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 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
London : 
 
 Printed by Spottiswoode & Co, 
 New-street-Square. . 
 
- K 
 
 
 
MICllAEl ANGEIO MJOKrARMOTI,. 
 
 FROM THE ENGRAVING BY BONASONE 
 
IHE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MICHAEL MGELO BUOMEEOTI 
 
 WITH TRANSLATIONS OF MANY OF HIS 
 
 Ipotms anil Reiters. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 AI E M O I H S 
 
 OF 
 
 SAVONAROLA, RxlPHAEL, AND VITTORIA COLONNA 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. HAHFOED, Esq. 
 
 D.C.L., F.E.S. 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF PAINTING OF ST. LUKE, AT ROME, 
 AND OF THE ROMAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BLOWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. 
 
 1857. 
 
 The right of translation is reserved. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/lifeofmichaelang01 harf 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The claims of Michael Angelo to admiration as 
 an Artist, have been forcibly pourtrayed by nu- 
 merous writers ; but his great qualities as a man, 
 present a wide field for further illustration* It 
 has been my aim throughout the following Bio- 
 graphy fully to do justice to him in each of these 
 capacities. And, though it may appear difficult 
 to add to the force of all that a Flaxman and a 
 Reynolds, a Lomazzo and a Fuseli, have so ably 
 written upon the characteristics of his art, I 
 trust it may be found that the subject is not 
 wholly exhausted, but that writers, following in 
 their train, may be able to glean precious mate- 
 rials in the same field of criticism. There is, 
 for example, one branch of critical investigation 
 connected with the mental history of this great 
 man, which is full of interest, but which has 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 hitherto been imperfectly touched upon. I refer 
 to the intimate alliance which may be traced 
 between the lofty tendencies of his Art and of 
 his Poetry, and to the powerful influence exer- 
 cised upon both, by the Platonic philosophy, a 
 deep attachment to which he appears to have im- 
 bibed in early youth, through an intimate connec- 
 tion with the Platonic Academy of Florence. As 
 to the greater part of its members, their con- 
 nection with it was little more than a piece of 
 fashionable homage to Lorenzo de^ Medici, its great 
 patron and supporter ; but in the case of Michael 
 Angelo, and some few others, it was difierent. 
 Steering clear of the absurd puerilities mixed up 
 with its theories, he seized upon the grand no- 
 tions which more or less belong to every form of 
 Platonism, and with them impregnated both his 
 Art and his Poetry. This being the case, I have 
 deemed it expedient to trace out the sources of 
 his Platonic habits of thought and speculation, in 
 the chapter upon his Poetry, and also to give a 
 detailed account of the Academy itself, and of the 
 sort of influence which it exercised in Florence. 
 The subject is full of interest, and has been little 
 more than glanced at by Roscoe, in his biographies 
 of the Medici family. 
 
 My aim throughout these volumes has been to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 render them interesting, not only to the artist, 
 but to general readers, and to the literary world, 
 by developing Michael Angelo’s character, artistic 
 and social, political and religious ; and by proving 
 him to have been in each of these particulars, 
 equally worthy of esteem and admiration. His 
 social character, it is true, has been ably illus- 
 trated by his biographers Condivi and Vasari, 
 who enjoyed the privilege of his intimate friend- 
 ship, and published their memoirs of him, in his 
 own life-time. These pages will be found to com- 
 bine all the most interesting facts recorded by 
 them, as well as much matter collected from other 
 sources. 
 
 Vasari, however, was a worshipper of the rising 
 sun of the new dynasty of the Medici, founded by 
 Charles V. in the year 1530, after his conquering 
 sword had annihilated the last vestiges of Floren- 
 tine freedom. In defence of that freedom, Michael 
 Angelo risked fortune, friends, and life itself, and 
 never regarded the new order of things with com- 
 placency, in spite of the personal respect and grati- 
 tude he felt towards Duke Cosmo I. in return for 
 all the homage and kindness vouchsafed to him by 
 that Prince. On the patriotic merits, therefore, of 
 M. Angelo, Vasari dared not to speak out, neither 
 did Condivi venture into this arena of politics. 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I have endeavoured to do full justice to the part 
 which he acted at that memorable period, which 
 was in fact the death-struggle of Florentine liberty. 
 It commenced soon after the decease of Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici, and one of its most stirring partisans 
 was the celebrated Savonarola, whose eventful his- 
 tory, therefore, reflects much light on the early 
 stages of that struggle : even after his death, the 
 enthusiasm which he had awakened in favour of 
 constitutional government continued for many 
 years to be felt in Florence, and to keep at bay 
 the efforts of the Medici to regain their lost power. 
 Michael Angelo always thought and spoke of Savo- 
 narola with affectionate veneration, and highly 
 prized his religious writings. A memoir of him, 
 therefore, forms a natural episode to the present 
 biography, and though it has extended to a length 
 beyond my original purpose, I believe it will not 
 be deemed out of place. 
 
 The religious character of Michael Angelo is 
 another topic of deep interest, which has never yet 
 been duly developed. This I have attempted to 
 elucidate by such an arrangement of his Poetry, 
 as shall make him, himself, unfold to the reader 
 the various phases of religious sentiment and opi- 
 nion which marked his manhood and his old age. 
 It will be found, that he has faithfully opened the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IX 
 
 inmost workings of his heart, and claims our vene- 
 ration in virtue of sentiments and principles of 
 the most enlightened piety. 
 
 The bright ray shed upon his later days by his 
 intimacy with Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of 
 Pescara, and the charm attached to her character, 
 will, I conceive, render a memoir of that illustrious 
 lady interesting and acceptable to the reader. 
 
 The facts of her life necessarily embrace a 
 reference to the inchoate but finally extinguished 
 Reformation in Italy, — a subject which I have en- 
 deavoured to treat with truth and impartiality. 
 
 My readers will, I am sure, be gratified by the 
 insertion of a translation of Chevalier Bunsen’s 
 ingenious and tasteful dissertation on the original 
 arrangement of Raphael’s Tapestries in the Sistine 
 Chapel. 
 
 The author has himself, in a separate work, 
 attempted to illustrate the genius of M. Angelo by 
 a series of highly finished engravings from his 
 works, pictorial and architectural.* 
 
 * The Engravings referred to are, — A Chromo Lithograph 
 of the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 3 feet 5 inches long by 1 
 foot inches wide, — published by Colnaghi and Co. ; — • also 
 “Illustrations, Architectural and Pictorial, of the Genius of 
 Michael Angelo,” folio, published by Messrs. Colnaghi and Co., 
 and Messrs. Longman and Co. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In Italian names familiar to the English public, 
 the anglicised form of spelling is generally adopted ; 
 for instance, Raphael instead of Raffaelle, Michael 
 Angelo instead of Michel Agnolo ; but in the 
 case of names not thus familiar, the usual Italian 
 orthography is adhered to. 
 
 Blaise Castle, 
 Jan. 1857. 
 
 J. S. H. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1474 TO 1489. 
 
 Page 
 
 Birth and Parentage of Michael Angelo.— Early indica- 
 tion of his Artistic Powers. — Is apprenticed to 
 r>. Ghirlandajo. — His rapid advance in Art - - 1 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 1489 TO 1490. 
 
 Is patronised hy Lorenzo De’ Medici, who gives him a 
 Home in his Palace. — Character, Tastes, and Pursuits 
 of Lorenzo - - - = - -13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1490 TO 1491. 
 
 He especially devotes himself to Sculpture. — Studies the 
 Fresco Paintings of Masaccio. — His Quarrel with 
 Torrigiano, and its Consequences - - - 21 
 
Xll 
 
 CONTENTS OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1490 TO 1492. 
 
 Page 
 
 Improving Influence of the Society which frequented the 
 Palace of Xorenzo upon the Youthful Buonarroti. — 
 Sketches of Politian, Landini, Pico di Mirandula, B. 
 Scala, and his learned Daughter Alessandra, the Pulci 
 Family, Matteo Franco, G. Benivieni, Demetrius Chal- 
 condyles, T. Linacre, Marsiglio Ficino - - 34 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A Sketch of the Modern Platonists and their Opinions - 72 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Political Character of Lorenzo de’ Medici considered - 84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1492 TO 1494. 
 
 Death of Lorenzo de’ Medici. — Michael Angelo prose- 
 cutes his Studies of Anatomy, &c. — Piero De’ Medici 
 succeeds his Father as Head of the Florentine Go- 
 vernment. — His Character and Conduct. — Invasion 
 of Italy by Charles VIII. of France, and its Causes. 
 
 — He approaches Florence. — The Medici are expelled, 
 and the Popular Party triumph. — A Curious Dream. 
 
 — Michael Angelo retires to Bologna, where he is hos- 
 pitably entertained. — Employed to finish the Tomb of 
 St. Dominic by Nicola Pisano. — Merits and Influence 
 of that great Artist - - - - - 99 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 1494-5. 
 
 Return of Michael Angelo to Florence. — Finds it in a State 
 of great Political Excitement. — Popular Government 
 
THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 Page 
 
 established there beneath the Auspices of Savonarola. 
 
 — Michael Angelo’s Esteem for him, and Biographical 
 Sketch of this extraordinary Man. — His early Pre- 
 ference for the Monastic Life. — Enters a Convent of 
 the Dominican Order at Bologna. — His Failure at 
 first as a Preacher, and his subsequent Success. — 
 Claims Prophetic Powers. — Settles at Florence, and 
 becomes Prior of the Convent of San Marco. — His 
 Zeal and Success as a Preacher, and great Influence. 
 
 — His Deforms. — He rejects the Advances of Lo- 
 renzo de* Medici, and why. — Denounces the Cor- 
 ruptions of the Church and of the Age. — A Brief 
 View of those Corruptions. — Last Illness of Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici. — He sends for Savonarola. — The Revolu- 
 tion which followed his Death. — Savonarola is called 
 upon to act as an Envoy to Charles VIII., and sub- 
 sequently to remodel the Florentine Republic. — His 
 Political and Religious Schemes and Proceedings - 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 1494 TO 1498. 
 
 Specimens of Savonarola’s Eloquence and Power as a 
 Preacher. — Indignation of the Papal Government on 
 hearing of the Freedom with which he exposed the 
 Corruptions of the Cliurch and the Clergy. — Vain 
 Attempts to win him over to its Interests. — Infamous 
 Character of Pope Alexander VI. — Conspiracy to 
 restore the Medici, and consequent Trial and Death of 
 five leading Citizens. — Reflections on this Act. — 
 The Carnival converted into a Religious Festival by 
 Savonarola. — Censure on the Extravagances attend- 
 ing it. — Flis Political Influence declines. — Excom- 
 municated by the Pope. — Savonarola’s Exposure of 
 the Pontiff’s Vices. — Addresses Letters to the Po- 
 tentates of Europe declaring him to be no true Pope. 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS OF 
 
 Page 
 
 — Ordeal of Fire. — Public Commotions. — Trial, Con- 
 demnation, Death, and Character of Savonarola - 156 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1495-6. 
 
 Michael Angelo, on his Return from Bologna, executes 
 various works in Sculpture. — His first Visit to 
 Rome, and occasion of it. — Executes his Bacchus, 
 and the Group of the Pieta now in St. Peter’s - 215 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1502 TO 1504. 
 
 Michael Angelo revisits Florence. — Executes his David. 
 
 — Paints a Holy Family for Angelo Doni. — Designs 
 the famous Cartoon of Pisa in Competition with Leo- 
 nardo da Vinci. — A brief Sketch of the latter Artist. 
 
 — Respective Merits of the two Cartoons - -221 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 1504 TO 1507. 
 
 Michael Angelo’s Deliglit in Literary Studies. — Is summoned 
 to Rome by Pope Julius II.— Character of this Pope. 
 
 — M. Angelo is commanded by him to commence his 
 Mausoleum. — Account of the Plan for it. — He goes to 
 Carrara to raise the necessary Marbles. — Pie zealously 
 prosecutes the Work; but suddenly the Pope’s Ardour 
 cools, and he treats Michael Angelo with studied 
 Neglect. — Indignant at this treatment, he retires to 
 Florence, and resumes his labours on the Cartoon of 
 Pisa. — The Pope summons him to return, but in vain. 
 
 — Their Reconciliation. —Executes a bronze Statue 
 of Julius II. — Its subsequent Destruction. - - 238 
 
THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 XV 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Page 
 
 At the urgent Instance of Julius II., but contrary to his 
 own Wishes, Michael Angelo paints the Ceiling of the 
 Sistine Chapel. — His admirable Success in this great 
 Work. — Renewed Altercation with the Pope, which 
 proves momentary ----- 255 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A particular Description of the whole Composition and 
 
 Painting of the Sistine Ceiling - - - 273 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Death of Julius II., and Succession of Leo X. to the Pope- 
 dom. — His Character.—Employs Michael Angelo, as 
 an Architect, to design a Fa9ade for the Church of 
 San Lorenzo, which he approves, and intrusts its 
 Execution to him. —The Commission proved one of the 
 great Misfortunes of his Life. — After Seven Years of 
 Preparation, the Pope abandons the Scheme. — Grief 
 and Disappointment of Michael Angelo. — Failure of a 
 Scheme, in which he took peculiar Interest, for erect- 
 ing a Tomb to the Memory of Dante. — Brilliant 
 Career of Raphael during this unfortunate Period of 
 the Life of Buonarroti. — Death of Leo X. — Is succeeded 
 by Adrian VI. - - - - - 298 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A brief Sketch of the Life and Works of Raphael, and a 
 Comparison between his Genius and that of Michael 
 Angelo. - - - - - -312 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN VOL. I. 
 
 1. Michael Angelo, from engraving by 
 
 2. Cosmo de’ Medici - - - 
 
 3. Lorenzo de’ Medici 
 
 4. Politian - - - - 
 
 5. Ficino - - - 
 
 Bonasone Frontispiece. 
 - to face page 14 
 
 >> 
 
 18 
 
 36 
 
 5) 
 
 56 
 
 6. Tomb of Countess Beatrice 
 
 7. Pulpit of Baptistery at Pisa 
 
 8. Savonarola 
 
 9. Savonarola 
 
 10. Leonardo da Vinci - 
 
 11. Raphael - 
 
 12. Sistine Ceiling 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 ’5 
 
 113 
 
 114 
 128 
 213 
 228 
 313 
 
 end of the book^ 342 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Vol. I. p. 214. “The medal for which Michael Angelo suggested the 
 reverse, of a blind man led by a dog, as an emblem of Savonarola, with 
 the motto ‘‘'Docebo iniquas vias tuas,” &c., was the medal of himself in 
 his old age, executed by Leone Leoni, — not that of Savonarola. 
 
 The ambiguity with which the authority referred to at the bottom of 
 page 214 aUndes to it, has occasioned the error which this note is 
 meant to correct. 
 
 Vol. I. p. 28, last line. — Foi' the “Church of San Marco at Florence,” 
 read “ Church of Santa Maria, Novella.” 
 
 Vol. I. p. 116, line 7 . — For “d’Agiucourt ” read “Cicognara.” 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. EARLY INDI- 
 CATIONS OF HIS ARTISTIC POWERS. IS APPRENTICED TO 
 
 D. GHIRLANDAJO. HIS RAPID ADVANCE IN ART. 
 
 1474 TO 1489. 
 
 Let it not/’ says Vasari, excite surprise, that 
 though professing to decline writing the lives of 
 artists my contemporaries, I have undertaken that 
 of Michael Angelo. It is a slight and merited 
 tribute to one whose name can never die. When, 
 in common with other men, his mortal frame shall 
 perish, he will be immortal in his immortal works, 
 the fame of Avhich, so long as the Avorld endures, 
 will gloriously survive in the records and on the 
 lips of men, in contempt of envy, and in despite of 
 death.” 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 The honours decreed to celebrated men by their 
 contemporaries have often been subsequently re- 
 versed ; but, in the present instance, the glowing 
 eulogy of Vasari has, in the main, only anticipated 
 the sober judgment of posterity. 
 
 Michael Angelo was born in the diocese of 
 Arezzo, in Tuscany, on the 6th of March, 1474, in 
 the Castle of Chiusi and Caprese, of which his 
 father was podesta, or governor, for that year. 
 
 Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti Siraoni, the 
 father, was descended from the ancient and noble 
 family of the Counts of Canossa. His mother was 
 Francesca, daughter of Neri di Miniato del Sera 
 and Maria Bonda Rucellai. 
 
 In spite of the advancing learning and intelli- 
 gence of the fifteenth century, judicial astrology, 
 prolific parent of lying wonders, still exercised a 
 despotic sway over the hopes and fears, not only 
 of the ignorant multitude, but also of the highest 
 and the most educated classes. Sovereigns and 
 statesmen, historians and poets, even grave philo- 
 sophers, beheld in the starry heavens not so much 
 a display of the glory of God as an open volume in 
 which the future destinies of the human race, and 
 their own in particular, were to be traced by in- 
 fallible inferences derived from the positions, con- 
 junctions, and changes of the planets. No wonder, 
 then, that the parents of the infant Buonarroti 
 listened with fond credulity to the professors of 
 the occult science, who assured them that a favour- 
 
EARLY INDICATIONS. 
 
 3 
 
 able conjunction of the planets Mars and Venus, 
 which occurred at the hour of his birth, was a 
 sure presage of his future greatness. 
 
 The year of the father’s official duties having 
 expired, he returned to Florence, and put out his 
 son to nurse with a stonemason’s wife living near 
 his villa of Settignano, about three miles from Flo- 
 rence. George,” said Michael Ane;elo to Vasari 
 in after life, whatever of acrid my temper may 
 have in it, I ascribe to tlie keen air of your hills of 
 Arezzo ; and as to my chisel and mallet, I conclude 
 that my love for them was imbibed with my foster- 
 mother’s milk.” 
 
 As Lionardo’s family was numerous, and his 
 means were scanty, he brought up some of his 
 sons to the silk or woollen trade ; but discerning 
 in his son Michael decisive indications of su- 
 perior talents, he destined him for one of the 
 learned professions, and with this view sent him 
 to the grammar school of Francesco Urbino in 
 Florence. 
 
 Here, however, his progress was not satisfactory; 
 for, though his abilities were unquestionable, his 
 heart was not with his books. In fact, the youth- 
 ful predilections of Pascal for mathematical science, 
 and of Petrarch for elegant literature, were not 
 more decisive than those of Michael Angelo for the 
 art of design. His delight, even in childhood, 
 was to handle a pencil, and to attempt to give ex- 
 pression with it to the creations of his fancy, or to 
 
4 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the illustration of his sentiments and feelings.^ 
 Every day the disposition gathered strength, till 
 at length he spent most of the hours which he 
 could call his own, and many which ought to 
 have been devoted to school exercises, in this 
 fascinating pursuit. His father and nearest rela- 
 tives, who had probably in the first instance sur- 
 veyed his drawings with complacency and interest, 
 now beheld in them the indications of a passion 
 
 * A. F. Gori, in his annotations on Condivi, states that the 
 senator Filippo Buonarroti had shown him many early drawings 
 of Michael Angelo’s, some on the walls of the upper story of 
 the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, others on those of the family 
 villa at Settignano. “ To this villa the Cavaliere Buonarroti 
 kindly conveyed me in his carriage ; and I was not a little 
 amused on entering it to find myself seated opposite to a gen- 
 tleman, to whom he introduced me as Michael Angelo Buonar- 
 roti, his cousin. The villa is about three miles distant from Flo- 
 rence ; and from the open gallery which surrounds it there are 
 beautiful views of that city and its vicinage. Here the father 
 of the great artist really lived, and we entered with becoming 
 interest. It appears to be much in the state in which it was in 
 the fifteenth century. The house is of moderate size, and sur- 
 rounded by vineyards. On the wall of the staircase, enclosed 
 now in folding doors, is a fine sketch of Michael Angelo’s in 
 black chalk, much injured by the ravages of 300 years and 
 •want of attention, though, during the last eighty years, as we 
 were told, it has been well taken care of. It is full of life and 
 spirit, and represents a man with his head rather thrown back- 
 ward, his right arm elevated and admirably foreshortened ; 
 his fingers are holding something which, I think from their 
 position, and that of his mouth, must have been a reed or wind 
 instrument of music. The body is finely drawn, and terminates 
 just beneath the waist. From the garden we looked on heights 
 still sprinkled with snow, beneath which Lay Vallomhrosa^^ 
 
PARENTAL OPPOSITION. 
 
 5 
 
 which, unless promptly checked, Avould obtain the 
 mastery over him, and mar all their schemes for 
 his future advancement. Great pains were there- 
 fore taken to induce him to lay aside his pencil, 
 excepting by way of occasional recreation ; but 
 the entreaties and remonstrances of his friends 
 proved inetfectual, and at length his irritated 
 father, finding the rule that he had laid down con- 
 tinually broken, insisted, as the only remedy, that 
 he should give up drawing altogether. Possibly 
 this stern inhibition was for a short time obeyed ; 
 but evidence of its infraction quickly reached 
 Lionardo’s ears, who next attempted to enforce his 
 commands by personal correction.^ Here, how- 
 ever, he signally failed: that firmness of purpose 
 which afterwards characterised the man already 
 showed itself in the boy : nature proved invin- 
 cible, and her influence was strengthened by an 
 intimacy which he had formed with Francesco 
 Granacci, a youthful Florentine painter and pupil 
 of Domenico Ghirlandajo. He lent him drawings, 
 took him to see the finest objects of art in Flo- 
 
 * Condi vi and Vasari agree in stating that he was very 
 severely treated by his father and uncle, in order to expel this 
 devotion to art : — “ Onde dal padre e da’ fratelli del padre, i 
 quali tal arte in odio avevano, ne fu mal voluto, e bene spesso 
 stranamente battuto.” — Co?idivi, Vita di M. A, Buonarroti^ 
 cap. 5. “Tutto il tempo, che poteva mettere di nascoso, lo 
 consumava nel disegnare, essendo percib e dal padre, e da 
 suoi maggiori gridato, e tal volta battuto.” — Vasari^ Vita di 
 M, A. Buonarroti^ p. 4., edit. 4to, Roma, 1760. 
 
6 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 rence, introduced him to his master, and did all 
 in his power to foster the development of his 
 genius. The friendship thus commenced in mutual 
 sympathy and personal regard, proved one for life. 
 Granacci ere long beheld the young friend whom 
 he had thus taken by the hand, breaking through 
 every obstacle till he reached the highest pinnacle 
 of art. 
 
 The struggle between the father and the son was 
 at length amicably concluded. Lionardo, finding 
 there was no hope of his efficient application to the 
 course of reading and study proper to the learned 
 professions, at length, though very reluctantly, 
 yielded to his wishes, and consented to his becoming 
 the pupil of Ghirlandajo. Family pride had much 
 influenced his opposition. The art of painting had 
 not yet attained that high place in public estima- 
 tion which was subsequently asserted for it by his 
 son’s pre-eminent genius, and by that of a Da Vinci 
 and a Kaphael. Neither did it hold out, like 
 commerce, flattering promises of pecuniary profit. 
 He therefore deemed it a profession unworthy of 
 his noble descent, and involving a forfeiture of caste, 
 without sufficient counterbalancing advantages. 
 
 The contract with Ghirlandajo was for an ap- 
 prenticeship of three years. Vasari has preserved 
 a copy of the indenture, which covenants for the 
 pupil to receive six gold florins for the first year, 
 eight for the second, and ten for the third. That the 
 master should have been willing to commence with 
 
GHIRLANDAJO. 
 
 7 
 
 a payment instead of receiving a fee, indicates a 
 high estimate of the pupil’s powers. 
 
 Domenico Corradi, called Ghirlandajo from his 
 father’s trade, who was a goldsmith and also a ven- 
 dor of garlands, took the lead at this time among 
 the Florentine painters. He likewise excelled in 
 the art of mosaic. He was born in 1451, and died 
 in 1495. His pupils were numerous, and several of 
 them attained to high professional eminenee. The 
 reputation he enjoyed had led Sixtus IV. to employ 
 him, in common with Pietro Perugino and some 
 other able artists, in decorating the Sistine Chapel 
 with paintings in fresco. 
 
 AVithin the walls of the convent of San Marco 
 at Florence, a coenaculum by him is to be seen, 
 which is excellent both in design and colour. The 
 church of the Trinita in that city contains one of 
 his best compositions, the subject being the Death 
 of St. Francis. In the Palazzo Vecchio are to 
 be seen some specimens of his art, as also in the 
 cathedrals of Pisa and Lucca. His oil paintings 
 are of frequent occurrence in the picture galleries 
 of Italy, and are in general distinguished by much 
 of appropriate sentiment and picturesque treat- 
 ment. But of all his numerous works a series of 
 frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Novella, at 
 Florence, are the finest. The style of this church, 
 which Michael Angelo used to call in fondness 
 ‘Hiis Bride,” is Italian Gothic of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. In spite of numerous modern incongruities 
 
8 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the interior still exhibits striking evidences of its 
 having originally been a very fine specimen of this 
 style of architecture. 
 
 The frescoes in question are situated in a chapel 
 or choir which forms the terminating apse of the 
 church. The light is bad, and the back of a vast 
 modern altar-piece intercepts much of that which 
 the frescoes once enjoyed. They are divided into 
 compartments, the greater number of which occupy 
 the lofty walls to the right and left of the windows. 
 One side represents the History of St. John the 
 Baptist ; the other that of the Virgin. Among 
 them is the Slaughter of the Innocents, so highly 
 eulogised by Vasari: but this picture has nearly 
 perished. The various subjects are treated with 
 much force and originality. 
 
 Gliirlandajo was among the first of the Floren- 
 tine school who, by a superior knowledge of the 
 science of perspective, imparted due depth to his 
 compositions. The varied and dramatic expression 
 of his heads, the easy attitudes of his principal 
 figures, and the breadth and disposition of his 
 draperies, indicate that he had profited, like many 
 of his contemporaries, by a careful study of the 
 works of Masaccio. There is much in common 
 between these artists. His subsidiary groups are 
 often replete with portraits of the great men of his 
 day, which impart to them a peculiar interest, and 
 divest them of mannerism. Those of Lorenzo de’ 
 Medici, Politian, Marsiglio Ficino, Christoforo Lan- 
 
PROGRESS UNDER GHIRLANDAJO. 
 
 9 
 
 dini, and Ghirlandajo himself, are among those most 
 carefully pointed out to strangers. Some of the 
 most celebrated beauties who then graced the 
 circles of Florence, are also to be found among 
 them, habited in the costume of their age, which, 
 though not strictly appropriate, scarcely offends the 
 eye of taste, since the general style of dress did not 
 then partake of the extravagances of more modern 
 fashion. The compartment called the Naming of 
 the Virgin, contains a set of these female beauties, 
 among whom the charming face of Ginevra di 
 Benci is conspicuous. Ghirlandajo had the addi- 
 tional merit of rejecting, like Masaccio, from his 
 works the favourite appendages of gold nimbuses 
 and tinsel fringes. His colouring is rich, deep, 
 and harmonious. What he wanted to raise him to 
 the highest dignity of art was a grander and purer 
 outline, and a closer approximation, in the concep- 
 tion of his scriptural characters and subjects, to 
 the devout and ideal sentiment of the Giottesque 
 school. 
 
 Under this able master, Michael Angelo’s pro- 
 gress was such, that he Avas soon employed in 
 painting from his designs, parts of the frescoes 
 above described, in the choir of Santa Maria 
 Novella. Tradition points out various figures 
 among them as in this sense unquestionably his, 
 but Avithout sufficient evidence. His genius, se- 
 conded by assiduous application, soon became so 
 matured, that he found it difficult to confine him- 
 
10 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 self to mere copying, or to resist the impulse of 
 that creative fancy which was perpetually prompt- 
 ing him to attempt original composition. Struck 
 one day with the feeble drawing of a figure in a 
 cartoon of Ghirlandajo’s, which a pupil was copy- 
 ing, he seized the porte crayon, and drew round it, 
 with masterly precision, a correct and vigorous out- 
 line, which, preserving the character of the original, 
 invested it with new and appropriate energy. We 
 are not informed how his master received this piece 
 of practical criticism, though we should have been 
 willing to believe that feelings of admiration of his 
 pupil’s genius softened any emotions of just dis- 
 pleasure at his presumption, had not Condivi stated 
 in strong terms that he viewed his progress with 
 envy, and withheld from him privileges to which he 
 was fairly entitled.'^ His friend Granacci carefully 
 preserved the drawing which thus early indicated 
 the boy’s confidence in his own powers. He sub- 
 sequently gave it to Vasari, who showed it to 
 Michael Angelo at Rome in the year 1556. I 
 almost think,” he modestly observed, on looking at 
 it, “that I knew more of art in my youth than I 
 do in my old age.” 
 
 During his master’s absence from Santa Maria 
 on another occasion, he made so graphic and cor- 
 rect a drawing of some of the principal artists 
 employed upon the frescoes, together with the 
 
 * Condivi, cap. 5 . 
 
ATTENTION TO DETAILS. 
 
 11 
 
 desks, the scaffolding, and the other implements of 
 pictorial art which surrounded them, that Ghir- 
 landajo, on his return, struck by its truth and 
 vigour, could not repress the involuntary exclama- 
 tion, ‘‘ This youth already knows more of Art than 1 
 do myselfT 
 
 Wonderful things are also told of the accuracy, 
 both as to handling and style, with which he 
 imitated the drawings of various old masters ; so 
 much so, that, with the addition of artificial means 
 to give them the character of age, they imposed 
 even on practised connoisseurs. Vasari specially 
 dilates on an old portrait which he copied with 
 such exact truth, that it was mistaken for the 
 original. His biographers mention, among other 
 instances of his assiduous application, his special 
 care in attending to the minutest details which en- 
 tered into his subjects : for instance, in painting a 
 picture founded on a design of Albert Durer, or 
 Martin Schoens, representing the temptations of 
 St. Anthony (to which he had added many gro- 
 tesque figures of demons and monsters), he had to 
 introduce a group of fishes, and wishing to be true 
 to nature, he went to the fish-market, and made 
 drawings of the eyes and fins of various species 
 both living and dead, which he transferred with 
 the greatest effect to his canvass. It was thus 
 that, even in his early youth, he aimed at uniting 
 vigour of design with correctness of detail. 
 
 While thus pursuing his studies, the friendship 
 
12 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL AKGELO. 
 
 between himself and Granacci suffered no abate- 
 ment. Scarcely any one out of his immediate 
 family was as dear to him as the friend who had so 
 generously fostered his dawning genius, and who, 
 so far from regarding his subsequent good fortune 
 and advancing fame with any feelings akin to 
 jealousy, took the deepest interest in both, and 
 finally became, as it were, tlie scholar of his early 
 pupil, by making his great works the principal 
 model of his imitation. 
 
13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IS PATRONISED BY LORENZO DE’ MEDICI, WHO GIVES HIM A 
 HOME IN HIS PALACE. — CHARACTER, TASTES, AND PURSUITS 
 OF LORENZO. 
 
 1489 TO 1490. 
 
 The talents of the future great man have often been 
 first brought into public notice by circumstances 
 apparently fortuitous, but which deserve to be 
 deemed providential; for the same beneficent Wis- 
 dom which calls into being superior minds for the 
 furtherance of human improvement, is prolific of 
 means the best adapted to their future develop- 
 ment, and to their efficient instrumentality. 
 
 Great as were the talents of the youthful Buonar- 
 roti, they might have failed of their adequate 
 culture, or he might have long and vainly toiled at 
 the foot of the arduous steep, 
 
 “ The steep where Fame’s proud Temple shines afar,” 
 
 had he not unexpectedly found, at the time of which 
 we write, a generous patron, and an enlightened 
 counsellor, in the most illustrious Italian of his age, 
 Lorenzo de’ Medici, surnamed the Magnificent. 
 The names of Lorenzo and of his grandfather 
 Cosmo, are honourably and indissolubly associated 
 Avith the restoration of learning in the fifteenth 
 
14 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 century, and with the varied train of causes and 
 events which at that period rendered Italy the 
 central point of intellectual light to the rest of 
 Europe. Florence, in particular, enriched by their 
 commercial enterprise, embellished by their taste 
 and liberality, and rendered by their assiduous pa- 
 tronage of learning and art, the resort of celebrated 
 men from most parts of Christendom, shone resplen- 
 dent among the other polished cities of Italy, and 
 merited the flattering title assigned to it of the 
 “ Modern Athens.” 
 
