MICHAEL ANGELO
221
MICHAEL APOSTOLIUS
occasion to the reconstruction of St. Peter's on its pres- ent sublime plan, in order the better to adapt it to the colossal dimensions of the proposed monument. In 1506 Michael Angelo, incensed by the indifference of the pontiff towards him, quitted Rome; but after a short time the repeated and urgent entreaties of Julius led him to return, and at the pojie's request he now paint- ed with his own hand the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and, although unwillingly, he began in 1508, and com- pleted within less than two years his colossal task, which proved one of the most marvellous of his works. The subjects of these cartoons are taken from the book of Genesis, but between these and the representations of the persons of the Saviour's genealogy are colossal figures of prophets and sibyls.
Julius II died in 1513, and was succeeded by Leo X, who, together with successive popes, is censured for il- liberal conduct towards Michael Angelo. Leo ordered him to build the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo, at Florence, and compelled him, against his will, to spend several years in procuring marble for that purpose. '•It is a mortifying reflection," says Duppa, "that the talents of this great man should have been buried and his time consumed, during the whole reign of Leo X, in little else than in raising stone out of a quarry and making a road to convey it to the sea" {Life of Jf. A71- gelu). Under the patronage of Clement VII (1523), Mi- chael Angelo devoted himself to the library and sacristy of San Lorenzo, at Florence, and in 1528 or 1529 he spent his time at Florence in the erection of fortitications to resist the attempts of the expelled Medici to recover possession. He also fought in the defence of that city against the papal troops. On the surrender of Florence he returned to Rome, and after the accession of pope Paul III, in 1534, was permitted to resume the mon- ument of Julius II, which he completed on a smaller scale than he had first designed. It consists of seven statues, one of which represents Moses, and was placed in the Church of San Pietro ad Yincolo. This statue of Muses is called one of his masterpieces. Another great production of this period is his great picture of the Last Jiah/meitt, painted for the altar of the Sistine Chapel. This colossal fresco, nearl}' 70 feet in height, which was completed in 1541, after some eight years of close confinement, was regarded by contemporary critics as having surpassed all his other works for the unpar- alleled jjowers of invention and the consummate knowl- edge of the human figure which it displayed. On a comparison with Raphael it loses, however, much of its value, for, as has been truly said, " one will seek in vain for that celestial light and divine inspiration which ap- pears in the Transfiguration." After its completion, Michael Angelo devoted himself to the perfecting of St. Peter's, which by the touch of his genius was convert- ed from a mere Saracenic hall into the most superb model of a Christian church. He refused all remunera- tion for this labor, which he regarded as a service to the glory of God. He never married; and upon his death in 1563, at Rome, his remains were removed to Florence, and laid within the Church of Santa Croce. His piety, benevolence, and liberality made him generally beloved ; and in the history of art no name shines with a more unsullied lustre than that of Michael Angelo. " He was the bright luminary," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, " from whom painting has borrowed a new lustre, under whose hands it assumed a new appearance and became another and superior art, and from whom all his contemporaries and successors have derived whatever the}' have pos- sessed of the dignified and majestic" {Discourses on Painting, vol. ii). Always a student, always dissatisfied with what he had done, many of his works were left un- finished ; but his fragments have educated eminent men. In disposition he was proud and passionate, but high- minded ; not greedy of gold, but princely in his gener- osity. His mind was full of great conceptions, for which he was ready to sacrifice and forego physical comforts. Of his merits as an artist, it is enough to say that Ra-
phael thanked God that he was born in the time of Michael Angelo Buonarotti. Comparing him with Ra- phael, Quatremere de Quincy marks IMichael Angelo as " the greatest of draughtsmen." " In painting," says Duppa, "the great work on which Michael Angelo's fame depends, and, taking it for all in all, the greatest work of his whole life, is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. . . . His sibyls and prophets exhibit with variety and energy the colossal powers of his mind. ... In his great works, his superior abilities are shown in the sublimity of his conceptions, and the power and facility with which they are executed." See Condivi, Vita dlMichaelAngelo Huonarotti (Rome, 1553; new ed. Pisa, 1823) ; Vignali, Vita di Michael Angelo (1753) ; Richard Duppa, Life of Michael Angelo (London, 1806); Hauchecorne, Vie de Michel- Ange ; Quatremere de Quincy, Vie de Michel- Ange (1835); J. S. Harford, LJfe of Michael Angelo (1856-7,2 vols. 8vo) ; Hermann Grimm, Michael Angelo's I^eben, and English version of the same (London, 1865, 2 vols.); Yasari, Lives of Painters and Sculptors ; Lanzi, Storia della Pittura ; Winckelmann, Neues Maler-Lex- ikon, s. V. ; Nagler, Kiinstler-Lexikon, s. v. ; Marie Henri Bayle, Histoii-e de la Peinture en Italie ; Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance (Lond. and N. Y., Mac- millan & Co., 1873, 8vo), ch. v, contains an interesting essay on the poetry of Michael Angelo ; and the excellent article in Thnmas. Jiiii. Jiiog. s. v,