Evening star., 1933-03-02
Censoring Michaelangelo
Placed Among Useless Tasks

they can't be blamed for that" The
Evening News adds: THE immortal
artist was four years engaged on the
work, which has been adjudged Of up-
matched grandeur. The intellectual
meanings of the vast design have been
called inexhaustible, the frescoes rising
in ascending scale Of majesty through
the successive acts Of creation from the
last to the first. The dividing of the
light from the darkness, the creation Of
sun, moon and stars, the creation OF
the waters, the creation of man and
the other subjects depicted by the great
artist of the Renaissance are well
known to travellers and to the apprecia-
tive Of art who have seen them in their
setting Of centuries. or in reproduction"
Asserting that Christian art is not
obscene" the Dubuque Catholic Daily
Tribune states that Not even among
the ancient Greeks was the representa-
ton of the nude body the chief aim
of sculpture or painting" AS to the
present case it makes the statement:
The subject arrangement and tech
nical excellence of these freScoes have
always excited the greatest admiration.
The divine, the prophetic and the
human are here most happily ex-
pressed. The conception of the first is
original. The prophets and sibyls have
wonderful individuality, and great skill
is shown in handling the drapery,
while human beings are presented in
animated action. Michelangelo as the
architect created the beautiful division
Of the space and the exact proportions;
as sculptor he produced the anatomical
ly correct figures, and as the painter
he knew how to blend forms and colors
into perfect harmony. Equally famous
is the great fresco of The Last Judg-
ment,' which Michelangelo painted
upon the alter wall of ths chapel. from
1885 to 154l. In this fre5co however,
the nude male figures aroused objection
and some have been painted over by
various artists. There are no nude
female figures"
"Michelangelo." imagines the Mil
waukee Sentinel. looking down from
some exalted and sparsely peopled
celestial apartment, may have sighed,
but it Is improbable. 1t is more than
likely that he laughed and called to his
c-ony. Shakespeare, who had been rib
bing him for 300 years about his rather
bad sonnetS, to come and take look.
Shakespeare could laugh, too, quoting,
by way of comment, several passages
which had been scissored from some
plays Of his on the Same innocent
SnOreS. bOln MeSSer MlCHelduBelo anu
Master William must have seen too
much Of that sort of thing to be an
noyed. Michelangelo may have re-
called an incident of his lifetime, how
q fellow who should have been coloring
tavern signs, one Danielo. was hired
to paint aprons on the undraped sim
ners Of his Last Judgment William
may have remembered how certain
sensitive editors removed whole scenes
from his 'Troilus and Cressida' and
several pungent lines (Which he may
have quoteO from his Romeo and
Juliet Then Michelangelo may have
recalled that one NJ Desncyers, min
lister of state for Louis XIII (of all
peopleD in France (of all countriesD
ordered his Lcda and the Swan to be
destroyed because of its indecency, and
that the Florentines solemnly voted 10
,nntaIa1iGa1 GnHment q ~ RAEi6a