 Lorenzo, now in the prime of manhood, and 
 exercising in the Florentine state functions almost 
 regal under a republican title, was beloved by his 
 fellow-citizens for his social qualities, and honoured 
 throughout Italy and Europe for his political 
 wisdom and sagacity. The respect and confidence 
 with which he inspired foreign governments had 
 frequently enabled him to exercise such an influence 
 on their counsels, as to avert impending calamities 
 from his own country, and harmoniously to adjust 
 jarring and rival interests amongst the numerous 
 states of the Italian peninsula. 
 
 His life, divided between the important duties of 
 head of the Florentine Eepublic, and the studious 
 and retired pursuits of the scholar, the philosopher, 
 and the poet, had been marked by imminent vicis- 
 situdes, though on the whole it had been signally 
 prosperous. This prosperity was in no small degree 
 a consequence of his inflexible courage, adroitness. 
 
rOllWA^J) BE " MEBIClo 
 
 BORM I589_D1ED I4-'V 
 

LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. 15 
 
 and decision, amidst pressing difficulties, as well as 
 of that personal ascendency which his great qualities 
 and address obtained for him in conference or ne- 
 gotiation with others. 
 
 Lorenzo’s youth was coeval with the golden 
 age of modern literature. Men of eminent learning 
 conducted his education amidst the most inspiring 
 influences (for all Italy then fermented with lite- 
 rary ardour and enterprise) ; and he himself im- 
 bibed from their lessons, from the example of his 
 family, and from his own innate genius, no small 
 portion of this enthusiasm. The ardour of his grand- 
 father for the furtherance of Greek literature, and 
 especially for the Platonic philosophy, was fully 
 shared by himself. He was not only an elegant 
 classical scholar, but deserves to be regarded as 
 a principal restorer of the Tuscan muse to those 
 high honours which had been won for her by a 
 Dante and a Petrarch, but which had been for 
 nearly a century suspended by the passionate, ex- 
 clusive, and almost blind devotion of learned men 
 to Roman and Greek literature. Lorenzo’s fine 
 taste in Art rendered him fully alive to the exqui- 
 site beauties of the early Italian school of painting ; 
 but he was no less sensible of its defects in drawing 
 and depth of composition. Masaccio had by his 
 example done much to banish these defects ; but 
 Lorenzo, in his zeal to advance the arts of design 
 to still greater perfection, had collected together, 
 within a garden adjoining to the Piazza of San 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Marco, many fine specimens of Greek and Roman 
 sculpture, and a variety of pictures and cartoons 
 by some of the greatest Florentine painters, with 
 the view of rendering them easily accessible to 
 students as models of study and imitation. An 
 academy of this description, he trusted, might 
 tend to produce works uniting the sentiment of 
 the early Italian painters with the grace and cor- 
 rect drawing peculiar to the antique. To this 
 collection, students were admitted under due regu- 
 lation ; prize subjects, to be contested for, were 
 proposed; and salaries were awarded to such among 
 them as manifested superior diligence and talent, 
 but needed pecuniary aid. This useful establish- 
 ment was placed under the superintendence and 
 direction of Bertoldo, a retired sculptor of merit, 
 once a pupil of Donatello. This Museum of Art 
 was broken up, and its objects sold, upon the 
 banishment of the Medici in 1494; but a great 
 part of them were subsequently recovered by the 
 family, and now adorn the Gallery of the Uffizi, 
 in Florence. 
 
 That same persevering energy which, during 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had been so 
 successfully exerted in extracting from the damp 
 recesses and the depths of monastic walls and 
 vaults, the master-pieces of Roman literature, and 
 had recently recovered and borne in triumph from 
 the Byzantine capital and the monasteries of the 
 East, many of those of Greece, had for some time 
 
LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. 
 
 17 
 
 past been exerted in bringing into light from the 
 remains of classic temples, palaces, and baths, the 
 statues, friezes, and bas-reliefs which once formed 
 the pride and ornament of Rome and its provinces, 
 in her days of imperial splendour. The finest of 
 these were almost exclusively the work of Grecian 
 artists. In the sixteenth century this species of 
 research had become so general and fashionable, 
 that every considerable palace within the Roman 
 States had its museum of statues. As yet, how- 
 ever, this taste had not become thus general, and 
 Lorenzo in this respect, as in many others, was in 
 advance of his age. His grandfather, it is true, 
 had set him the example ; for the noble palace 
 erected by Cosmo in his native city, from the de- 
 signs of Brulleneschi, was, and still is, replete with 
 classical remains arranged by the taste of Dona- 
 tello. Lorenzo had added much to the collection, 
 and he it was who commenced the noble gallery of 
 statues and pictures which has so long formed the 
 pride and ornament of Florence. 
 
 Anxious to open this academy to all youthful 
 artists of promise, Lorenzo had recently empowered 
 Domenico Ghirlandajo to select from his pupils 
 those whom he deemed most worthy of sharing this 
 privilege ; and he had fixed on the two friends, 
 Michael Angelo and Granacci. Among the students 
 already attached to the academy was one of great 
 ability, Torrigiano. He was engaged in modelling 
 terra-cotta figures within a circular border, under 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the direction of Bertoldo, and Michael Angelo was 
 so pleased with his performance that he attempted 
 some figures in the same material, and modelled 
 them with a spirit which attracted the favourable 
 notice of Lorenzo. lie soon after began to handle 
 the chisel, and commenced his first work in marble 
 by imitating a fine antique mask, the head of a 
 Fawn, the mouth of which was almost effaced by 
 the injuries of time. This feature he restored in 
 his copy with great care and skill, imparting to 
 it a comic smile, but withal a complete set of 
 teeth. The attention of Lorenzo, in one of his 
 walks in the garden, was caught by this mask, 
 and he much commended the young artist whom 
 he found at work upon it ; but added in a good- 
 humoured tone, How is it that you have given 
 your Fawn a complete set of teeth? Don’t 
 you know that such old fellows are sure to have 
 lost some of them ?” It seemed, says Condi vi, 
 a hundred years to the youth before Lorenzo took 
 his leave, so anxious was he instantly to profit 
 by what he felt to be a most just criticism. 
 He lost no time in removing some of the teeth, 
 and in forming the sockets which defined their 
 places. His next anxiety was for the return of 
 Lorenzo, who he hoped might deign again to notice 
 his Vvmrk, and to observe how carefully he had pro- 
 fited by his suggestion. In this hope he was not 
 disappointed, — the wished for visit took place ; 
 Lorenzo again viewed the mask, and was so 
 

LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. 
 
 19 
 
 charmed with the boy’s docility and talent, that he 
 inquired his name and age, and amused himself 
 with relating to his friends all that had passed. 
 But the consequences ended not here : the incident 
 made so deep an impression on Lorenzo’s generous 
 heart, ever on the watch for encouraging youthful 
 merit, that he soon after sent for Lionardo, whom 
 he no less astonished than delighted, by proposing 
 to take his son under his special patronage, and to 
 bestow some place of emolument on himself. The 
 father wanted words to express in due terms his 
 grateful assent, and doubtless left the great man’s 
 presence, with new and transmuted impressions of 
 the dignity of Art, and with the soothing reflection 
 that, after all, the blood of the ancient Counts of 
 Canossa would not, as he had feared, be tainted by 
 flowing through the veins of the youthful sculptor. 
 
 Among the MS. letters in the Casa Buonarroti 
 is one from the Count of Canossa of that day, 
 written at the time Michael Angelo was passing to 
 and fro between Carrara and Rome, in the service 
 of Julius IL, claiming him with just pride as a re- 
 lative, and entreating the gratification of a visit 
 from him. 
 
 Lionardo was soon after gratified by a place in 
 the Customs, and to his son was assigned, not only 
 an apartment in the Medici Palace, but a seat also 
 at the table of its illustrious head, among his 
 own sons, and the distinguished literati who fre- 
 quented it. Ills comfort was in every way con- 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 sidered, his course of studies was defined, and he 
 was altogether treated more like a near relative 
 than a mere dependant. 
 
 The mask which procured for him these high 
 privileges, and had formed, as it were, a sort of 
 turning point in his fortunes, naturally acquired 
 a peculiar interest in his eye, and was presented 
 by him to the Florentine Gallery, where it is still 
 to be seen in perfect preservation, in the hall called 
 Sala delle Inscrizioni. 
 
 Michael Angelo was at this time fifteen years 
 old, and he continued to enjoy until the death of 
 Lorenzo, a period of about three years, these signal 
 advantages. He soon became a favourite in the 
 family, and especially with his generous patron, 
 who manifested an almost paternal interest in his 
 welfare and improvement. In order to give him 
 free access at all times to the Garden of Sculpture, 
 he placed a key of it in his hands, and he fre- 
 quently sent for him in private, when he freely 
 conversed with him about his professional studies, 
 and gave him salutary counsel with reference to 
 the general culture and improvement of his mind. 
 On such occasions he sometimes opened to him 
 the rich cabinets containing his unrivalled collec- 
 tion of cameos, gems, intaglios, and other precious 
 objects of art, pointing out the finest and rarest 
 articles, and condescending to ask his opinion upon 
 their respective merits. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HE ESPECIALLY DEVOTES HIMSELF TO SCULPTURE. — STUDIES 
 THE FRESCO PAINTINGS OF MASACCIO. — IIIS QUARREL AVITII 
 TORRIGIANO, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 1490 TO 1491. 
 
 After the admission of Michael Angelo into the 
 Academy of San Marco, sculpture became his 
 more peculiar study. The collection of bas-reliefs, 
 statues, and fragments of Grecian art deposited 
 there, imparted to him elevated ideas of dignity 
 and grace in style and composition. Studying 
 these models with a noble and emulous ambition, 
 he gradually learnt to think the thoughts, and to 
 catch the spirit, of the artists whose works he ad- 
 mired, yet without ceasing to be original. Judging 
 from his first essay in relief under Bertoldo, and 
 the spirited execution of the mask of the Fawn, he 
 probably was not wholly a stranger to the art of 
 modelling, when he entered the Academy. 
 
 Vasari states that in his ardour to excel he pur- 
 sued his professional studies not only on ordinary 
 working days, but also on holidays ; and he adds 
 that even the silent hours of the night often found 
 him thus employed. 
 
 But sculpture did not wholly occupy his atten» 
 
22 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 tion. The Gallery of San Marco was rich in car- 
 toons and paintings from the pencils of the greatest 
 of his Florentine predecessors, and the churches 
 and palaces of the city abounded in fine pictures 
 and frescoes of the early Italian School. Those of 
 Masaccio in the Brancacci chapel in the church 
 of San Pietro al Carmine, became his special study 
 as models of invigorated and advanced art. 
 
 They had long been resorted to as such by a series 
 of eminent painters, among whom may be enume- 
 rated Fra Angelico di Fiesole, the two Lippi’s, 
 Andrea Verrochio, Botticelli, Paolo U ccello, P. Peru- 
 gino, Leonardo da Vinci, and at a later period D. 
 Ghirlandajo, A. del Sarto, Pontormo, and Raphael 
 di Urbino. Annibali Caro’s epitaph on Masaccio 
 expressly refers to the honour done to his memory 
 by the homage of Michael Angelo : in particular, — 
 
 “ Pinsi e la mia pittura al ver fu pari ; 
 
 L’ attegiai, 1’ avivai;, le diedi il moto, 
 
 Le diedi 1’ efFetto. Insegni il Buonarroti 
 A tutti gli altri, e da me solo impari.”* 
 
 As Masaccio’s works formed an epoch in art, and 
 were thus carefully studied by Michael Augelo, 
 they claim in these pages a brief but distinctive 
 notice. They are chiefly to be seen in the Brancacci 
 
 ^ Literally, — 
 
 “ I painted, and my paintings were akin to Truth. 
 
 I attained it, I animated it, I gave it action, 
 
 1 gave it efFect. Buonarotti taught it 
 
 To all mankind, but owed it originally to me.” 
 
FRESCOES OF MASACCIO. 
 
 23 
 
 chapel, side by side with those of his master Masolino 
 di Panicale, whose example first taught him to con- 
 ceive and execute his subjects on more correct 
 principles of design than any of his predecessors. 
 The names and the reputation of the master and 
 pupil cannot be fairly separated, and they may justly 
 be regarded as the joint founders of what has often 
 been called the second school of modern painting, 
 occupying a middle position between its forma- 
 tion under Cimabue and Giotto, and its perfection 
 under Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and 
 Raphael, 
 
 The history of St. Peter, partly derived from the 
 genuine text of Scripture, and partly from legend- 
 ary sources, forms the principal subject of the 
 paintings in this chapel. They occupy numerous 
 compartments, some covering a very large extent 
 of wall, others upright panels on a smaller scale. 
 
 To distinguish precisely in every instance be- 
 tween the works of the master and the scholar is 
 difficult, but two of the largest compartments are 
 generally assigned to Masolino. They are both 
 compound subjects, viz., 1st, the Vocation of St. 
 Peter and the Tribute-Money ; 2nd, the Cure of the 
 Lame Man by Peter and John at the beautiful gate 
 of the temple, and the Martyrdom of Santa Petro- 
 nilla. Vasari tells us he had often and deeply 
 studied these works of Llasolino, and that their 
 distinctive excellences are breadth of manner, har- 
 monious colouring, and correct and ^'igorous draw- 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 wing, — qualities in which they much surpass the 
 school of Giotto. 
 
 Time has exercised its deleterious influence on 
 these paintings, and their original vigour has in 
 parts been much impaired by repainting, but the 
 figures are in general simple and dignified, and the 
 heads are replete with expression. The rounding 
 and relief are also good. Masolino derived this 
 excellence in art from the study of modelling under 
 the great sculptor in bronze Ghiberti. In what year 
 he commenced his labours in the chapel is uncer- 
 tain, but he died in the year 1415, at the early age 
 of thirty-seven. The further progress of the vrorks 
 was for a time suspended, but at length Masaccio, 
 his former pupil, was invited to complete them. 
 He was born in the year 1402, and died at the age 
 of forty-three, not without suspicion of poison. 
 
 Masaccio, like his master, had studied modelling 
 under Ghiberti ; from Brulleneschi he had derived 
 a correct knowledge of the science of perspective, 
 in which the earlier Italian school had been miser- 
 ably deficient ; he had also studied sculpture during 
 a residence in Rome, in the course of which he 
 painted some fine frescoes in the church of San Cle- 
 mente, illustrative of the legendary history of St. 
 Catherine. In spite of the feeble manner in which 
 they have been retouched, or rather repainted, in 
 modern times, these frescoes still attest the charm 
 and power of his pencil. He also painted a chapel 
 in the church of S. Maria Maggiore, which Vasari 
 
FRESCOES OF MASACCIO. 
 
 25 
 
 refers to as follows: — ‘‘Michael Angelo and I once 
 visited this chapel together ; he praised it much, and 
 said ‘ In the time of Masaccio these figures must 
 have absolutely seemed alive.’ ” ^ 
 
 Thus highly endowed by nature and disciplined 
 by education, Masaccio carried the art of painting 
 to a still greater perfection than his master, — he 
 surpassed him in purity of outline, in vigorous and 
 correct drawing, and in strength of expression. Ilis 
 draperies are flowing and easy, and gracefully ac- 
 cordant with the various positions of the limbs. 
 The air and expression of his heads often remind us, 
 as Mengs observes, of Raphael ; and his colouring, 
 though much injured by time, so far survives as to 
 indicate its original clearness and brilliancy. The 
 subject of the finest of his works in the Brancacci 
 chapel is the Resuscitation of a Boy by St. Peter, 
 a large composition, well disposed and grouped, and 
 in which the figures appear to be all in action and 
 movement. The earnest, beseeching expression 
 and attitude of the youth, the dignified character 
 of the apostle, and the appropriate grouping of the 
 other principal figures, impart a peculiar interest to 
 this work. 
 
