The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-17

TN 1901 Michael returned to Flor
Il ence; his father had begged him
to come back. The city greeted him
as already the greatest of living
Sculptors. The Church of Saint
Maria del Fiori had a piece of mar
BILE fifteen feet high, but very mar
row; no artist had dared make any
thing Of it; Angelo looked at it,
studied it carefully, tok it to his
studio, worked on it for two years,
and created one of the most famous
statues in modern art, the David"
The Signory called a council of
the greatest artists in Florence to
decide where TO place the statue;
Botticelli Ghirlandaio, Leonardo,
and the father of Benvenuto Cellini
took part; in the end they voted to
leave the matter to Michelangelo
himself. He chose the steps of the
Palazzo Vecchio; and there the
1.-the figure stood till 1873, when it
was removed, for protection against
the elements, to the Academia
dele Belle Arti, where it is today,
while brilliant replica of it adorns
that Piazetta Michelangelo, at
whose feet all Florence lies.
Some of us do not like it over
much; the face is too regular, and
the right hand seems absurdly long.
But there is a always a Slight pos
sibility that we are wrong, at least
when he differ from Michelangelo
on a matter of Statuary. Contem-
porarieS criticised it, too, mostly as
too large; Soderini, a member of
the Signory, especially objected to
the size of the nose.
Angelo appeased him by agreeing
to reduce it; he mounted a scaffold
with hammer and chiSel, and a
hand secretly full of marble chips
and powder; and after much pre-
tended chiseling came down and
showed the powdered fragments to
Soderini. Il am far more pleased
with it now" said the learned Coun-
cillor; "you have given life to the
statue"
The Signory were fond of the
David" because it stood in their
minds as a republican symbol,
warning to would-be deSpots that
Florence would fight bitterly for its
independence,
A ND now, having topped his
L "A age in sculpture, Michael
turned to the brush, and produced
Holy Family" for his friend
Angelo DOni. Queer faces, hardly
as attractive as the splendid
drapery; BuOnarotti did not succeed
we'll with women, either as an artist
or as man. And where Leonardo,
experimenting with new ideas,
would have painted a background
of landscape, NIichelangelo has
filled his spaces with naked youths.
A similar prediction for the
nude marked the great picture
which he made for one wall of the
Sala del Papa at Santa Maria
Novella in Florence IN 1904, while
Leonardo was painting a like battle
scene on another wall of the same
palace. Both paintings were des-
troyed in the civil strife that came
soon after their completion; but
Cellini, who saw them ~in Situ,"
said that they surpassed the Sistine
Chapel ceiling, and that Michaels
picture of the "Pisan Soldiers was
superior to Leonardos painting of
1.-THE Battle of Anghiari."
Geniuses accord like gunpCwder
and matches, or like Angelo and
ola Vinci. Michael ragged when he
heard that Leonardo rated painting
above sculpture; and though the
gentle portrayer of Mona Lisa tried
hard to avoid a quarrel, the in
tenSer man would not step All inch
out of his way to keep the peace.
Merejkowski describes the fiery
archangel of the Renaissance COM
ing down upon Leonardo as the
latter talked with Raphael in the
streets.
Ills peISOu WAIKIKI heavily,
shambling like a bear; he was
bent and bony, with a large head,
black hair, and ill-shaped beard;
his clothes were poor and care
less thrown on. He had broad
nose. His small eyes dilated and
glowed strangely under excite
ment: and much night work had
Redeemed his eyelids. Indeed, he
was attached to his forehead, like
new Cyclops. His bent
head and bowed shoulders, upon