Part 5

In 1501, when Michelangelo began this work, he was still free and unfettered, justly proud of the fame which his _Pietà_ had brought him, and with the world literally at his feet. This young giant boldly taking aim at an unknown but formidable enemy, might well be regarded as an allegorical representation of the artist himself, on the eve of grappling with his fate. It may be taken for certain that a quarter of a century later he would have interpreted the same theme very differently, and would perhaps have given us David the King, or David the Psalmist and the Prophet, instead of this magnificent embodiment of conscious power and hope. The fierce frown, the expression of strenuous force victoriously struggling against overwhelming odds, all those characteristics, in short, which have been summed up in the word _terribilità_ by his contemporaries, would have been replaced by the sombre majesty of the _Moses_, or the despairing expression of conquered, impotent strength which is the key-note to such works as the Medicean Tombs, the Louvre Captives, and the _Last Judgment_. Critics casting about for an artistic derivation of Michelangelo's earlier works maintain that the _David's_ face bears a resemblance to the features of Donatello's Saint George in Or San Michele, but the type is far more virile and energetic, recalling, if anything, the masterpieces of ancient art.

The _tondo_ representing _The Holy Family_, now in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, is doubly interesting as a work of art and as an instance of Michelangelo's fearless originality. It was painted about the year 1503 for that Florentine merchant prince, Angelo Doni, who sat for his portrait to the divine Raphael. Although Signorelli had once before introduced nude figures as a decorative element in a Madonna and Child which he painted for Lorenzo de' Medici (and it is possible that Michelangelo saw this picture), no other artist of the Renaissance had ever dared to interpret a sacred subject such as the Holy Family in so Pagan a spirit. An ancient Greek would quite naturally have supposed the beautiful group in the foreground to represent Juno playing with the infant Bacchus, only wondering, perhaps, why the artist had neglected to place a garland of vine leaves and clustering grapes round the Wine God's curly head. St. Joseph might easily be taken for a momentarily uxorious Jupiter or for a sober Silenus, and the nude shepherds idling in the background place the scene in a pleasant corner of Arcadia, while a grinning little Faun does duty for St. John the Baptist.

Nevertheless there is not the slightest hint at irreverence; it is merely a Pagan translation, by a master hand, of an oft-repeated Christian theme, a transposition as beautiful and as harmonious in its way as the original score. Indeed, Vasari tells us that Michelangelo painted this strikingly original _tondo_ merely "to show his skill," and the magnificent modelling and foreshortening of the Madonna's arms, the masterful composition, and the wonderfully accurate drawing more than achieve his object. As to the colouring, he entirely disregarded it in his sculptor's pride. He might as well have carved this remarkable work in marble. Before painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo appeared to be wilfully colour-blind, as if afraid that painting would wile him away from the sister art, to which he had plighted his troth.

There is very little doubt that the original design of the _Creation of Man_ was inspired in Michelangelo by one of the antique gems which he admired as a boy in Lorenzo de' Medici's collection. A similar origin may be assigned to the group of Judith and her maid, also in the Sistine Chapel, to several of the Athletes, and to the Leda and the Swan which he painted for the Duke of Ferrara. But this magnificent recumbent figure of Adam far surpasses anything in ancient as well as in modern art, and is indeed a worthy centre round which the remaining stupendous compositions appear to gravitate like planets round the sun. It is here, more than in any other of his works, that we can appreciate Michelangelo's wonderful gift of interpreting the highest and most inaccessible themes in a simple yet imposing manner. Resting heavily on the curved surface of the globe, his powerful limbs and finely modelled flesh clearly outlined against the indigo blue of the sky and the solemn lines of the landscape, Adam gives one the impression of a huge primeval being instinct with strength which he is as yet unable to understand or to use, and just awaking into life, a divine spark of which he receives from the Deity. Michelangelo's conception of God the Father, as an old but powerful and majestic figure, has ever since remained the only possible pictorial symbol of so lofty a subject.

Apart from its great artistic merit, a pathetic interest attaches to the statue of _Moses_ because it represents the last act of that tragedy of the tomb which darkened the greater part of Michelangelo's life, and influenced his art more than any other circumstance of his eventful career.

The leader and law-giver of the Hebrews is seated in an attitude of thought and wisdom, holding under his right arm the tables of the law, and supporting his chin with his left hand, like one tired and full of cares. His beard escapes in long waves between the fingers of his right hand. The hands and strong bare arms of the _Moses_ are magnificent, beyond comparison the finest ever modelled by Michelangelo. The expression of the face is one of commanding power and almost fierce energy, a face capable of inspiring terror rather than love, a veritable embodiment of the cruel, uncompromising Hebrew legislation. The powerful, massive form is clearly apparent beneath the beautiful folds of the draperies, for here, as in all Michelangelo's clothed figures, whether in painting or in sculpture, dress does not hide but almost enhances the shape and beauty of the body. "This statue alone," exclaimed the Cardinal of Mantua, when he saw the finished work, "is enough to honour the memory of Pope Julius."