 The expulsion of our first parents from Paradise 
 is another of the painter’s fine works, in which the 
 drawing and expression are able, and so forcible, 
 that Raphael afterwards introduced an almost 
 
 ^ Vasari, Vita di Masaccio, vol. v. p. 182 , 
 
26 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 literal copy of it into one of the compartments in 
 the Loggie of the Vatican. Another celebrated 
 composition of this series represents a youth pre- 
 paring for baptism. It is so fine in the drawing, 
 that tradition points back to its first appearance as 
 to an epoch in Florentine art. It is now in a great 
 degree effaced by the ravages of time. 
 
 After Masaccio’s premature death in 1443, his 
 disciple, Filippo Lippi, was employed to fill up 
 some of the smaller compartments according to his 
 designs, and to finish parts of the larger compo- 
 sitions. His style is graceful, and his colouring 
 harmonious, so that he ably discharged this office, 
 and, as he was a fine landscape painter, he 
 in this way heightened the beauty of the back- 
 grounds. 
 
 But though Masaccio thus gave an important 
 impulse to painting in the right direction, though 
 his works became lessons to future students, in 
 perspective and foreshortening, in drawing and 
 execution, and though the expression of his heads 
 and attitudes was such as to draw forth the ob- 
 servation that his predecessors painted figures, but 
 that he imparted life to his, yet he never, we 
 conceive, equalled Giotto and his greatest scholars, 
 in some of the noblest qualities of art. 
 
 If, for instance, his works in the Brancacci 
 Chapel, to which we have been adverting, be com- 
 pared with those of Giotto in the Chapel of 
 Madonna delF Arena, at Padua, erected A. d. 1303, 
 
FRESCOES OF GIOTTO. 
 
 27 
 
 it will be found that Giotto, although his type of 
 beauty is often faulty, bears away the palm in the 
 highest qualities of creative art. The Paduan 
 Chapel represents, in a series of compartments 
 disposed along two side walls, the life of Christ, 
 and that of the Virgin ; the arched vault of the 
 ceiling is painted in azure, studded with stars in 
 gold, among which are the heads of Christ and 
 various saints. Above the arch of the choir is the 
 Saviour surrounded by a glory of Angels, while the 
 wall above the entrance is devoted to the Last 
 Judgment. Along the lower range of the side walls 
 are a series of medallions painted in chiaro-^scuro, 
 tilled with allegorical figures of the Virtues and 
 Vices. Within the sphere of the scriptural sub- 
 jects, the spirit of all that is most dignified, graceful, 
 and impressive in sacred historical painting, ani- 
 mated the pencil of Giotto. In the compartment of 
 the Ascension, the figure of the Saviour mounting 
 heavenwards, is scarcely surpassed in sublimity of 
 conception by the finest productions of Raphael. 
 The Christ before Pilate, is a fine composition, in 
 which the meek yet dignified submission of the 
 principal figure comes into striking contrast with 
 the ferocity of the bystanders. The Entombment 
 in this series has never been surpassed in solemn 
 sweetness, nature, and tenderness. It is in the 
 style and spirit of a similar subject by Giotto in 
 the Church of Santa Croce, at Florence, the pathos 
 of which, it is said, frequently led Michael Angelo 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 to visit and admire it. We abstaia from going 
 into further details, but it may well be said of the 
 whole of these compartments, that they are fraught 
 with the highest beauties of art. The greater part 
 of the works of Giotto have perished ; but judging 
 of him from the paintings of this chapel, and from 
 those at Assisi, he soars far beyond, the sphere of 
 Masaccio in poetical conception, in devout elevation, 
 in refined grace and tenderness. Masaccio is the 
 head of the modern realistic School in its most 
 dignified form; Giotto is the head of that great 
 School which combines the truth and simplicity of 
 nature, with the lofty and charming qualities of the 
 ideal and poetic. Giotto’s incorrect drawing, his 
 ignorance of perspective and foreshortening, the 
 feebleness of his extremities, and his other obvious 
 defects, were consequences of imperfect and unde- 
 veloped art ; his beauties are those of a genius of 
 the highest order. 
 
 The great qualities of Giotto are, in no small 
 degree, reflected in the works of the ablest of his 
 followers, — Taddeo Gaddi, Giottino, and Andrea 
 Orcagna, who has been called, not without reason, 
 the Michael Angelo of the fourteenth century. 
 Like him, Orcagna was great as a painter, a 
 sculptor, and an architect; he also excelled in 
 poetical composition. In the Campo Santo at 
 Pisa, his powers as a painter are finely displayed, 
 and his Heaven, Hell, and Last Judgment in the 
 Strozzi Chapel of the Church of S. Marco at Flo- 
 
Giotto’s school of art. 
 
 29 
 
 rence, was the School of Art to Fra Angelico di 
 Fiesole, the inimitable delineator of saintly visions 
 and devout conceptions, borrowed both from sacred 
 and legendary lore ; of whom Michael Angelo beau- 
 tifully remarked, that he must have studied in 
 heaven the faces which he depicted on earth. 
 
 It is true that Giotto was not absolutely the 
 creator of that new School of which he was the 
 brightest ornament. We have elsewhere touched 
 upon the degree in which he shared this glory 
 with others, — but if their influence was thus pre- 
 parative, his was decisive and transcendant. It 
 pervaded Tuscany, it was felt at Siena, it extended 
 throughout Northern Italy and far beyond its pre- 
 cincts : the number of his pupils was prodigious ; 
 his independent spirit everywhere prompted im- 
 provement and invention, but his innovations were 
 so controlled by a sound judgment that, while he 
 gave new wings to art, he seldom lost sight of a 
 due reverence for the conventional types of the 
 early Church.* 
 
 It might have been expected that his chapel at 
 Padua would have acted influentially not only on 
 
 * All that is here said of Giotto is consistent with the admis- 
 sion that the school of Siena was antecedent to that of Florence ; 
 that Duccio shared with Cimabue and Giotto in imparting new 
 life to art in the fourteenth century ; and that all three were 
 more or less indebted (as we have elsewhere shown) to the 
 example of Nicola Pisano for their emancipation from the 
 trammels of Byzantine stiffness and barbarism. 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the schools of Northern Italy, but in particular on 
 that of Venice. The works of D’Avanzo Veronese 
 and his coadjutor Aldighiero da Zevia (a. d. 1376), 
 as seen in the chapels of S. Felice and S. Georgio, 
 attached to the Church of S. Antonio at Padua, 
 prove how deeply this influence was felt there. 
 It is to be regretted that the subjects are chiefly 
 legendary; but the spirit which they breathe is that 
 of Giotto in a plenitude scarcely surpassed by any 
 of his followers, except it be Orcagna. Had the 
 Venetian painters caught the same inspiration we 
 might possibly have beheld in the union of their 
 magical colour with the ideal grandeur of the great 
 School, the reversal of that saying. 
 
 Nor was perfection meant for man below.” 
 
 Michael Angelo’s life, since his adoption into the 
 family of Lorenzo, had flowed along in a current of 
 uninterrupted prosperity and happiness ; but he was 
 to have his crosses like other people, and a quarrel 
 with one of his fellow-pupils about this time, though 
 trifling in its origin, was the means of inflicting 
 upon him a permanent personal injury. Passing 
 mention has already been made of Torrigiano as 
 one of his fellow-pupils in the garden of S. Marco, 
 who had already given proof of superior talent; 
 Vasari describes him as the torment of the other 
 scholars, from his pride and jealousy. He could 
 not, he says, bear to see himself eclipsed, and, be- 
 cause he felt that he was so by the youthful Buon- 
 
QUARREL WITH TORRIGTANO. 
 
 31 
 
 arroti, he regarded him with hatred and envy, and 
 took frequent occasions to insult him. One day 
 this conduct led to a personal affray between them, 
 when an unlucky blow from the fist of Torrigiano, 
 who was a man of great strength, falling upon the 
 nose of his rival, broke the bridge, and marred its 
 symmetry for life.* 
 
 Vasari states that the quarrel took place in the 
 garden of San Marco, but Torrigiano, who gave 
 his own version of the affair to Benvenuto Cellini 
 many years after, said that it occurred in the 
 Brancacci chapel, and added that he well remem- 
 bered the sort of whiz or crack which m_arked the 
 moment of the unfortunate fracture. 
 
 “ I could not bear,” adds Cellini, “ to hear this 
 fellow boasting of his having inflicted such an 
 injury on the divine Michael Angelo, (an epithet 
 very commonly applied to him by his contempo- 
 raries,) so that from that moment I cut his acquaint- 
 ance.” Torrigiano added, that some sarcasm of 
 Michael Angelo’s, who he said was much given to 
 ridicule, had provoked the encounter. Such are the 
 two existing versions of this outrage, which, in its 
 consequences, has handed down the bust of Michael 
 Angelo to posterity, despoiled in its prominent 
 feature of whatever symmetry nature had origi- 
 nally assigned it. AYe can scarcely imagine a more 
 mortifying trial to a young man pressing forward 
 
 * Vasarf p. 11. Cellini, Vita, tom. i. p. 29. Firenze, 1832. 
 
32 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 to distinction. That Lorenzo de’ Medici conceived 
 Torrigiano to have been the prime and principal 
 offender must be inferred from the fact that he felt 
 it needful instantly to fly from Florence, in order 
 to escape a severer punishment. * 
 
 The fugitive took refuge in Koine, where he was 
 employed by Alexander VI. in executing various 
 ornamental works in stucco. His love of adventure 
 next led him to become a soldier of fortune, and 
 he served as a private in the wars of Romagna, 
 under the Duke of Valentino, whence passing into 
 the service of Piero de’ Medici, he won an ensigncy 
 by his gallantry in a skirmish at the ford of the 
 Garigliano. Several years later we hear of him as 
 in England patronised and employed by Henry VIII. 
 The bronze medallions which decorate the shrine of 
 Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, fraught with 
 the plastic beauty and grace of the palmy days of 
 Italian art, are believed, on the best grounds, to 
 have been executed by him. Though liberal prices, 
 it is said, were paid him for his works in England, 
 his dissipated habits kept him continually poor. 
 
 His next migration was to Spain, where he 
 quickly obtained notice and profitable employment. 
 Vasari gives a list of his works in that country, 
 and speaks of them as having excited high admi- 
 ration, but finishes with the following brief though 
 
 * A fine specimen of Torrigiano’s art is to be seen in the 
 Sydenham Crystal Palace, in one of the chambers of the Re- 
 naissance. It is the statue of a St. Jerom. 
 
DEATH OF TORRIGTANO. 
 
 33 
 
 tragical account of the close of his eventful 
 career : — 
 
 A Spanish nobleman, the Duke d’Arcos, had 
 seen and admired one of his statues, which he was 
 induced by promises of high remuneration to copy 
 for him. The statue was finished and the price 
 claimed, when an attempt was made by the duke 
 to force on him a vast heap of copper money, which 
 fell very short in value of the stipulated payment. 
 Incensed at this treatment, and probably goaded 
 on by insults in addition to the fraud, he darted on 
 the statue, and fractured it to atoms in the duke’s 
 presence. His oppressor now had him cast into 
 prison, on a charge of heresy, for which he might 
 possibly have furnished some slight plea, by in- 
 dulging too great a freedom of tongue in a land of 
 despotism. Be this as it may, the terrors of the 
 Inquisition so preyed upon his fancy, that he gra- 
 dually sunk into a deep and settled dejection, from 
 which nothing could rouse him ; and he ended an 
 existence, rendered wretched through his follies, by 
 voluntary starvation.” 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 CIIAPTEE IV. 
 
 IMPEOVma INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY WHICH FREQUENTED 
 THE PALACE OP LORENZO UPON THE YOUTHFUL BUONAR- 
 ROTI. — SKETCHES OF POLITIAN, LANDINI, PICO DI MIRAN- 
 DULA, B. SCALA, AND IIIS LEARNED DAUGHTER ALESSANDRA, 
 THE PULCI FAMILY, MATTEO FRANCO, G. BENI\HENI, DEME- 
 TRIUS CHALCONDYLES, T. LINACRE, MARSIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 1490 TO 1492. 
 
 Whilst thus domesticated in the Medici Palace, 
 Michael Angelo divided his time between artistic 
 studies and the acquirement of scientific and lite- 
 rary knowledge. Of the mode in which he pur- 
 sued mental improvement, and under what masters, 
 we are not told ; but the facility and skill with 
 which, at early periods of his life, he applied the 
 principles of mechanical science to the construction 
 of machinery, and to other practical purposes, ren- 
 ders it probable that, at the time of which we are 
 writing, he must have acquired considerable mathe- 
 matical knowledge. Throughout his subsequent 
 career, we find him, on all needful occasions, 
 prompt to apply, with equal readiness and ability, 
 these principles to the details of architecture, ma- 
 chinery, and fortification. 
 
SOCIETY IN THE PALACE OF LORENZO. 
 
 35 
 
 Neither does it appear by what means he ac- 
 quired the classical knowledge which may be traced 
 in many of his designs. Under the auspices of 
 Lorenzo, and beneath the same roof with Politian 
 this important branch of artistic knowledge could 
 not be neglected ; but we have no evidence tliat he 
 ever became a proficient in the learned languages ; 
 and the probability is, that the assiduous study of 
 ancient sculpture, and the aid of contemporary 
 scholars, rendered him, as they also did Kaphael, 
 sufiiciently conversant with the mythology of 
 Greece and Rome for all practical purposes. It 
 was far otherwise as respects the native Tuscan 
 Muse, with the finest productions of which he was 
 familiar even in early youth. Music shared his 
 preference with poetry, and they jointly formed the 
 charm and recreation of his leisure. The taste for 
 both, as Ginguene, the elegant historian of Italian 
 literature *, has remarked respecting him, was daily 
 fostered beneath his patron’s roof. In fact, it was 
 impossible for any one who had a spark of literary 
 enthusiasm, to be associated with the society which 
 constantly assembled in the palace of Lorenzo, witli- 
 out delighting in, and being stirred up to mental 
 activity and research. Not only the most eminent 
 men of Florence tasted the pleasures of literary 
 and friendly intercourse in the Medici Palace, but 
 strangers of distinction from the various states of 
 
 * Ginguene, Hist, de la Let. Ital., cap. 20. 
 
3G 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Italy, and from the principal countries of Europe, 
 were sure of a kind and friendly welcome. 
 
 Here, in the double capacity of Lorenzo’s friend 
 and the tutor of his children, was daily to be seen, 
 with his protruding beaked nose and full eye, Poli- 
 tian, one of the most elegant and profound scholars 
 of the age, and a poet eminent for the vigour of 
 his style and the richness of his fancy, whether in 
 Latin or Italian composition. The most abstruse 
 points of the scholastic philosophy, the most diffi- 
 cult questions of history and criticism, the most 
 recondite as well as the most elegant topics of 
 general learning, had been sounded by his inqui- 
 sitive intellect. He was as much at home in 
 elucidating the leading differences between the 
 philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, or in comment- 
 ing upon the Pandects of Justinian, as he was in 
 adjusting minute points of verbal criticism, or in 
 pointing a Greek epigram, or in giving scope to a 
 vein of playful humour. His industry was equal 
 to his genius. He was indefatigable in pursuing 
 the tedious labour of collating and comparing Greek 
 and Latin MSS. ; and subsequent scholars have been 
 deeply indebted to his acumen in correcting the 
 errors of transcribers, and restoring genuine read- 
 ings. His epistolary powers were of a high order, 
 and the collection of his Letters, and those of his 
 most distinguished correspondents, in twelve books, 
 is still adverted to with great interest, in conse- 
 quence of their innate vigour, and of the light 
 
P 0 L I 1 ][ A W. 
 
 BORH M54*. D1ED.I4<)4 
 
') A 
 
POLITIAN. 
 
 :^7 
 
 which they cast on the literary and social history 
 of the time. Both he and his friends are profuse 
 of mutual flattery; but, in spite of this drawback, 
 they write like men full of generous ardour for the 
 promotion of learning, and prompt to incur the 
 utmost labour of body and mind to further its 
 interests. 
 
