The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02
THE SIsTINE CHAPEL.
Bad Condition of the Roof Endangers
Priceless Works of Art.

LONDON STANDARD.
The condition of the roof OF the sistine
Chapel in Rome has for some time been
unsatisfactory, and the Pope, just before
he was seized with his present illness. gave
orders that the necessary work Of repair
should be taken in hand at once. The
gravity of this statement will be appre-
ciated by those who realize the unique
place I'm religious art occupied by the chapel
that Prinetti built for Sixtus ". more than
four centuries ago. There are said to-be
several assures in the plaster, and some OF
the wooden supports OF the vault are Civ
ing way. Iron cross-bars are TO be substi-
tuted and the cracks made good. and we are
assured, with the familiar Italian optim-
ism, that all danger will then be at an end.
We trust Ii may be so, since any disaster
to the immortal Sibyis and Prophets with
which Michael Angelo enriched the world
would be a much more serious matter than
the collapse even OF Campanile. But
this is not the first occasion on which the
Sistine roof has been matter of concern.
Before now water has even trfckled
through cracks in the dome, while the
paintings themselves, once so respondent.
have become faded by time and dimmed
by the smoke of tapers and incense. On the
whole the Popes have taken good care OF
the treasures which art and ambition have
lavished upon the buildings under their
care, and 1t is impossible to imagine that
any pains will be wanting to preserve the
monumental conceptions that we owe to
the magnificent ideas OF Julius III. The
vault OF the Sistine is, indeed, the most
conclusive instance in history OF what art
When he began the work In 1903 Michael
Angelo regarded himself as a sculptor only.
Color was strange TO him, he was per-
suaded to the task with difficulty and the
payment he received for 1T would be de-
spised by a fashionable decorator. Yet I'm
this narrow and lofty fame, which, before IL
was overlaid with his genius. must have
been gloomy in the extreme. he poured out
his soul I'm new revelation. In travail and
WEAKNESS. with no companions save his
who would not be denied, and with little
relaxation except the sermons of SaFon-
arois, he painted his way to Immortality
Even so great man as he had to cope
with troublesome material difficulties.
Bramante failed to devise an appropriate
scaffolding, and the creator or this grand
lose Old Testament cycle, who gave life TO
Sblys had TO invent his own. In his lack
of experience with the medium he made the
plaster too wet, and WOULD at hrst have de-
SPARED. 1t a Titanic work. with its
great surface. its sternly splendid imagin-
ings, the sense of awe and immensely that
broods over 1t, the tenchnical illusions
which convert a mere ceiling into a limit
less vault peopled by patriarch and oracle.
Botticelli and Perugino. Pinturcchio. and
Ghirlandajo have made the walls OF the
chapel glow with their frescoes. but they
are all a mere preparation for the dome.
which seems 10 typify art and ternity. Nor
does this ceiling exhaust all that Michael
Angelo accomplished I'm the then detached
building which finally became part Of the
corpus OF the Vatican.
Late in life, THE Last Judgment was
to come as frescoed altar piece for which
the reckless Papal magnificence destroyed
the Il rec Peruginos that occupied its place.
But who that enters the Sistine. and re-
fleets that the great Florentine spent thir-
teen years, of his life within these solitary
walls, has much thought for any other
man? The place Is his monument Not
even the prudery of Paul Nv. who clothed
the female saints in vesture OF hues as
crude the puces and magentas and SOL
ferinos OF the early sixties. could destroy
the noble austerity of the picture which lis
author refused TO paint in oil, being a
mere vehicle for the idle and the lazy. IL
Is difficult 10 smile at the grim revenge
which placed the Popes artistic mantau-
maker in the pictured hell AS the scene OF
ceremonies gorgeous or touching, the
chapel is famous In religious history
Nine de Stael has left graphic descrip-
ton OF the gradual extinction OF the candles
during the chanting of the Lenten Miserere
I'm the Sistne when the Siblys look like
phanfoms in the twilight. and the ear can
hardly support the mournful cadences She
afraid To listen once more TO the yui-
gar sounds OF that world which seems
80 far away when the silver trumpets are
hushed and the Pope-King is no more upon
his throne.