In the Medicean tombs Michelangelo may be said to have equalled if not surpassed the masterpieces of ancient sculpture. We have selected the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici for our illustration, as the statues which adorn it, symbolizing _Evening_ and _Dawn_, although conceived in the same spirit of profound melancholy, are, if possible, even more beautiful than the Day and Night of Giuliano's tomb. _Evening_ is represented by an old man, brooding and dejected, but hardly less powerful and muscular than the giant Day. It is evident that he is not suffering from bodily fatigue, but that he is sinking under the weight of some unbearable, irremediable calamity.

The virgin _Dawn_ is perhaps the most beautiful female figure of modern or of ancient art. She is represented as only half awake and almost unable to rise from her couch, while there is a suggestion of ineffable bitterness in the expression of the face with its half-closed eyes wearily greeting another day of sorrow. The powerful yet graceful limbs are magnificently modelled, and the whole figure may be regarded as the perfection of the female form, redeemed from any breath of sensuality by a commanding loftiness of expression, such as the Greeks gave to the statues of their goddesses.

Michelangelo's _Last Judgment_ is a work of so colossal a nature that it would be impossible to give even a remote idea of the whole composition in this unpretentious little book. We have therefore selected for our illustration the central group representing Christ the Judge, a dread figure enthroned on clouds, with hand upraised in an attitude of stern command, surrounded by the Blessed, who press round the Son of God with eager, frightened looks and gestures, as if hardly secure of their final salvation in that terrible day of retribution, "cum vix Justus sit securus." Nestling timorously close to her Son, half sitting, half crouching, with head averted, as if to avoid seeing the coming wrath, and arms crossed on her bosom, is the Mother of God, a wonderfully sweet and pathetic figure, full of pity and sorrow for the condemned souls, and contrasting strangely with the inexorable Judge rising in his stern majesty to pronounce sentence on the frightened, shuddering mass of humanity. The action of the Judge, and indeed every part of the composition, forcibly remind us of the _Last Judgment_ in the Campo Santo of Pisa, but there is not a figure or a detail in the whole of this colossal work which does not bear the imprint of that powerful originality and that wonderful gift to express the most varied emotion and to interpret the loftiest themes, which were the principal characteristics of Michelangelo's genius.

LIST OF CHIEF WORKS

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

VIENNA, ALBERTINA GALLERY.

Several drawings and sketches.

BELGIUM

BRUGES, CHURCH OF ST. BAVON.

Marble group of Virgin and Child. (Executed at Carrara in 1506 for two Flemish merchants.)

BRITISH ISLES

LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY.

No. 790, Entombment. Unfinished painting on wood. (Between 1501-1504.)

ROYAL ACADEMY, DIPLOMA GALLERY.

Madonna and Child. Tondo bas-relief (1501-1504).

LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM.

Several drawings.

OXFORD, TAYLOR COLLECTION.

Drawings.

FRANCE

PARIS, LOUVRE.

Two colossal statues of Captives, originally intended for the tomb of Julius II. (1513).

Numerous drawings, including Head of Faun.

LILLE, MUSÉE WICAR.

Drawings.

GERMANY

BERLIN MUSEUM.

Statue of youthful St. John the Baptist (about 1495).

WEIMAR MUSEUM.

Drawings and studies for the Last Judgment.

HOLLAND

HAARLEM, TEYLER MUSEUM.

Many important drawings.

ITALY

BOLOGNA, CHURCH OF SAN DOMENICO.

Statue of kneeling Angel (1494).

FLORENCE, ACCADEMIA.

Colossal statue of David (1501-1504).

Statue of St. Matthew (unfinished).

BUONARROTI COLLECTION.

Madonna and Child (bas-relief), 1489-1492.

Fight between Centaurs and Lapithae (bas-relief), 1489-1492.

Numerous sketches, studies, architectural drawings and three hundred autograph letters.

DUOMO.

Unfinished group representing "The Deposition from the Cross."

MUSEO NAZIONALE.

Statue of Bacchus (executed in 1497 for Jacopo Galli).

Dying Adonis (1501-1504).

Apollo (unfinished statue, executed in 1530 for Baccio Valori).

Victory (group intended for Julius II.'s Tomb, 1521).

Bust of Brutus (1544?).

CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO.

Medicean Tombs (begun 1521).

New Sacristy and Library of San Lorenzo.

UFFIZI GALLERY.

The Holy Family (tondo in oil-colours, painted for Angelo Doni in 1503).

Numerous drawings, including _The Resurrection of Lazarus_, _Prudence_, the _Last Judgment_.

BOBOLI GARDENS.

Four Slaves (unfinished statues).

ROME, ST. PETER'S.

Group of La Pietà (1499).

CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA SOPRA MINERVA.

Statue of the Saviour (1521).

CHURCH OF SAN PIETRO IN VINCOLI.

Tomb of Julius II. and statue of Moses (completed 1545).

VATICAN, SISTINE CHAPEL.

The Creation and Fall of Man (1508-1512). } } Frescos. The Last Judgment (1535-1541). }

PAULINE CHAPEL.

The Conversion of St. Paul. } Frescoes } (1542-49). The Martyrdom of St. Peter. }

CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.