Evening star., 1903-08-03

immortal Sibyls and Prophets with which
Michael Angelo enriched the world would
be much more serious matter than the
collapse even OF CaHiTaii::!e. But This is
not the first occasion on which the Sistine
roof has been matter of concern. Before
now water has even trickled through
cracks in the dome. while the paintings
themselves once so respendent have be
come 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 law
ished upon the buildings under their care
and II is Impossible to imagine that any
pains Will be wanting to preserve the mon
umental conceptions that owe to the
magnificent ideas of Julius IL The vault
of the Sistine Is. indeed. the most conclus-
I've instance In history of what art owes to
the patron.
Whom he began the work in 15OS Michael
Angelo regarded himself a sculptor only.
Color asstrange to him, he was per
suaded to the task with difficulty and the
payment he received for II would be de-
spised by fashionable decorator. Yet in
this narrow and lofty fame which before 1t
was overlaid with his genius must have
been gloomy in the extreme. he poured out
his soul in new revelation In travail and
weariness. with no companions save his
color grinder and the impatient pontiff.
who would not be denied. and with little
relaxation except tho sermons OF Ssvon
arola. he painted his way to Immortality.
Even SO great 4 man a. ne had to cope
with troublesome material difficulties.
Bramante failed to devise an appropriate
scaffolding. and tho creator OF this grand
lose Old Testament cycle who gave life to
tho statuesQue forms OF the mysterious
Sibyls. had to invent his own In his lack
OF experience with the medium he made the
plaster too wet. and would at first have de-
SPARED. It was q Titanic work. with Its
great surface its sternly splendid imagtn-
inss. the sense Of awe and immensity that
broods over it. the technical illusions which
convert mere ceiling into q nmitless 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
to typify art and eternity. Nor does this
ceiling exhaust all that Michael Angelo
accomplished in 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 magniflcence destroyed
the three Peruginos that occupied it's place.
But who that enters the Sistine. and
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 w. who clothed
the female saints In vesture Of hues as
crude as the puces and magentas and sol
the noble austerity Of the picture which Its
author refused to paint in OIL as being
mere vehicle for the Idle and the lazy. 1t
Is difficult to smile at the grim revenge
which placed the pope's artistic mantau-
maker In the pictured hell. AS the scene
of ceremonies gorgeous or touching the
chapel is famous In religious history.
Nine. de Staal has left graphic descrip-
ton of the gradual extinction Of the candles
during the chanting of the Lenten Miserere
in the Sstine. when the Sibyls look like
phantoms in the twilight. and the ear can
hardly support the mournful cadences.
She was afraid to listen once more to the
vulgar sounds OF that world which seems
so far away when tue silver trumpetS are
hushed and the pope-kng is no more upon
his throne