 Many among them emulated the literary zeal of 
 Politian. The services which they rendered to 
 classical literature demand the grateful thanks of 
 scholars of all countries and ages, even though the 
 present actual value of their researches is in a great 
 degree superseded by the advanced criticism of 
 modern times. 
 
 The name of Politian is not less honourably 
 associated than that of his illustrious patron with 
 the revived glories of native Italian poetry. In 
 the year 1468, Luca Pulci had celebrated the 
 prowess of Lorenzo de’ Medici at a tilting match, 
 in verses of much spirit ; and Politian subsequently 
 took occasion, out of a similar pageant of a day, to 
 weave a poem of immortal memory. It is entitled 
 “ La Giostra di Giuliano de’ Medici,” and is so re- 
 plete with rich, creative fancy, brilliant descrip- 
 tion, and nervous elegance of diction, that even an 
 Ariosto and a Tasso became its admirers and imi- 
 tators, as is proved by various passages in their 
 respective poems.* It is pretended that Politian 
 
 * Maffei, in his history entitled Storia della Letteratiira Ita- 
 liana, cap. 3., cites several of these imitative passages. 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 was only fourteen years of age when he wrote this 
 poem ; but Ginguene whose critical authority 
 stands justly high, rejects the statement as incre- 
 dible, and maintains that though the Tournay which 
 gave occasion to it took place soon after the former, 
 Politian’s poem was not written till he was about 
 eighteen or twenty years of age. This was probably 
 the case; but whatever its date, it made the fortune 
 of its author, by securing to him the admiration and 
 patronage of the Medici, who thenceforth treated 
 him as a client and a friend. It is to be regretted 
 that this beautiful poem is in an unfinished state. 
 
 Such was the celebrity of Politian for epigram- 
 matic jioint and wit, that it subjected him to inces- 
 sant applications for inscriptions of all kinds, and 
 from all sorts of people. Scholars and ecclesiastics, 
 ladies and lovers, beaux and virtuosos, directors of 
 festive banquets, and all who wished to add a charm 
 to little gifts and presents, came to him ; some for 
 mottoes to the hilt of a sword, or to the circle of a 
 ring; others for billets-doux, or pasquinades for the 
 carnival, or for inscriptions suited to china or plate, 
 or for enigmas such as a lover or a mistress should 
 be able to interpret but nobody else ; in short, to 
 use his own words, “ I am daily forced to put up 
 with this sort of persecution, and am actually 
 dragged about like an ox hy his nosey f 
 
 * Ginguene, Hist, de la Let. ItaL, vol. iv. p. 157. 
 
 t “ Sed tamen et occupatiuncuke, vel tricliie potius ineptae 
 quasdam molesta3 nimis otiiim omne meura pene inter sese 
 
POLITIAN. 
 
 39 
 
 Panlus Joviiis has written bitter things respecting 
 the morals of Politian, and Bayle has repeated them 
 with entire credence. They are of a nature not to 
 be retailed ; but as Jovius is a writer of little credit, 
 and supports his charges by nothing like evidence, 
 we trust they may be deemed calumnious. It can 
 scarcely be imagined that the friend of Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici, and of Pico di Mirandula, was a foul 
 hypocrite. 
 
 It is true that, in his Latin poems, there are de- 
 scriptive passages to be found of a grossly licen- 
 tious character. Well would it have been for his 
 fair fame had they never seen the light, or had he 
 afterwards denounced them himself, as fruits of 
 youthful indiscretion. That he should have ven- 
 tured at any time to print them, furnishes a strong 
 
 scripulatirn partiuntur. Nam si quis breve dictum, quod in 
 gladii capulo, vel in annuli legatur emblemate, si quis versum 
 lecto aut cubiculo ; si quis irisigne aliquod non argento discere, 
 sed fictilibus omnino suis desiderat, illico ad Politianum cur- 
 sitat, omnesque jam parietes a me quasi a limace videas oblitos 
 argumentis variis et titulis.” The description goes on in the 
 same strain, embracing many other particulars, tlius : “ Ille 
 mihi proprios amores stultus stultiori narrat, ille symbolum 
 poscit, quod sum tantum pateat, cmterorum frustra conjecturas 
 exerceat,” &c. &c . — PoUtiani OperUy Basil, folio, A. d. 1553, 
 
 p. 26. 
 
 In examining the printed works of Politian, and his merits 
 as a scholar, I have been much indebted to a volume pub- 
 lished at Manchester, A. D. 1805, by the Rev. W. Parr Greswell. 
 It contains memoirs of Politian, Pico di Mirandula, and some 
 other eminent Italians, and forms a truly learned and elegant 
 miscellany. 
 
 L> 4 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 comment on the moral bluntness of the age, with 
 respect to such lamentable aberrations of genius. 
 
 It is interesting to know that Politian shared 
 with Lorenzo de’ Medici in fostering the genius of 
 Michael Angelo. A bas-relief is to be seen in the 
 gallery of the Casa Buonarroti undertaken by him 
 (Vasari informs us) at the suggestion of Politian. 
 He calls it the battle of the Centaurs and Lapi- 
 thm. Among fifteen or twenty figures a Centaur 
 is to be seen prostrate in death ; the other figures 
 consist of young men in various attitudes hurling 
 missiles. Michael Angelo at this time must have 
 been about seventeen years of age. As a youth- 
 ful production it is full of talent and originality. 
 On surveying it in after years, in company with 
 Vasari, he was struck by the spirit of the execution, 
 and remarked that he should perhaps have done 
 well had he allowed nothing to divert him from an 
 exclusive devotion to sculpture.^ 
 
 In this society, also, Cristoforo Landini, towards 
 the close of his long life, delighted to relax from 
 severer studies, and to receive the marks of respect 
 and deference which were readily conceded to the 
 veteran classical scholar and accomplished commen- 
 tator on Dante. His Platonic tastes and varied 
 acquirements had early secured to him the patron- 
 age of Cosmo de’ Medici. The learned world had 
 
 * Thorwaldsen, the eminent Danish sculptor, so much ad- 
 mired this bas-relief as to say that it was in itself a practical 
 lecture upon art. 
 
PICO DI MIRANDULA. 
 
 41 
 
 profited by his critical labours on the text of varh 
 ous Greek and Latin authors ; and general readers 
 had received with approbation his Dialogues on 
 the different spheres of Taste and Enjoyment 
 attached to the active and contemplative Life, of 
 which Dante has so strikingly suggested the dis- 
 tinctive attributes. 
 
 And if the youthful artist sought amidst this lite- 
 rary assemblage for some striking example of pro- 
 found learning in union with the high bearing and 
 ease of a perfect gentleman, he had it almost daily 
 before him in the person of Giovanni Pico, prince 
 of Mirandula, between whom and Lorenzo kindred 
 studies and congenial tastes had lighted up a flame 
 of intimate friendship. The privileges of princely 
 rank, the fascinations of wealth and pleasure, were 
 lightly esteemed by Pico in comparison with the 
 peaceful and intellectual delights of philosophy and 
 learning. He was born in the year 1463. To great 
 classical erudition, and to a profound acquaintance 
 with the scholastic philosophy, he united the know- 
 ledge of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic languages, 
 and had made himself master of the mathematical 
 and physical sciences in such degrees as they were 
 then cultivated. He had attended the lectures of 
 the most eminent professors in the principal cities 
 of Italy and France, and had often engaged in 
 public discussions with them upon the most intri- 
 cate and difficult questions. He wrote poetry with 
 great fluency both in Latin and Italian ; but tlieo- 
 
42 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 logy and philosophy principally engaged his atten- 
 tion. Wherever he went his fame preceded him as 
 a literary prodigy ; but the most remarkable page 
 in his brief but eventful history was connected with 
 his visit to Eome in the year 1486. He was then 
 only twenty-three years of age, and astonished the 
 learned world by putting forth nine hundred pro- 
 positions upon innumerable points connected with 
 dialectics, physics, mathematics, metaphysics, theo- 
 logy, and morals, accompanied by a challenge to 
 discuss them publicly with all opponents from every 
 part of Europe ; and by even offering to pay the 
 reasonable expenses of any learned men who might 
 be deputed from foreign universities to enter the 
 lists against him. None were found to take up tlie 
 gauntlet thus proudly cast down; but the conse- 
 quences of this piece of youthful effrontery differed 
 widely from those which, in his thirst for fame, Pico 
 had anticipated. Instead of unparalleled renown, he 
 found himself assailed by the shafts of calumny and 
 envy. Thirteen of his propositions were denounced 
 to the court of Rome as tending to heresy. In 
 vain did he adduce proofs that they had been al- 
 ready approved by the erudite professors of many 
 celebrated colleges, and that his own opinions were 
 strictly orthodox. The charges were advanced 
 under the sanction of such grave authority, that 
 Innocent VIII. deemed it needful to submit them 
 to the consideration of a commission of divines; and 
 years elapsed before he received an acquittal from 
 
PICO DI MIRANDULA, 
 
 43 
 
 allegations for which there was no real foundation. 
 His further residence in Rome being rendered pain- 
 ful and unpleasant, and even as he thought perilous, 
 by this state of things, he took refuge in Florence, 
 where he was welcomed with open arms by Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici, who rejoiced in such an accession to his 
 circle of friends. Here he published an apology or 
 defence of his propositions, full of acuteness and 
 learning, but which proved how subtle and frivolous 
 were a great part of the questions which he had so 
 ostentatiously raised.^ The Platonical tastes of 
 Pico peculiarly adapted him to the society of Flo- 
 rence ; and he was soon united by bonds of close in- 
 timacy, not only with Lorenzo, but, through him, 
 with Politian, Ficino, and Landini. To attach him 
 the more closely to their circle and to Florence, 
 Lorenzo presented him with a villa on the delight- 
 ful slope of Fiesole, a favourite retreat with himself, 
 and where Politian also had a pleasant summer re- 
 sidence. The orange, the olive, and the vine mingle 
 their sweets and blend their varied p;reens throuMi- 
 out the gardens which adorn the sides of this clas- 
 sical mountain; and far beneath the range of its deep 
 undulating forests and rocky acclivities, the domes 
 and towers of Florence sparkle in the beams of a 
 southern sun ; while beyond them is spread out a vast 
 
 * Those who may wish to amuse themselves with examin- 
 ing his propositions would do well to consult the folio edition 
 of his works published at Basle, and entitled Opera Joannis 
 Pici, Mirandulo Comes, ex officina Henriepatrina, vol. i. 
 pp. 114—117. &c. and 382. 
 
44 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 and varied landscape of exquisite fertility and beauty, 
 watered by the Arno. In such society, and amidst 
 these enchanting scenes, Pico not only ardently pur- 
 sued his learned studies, but forgot his recent dis- 
 appointments ; or rather he learned to extract from 
 them lessons of Christian philosophy and wisdom. 
 Religion, henceforth, supremely occupied his affec- 
 tions. He frankly pleaded guilty to having brought 
 his trials upon himself by an excess of presump- 
 tuous vanity, and often said that nothing could 
 have been more salutary than the check which that 
 vanity had received through the good providence 
 of God, which had made use of the malice of his 
 enemies for this special purpose. Thus disciplined 
 in the school of adversity, much of the remainder 
 of his brief course on earth was spent in the hal- 
 lowed shades of Christian and literary retirement. 
 The tendency of his Latin and Italian poems having 
 been chiefly amatory, he now committed them with 
 an unsparing hand to the flames, an act which Po- 
 litian, much more a man of the world than himself, 
 deemed a great literary transgression, but which, 
 after what has been said of the licentious tendency 
 of some of his own poems, he might have done well 
 to imitate. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures now became the object of 
 his assiduous study, and, aided by their pure and 
 unerring light, he disentangled himself more and 
 more from those philosophic figments which had 
 clouded his own spiritual views and those of his 
 Iflatonic associates. 
 
PICO DI MIEANDULA. 
 
 45 
 
 Pico was a great friend of the monk Savonarola, 
 and, like him, he anxiously desired a reform of the 
 corruptions of the Kornish Church : he also exposed, 
 with equal force and learning, the follies and the 
 frauds of judicial astrology. His latter days appear 
 to have been spent under a presentiment of ap- 
 proaching death; for his great anxiety was to shake 
 off, as much as possible, every earthly incumbrance, 
 and to prepare for his upward flight. Eetaining 
 only a sufficient income for his independent main- 
 tenance, he made great largesses to the poor, and 
 resigned the bulk of his fortune and the lordship of 
 Mirandula to his nephew Giovanni Francesco, the 
 inheritor, not only of his title and name, but also 
 of his love of letters and his religious tastes. * 
 
 * In the collection of his published epistles one occurs ad- 
 dressed to his nephew, in the year 1492, which proves how 
 ardent was his love of learning to the last : — 
 
 “ The cause of my not answering your letter has been, that 
 some Hebrew books fell into my hands, by which I have been 
 perpetually occupied for seven days and nights, so that they 
 have almost put out my eyes. The fact is that a Jew, one 
 Siculus, who brought them here, is to depart in twenty days, so 
 that I am sure you would not have wished me to turn away 
 from them to write a letter ; indeed, I cannot spare a moment 
 from them, lest they should quit me before I have mastered 
 their contents. When I have once effected this, I will deluge 
 you with letters, although you well know how full I ever am of 
 employment. 
 
 “Farewell! Fear God, and daily live in the contemplation 
 of death. 
 
 “ Ferrara, May 30th, 1492.” 
 
 Opera Jovan. Pic. Miran.^ 2 vols. folio, Basil, vol. i. p. 361. 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 This great man, often denominated by his con- 
 temporaries the Phoenix of his age, was cut off by 
 death in the thirty-third year of his age, A. d. 1494. 
 
 In these days the studious pursuits of the scholar 
 and philosopher (as in the case of the Grecian 
 sophists in the age of Socrates) were not unfre- 
 quently blended with the functions of the politician 
 and the statesman ; and foreign embassies were 
 entrusted to learned men, who, in the intervals of 
 leisure from their official duties, were actively 
 engaged in collecting and collating MSS., or in 
 delivering public lectures on classical literature, or 
 the belles lettres. Such were Emanuel Chrysoloras 
 and Poggio Bracciolini in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries ; and Florence at this time wit- 
 nessed a somewhat similar union of functions in 
 her chancellor Bartolomeo di Scala. The son of a 
 poor miller, his youtliful talents had attracted the 
 favourable notice of Cosmo de’ Medici, and to his 
 liberality he owed the advantage of a learned edu- 
 cation. He afterwards studied the law, and made 
 a figure at the bar. Fortune smiled upon his 
 professional career, for he gradually accumulated 
 considerable wealth, was honoured with letters 
 patent of nobility, and filled some of the highest 
 dignities of the Republic. To these envied dis- 
 tinctions he was ambitious of adding the reputation 
 of scholarship, and in particular the praise of 
 writing Latin with Ciceronian elegance : but his 
 vanity unfortunately brought him into conflict with 
 
BARTOLOMEO DI SCALA. 
 
