The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-04-26
SENIOR GRAFTON
OF Miss Ethel Alma Smith on
the "Three Masterpieces
of Art"
The First Of Series Of Eight Ex-
cellent Essays by the High
School Pupils to Appear
in the News-Herald.

ana many generations OF DarDdrlans,
architecture and sculpture, have left
monuments numerous and magnificent
enough to enable us to Judge of the
state of both these arts in earlier
days. The ruins of many of the an
cient temples of the gods and the
Parthenon still remain to be seen,
while the statue of Venus de Milo
Diana, the Gladiator and Achilles
are still in Paris, and Londonpossesses
the marbles from the Parthenon of
the ancient Greek sculptor, Phidias.
But the paintings of the ancients us
ing more perishable materials, have
not been able to survive the tempest
which entirely engulfed ancient civil
ization. Yet while we have no paint
ings of the ancients we have the pro-
ductions of such masters as Michael
Angelo, Raphael and Leonard De
Vinci, who were equally as great if
not greater than any the world has
ever known.
Although Christianity had called
all men to liberty, this destiny had
been repressed in the Mediaval
Church by the ascendency of the
priesthood, and while in barbarous
times this priestly rule had been a
necessity, it threw in later age, a
restraint upon the advancement of
art. 1t was not till this difficulty was
overcome and the discovery of art
and printing had spread thoughts
from people to people, and the con-
quest of ConstantinOple by the Turks
had diverted stream of culture to
the West that the discovery of a new
hemisphere marvelously enlarged
mems knowledge of the home of the
human race.
1t was not till this time when the
ancient Earth seemed to burst her
fetters and lay open new realms which
heretofore were thought impossible,
that modern painters and sculptors
could give vent to their talents.
In European galleries, old cathed-
rails and churches are still preserved
the great masterpieces which were
the result of their fruitful labors.
The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican
in Rome is for Michael Angelo, as a
painter, what the Stanze are for
Raphael, his domain, his kingdom, his
triumph. Twelve immense frescoes,
the works of eminent artists, entirely
cover the two side walls and show by
their preservation and beauty what
might be expected from frescoes.
But all these, though holding high
position in the artistic world, are
crushed by the superiority of the two
works of Michael Angelo, the ceiling
and the Last Judgement.
1t was the war-like Pope, julius II,
who, having sent for Angelo to come
to Rome, commanded him to paint
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The
artist only accepted this vast com.
mission by constraint, for he was un.
skilled in the process of fresco paint.
ing. Solitary and single-handed and
in complete retirement from the
world he began his work about 1905
and completed it, with some intermis.
sions, a few years later.
None was supposed to have entered
yet it is believed that Blraniante OBJ
tanned leave of entrance for his
nephew, Raphael, who thus studied
the style of Michael Angelo before
commencing his frescoes in the Straze
and the Loggie.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel il
in the form of vaulted roof, and the
long plane surface in the middle was
SO divided as to represent in eight
frescoes alternately wide and narrow
the principal scenes of the Genesi,
from the creation to the deluge.
Words can give but faint concep
tion of the unfathomable depth ani
and sunexhaustible richness of thi,
work. The narratives of the Genesi.
are here treated with grandeur, sucf
as will hardly ever again be repro
duced by art. The form of the Father
as he comes attended, cherubs, and
as it were, born on a mighty wind tt
separate light from darkness, to as
sign to the heavenly bodies theil
courses, and to~create the first man
is full of majesty.
In the creation of Adam, a spark o.
animation seems to enter the member.
of the slumbering form when it i.
touched by the Creator and awakened
into life, while, DER the form, of Eve
who comes forth at Gods command
with the timid manner of a child, the
Master has defused a sweetness ant
loveliness, elsewhere foreign to hi
works.
On the broad triangular pendentivei
of the vaulting are the seated figure.
of the prophets and sibyls, who pro.
phetically announced the coming o.
the Messiah. Throughout he, with Z
with few strokes, produces at the
same time the deepest and highest
effects, SO the prophets and sibyls ar,
reckOned among the most wonderful
productions of art.
This ceiling is fast becoming coatet
with black from the incense smoke O
the candles and the coating grow
thicker year by year.