The New York herald., 1921-07-17
Georg Brandes, Danish critic, in his eighteth year
finishes great study Of Micheangeos life and art.

angelo stands forth in the entirely new way
employed in the grouping of these Sepul-
chral figures" Brandes writes. "It was Gus
tomary in that day to adorn the sarcopha-
gus with allegories Of the virtues. But the
idea of a tomb evoked in Buonarroti the
thought that all is transitory, all is perish
able and inspired in him the unfolding of
the four figures that combined express time,
that which calls humanity to face lifes
troubles Only to push it once more down into
the grave.
ITO his Imagination time divided itself
into four pc iods, and he saw these before
him as human forms, ideals fraught with
power, revealing in the position and inner
contrast of each separate body muscle con-
struction that il Railways intent, always seems
as if ready to take movement.
There they lie. sorro ing, groaning, con-
vulsively drawing their limbs up under them,
or tired unto death, loathing all that day and
night can give them. There is nothing SOL
emn about them. They are unaware that
they have spectators. Their manner is that
of inner unrest contempt for man. To
them there is no joy Al waking to a new day.
no delight in lifes noon, sweet rest in
sleep. One thing is common to them ALL
They suffer.
From the Sacrsty of San Lorenzo, with
it's atmosphere of the tomb, to the Sistine
Chapel with its colorfuness in composition
that has proved the despair fall who have
attempted to initiate the figures on that cell
ing il seems like leap from the mundane
to the celestial : Notwithstanding this.
Brandes finds that to even greater degree
than with La Divina Commedia, the sorrow
full and the fearful diverts interest from
the celestial. With Michelangelo, those risen
from the grave and raised to eternal bliss
appear no less terrified than the sinners
cast from heaven into the abyss below.
The critic concerns himself less with the
directly technical in execution than with the
motive that may have influenced the Floren-
tine in the rendering of so many Biblical fig
ures. That Greek art always lay close to
the heart of Michelangelo and that antiquity
met with response in his own way of viewing
life Brandes considers a certainty. Prophets
and sibyls creation the Flood all go to prove
that ecclesiastical rule did not deter Michel
angelo from being himself throughout, and
that Hellas and Palestine were the funda-
mentals that governed his art as well as his
genius.
In discussing the author hesitate to say
which is to be admired most, his keen per-
ception as critic or what may be termed
the infusion of his own personality. as unique
as it is interesting. Brandes long sirce
established his right as perhaps the only
remaining European critic of the company
that included Sainte Beuve and Taine His
fame in the Old World is such that any new
work by him is looked forward to with the
keenest anticipation. And it is because this
Danish writer has met almost every one
worth knowing in Europe during his sixty
years of authorship that he is able to throw
around all he writes an atmosphere of real
ity, linking the past with the present.
The late James Gibbons Huneker. who
met Brandes during the latter's American
tour in 1914, shortly before the breaking out
of the world war, better than any other
American writer, perhaps. has sketched the
critic In his true colors. This is how Brandes
appeared to him: at the first time that
l had talked to the celebrated Danish author
to whom I had dedicated 'Egoists Then
past 10 years, as active as a young man.
could see no reason why he shouldn't live
to be a centenarian. An active br~n is
lodged i'm his nimble body. l made up my
mind to ask him no questions about America.
"The affections OF Brandes have always
been bestowed upon the literatures of Eng
land and France. Maurice Bigeon has said
that Brandes did for the nineteenth century
what Sainte Beuve did for the seventeenth
century In his History OF Port Royal He
will remain the archtype of cosmopolitan
critics for future generations. A humanst.
the mind of Brandes is steel colored Ductile.
when white hot, It flows like lava from a
volcano in eruption but always 1t Is stee.
whether liquified or rigid. Prominently it