competition with
him and at their first meeting Raphael
assures him that they are ''both artists
and there shall be nothing between me