National Republican., 1883-01-22

never peevish nor irritable. lie led u lonely
life. Kind to all and lavish of his slender
means in the alloviaton of want or of misery
he yet had no intimates. He had no friends
but two. And yet think who were those two.
Savanaroln and Vittoria Colonna. It is prob
able that he loved the latter, but IL was % love
in which sense had nothing whatever to do.
In the lofty, serene regions where his giant
spirit lived the atmosphere was too pure and
rare for the senses to dwell She must indeed
have been q woman of the lofticst and most
perfect type, this famed Vittoria di Colonna
to have won Michel Angeles love-
Popularity most famous for his work In the
Sistine aud Paulinc.chapels at Rome, aud for
the dome Of st. Peters, his lofty genius is
best shown in the chapel of the Mcdici at
tachod to the church Of San Lorenzo in Flor
enco. Here the mausoleum of the Mcdic
commands an attention which, once given, is
given always. The great figures of Day"
and "Sleep" and "Night," Of "Aurorap and
Crepuscule," cnchain tho bcholdcr. These
figures are tremendous. Looking at them you
arc brought to know what thoughts oil the
human breast when the perfection Of human
intellect grapples with the mysterious prob
lens of mans origin and destiny. They arc
the symbols of humanity's struggles with tho
tremendous and unseen forces of nature. a
great intellect las flung itself into the marble
and wrought out thoughts rather than human
beings. Michael Angelo is the one man
who has sculptucd ideas. These statues
are not Greek, and belong to n different
race. The Greek sculptured beauty in ro-
pose--his gods, when they suilcr, are
serenely majestic, and they smile calmly even
with the fox gnawng at their vitals. Even
in the LAGOON the suffering is subdued grace.
Bnt Michael Angelo belonged to n different
race. Tho mysterious Euurinn, whose civili-
zation was old and gray and heavy with the
weight of its own completeness ere q stone
was laid on the seven hills by the Tibcr,
transmitted to Michael Angelo along with his
blood, his sombre thoughts and his mystic
moods. Etruran and not Italian, no tradi-
ton of Aryan race inspired his soul or in
formed his mind. lie was Of the old gods
he dwelt with Saturn and Hyperion beneath
the dim outrageous rccessCS of the woods
rather than with Jovc and Apollo and tho
other deities of the new era. And the tre-
mendous truths caught and known by an
older and o truer civilization than the world
of his day knew has left their giant shadows as
an incubus on his soul.
The artist pictured the difficulties he Ia
bored under in his great work of painting tho
Sistine chapel, described the wonderful pro-
ductons of his genius on those walls and cell
ings, drew u beautiful comparison between
him and Rafiholle, who was in most cases his
antthesis; related tho subsequent life of
Michael Angelo, sletchcd his character with n
light but bold touch. and closed with u mag
nifcent picture of the Medici mausoleum,
when the tombs were opened in 1851 and the
bodies, many of them, were found plundercd
of their ornaments. "rhcre lay the dshon-
ored dust of the Medccan rulers of Florence"
said the lecturer, "dscrowned and plundered
not even safe in death from outrage and dis
grace, while the artist that they patrOnized
and thought beneath their rank now wears u
crown of immortality at which the world will
| ingly bows down."