The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-01-27
M. G.. M. A. COURSE.
Michael Angelo.

There was an excellent audience a. Mechan-
les Hall last evening to listen to the entertain
ing, instructive and scholarly lecture by d. III.
Ingraham, Esq, on Michael Angelo The lee
ture was fine one, and we wish more of the
kind might be delivered. We present an alb
stract:
The citizens of Florence near which Angelo
was born are making preparations to celebrate
in May the 40Oth anniversary of his BIRTH OF
a noble family, his father reluctantly consented
to his becoming art;cled to an eminent artist.
A bright smart lad, he gained the favor OF
Lorenzo the Magnificent, who invited him to
his palace, educated him and treated him like
a son. At twenty he executed remarkable
works in sculpture, the sleeping Cupid and
the colossal David The times were propl-
tous for such a genius. The dark ages had
passed away, the arts had revived under
artists mostly belonging to Florence, and they
attained perfection under Raphael and Angelo.
Columbus was sailing West, and Vasce di
Cana was doubling the Cape of GOOD Hope.
Julius II, and Leo x made the Vatican the
NEST learned Court in Europe Henry VIII and
Elizabeth reigned during the time. Luther,
Copernicus. Sidney, kaleIgh, Bacon, Illus
trated the times and on the day Angelo died,
Calico was born. Genoa and Pisa and Venice
were rivals at the height of their power. Flor
ence was first in art and literature. Here,
Angelo executed works in painting, sculpture,
and architecture. His house now remains,
where the visitor sees his studio, his designs,
hat cap, sword, and slippers. AS military
architect, he fortified the heights and baff1ed
the siege of Florence
The Pope summoned him to Rome where he
executed his greatest works.
The colossal Moses, the Capitol Hill, churches
and palaces, the frescoes of the Pauline and
Sistine Chapels, and sublime st. Peters of
which he was chief architect during the last
eighteen years of his life, attest his universal
genius
Michael Angeles life was not happy one,
like that of so many other great men; His
writings, both prose and poetry, attest life OF
toll, anxiety and struggle. Great as was his
genius, he depended on labor for success Rich,
he lived like poor man. He lived IN himself
and for art, eating alone, sleeping. with his
clothes on, and was called proud and unsoclal.
To his father and brother he gave of his own,
and to his faithful servant he gave sum suffi,
cient to make him Independent, and watched
over his dying bed like nurse.
He was never married. He had no Aspasia
nor Laura He lived like an anchorite. Art
alone was his jealous mistress. Yet when an
Vittoria Colonna, princess, and the most &C.
complished and beautiful woman of her age.
She often came to Rome solely to enjoy his So
ciety. He told her mis- love in numerous SON
nets. Painter, sculptor. architect, engineer,
mechanic. poet, profound in anatomy, ancient
history and art, familiar with Petrarch and
Dante whom he knew by heart, the companion
of kings and popes, he consider. d all as loss be-
side his unsulliea character, his fearless aims
and his religion. .-s...-s .5l
His art and ready resource were never want
ing, as when he deceived the Mayor by pre-
tending to have altered the nose of his DAVID
eliciting the approval that he had given the
statue new life,-when he showered rubbish
upon the pope's head from the staging of the
Sistine chapel, ard when he painted the ass
ears on the pope's master of ceremonies. At
the age of eighty nine, still with uDequaled en-
ergies directing the dome of St. Peters, death
relieved him. With great pomp, his body was
borne to Florence and the holy precincts of the
church of Santa Croce, her Westminster Alb
hey, received the dust of him whom Arieste
pronounced more than mortal, the Divine An
cello. ..-. -