 47 
 
 Politian, whose style he had ventured to criticise, 
 and whom he even had the impertinence to deno- 
 minate “ ferruminatorem,” in ridicule of his use of 
 unusual and obsolete Latin words, and of his occa- 
 sional singularities of spelling. These censures, it 
 is true, were blended with the most deferential 
 compliments to that great scholar, and with un- 
 bounded commendations of his learning and genius. 
 Politian at first defended himself in a calm and 
 courteous manner, and even admitted that Scala 
 was not without some claim to the praise of learn- 
 ing ; but a false quantity in an epigram which he 
 had sent to Politian gave him an occasion of 
 venting his lurking spleen upon its author, whom 
 he attacked in a style of ridicule and sarcasm 
 which stung him to the quick. He now attempted 
 a retreat, and even tried to propitiate Politian^s 
 wTath by sedatives and compliments ; but these he 
 treated with contempt, and retorted upon Scala 
 with such bitter taunts that the quarrel became 
 altogether personal., Politian, on this occasion, sa- 
 crificed to unv/orthy resentment the moderation 
 which became a philosopher and a gentleman. 
 Their meetings in public after this quarrel were 
 mutually unpleasant. If Politian assumed at such 
 times the disdainful air of the great scholar and 
 critic, Scala in return looked down upon him 
 with the lofty bearing of chancellor and gonfa- 
 loniere of Florence, cup-bearer to the Pope, and 
 a knight of the golden spur ; honours which were 
 
48 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 bestowed upon him when he delivered, as Flo- 
 rentine ambassador, a complimentary oration to 
 Innocent VIII. upon his accession to the papal 
 throne, — the flattery and elegant Latinity of which 
 had charmed the pontifFs ear. ^ 
 
 Attached to Scala’s side, on such occasions as ad- 
 mitted of the presence of the fair sex, was a young 
 lady in flower of youth and beauty’s pride, his 
 admired, accomplished, and learned daughter Ales- 
 sandra. If to find Lady Jane Grey reading and 
 relishing the sublime speculations of Plato in pre- 
 ference to the ordinary amusements of her sex, 
 charmed and astonished Roger Ascham somewhat 
 less than a century later, what would he have said 
 of Alessandra di Scala, had he been her con- 
 temporary. She was not only deeply read in the 
 Greek and Latin classics, but wrote fluently in 
 Latin, and replied to a Greek epigram addressed to 
 her by Politian (who was her devoted admirer) in 
 the same language. f Hapless Politian, neither the 
 productions of his classical nor Tuscan muse, nor 
 his high admiration, nor his flattering assiduities 
 could win for him, in return to his studied adula- 
 tion, anything beyond the respectful homage due 
 
 * Those who would like to examine the correspondence of 
 these literary pugilists will find it in the works of Politian, in 
 the Basil edition already referred to, p. 170. &c. 
 
 t Politian refers, in one of his letters, to a representation of 
 the Electra of Sophocles at Florence, at which Alessandra per- 
 formed the part of Electra with much talent. 
 
49 
 
 THE rULCI FAMILY. 
 
 to his acknowledged erudition. It has been con- 
 jectured that Alessandra's indifference sharpened 
 Politi all’s feelings of resentment towards her father. 
 She afterwards married a Greek, Michael Marulli. 
 
 Recitations of poetry, somewhat in the style of 
 the ancient Rhapsodists, are said to have occasion- 
 ally added zest to the other attractions of the 
 Medici banquets ; and special mention is made by 
 Bernardo Tasso of Luigi Pulci, as imparting this 
 species of amusement to the assembled guests. 
 There were three poetical brothers of the ancient 
 and noble family of Pulci, all of them men of lite- 
 rary taste and zeal, and in high favour with Lorenzo. 
 Bernard, the eldest, was a pastoral poet ; Luca 
 was the author of heroic epistles in imitation of 
 Ovid, and had attained notice and applause, as has 
 been already stated, as the author of the ‘‘Giostra” 
 of Lorenzo de’ Medici ; but Luigi, the youngest of 
 the three, soared far above his brothers in poetical 
 power, and was specially dear to Lorenzo, who 
 found in him a personal friend, and an able coad- 
 jutor in his various measures for the advancement 
 of literature. In his poem, La Caccia col Fal- 
 cone,” he thus addresses him: — 
 
 “ Luigi Pulci ov’ e, che non si sente ? 
 
 Egli se n’ ando dianzi in quel boschetto, 
 
 Che qualclie fantasia ha per la mente ; 
 
 Verra fantastical' forse un sonnetto.’^ 
 
 Luigi’s recitations at Lorenzo’s table, from his 
 
 celebrated poem the Morgante Maggiore,” are 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL AEGELO. 
 
 also mentioned by Crescembeni, who falls into the 
 strange anachronism noticed by Roscoe and others, 
 of fixing their date so far back as 1450, two years, 
 in fact, before the birth of Lorenzo, and thirty- 
 five before the publication of the ‘‘ Morgante,” 
 which came out in 1485. This poem is cited by 
 Italian critics as the first example of the half-bur- 
 lesque half-serious Epopee, a second example of 
 which is to be found in the “ Rolando of Count 
 Boiardo, a poet contemporary with Pulci. This 
 style of mingled romance and comedy, the precur- 
 sor of the dignified epic of Tasso, was wrought to 
 its highest perfection by the rich and glowing fancy 
 of Ariosto. 
 
 The hero of the Morgante ’’ is a giant chosen 
 from among the fabulous Paladins of the court of 
 Charlemagne. At first a fierce and savage pagan, 
 and bitterly opposed to the Christian faith, he is 
 converted by the spear rather than by the argu- 
 ments of Orlando ; after v\^hich they go forth together 
 to fight the battles of the faith ; and the poem is 
 made up of their strange adventures and wild 
 exploits. 
 
 “ Some have placed this poem,’’ observes Tira- 
 boschi, among serious, others among burlesque 
 poems ; some have treated it with contempt, others 
 have preferred it to the ‘ Orlando.’ No man of 
 good sense,” he adds, can fail to see in the ‘ Mor- 
 gante ’ a burlesque poem, in which there is much 
 of fancy and poetical invention, conveyed in that 
 
MATTEO FRANCO. 
 
 51 
 
 species of idiomatic and racy sportiveness which is 
 best adapted to give expression to the numerous 
 Tuscan jokes and proverbs with which it abounds. 
 The want, however, of connection and order in the 
 narratives, and the frequent vulgarity and rugged- 
 ness of the diction, render the reading of it scarcely 
 tolerable. It also highly offends by the great abuse 
 of turning the most sacred things into ridicule. 
 Even well known texts of Holy Scripture are 
 treated in this way, — a vice common among the 
 burlesque poets.’’ 
 
 Tiraboschi’s censure is somewhat too indiscrimi- 
 nate. There is an ease and playfulness in the style 
 of the “Morgante” which impart a certain ndiveti 
 to the succession of its romantic and marvellous 
 adventures. Sacred and profane allusions are, it 
 is too true, intermingled with most unpardonable 
 levity ; yet in many instances the religious episodes 
 and sentiments are expressed with a dignity and 
 force which argue a taste for better things. Pulci, 
 moreover, amused Lorenzo and his guests in other 
 ways than by simple recitations. He was the author 
 of innumerable sonnets, many of them the vehicle of 
 keen satire, and of the most biting personal ridicule. 
 
 ]\Iatteo Franco shared with him in the same 
 talent ; and when they met at the table of their 
 patron, they often attacked each other with reckless 
 wit, invective, and sarcasm, content to sacrifice 
 their own self-respect if only they could provoke 
 laughter and merriment by their mutual sallies. 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 In spite of these personalities and seeming bitter- 
 ness, we are assured they were all the time the 
 best friends possible. 
 
 Facts like these may serve to qualify our, per- 
 haps, too poetic notions of the table-talk of Flo- 
 rence in the fifteenth century. Such personalities 
 and retorts are obviously irreconcilable with good 
 manners or gentlemanly feeling. Yet we hear 
 nothing of the interference of Lorenzo or his 
 guests on such occasions.* We shall hereafter 
 have to notice the striking contrasts which Italian 
 society then presented, of learned and low tastes, 
 of lofty speculation and profligate practice. f When 
 Sismondi speaks of the half-pagan banquets of 
 Lorenzo, his thoughts probably glanced at these 
 scenes and occurrences. 
 
 All, however, were not such. We have already 
 touched on the elevated tastes which the cultivation 
 of the Platonic philosophy imparted to some of its 
 votaries. Among these, Girolamo Benivieni, the 
 youngest of three learned brothers, deserves to 
 be specially named as a poet who not only aided 
 Politian and Lorenzo in sustaining the glory of the 
 native Tuscan muse, but who is also entitled to 
 esteem for the fine sentiments and graceful imagery 
 
 * Cosmo himself, amidst his habitual gravity of character, 
 was extremely fond of being amused by low buffoonery. 
 
 f Politian describes the wit and fun of M. Franco as being 
 an adjunct to much practical adroitness and sagacity. Opera 
 Politiani, p. 144. 
 
DEMETRIUS CIIALCONDYLES. 
 
 53 
 
 With which he illustrates the unfading glories of 
 religion, and the elevating influences of Divine Love. 
 In his case, Platonism is made the handmaid to 
 Christianity ; whereas the reverse was true of most 
 of the devotees of this school. So intimate a friend- 
 ship subsisted between Benivieni and Pico de Miran- 
 dula, that when the death of the former occurred at 
 the advanced age of ninety, his remains were de- 
 posited, at his own particular desire, in the tomb of 
 his illustrious friend, in the church of S. Marco at 
 Florence. 
 
 A brief passing notice is also due to another 
 friend of Lorenzo, Demetrius Chalcondyles. He 
 was among the refugee Greeks who migrated to the 
 West either a few years before, or immediately after, 
 the fall of Constantinople. A. native of Athens, 
 and critically master of the Greek language, he 
 united great powers of application to a sound 
 judgment, and was therefore well qualified to fill 
 the chair of Greek Professor at Florence, to which 
 he was appointed by Lorenzo in 1479. Though 
 not endued with the lofty enthusiasm of Emanuel 
 Chrysoloras, his principal precursor in the promo- 
 tion of Greek learning in that city, he was a pro- 
 found philologist, and under him were trained up 
 not only many able Italian but also foreign scholars, 
 some of whom afterwards introduced into other 
 countries of Europe the love and the culture of 
 Greek letters. Paulus Jovius maintains that Chal- 
 condyles and Politian were rivals for popularity, 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 and that the humour and eloquence of the latter 
 thinned the benches of the learned Athenian. It has 
 also been asserted that Politian superseded him in 
 his professorship ; but Roscoe has ably refuted this 
 story, and has shown, by extracts from Politian's 
 letters, that their friendship continued unabated, 
 and that Chalcondyles did not quit Florence for 
 Milan, his final residence, till after the death of 
 Lorenzo. He had the honour of being editor of 
 the Editio princeps of Homer, which was published 
 in two volumes folio, at Florence, A. d. 1488, as 
 also of editions of Isocrates and Suidas. He was a 
 man of grave and retired habits, and of strictly 
 honourable character. 
 
 The same kindness of heart, and discernment of 
 character, which induced Lorenzo to patronise the 
 youthful Buonarroti, had not long before procured 
 marks of his favour for Thomas Linacre, a young 
 Englishman who subsequently acquired great cele- 
 brity as an elegant scholar and an able physician. 
 He came to Italy in the suite of William de Selling, 
 ambassador to the court of Rome, from Henry VII. 
 Selling, while at Florence, had introduced him to 
 Politian, under whom and Demetrius Chalcondyles 
 he realised the great object of his visit to Italy, a 
 critical knowledge of the Greek language. The 
 charm of his character and manners so won upon 
 Lorenzo, that he associated him with his own 
 children in their learned studies, and in their at- 
 tendance at the classes of the most eminent pro- 
 
LTNACRE AND GROCYN. 
 
 55 
 
 fessors. Two other young Englishmen, Grocyn and 
 Collet, who, like Linacre, became afterwards prin- 
 cipal promoters of Greek learning in their own 
 country, were also pursuing at this time a similar 
 course of study at Florence.*' 
 
 The torch of Greek learning, which, to the honour 
 of England, has so long emitted a pure and stedfast 
 light on the banks of the Isis and the Cam, was thus 
 derived to her from those of the Arno, beneath 
 the auspices of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Politian. 
 Such, however, is the power of bigotry and preju- 
 dice, that great opposition was made to the first 
 attempts of English scholars to introduce Greek 
 letters into our two universities. The facetious pen 
 of Sir Thomas More denominated the two parties 
 at Oxford for and against the new study, as Greeks 
 and Trojans, and so bitter was their mutual ani- 
 mosity that they actually came to blows, the watch- 
 word of the opposing faction being, ‘‘ Cave a Graecis 
 ne Hereticus has.” When Erasmus visited Oxford, 
 this prejudice was on the decline ; but it continued 
 so strong at Cambridge, that he lectured on Chry- 
 sostom to empty benches ; and severe penalties were 
 even denounced against any one who should be 
 detected as having a Greek Testament in his pos- 
 session. 
 
 Marsigiio Eicino, whose name is indelibly asso- 
 ciated with the Platonic Academy of Florence, of 
 
 * Tiiabosclii, vol. vi. part ii. p. 382. edit. Koma, 4to., 1784. 
 
5G 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 which he was the Head, ranks also among the 
 friends who ever found a welcome in the palace of 
 Lorenzo ; and his visits were the more prized from 
 the rarity of his appearance in general society. 
 
 This Academy was originally founded by Cosmo 
 de’ Medici, and afterwards zealously supported by 
 his son Piero, and his grandson Lorenzo. 
 
 It would be natural to suppose from its designa- 
 tion that its object was classical, and in particular 
 that it was intended to promote a critical study of 
 the writings of Plato, and to investigate the sources 
 whence he derived his opinions. Although these 
 points (so interesting to the scholar and the philo- 
 sopher) Avere not Avholly overlooked by its founders, 
 they were far more influenced by an ardent enthu- 
 siasm in favour of Platonic principles as opposed to 
 Aristotelian, than by enlightened zeal for the pro- 
 motion of sound learning. 
 
 A fierce contest had for some time been raging 
 on the shores of the Bosphorus, between the rival 
 partisans of Plato and Aristotle. This Avas now 
 transferred to Italy by means of the multitude of 
 refugee Greeks who flocked thither after the fall of 
 Constantinople. Western Europe had long been 
 bound hand and foot by the philosophy of the Sta- 
 gyrite. The great object of the schoolmen was to 
 define and defend Christian doctrine strictly in 
 accordance Avith Aristotelian logic and subtlety, 
 and to regard nothing as duly established excepting 
 so far as it rested on this basis. The opposite party 
 
P IC I N O. 
 
 BORN 1433-DlErj. 1499 
 
'•1 
 
 
THE PLATONIC ACADEMY, 
 
 57 
 
 were no less bent upon explaining and defining 
 the mysteries of the Christian faith according to 
 Platonic theories. Thus, directly opposed and 
 equally resolute, they carried on an acrimonious 
 warfare, the bitterness of which such men as Pico 
 di Mirandula and Hermolaus Barbarus sought to 
 relieve by fruitless attempts to reconcile the meta- 
 physics of Plato and Aristotle. The Aristotelians, 
 for about half a century more, continued to exercise, 
 throughout the greater part of Europe, undivided 
 supremacy ; while Plato, under the patronage of the 
 Medici, became almost the object of Plorentine 
 idolatry. 
 
 The freedom of inquiry, and the bold attack of 
 existing prejudices, produced by this controversy, 
 helped to prepare the minds of the learned for the 
 signal revolution of opinion incident to the Eefor- 
 mation. This great event broke the spell of a blind 
 submission to the dogmas both of the Lyceum and 
 the Academy, and pointed to the revealed Word 
 and Will of God, as the sole and infallible rule of 
 faith and practice. The particulars connected with 
 the Platonic Academy form a part of the literary 
 history of Florence at this period, which have only 
 been glanced at by Poscoe in his elegant Biography, 
 but which deserve further notice, not only as illus- 
 trating the theological tendency of so remarkable 
 an institution, but also on account of the influence 
 which it exercised upon the imagination and the 
 mental habits of Michael Angelo. 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 When the council of Florence, having for its ob- 
 ject a union between the Greek and Latin Churches, 
 held its sittings in that city, under Pope Eugenio, 
 A. D. 1438, Cosmo de’ Medici formed an intimate 
 friendship with Pletho Gemisthus, one of the Greek 
 deputies to the council. He was a man of great 
 learning and persuasive eloquence, and was the 
 master of Bessarion and of the modern Platonists. 
 When he expatiated, as he often did, upon the Pla- 
 tonic mysteries, his friends and adherents fancied 
 that they beheld in him another Plato ; and in this 
 sentiment Cosmo shared to such a degree, that he 
 became a convert to his opinions, and resolved to 
 aid in their propagation by founding a Platonic 
 Academy at Florence. 
 
 After he had thus imbibed from Pletho Gemis- 
 thus a romantic ardour for the Platonism of his 
 school, Cosmo felt anxious to discover a youth 
 whose talents and dispositions, after due culture, 
 might fit him to become the Principal of his pro- 
 jected academy. At length he fixed upon Marsiglio 
 Ficino, the son of his favourite physician, a youth 
 of an acute and inquiring mind, but too nervous 
 for the ordinary business of life, or for the exercise 
 of a sound judgment. Under the direction and at 
 the expense of his patron, he was carefully in- 
 structed in the Greek language, and in due time 
 was able to taste the beauties of Plato in the melli- 
 fluous and dignified style of the original. In obe- 
 dience to his father’s wishes he also studied medi- 
 
MAKSIGLIO FICIKO. 
 
