The daily enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1884, 1884-09-09
hNGELO'S "LAST JUDGMENT
A Description of the Wonder:U
Eresco Of tho s$iStino Chapel.
Y. Is. Stuart in The Current.

EFe seq OG CEc S~sSlAuC S~s1pSss
f g. Stuart in The Current.]
Grand. solitary and gloomy, is it
strange that Michael Angelo has made
such a scene as this as his conception
of the Day of Wrath? The fresco oc-
cupies the entire end of the chapel. In
the threatening attitude OF an angry
Avenger, the dread Judge raises His
arm as if devoting to endless torment
the supp]icants who approach Him
By His side is the Virgin.
interceding for the accused.
Above and around these central
figures are the apostles, saints, and
blessed martyrs. Little angels bear
trium phantly the emblems of the Pas
sion and sunlight hovers around them.
here is the blackness OF darkness IN
the lover picture. Rising from tha
earth are skeleton forms that, yet un-
conscious of doom. are borne before the
supreme tribunal, and as they mount
heaveuward. the different shades who
have known each other, it may be in
the flesh, or, perhaps, only in hades,
meet and re cognize. There are smiles
from lips that have mouldered away
before the world grew old, but that are
now perennially blooming: longing
arms are reached forth to embrace the
loved, he lost, the found.
Oh! in the Resurrection Morning
Michael Angeesque there is JOY and
happiness, until the observer 10 ks en-
the left, ON the other 81 Q OF the angels
sounding the trumoets Then the
heartren.1ing horro $ ch II the soul as
the damned fall headio. 6 llto their
place of torment. Lemons seize them.
Cha on's boat bears them o, er darker
St. gian pool than Erebus ever
knew, and amid wailing and despair
they enter the unlimited future OF an
agonizing eternity. So, With vivid
impression OF horror, the spectator
turns away. There IS no comfort In
the piotare, and'no loving forgiveness
in any face save Marys.
In point OF drawing, in the Last
Judgment, the maestro ha, ezcelled
himself His grand lines, bold fore
shortening. and anatomical e1actness
are unsurpassed Michael Angelo de-
spised dr. perry as he did oil painting,
and LETT all his figures in the Last
Judgment" quite nude. From an
artistic and historical standpoint this
was CO rect; but some later pope was
scandalized, and II. i5iagio de Cesena
suggested draping the women. Dam
| iele de Volterra was the artist invited
| to clotne the poor ladies so that they
might no longer offend the pope. Sue
ceed ng ages have decided that Volterra
would not make q fortune on the boglle
ward as second Worth if his tailor
work in the chapel is fair specimen.
At any rate, it was an ungrateful job,
and Volterra's contemporaries dubbed
him I'll Braghettone," in our vernac-
ular "The Hreeches-maker."
Meanwhile Michael Angelo had not
been idle, but had carried out deep
laid scheme to wreak vengeance upon
Biagio da Cessna. whom he regarded
as the author of the suggestion to drape
the nude forms. With a few we'll
directed strokes of his brush the master
altered 70 visage Of Midas in Hell, so
as to make it an exac! likeness OF IL.
Biag:o. Deeply insulted. the courtier
hastened to lay his c-sse before the holy
fat.ser and obtain redress. Bra 10
begged the pope to have the re en-
blance changed. Ills holiness ascer-
tanned the location of Midas. the he
said sarc lstically to the suppEcant:
All! Had it been purgato " could
have released you, i,ut over sie.l have
no power" so the unwilling Biagio
still growls beneath asinine ears. and
Herr Teufelsdrovkh, the clothes-philos-
L. l. 1,o, II