The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-19

TINE eyes move on from master
l. piece: from the terror stricken
faces of Adam and Eve in the "EX-
pulsion from Paradise" to the fine
group of interlocked figures in "The
Flood" from the strange representa-
ton of Jonah to the perfect por-
traits of Zachariah and Ezekiel; no
where in painting are there figures
finer than these two. There is hard
ly anything here from the New
Testament; what is not Hebraic is
pagan, like the dark majesty of the
"Cumaean Sibly," the feminine per-
lection of the "Libyan Sibyl," and
the intent youth whose nude frame
rests over the head of the sadly
meditative jeremiah.
This, after all, is greater than
1.-THE Last Supper of leonardo"
and anyone of ten portraits here
would equal Raphaers faultless
Julius II" And all done without
any model before the artist, Michel
angelo, all drawn out of a
paSsionately thorough observation of
every human muscle and curve, a
tireless memory, and creative
imagination, and inconceivable pa
thence.
No one had been permitted to see
the work till it was complete; except
Raphael, as we have said, and the
Pope, whose anxiety that the task
be finished so angered Angelo that
occasionally he would let a plank of
the scaffolding fall near His
Holiness head, as the best means Of
reducing the frequency of these dis
turbing visits.
The artist demiurge was engaged
in creating the world anew, and
wished to be alone with God. But
in 1909 the public were admitted;
and the comment of all Rome was
unanimous: this was the greatest
thing yet done in the history of
painting.
This chapel" says Vasari,
lighted up a lamp for our art which
casts abroad lustre enough to
illuminate the world, drowned for so
many centuries in darkness"
Raphael came, saw, and was con-
quered, and acknowledged himself
surpassed.
THE LAST JUDGMENT
IN 1913 julius died, and was sue
4 ceeded by Leo x, son of Lorenzo
the Magnificent. The new pope felt
uncomfortable in the presence of
Angelo; Leo was a pagan, Michael
was a Puritan; and with a strange
inversion of common relations, the
artist looked with doubt upon the
morals Of the priest. Leo wished to
keep NIichaelangelo in his service,
but much preferred to give him work
that would keep him away from the
Vatican.
He suggested that Angelo should
go to Florence and ornament the
facade of the church of San Lorenzo
and his uncle, Giuliano. Buonarotti
was loath to go; he longed to return
to the tomb of Julius, and hated the
Medici-whose graves he was now
asked to adorn-for destroying the
Florentine republic. Nevertheless he
went, and labored faithfully on the
task, and new masterpieces took
form slowly under his hand.
Under the virile figures of the two
NIedici he chiseled symbolic forms
representing night, day, evening and
dawn. The statue of Evening" is
among the masters best; the body
of an athlete, and the head OF a
genial Bernard Shaw.
Nothing in modern statuary,"
says Tame, is equal to these colos-
sal figures and the noblest Of
antique figures are not superior;
they are different-which is all that
one can say"
Are they exaggerated, these
splendid bodies?--and why should
evening be represented by the
muscles of a Hercules? Let us be
modest, and admit that the artist
felt the matter in this way, and
probably knew best; doubtless these
names-Notte, Giorno, Sera, Aurora
were nothing to him; he was Gre
ating human beings and breathing
into them immortal life.
Perhaps, by a queer expressionism,
he made these statues say not what
day and night might be, but what
their creator felt, the torture of a
genius that would not let him rest,
and the gloom of a soul that
dreamed of perfection and lived in
the midst of incompetence and tyr
amy.
TIE longed to carve out of this
Il n stone the brutal features of res
lentless despots, and he burned at