 59 
 
 cine, and cultivated music in a Pythagorean and 
 Platonic spirit. He was fond of saying that his 
 father dedicated him to Galen, and Cosmo de’ Medici 
 to Plato. To the study of Plato he added that of 
 his commentators Proclus, Plotinus, Jarablichus, 
 Porphyry, &c. A complete translation of the works 
 of Plato into Latin, and afterwards of his commen- 
 tators*, accompanied by copious comments, and 
 printed at the expense of Lorenzo de’ Medici, were 
 the principal fruits of these studies. f The requisite 
 leisure and retirement for producing works so nu- 
 
 * The first edition of the translation of Plato was inelegantly 
 printed in a close small character. A finer and more correct 
 edition was subsequently put to press under the special pa- 
 tronage of Lorenzo. Plotinus came out in a fine style of typo- 
 graphy A. D. 1492, soon after Lorenzo’s death. Ficino translated 
 also many treatises illustrative of Plato, and numerous original 
 treatises on theological and philosophical subjects. The greater 
 part of them are collected in an edition which issued from the 
 Aldine press, 1497, and in one published at Basil, 1560, 2 vols. 
 fol. When the subjects on which he commented, or the authors 
 he translated, were tolerably free from obscurity, his Latin style 
 is easy and perspicuous. As to his fidelity as a translator, 
 critics have recorded contrary opinions. Brucker will not 
 allow that he fairly sounded the depths of Plato ; but a high 
 authority, P. D. Huetius, maintains that, though not a literal, 
 he was on the whole a faithful translator. 
 
 Besides Plato and Plotinus, Ficino translated and published 
 Dionysius Areopagita, Mercurius Trismegistus, Pomander, and 
 Asclepius ; Athenagoras de Pesurrectione ; Jamblichus de 
 Mysteriis ; Proclus de Anima, &c. ; Porphyrins de Divinis; 
 Synesius de Somniis ; Theophrastus de Anima ; Alcinous de 
 Doctrina Platonis ; Speusippus ; Pythagorm Aurea Carmina, 
 and Zenocrates de Morte. 
 
 t Schelhorn, Amoen. Liter, vol. i. p. 98. 
 
60 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 merous, laborious, and recondite, were secured to 
 him by the favour of the Medici, who presented him 
 with a house and lands finely situated in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Florence ; and afterwards, on his taking 
 orders, gave him valuable church preferment. 
 
 The meetings of the Platonic Academy were fre- 
 quent, and the example of the heads of the state 
 made it an object of ambition to the literary men 
 of Florence to be enrolled among its members. 
 Even Politian and Pico di Mirandula were among 
 the auditors of Ficino’s lectures. These meetings 
 were not confined to the city, but, in the genial 
 seasons of the year, took place sometimes at Careggi, 
 or some other of the favourite villas of Lorenzo, 
 and sometimes in the delightful gardens of a villa 
 contiguous to Florence, and belonging to his brother- 
 in-law Bernardo Eucellai, a highly accomplished 
 man, who not only now, but also after Lorenzo^s 
 death, devoted himself with great zeal to the in- 
 terests of the Academy. The casino of the villa 
 was designed by L. Baptista Alberti : the gardens, 
 adorned with fine deciduous trees and evergreens, 
 watered by fountains, and decorated with statues, 
 busts, and vases, enhanced the charms of philoso- 
 phic converse. 
 
 We are not, however, to suppose that Plato, Ploti- 
 nus, and metaphysics, banished lighter topics. The 
 chief object of not a few of the members was friendly 
 intercourse and general literature. Thus we find 
 that, at some of the meetings, Machiavelli delivered 
 
THE PLATONIC ACADEMY. 
 
 61 
 
 his learned discourses on the first Decad of Livy. 
 After Bernardo’s death, his sons, P. and G. Rucellai, 
 still continued to receive in the same friendly spirit 
 the members of the Academy ; and when their rela- 
 tive Leo X. visited Florence, a. d. 1515, the bro- 
 thers got up a splendid fete to do him honour, at 
 which the Pontiff was present, attended by a bril- 
 liant court. On this occasion a temporary theatre 
 was erected in the gardens, and Giovanni Rucellai 
 produced his tragedy of Rosmonda, written in imi- 
 tation of the Hecuba of Euripides. 
 
 The Platonic Academy was broken up in the 
 year 1521, being regarded with suspicion in con- 
 sequence of a discovery that some of its members, 
 and in particular Jacopo da Diaccetto, were impli- 
 cated in a political conspiracy against the life of 
 Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici.* These gardens still 
 exist, under the name of Orti Oricellari. They are 
 situated near the ramparts, at the end of the Via 
 Larga ; and though stripped of many of their classi- 
 cal decorations, display broad walks, disposed amidst 
 fine trees and flourishing plantations. A small 
 temple, in front of which is a fine marble bust of 
 Plato, and whose sanctuary is adorned with the 
 busts of the principal early members of the Aca- 
 demy, with their names inscribed beneath them, 
 attest the ancient honours of the place. 
 
 The poetry of Michael Angelo proves how deeply 
 
 * G. del Rosso, V Osservatore Fiorentino, vol. iii. p. 94. 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 he had imbibed the Platonic doctrines ; and that he 
 frequented the meetings in the Rucellai gardens, 
 may be inferred from a picture in the Casa Buonar- 
 roti, which represents him in a philosophic attitude, 
 addressing a group of young men ; the locality being 
 indicated by a sylvan background, amidst which 
 rises a colossal statue, the original of which still 
 adorns the Oricellari gardens.* 
 
 In addition to the ordinary meetings of the Aca- 
 demy, the ancient custom, prevalent as late as the 
 time of Longinus, of commemorating with peculiar 
 honours the birthday of Plato, was also introduced 
 at Florence. The heads of the Medici family, on 
 various occasions, distinguished this day by sump- 
 tuous banquets, at which the forms of the ancient 
 symposia Avere imitated. f A profusion of wax- 
 lights graced these assemblages, and speeches and 
 addresses were delivered, specimens of which are 
 to be found in the works of Ficino, who makes par- 
 ticular mention of a festival of this kind, of almost 
 regal magnificence, given by Francesco Bandini, 
 one of the Academicians. 
 
 Ficino, both from natural shyness and from his 
 studious tastes, delighted in retirement ; his habits 
 were simple and ascetic ; but his absence of mind 
 rendered him so careless and disregardful of the 
 ordinary duties of domestic life, that his nephews 
 
 ^ My attention was drawn to this picture, which is in chiaro- 
 scuro, by the Cavaliere Buonarroti. 
 
 t Schelhorn, Amoen. Lit., vol. i. p. 87. 
 
MARSIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 63 
 
 and nieces, some of whom lived with him, often 
 heartily wished it were possible to rid their uncle 
 of a little of his absorbing love of the Platonic 
 philosophy, and to impart to him a greater share 
 of common sense. Yet he greatly enjoyed the com- 
 pany of such friends as shared in his philosophic 
 tastes ; and, above all, in that of Cosmo and Lo- 
 renzo de’ Medici, who ever treated him with affec- 
 tionate kindness and preference. Nobody was 
 ever more intimate with me — nobody was ever 
 dearer to me,” writes Ficino, “ than the great 
 Cosmo.” 
 
 “ I have retired,” writes Cosmo, to Careggi, not 
 so much to cultivate my lands as my mind. Come 
 to me as quickly as possible, Marsiglio, and bring 
 with you our Plato’s treatise on the ‘ Summum 
 Bonum,’ which I believe you have now translated, 
 according to your promise, from Greek into Latin. 
 There is nothing that I so ardently desire to know 
 as what way of life most readily conducts to hap- 
 piness. Farewell! and come not without the 
 Orphean lyre. 
 
 “ ^ Quae sit ad felicitatem via.’ ” 
 
 Ficino’s reply to this appeal is contained in a 
 letter of some length, commencing thus*: — “I 
 shall be delighted to come to you as soon as I pos- 
 sibly can. What, indeed, can be more grateful to 
 
 * Ficini Opera, vol. i. p. 592. 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 me than to hold converse at Careggi ; that is to 
 say, in the land of the Graces, with Cosmo, the 
 parent of the Graces.” Then follows an exposition 
 of the Platonic doctrine of happiness, in defining 
 which, he allows his pupil a much greater latitude 
 as to earthly good things than the Attic sage would 
 have sanctioned in one who aspired to become a 
 true philosopher. 
 
 In allusion to the above letters, Ficino writes to 
 Lorenzo: — When we had thus read together, as 
 you (who were present) well know, the treatise of 
 Plato on the ‘ Summum Bonum,^ Cosmo died soon 
 after, as if to enter on the abundant possession of 
 that good of which he had tasted in discussion.” 
 
 It is painful to contemplate the Pagan tone of 
 this description of the hold of a dying man on hap- 
 piness,— and such a man, too; — but the condition 
 of the Christian Church, at this period, was so cor- 
 rupt, and the severance of what was called religion 
 from morality so signal, that this disposition of 
 Cosmo, Ficino, and others, to betake themselves to 
 the fanciful theories of Plato, instead of to the 
 cross of Christ for comfort, was probably a conse- 
 quence of latent infidelity, engendered by that cor- 
 ruption. Ficino’s Epistles testify how bewildered 
 he had become, in spite of his learning, in the 
 mazes of that philosophy. They evidence his 
 sweetness of temper, and his studious diligence ; 
 but their prevailing theme, especially throughout 
 Book the Second, is tlie new Platonism, applied to 
 
MAllSIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 65 
 
 metaphysical discussion on subjects too deep for 
 the powers of the writer, or too fanciful to justify 
 serious argument ; for instance, one of his letters 
 to Giovanni Cavalcante has this prefix — “An Or- 
 phean Comparison of the Sun to God ; and an 
 Exposition of the Doctrine of Ideas/’ Platonic 
 theories are applied by Ficino to topics of medicine, 
 astrology, and to moral questions. He seldom 
 touches on subjects of general literature. His 
 astrological conceits were such as to fasten upon 
 him the charge of being addicted to magic. f This 
 was not the case ; but his medical and philosophical 
 tracts betray a devotion to the occult science which 
 convicts him of the most superstitious credulity. 
 
 He was at length recovered from these illusions 
 of fancy by the zealous interference of Pico and 
 Politian. Among his collected epistles, there are 
 several from Lorenzo de’ Medici, equally pleasing 
 for their graceful elegant humour, and their tone 
 of affectionate friendship. Some of Ficino’s replies 
 catch much of the same spirit ; and among them 
 is one of high philosophic interest, commencing as 
 follows : — 
 
 “ When you and I lately held intimate converse 
 at Careggi on the nature of happiness, we finally 
 came to the same conclusion. You advanced 
 
 * Ficini Op. fol. vol. i. pp. 607, 608. 
 
 t Schelhorn notices this fact, and also gives an able sum- 
 mary of the wild and superstitious opinions of Ficino and the 
 modern Platonists in his Amocnitates Lit., vol. i. p. 124. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 various arguments to prove that happiness consists 
 rather in the bent of the will than of the intellect. 
 It was finally arranged between us that you should 
 record our argument in poetic numbers, I in free 
 prose. You have fulfilled your part of this com- 
 pact in an elegant poem ; I, with God’s help, will 
 perform mine as briefly as possible.” Such was the 
 origin of Lorenzo’s beautiful poem entitled ‘‘ The 
 Altercation,” in which, under the form of dialogue, 
 he clothes some of the most elevated and refined 
 ideas of Platonism in truly poetic diction and 
 imagery. Ficino’s part of the compact forms the 
 substance of the epistle of which the above extract 
 is the introduction. It contains many beautiful 
 sentiments, and statements, which only want a 
 Christian foundation to render them practically 
 efficacious. This epistle, and the poem, pleasingly 
 illustrate the intellectual cast of the discussions 
 which occasionally took place between Ficino and 
 his friends. How much Politian and Pico loved 
 his society will be seen by the following extract 
 from a letter addressed to him by the former : — “I 
 wish, when you find it too hot in your villa at 
 Careggi, you would condescend to visit my rustic 
 retreat at Fiesole. We have an abundance of 
 water, and the sun does not overpower us with his 
 rays in this deep valley surrounded with hills, — nor 
 are we ever without fine air. My little villa is very 
 secluded ; it lies embosomed among woods, but in 
 some directions may be said to overlook all Flo- 
 
MARSIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 67 
 
 rence. Here Pico often steals in upon me unex- 
 pectedly from his grove of oaks, and draws me 
 away with him from my hiding place, to partake of 
 one of his pleasant suppers, temperate, as you well 
 know, and brief, but always seasoned with delight- 
 ful conversation and humour. You will perhaps 
 prefer coming to me, where you shall not fare 
 worse, and will be better off for wine, — for herein 
 I may venture to vie even with Pico.” 
 
 Among the moral blemishes of Picino was that 
 of excessive adulation. It breaks forth, again and 
 again, in various parts of his writings^, and proves 
 how slightly his philosophy controlled and influ- 
 enced his moral sense. When it suited his purpose 
 to flatter a pope, he scrupled not to denominate 
 the profligate Sixtus IV. the sublime Phoenix of 
 theology, master in a peculiar sense of the lofty 
 citadel of Pallas, and thence promulgating divine 
 oracles. Sing unto Sixtus a new song.”f 
 
 It would be easy to multiply proofs of this 
 disposition from his epistles, but the following 
 specimen will suffice: — 
 
 “ Marsiglio Picino suppliantly commends himself 
 to Raphael Riario, cardinal of S. Giorgio. J 
 
 ‘‘After we quitted you yesterday I could not 
 
 * Schelhorn, Ficini Vita, p. 78. 
 
 I “ Sixtus sublimis tlieologio Phoenix excelsus Palladis arces 
 ante alios possidens divinum ibi oraculum in singulis consulit.” 
 — Schelhorn, vol. i. p. 75. 
 
 t Ficini Op. fob vol. i. p. 769. 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 forbear from vehemently envying your attendants 
 the privilege of your society, sweeter, I may say, 
 than ambrosia and nectar. Therefore, lest I should 
 positively die of envy, I eagerly return to them to- 
 day, who are thus privileged to sit down, as it were, 
 at the banquets of the gods. . . 
 
 In a long letter which follows, there is a wonder- 
 ful mixture of bland flattery and useful advice. 
 He particularly cautions the cardinal against the 
 danger of listening to adulatory friends and de- 
 pendants, quite unconscious, as it would seem, that 
 he was himself foremost in their ranks ; and in a 
 third letter he administers the same unctuous ap- 
 plication with peculiar skill, and as an adept in 
 the art. 
 
 He never shines more in his epistles than in 
 those addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici ; for al- 
 though this same adulation more or less pervades 
 them, they are written in a spirit of affectionate 
 friendship, and sometimes of playfulness, like one 
 wdio had the fullest confidence in the good-will and 
 kindness of him who is their object. 
 
 Ficino cherished an almost idolatrous veneration 
 for Plato. His bust stood in his chamber, and 
 before it a lamp was kept perpetually burning.* 
 He not unfrequently, says Schelhorn, boasted of 
 responsive raptures and visions, of predictions, and 
 celestial dreams, vouchsafed to him ; and in order 
 
 * Burlamacclii, Vit. Savonarola. 
 
MARSIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 69 
 
 to defend himself against the suspicion of pagan- 
 ism, attempted to prove that the fundamental 
 doctrines of Christianity might be traced in Plato’s 
 dialogue, — the Crito. He even went so far as to 
 maintain that the character of Socrates was a sort 
 of adumbration of that of Christ, and that it would 
 be well if the Platonic philosophy were to be read 
 and taught in Christian churches.^ 
 
 There is so much in his writings that is irre- 
 concilable with the Christian faith, that he only 
 escaped being formally arraigned for heresy in 
 consequence of the effectual interference of Car- 
 dinal Soderini, Hermolaus Barbarus, and others of 
 his influential friends, with Pope Innocent VIII. 
 Holding valuable, preferment, he was anxious to 
 appear a good son of the Church, and with this 
 view we often find him, in his treatises and dis- 
 courses, vainly attempting to reconcile the state- 
 ments of Plato with those of St. Paul. 
 
