The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-02-25
Literary Notes.

Biographies, bound up in five volumes. and
richly illustrated with Heliotype engravings-
the cost, $3.50 reduced instead of being added
to. These books have been prepared with a
great deal of the most patient and searching
labor. 1t has not been difficult for the author
to find abundant material, even from the classic
of old Vasari, down to Taine; but the trouble
has been to separate mere tradition from truth
and this not only in regard to the elder Masters,
but so late down as Guido and Carlo Dolce
W. more certainty can the facts of the saintl,
life of Fra Angelica be ascertained, than even
those of Raphael for various biographers of the
latter, still cling to the somewhat preposterous
story of the ForndrinG and notwithstanding all
that Condivi, and Duppa, and Grimm, and many
others have written, it is hard still to root out
OF the modern mind the fallacy that our grand
Michael Angelo, who scorned' all littlenesses.
was maliciously jealous of Raphael, and endeav-
ored to thwart his fame These Biographies
will help to quash the story of Rembrandt hav-
ing been born and spent his first years in mill,
to whose depths of shadow, according to the
oft-repeated declaration, he owed his mastery of
deep, rich tone: to the absurd invention that
Carlo Dolce was once pastry cook and to the
romance of Beatrice Cenci which we are so 10th
to give up. Mr.. Sweetser shows concusively
that there is proof that the portrait so called
is picture of Beatrice at all, and that Guido.
moreover, could not have painted it. for he had
never been in Rome until long after the execu-
tion of the beautiful girl We merely point to
these old traditions, by way of showing how Mr..
Sweetser lets nineteenth century-lght in upon
them
The Oldest Masters life given, is Fra Angeli-
CO. the angelic monk" of Fiesole, who never
took his brush in his hand without PRAYER
who accepted no reward for his pictures, which
were all religious, and done for churches and
converts, and who could not paint crucifixion
without binding tears. OF all the old Masters.
he is one of the very few who lived on the verge
OF heaven for as general thing they were
gay, worldly, pleasure-loving set of men, not by
any means suffering themselves to be bound
down by the ordinary rules of morality-thoueh
according to the times, very religious. We are
accustomed to look on Albrecht Durer as the
painter of the Reformation" 1t is certain that
Melanchthon had vast influence over mis- opin-
ions towards the close of his life, and quietly"
he accepted his friends Protestant teaching ;
but his earlier life had too much to do with
camp and court to be greatly occupied with any
sort of religion. 1t is well, even after three
hundred years, to have his wife's true character
indicated, as has been done here; for instead
OF being. shrew who wore out patient hus
bands life, we learn, on the best evidence, that
all this comes from the lies of Albrecht's
friend, Pirkheimer, who hated Frau Agnes.
Leonardo Da Vinci's life is of stirring interest
wonderful inventor that he was, born three
hundred years too soon How MANY people
who know that he painted one of the finest four
portraits the world has ever seen, and the most
marvellous of all the Last Slippers, know also.
that he invented the wheel barrow-invented
engraving on wood and copper-was one of the
hrst writers on Geology-was renowned build
er of bridges-was the first to attempt the NOV
ing of large edifces by means of screws and
Wheels-made experiments on Light that would
have placed him beside Faraday or Fyndall-
had a scheme for tunnelling mountains and .
dozen more great projects which plainly stamp
HIM, as Humboldt says he the greatest
physical philosopher of the fifteenth century
OF all the fifteen Artists whose lives are treated
OF, Mr.. Sweetser seems to do scanter Justice to
the noblest of them all-Michael Angelo, though
he says he re-wrote his life twice. He makes
TOO little allowance, we think for the miserable
harassments that cramped him all his life-a1
lmPecunious set of relations who continually
hiched his earnings-an imperious master in
julius II who, through the whole of his Ponti6
cate, thwarted and gratifed him by turns-iea1.
GUS Artists all around him who tried to ininre
hlm-a base venial people whose tiptoe thought
could not rise so high as the pediment of one of
his great statues-truckling architects who con-
tnually overset his magnificent plans for ST.
Peters The Art-writer, Mrs. Jameson. has
helped to cloud the most modern idea of Michael.
for she reserved all her sympathy for her favor
tie, Raphael. That Michael had not Rapbaels
knack at making friends, and saying and doing
nice things, and being selfcontentedly bapnv
while all Rome was laying homage at his feet
Is clear enough. But then his great lonely
isolated, melancholy soul moved on a HIGHER
plane than could be reached even by a Raphael
Grand and noble thoughts always filed his
mind: he had been the friend of Savonarola he
loved to discuss grave religious themes with the
4, secretly half-Protestant, Vittoria Colonna and
he left behind him some of the richest religions
sonnets in the Italian language He was an
enthusiast of the loftiest kind, and his life was
one of the rarest self abnegation and purity 4
ic of efcfv 10 e. l. IL