Evening star., 1928-04-29

who cared for nothing but art, religion,
Vittoria Colonna and Tommaso Cava-
lieri. refused the stipend, and undertook
the work. To the end Of his days he de-
voted himself to the new task unpaid,
saying that he had now consecrated
himself to God
He labored on st. Peters intermit-
tently for 81 years, and yet at his death
It was incomplete and had to be finish
cd from the wooden model which ne
had made. With all the care that was
lavished on the dome, it Is already in
danger of collapse, and an American
architect recently warned that the
vast weight of almost million tons
must soon fall unless serious defects
are repaired. The design was good,
but the workmanship Of the contrac-
tors and the materials which they sup
piled were far below the mark which
Angelo wished to set He writes to his
aides after being cheated time and
again with inferior materials, Il beg OF
you, from this time forward, by the au-
thority which hold from the Pope, not
to accept anything which Is not suit
able, even though it comes to you from
heaven The spirit was willing, but
the flesh was weak.
Lives With Great Simplicity.
Through all this labor and pre-emi-
nence the artist lived in a simplicity
that was almost destitution. He had
money he supported his father and
his brothers, helping them to rise
to the rank of mobiles in Florence,
/ and he left 5000 gold crowns at his
! death. But he himself led the life of
pauper. At Bologna he stayed with
! three assistants in one room and slept
! with them in one bed. He had no taste
! for personal adornment and cared less
/ than Socrates for cleanliness. He slept
! for so many nights with boots and
| clothing on that when at last he re-
| moved his boots the skin came of with
them He ate little and preferred the
corsest and simplest foods. he Stunned
physicians and refused medicine, and
/ lived to the age of 49,
He was solitary spirit. without COM
/ rades or recreation 81 have no friend
| of any kind" he said. "and l do not
| want any Do you not know that there
/ are sciences which demand the whole
| Of MANI" He was as independent as
| one might be in those days of poison
| and cold steel One Pope said he used
| always to invite Michelangelo to chair,
! knowing that he would sit down any
/ way He was irritable because he hated
| the small things of life. and grudged
| every moment taken from his work.
| Great artists suffer life manual work.
| ers condemned to the most arduous and
| perilous tasks: and their faces in old
| age are marked like the faces of moth
| ers of large families Buonarotti ac-
cepted his genius as a terrible fatality
which must be borne flame which
| burned within him and would consume
| him: it would have been better he said,
| to have been maker of matches and
| to have lived the life of the people
He did not marry. and for the same
reason that he cultivated no friend
| ships; II have only too much of wife
| in this art of mine" He developed a
profound attachment for Vittoria
| Colonna. one of the most cultured
women of the Renaissance. but it was
only platonic love He did not care for
| the gentle beauty Of women. and when
he wrote love poems 1t was to a hand
| some youth. Tommaso Cavalieri His
sonnets which John Addington Sy-
monds has translated with affectionate
| care, are among the treasures Of Italian
literature,
He lived through three generations.
carrying too long what seemed TO him
the burden of life. He died In 1854, ac-
knowledged by all as the greatest artist
that his country had ever mad In the
same year Shakespeare came 1t was a
| sign that the Renaissance had died in
Italy, and had been reborn in the North
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