The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-03
Rev. Mr.. Twombley Gives a Bril-
liant Lecture at the Y. NJ. c. A.
THE STORY OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
Incidents of AN ENentful and MeIan-
ehOIy Life-rhe sculptor Who " Ould
Not Take ON His HAT 10 the Pope
Himseif-A Strange Love story.


rwombley at the Y NJ c. A. Hall
was fairly well attended last night,
though not by any means as well
as it deserved 10 be. Ii was very
brilliant and thoughtful presenta-
ton of the lie and work of one of
the greatest and most versatile art
geniuses that the world has ever
produced. The lecture was re-
ceived with marked attention by
the audience.
The next lecture of the series
viii be given on Friday evening
next on Oriental Oddities"
humorous description of the East.
The following Is an abstract of
last nights lecture:
The lecturer began by saying that
he did not propose TO give at this time
a lecture on art, or to drag the lumber
of statistics through the Garden of
the Muses.. But be desired to show
the epic meaning of the great master
pieces OF the sculptor as a study of his
life and character.
Michael Angelo appeared on the
stage at an epoch which produced
maDy other men of genius. He found
his education amid the most favorable
surroundings, in Florence and Rome,
then the great ceuters of art and Gull
ture. The soul of the artist was awak-
ened by a monk to the perception Of a
spiritual ideal. SavanarOla aroused his
conscience and gave him an intense
of L Q1alT han
external ceremOnials. The shameless
and cruel BOrgias was in the PapaI
chair. Michael Angeles first visit TO
Rome threw him among pagan intfu-
ences but SavOnarola's influence was
not lost upon him, and when the
monk was martyred, all the new spir-
itual power became alive IN the young
artists soul
Once more in Rome when thirty
years of age, be planned a magnifi- !
cent mausOleum for julius III. IG was |
never finished Out of fifty heroic |
statues planned by the sculptor, I
only one was completed. But that |
one, colossal, unique, unrivalled, was
his immortal Moses He was forty
years at work upon it, chiselIing at
intervals. The sculptor determined TO ]
reveal in that heroic brow, that flow
ing beard, that HerculeaD frame, that
terrible glance and the horns protrud-
ing from his forehead, the sublime
hope which ne felt for his nations de-
Hverance from foes spiritual and tenn
poraL. For the times were full of
danger. Florence was threatened by
the eXiled Medici; the Pope was the
only champion OF italian liberty. The
meaning of the Moses il therefore not
so much q religious as Il patriotic
thought The ideal of a LiberatOr
which Julius IL might have been had
he lived.
The second great masterpiece We
shall mention was the frescO on the
ceiling OF the Sistine Chapel at Rome.
He lay on his back on a high scaffold
and IN ten months had produced con-
captions, out of the n idst of emotions
revealed To him as Ia = waking dream.
In these he designed To impress up :
On his age the sublime solemnity of
life and the prophetic warnings which
his austere and ineXorable
soul. The Creator and His works; the
prophets, SYPHILIS and their utter4nces,
i'll the perspective with sublime 4
deals.
Michael Angeles third great work
vas the 5Ombs of the Medici. in the {
,acristy at Florence. These were or
iered by the hated Medici, and the {
sculptor Obeyed, but in a way which 1
revealed his tortured and resisting 8
Oul.
Florence was attacked by the exiIed !
SIedici. VI. Angelo aided in fortify-
ng the walls. The city was betrayed.
VI. Angelo was allowed to come back, Z
n he was too grand a parsonage to be r
and at once went To work 4
IN the heroic figures, DAY and <
Ifght,u Twilight and Dawn" which
re now seen, recumbent on either =
ide of the tombs OF the two -Iedici. t
bove the sarcOphagi sit the figures Q
Il the Dukes; ideal figures; but at q
.ither side of the one and the other :.
'ecIine these marvels of sculpture, at II
which the artist worked in desperate o
laste and fiery energy. They speak F
+ a vast strength rendered powerless; {
4 a grief which can find relief only In .
ne prOfoundest slumber, while the :.
iberties of Florence are crushed. I'
they declare the overthrow or free r
Iom, the agony OF the arS1Sts Soui,
he tumult of his outraged sense OF :,
ustice, and the stern fate which his Il
foretOld. Like Sam-on Jt
n his prison house, VI. Angelo worked c
or the Philistines who had conquered, e
ut he triumphed even when he :,
eemed I'd add 10 the trophies OF MS =
onquerors. They reveal to all gen a
rations the tyranny of the Medicl, Il
nd the captivity into which they Il
brew their countrymen. u
The last masterpiece which We shall =
Mention is "The Last Judgment or -
.TichaeI Angelo on the wall Of the Sis II
inc Chapel This work gives us, not :.
he torments Of he'll, but the dread :;
( them. A few hundred figures Al
ut in the cloud tossed, multitudinous g.
seem TO be contained all
no tribes and peoples of the earth. NJ
he character of the sculptor, in adj
anced life, has come forth; his SOM -
er melancholy, his brooding speeu-