The New York herald., 1875-09-12
Michael Angelo.

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| While the sculptured marvels of Michael
I Angeles genius delight and satisfy more and
more the oftener they are seen, the more
attcntively they are studied, still they do not
4 al as with that admiration which the records
Z ~ his noble character, his sterling piety, his
4 civic virtues excite. We are accustomed to
7 look TO Italy for great poets, artists musi-
clans, statesmen, men of science and of letters,
victorious generals and audacious voyagers /;
but 1t scarcely occurs to us to turn to her for
models showing virtue and morality in uni
son with heroism and genius. Michael
Angeles life supplies US with this ideal com
bination, rare in every country, and in the
Italy of the sixteenth century unique. All
the annals of that century concur in por-
traying Italy at the summit of her intel
lectual grandeur, her industrial and COM
mercial prosperity, her trebly refined
luxury, her artistic perfection. No other
nation can boast such constellation of stars
of the first magnitude as shone in the sky
that overarched Michael Angeles earthly
career. Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci,
AIachiavell, Raphael, Titan, Benvenuto
Cellini, Ariosto, Correggio Guicciardini, to
make no mention of minor planets and of
men who owed even portion of their lustre
to accidents of rank and wealth Lorenzo the
Magnificent, Pope Julius H., Leo X, and on
and on.
1t is difficult to say whether vice or genius
attained in this age to the greater height.
In this age Michael Angelo sculptured his
''Pieta, his David and his ''Moses, his
"Night and Morning" his Dawn and Twi-
light painted his frescoes penned his po-
ems and illustrated the 'Dante, and lived
in the sight of all men that independent,
honest, pure and pious life which would
have rendered him worthy of esteem in any
age and which distinguished him from all
the men of mark in his own. ''Gold takes
no stain" is a proverb whose truth his life
exemplifes, for if ever a young life was ex-
posed to corrupting influences of every
kind it was this young genius at the Court
of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Treated like
the princes of the blood at the critical age
of sixteen, beloved as a son and favored as
an honored guest, educated by that Poll
ziano who so successfully corrupted Loren
zos own children, despite the despairing
efforts of their mother to save them the self
respecting sculptor not only maintained
rigid independence, but dared all in order
to compel others to respect it. He quilted
the service of the fiery julius, and only
after months of entreaty, only when
Florence names him her Ambassador
met him once more at Bologna.
The detractors of this great character re-
proach Michael Angelo with his 'fight' from
Florence during the siege as an act of
cowardice, not to say treachery; but that
withdrawal from q post where his services
were neither utilized nor appreciated was
due to the same impetuous independence
that led to his rupture with julius. That
he fulfilled all the duties of son and
brother, of a true, devout Christian, the
letters in the British Museum give ample
proof.
To-day in his native city, in that migrate
patria which he apostrophised as such for
her prosecutions of Dante, United Italy cele-
brates the birth of her greatest sculptor-one
of her greatest architects and painters She
will do we'll to recount to the young gener-
alton that will assemble around his tomb in
Santa Croce the private virtues and civic
grandeur of the man who in no age was
excelled, and who in his own had no equal.