 A curious instance of his superstition occurs in 
 the dedication of Plotinus to Piero de’ Medici, in 
 the course of which he tells him that at the moment 
 of his illustrious father’s death, he beheld, as it 
 were, his soul breaking from its earthly fetters, 
 under the emblem of a star of unusual brilliancy, 
 hovering over the Medici villa, and followed, for 
 tlirec successive days, by wonderful coruscations 
 of flame all around Careggi. He then gravely enu- 
 
 Sclit'lhorn, Amocn. Lit. vol. i. p. 752. 
 
70 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 merates various prodigies which for two days before 
 had announced the coming misfortune. 
 
 After this enumeration of the follies and infirmi- 
 ties of Ficino, we add with pleasure that he lived 
 to renounce not only his astrological conceits, but 
 that, subsequently to the death of Lorenzo de’ Me- 
 dici, he acknowledged and lamented his theological 
 aberrations.^ Spondanus assures us that under the 
 preaching and influence of the celebrated monk 
 Savonarola, he became, in his latter days, a humble 
 and devout learner in the school of Christ ; and he 
 himself tells us in one of his epistles, that on occa- 
 sion of a severe illness, he found there was more 
 comfort to be derived from a single sentence of the 
 New Testament than from all the dogmas of the 
 whole tribe of philosophers. 
 
 Ficino was a man of extremely diminutive stature, 
 of weak nerves, and of hypochondriacal tendencies. 
 He died in 1499, at his villa Caregiana, aged 66. 
 Baronius relates the following curious story, on the 
 authority of Michaele Mercato, which his grandfather 
 of the same name used to tell. He and Ficino were 
 intimate friends, and both devotees of Plato. They 
 often conversed upon the mysterious question of 
 what remains of man after death ; and as their faith 
 in his immortality sometimes wavered, they one day 
 joined hands, in token of a mutual and solemn en- 
 
 * Schelhorn, Amocn. Lit. vol. i. p. 73., confirms the testimony 
 of Spondanus. 
 
MAESIGLIO FICINO. 
 
 71 
 
 gagement, that whichever of the two died first 
 should appear, if possible, to the other, and tell him 
 whether there indeed was a future state. Not long 
 after this compact had been made, the attention of 
 Mercato was arrested very early one morning, when 
 engaged in philosophical study, by the trampling of 
 a horse’s feet in the road below ; it stopped at his 
 door ; when he distinctly heard his friend Ficino’s 
 voice exclaiming, “ Oh ! Michael, Michael, it is all 
 true ! ” Struck by the well known voice, he eagerly 
 pushed his head out of the window, and distinctly 
 beheld the back of Ficino, as he darted onwards, 
 seated on a white horse. He followed him with his 
 voice, ‘‘Marsiglio ! Marsiglio !” but he vanished from 
 his sight. Deeply affected by what he had wit- 
 nessed, he hastened to make inquiries after his 
 friend, and found that he had died at the very hour 
 in which this incident had occurred. 
 
 The influence exercised by the Platonic Academy 
 upon the literati of Florence may often be traced 
 in their writings, and is imprinted on much of their 
 poetry. It is also distinctly to be traced in 
 the artistic works of Michael Angelo, inducing a 
 lofty idealism, a love of allegory, and mystical 
 views of nature and art. We shall recur to the 
 fact more particularly when treating of his poetry 
 and sculpture. 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE MODERN PLATONISTS AND THEIR OPINIONS. 
 
 As Michael Angelo’s poetry and art were more or 
 less influenced by Platonic theories, we propose in 
 this chapter to place before our readers a brief 
 sketch of the peculiar dogmas and opinions of that 
 sect of the Platonists with which, as a member of 
 the Florentine Academy, he became associated. 
 This sect originated at Alexandria, in the third 
 century, and from thence to the sixth exercised 
 a potent influence in almost every part of the 
 Roman empire. Its founder, Ammonius Saccas, 
 was born of Christian parents, and educated under 
 Pantaenus and Athenagoras, learned and eminent 
 Christian teachers, but who set their disciples the 
 example of philosophising upon the doctrines of the 
 Gospel with a freedom wholly at variance with the 
 exclusive claims of a Divine Revelation. Ammo- 
 nius in this respect went far beyond his teachers, 
 and, becoming fired with the ambition of founding 
 a new sect which should combine the most popular 
 principles both of heathenism and Christianity, he 
 plunged into the wildest latitudinarianism of opinion, 
 and availed himself of the great name of Plato in 
 
TENETS OF THE MODERN PLATONISTS. 
 
 73 
 
 order to attach authority and importance to his 
 pantheistic creed; for such it was. Plato, in fact, 
 would not have known himself in the disguises 
 which Ammonius and his followers put upon 
 him.* 
 
 The doctrine of emanation common to Plato, to 
 Aristotle, and to the Oriental schools, was pushed 
 by them to the utmost latitude. They held that 
 the Eternal Cause, the Fountain of Deity, lay hid 
 in the impenetrable abyss of his own Infinite 
 Essence ; whence, as from an Ocean of Being, 
 emanated innumerable gods of various powers, 
 together with angels, spirits, and demons, some 
 of whom animated the sun, the planets, and the 
 stars, while to others was assigned the administra- 
 tion of this lower world. Among the inferior gods, 
 they classed the heathen deities, assigning to them 
 a real being, and claiming for them appropriate 
 honours and secondary worship. In this way they 
 asserted that the infinite chasm between God and 
 man was filled up ; and that thus a connecting 
 medium between heaven and earth was constituted, 
 by which the divine goodness flowed forth to man, 
 and the prayers of man ascended to God. They 
 added that, although few of the sons of men had 
 
 * ‘‘ Totum quoque systema Platonicum aclulterandum, et 
 mutandum adjiciendum, et ex aliis systematibus inserendum 
 erat, qu) factum est, ut tota fere facie a Platonis imagine de- 
 ficeret .” — Brucheri Hist. Philos.^ vol. ii. p. 364, de Secta 
 Kclectica. 
 
74 
 
 LIEE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 attained to a right knowledge of the First Cause, in 
 consequence of his infinite profundity, yet all might 
 adore this lower race of gods, and partake of their 
 benefits. 
 
 In the same spirit in which they admitted the 
 heathen divinities into their theological system, 
 they also adopted the grossest fables and allegories 
 of the pagan mythology, pretending that beneath 
 the integument of such stories, however impure and 
 revolting, important truth and practical wisdom 
 lay concealed. 
 
 When treating of the supposed Divine Being, 
 and power of the stars, many of the sect wan- 
 dered into the wilds of astrology, and patronised 
 its absurdities.* 
 
 The favourite object of Ammonius was to bring 
 about a harmony of all religions, and a reconciliation 
 between all philosophic sects, excepting the Epicu- 
 rean, which he found unmanageable. In furtherance 
 of this pantheistic scheme, which subsequently had 
 a strong advocate in a disciple of the Ammonian 
 school, the Emperor Julian, recourse was had to 
 the grossest literary frauds, and most far-fetched 
 analogies and interpretations. There is little 
 doubt, for instance, that the writings attributed to 
 Hermes now extant, as well as the oracles of Zo- 
 
 * Bruckeri Hist. PlnlosophiaB, vol. ii. p. 189. de Secta 
 Eclectica. Moslieim’s Commentaries on Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. 
 ss. 30. 32. 34., and Ids Dissertations, p. 136. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND PLATONISM. 
 
 75 
 
 roaster, were among the numerous forgeries of the 
 modern Platonists.* 
 
 They freely borrowed, in the same spirit, from 
 the Bible, whatever suited their purpose, and did all 
 in their power to draw over unwary Christians to 
 their ranks by persuading them that they were the 
 true interpreters of its doctrines. 
 
 With the same view they laboured, by fantastic 
 comments upon the text of Plato, to accommodate 
 his theology to that of the Christian Trinity ; they 
 also adopted the statements of the Bible respecting 
 the human soul, good and bad angels, and some of 
 the most essential points of morality. Whilst they 
 reserved their principal homage for Plato, they ad- 
 mitted that Christ was an illustrious and eminent 
 teacher of heavenly wisdom, but they rejected the 
 doctrine of his Divinity, and the whole scheme of 
 human redemption ; assigning him only a higher 
 degree of authority than they conceded to an 
 Orpheus, or a Pythagoras. The fact of his miracles 
 they could not deny, but ascribed them to magic, 
 and maintained that similar powers had been 
 exercised by Apollonius Tyanaeus, Apuleius, and 
 others. 
 
 They also did honour, though with more reserve, 
 to the memory of his apostolical followers, of 
 
 * “ Id vero non fictis tantura miraculorum historiis, sed libris 
 quoque supposititiis factum est, quos Zoroastri, ejusque disci- 
 pulis, Ilermeti, OrpLeo tribuisse jam monuimus.” — Brucheri, 
 vol. ii. p. 379. 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 whom they complained as having gone far beyond 
 the intentions of their Founder, in the extermi- 
 nating warfare they had carried on with every 
 form of idolatry. The morals they inculcated 
 upon their select disciples were rigid, and con- 
 ceived in the highest spirit of asceticism ; but 
 they willingly conceded a greater liberty to those 
 of their followers who had no taste for such 
 austerities. By these arts they entrapped many 
 men of superficial knowledge into the fatal con- 
 clusion* that the new Platonism and Christianity 
 were almost one and the same. 
 
 In studying the principles and results of ancient 
 philosophy, especially as it existed among the 
 Greeks, nothing is so interesting as the inquiry, in 
 what degree the light of human reason has been 
 able to advance any satisfactory arguments in 
 proof of the immortality of the soul. The ardent 
 and anxious feelings with which Plato prosecutes 
 this inquiry, in various parts of his eloquent 
 writings, is that which imparts to them such high 
 and undying interest. Many and beautiful are the 
 
 ^ “ Quae praestantiora et excellentiora Christianorura essent 
 dogmata, quam ut negari reprobarique possent, ea, tacito 
 quidem consilio, surriperet, suoque ita recocta et reficta syste- 
 mati innecteret, ut Christiana quidem videri, suisque placitis 
 obesse nequirent, et tamen earn omnem, quam Christiani tanto- 
 pere extollebant, doctrinam exhibere possent. Reliqua quae 
 aptari suo doctrinae aedificio nullo modo poterant, iraitatione 
 et similitudine verborum et sententiarum exprimere studebant,” 
 &c. — Br acker. Hist. Phil., vol. ii. p. 373. 
 
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 
 
 77 
 
 passages in which he asserts the atSrmative of the 
 question, and noble the inferences which he draws 
 from the doctrine, more especially in the 10th book 
 of his Republic, in the Apology for Socrates, in 
 the Gorgias, the Phaedrus, but, above all, in the 
 Pha}do. The greater part of this dialogue is de- 
 voted to the argumentative discussion of this great 
 question ; and those portions of it which describe 
 the demeanour and the spirit of Socrates in his last 
 moments are composed with a pathos and tender- 
 ness scarcely to be surpassed. Yet Cicero, though 
 an ardent admirer of Plato, has clearly shown that, 
 in spite of all his researches, and those of other 
 philosophers, the darkness which encompasses this 
 great question is impenetrable by human reason. 
 It will in fact be found that not to philosophic 
 acuteness, but to patriarchal tradition, and to 
 scattered rays of light derived from the Bible, is 
 chiefly to be ascribed the glimmering hope of a 
 future existence which prevailed in the ancient 
 world.* 
 
 Nothing, in fact, can be more obvious than the 
 loftiness of Plato’s aim in his writings, and the in- 
 conclusiveness of his arguments. When he touches 
 on the essential differences between mind and mat- 
 ter, when he maintains that matter is resolvable 
 
 * This fact is ably established in Ellis’s learned work, en- 
 titled The Knowledge of Divine Things from Revelation, not 
 from Reason or Nature. 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 into parts, but that mind is one and indivisible*, 
 and is therefore probably immaterial and immortal, 
 we subscribe to the ingenuity of his distinctions, 
 and allow a certain degree of probability to his 
 conclusions ; but when, after this inductive pro- 
 cess, he suddenly deviates into the fanciful hypo- 
 thesis of the pre- existence and transmigration 
 of souls, and rests the principal weight of his 
 argument on this assumption, and maintains that 
 knowledge is merely the revived memory of ideas 
 familiar to us in a former state of existence, and 
 that therefore mind never dies, — we feel that the 
 all-important conclusion to which our assent is 
 demanded, reposes after all on the baseless fabric of 
 a vision. 
 
 And yet, however weak the argument, what 
 grandeur invests the moral inferences with which 
 it is associated ! How ably does he press home the 
 reflection that if the soul be, as he maintains, 
 immortal, its discipline and preparation for that 
 glorious destiny ought to form the unceasing object 
 of its highest solicitude ! f How noble the enthu- 
 siasm with which, under this impression, he 
 exclaims, ‘‘ I should not be surprised if Euripides 
 uttered the truth, when he said, ‘ who knows whe- 
 ther to live be not death ; and to die, life ? And 
 we perhaps are in reality dead.’ I have myself 
 
 * Platon is PhaBdo, ss. 28, 29, &c. 
 
 f Phasdo, s. 57, &c. 
 
PLATO. 
 
 79 
 
 heard from one of the wise, that our present 
 existence is death, and that the body is our sepul- 
 chre. ’’ * How winged the sentiment that virtue is 
 to be followed for its own sake, because its essence 
 is divine, and that it cannot be communicated by 
 human agency, but is the gift of God ; that the 
 good, the perfect, and the fair, consist in the 
 knowledge of the first good, the first perfect, and 
 the first fair; in other words, that similitude to 
 God, and union with Him, form the proper end and 
 felicity of an immortal nature ; and that he who 
 has practically attained this knowledge is truly 
 happy, although what are usually termed evils, 
 such as exile, persecution, or death, should be his 
 portion, f 
 
 The mixture of trembling solicitude and exulting 
 
 c> o 
 
 hope, displayed by Plato in various passages with 
 reference to the truth or error of his reasoning on 
 this great question, intimates his sense of the 
 
 * The passage in the original is so fine that we must be al- 
 lowed to quote it : — 
 
 Ov yap TOi davjJLa^OLiJL dV, el 'EvpLTTtdrjg aXrjd^ eu ro~iade Xeyei, 
 Xeyijjv, Tig K oldeu ei to fiiv ecttl KarQcipeti', to KaTOavelv de 
 Kai l]iJ.e7g t(o ovTi'laoig Tedyafiey ’'O-rrep ijcr] tov eyioye /cat 
 i]Kov(Ta TU)v ao(f)ujp, wg vvv r]fj.e~ig Tidvap.ev ' /cat to /.tt'r diojia ecxTiv 
 yjfjLhjp crripa. — Gorgias, edit. Bipont. vol. iv. p. 100. 
 
 How finely has Milton caught the spirit of this passage in 
 one of his sonnets : — 
 
 “ Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load 
 Of Death, called Life, which us from Life doth sever.” 
 
 f Plato de Repub., edit. Bip. vol. vii. p. 320. 
 
80 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 insuiRciency of the light of nature; and this 
 avowal is signally and emphatically brought out in 
 that memorable passage in the “ Apology,’’ in 
 which he makes Socrates declare that the sole 
 reason why the oracle of Delphi had pointed to 
 him as the wisest of men, was, that while other 
 sophists were proud and pretending, he had ever 
 deeply felt and had emphatically avowed that he 
 knew nothing. 
 
 The Plato of the academic groves, the author of 
 the Phcedo, the humble and earnest inquirer after 
 divine truth, is the most sublime and captivating 
 of ancient sages ; but the modern Platonists have 
 no claim upon our sympathy, and little upon our 
 admiration. As it is fabled of Prometheus, that 
 after animating a statue of clay by means of fire 
 stolen from heaven, he set himself in array against 
 Jupiter; so these lofty pretenders, who owed all 
 that is most elevated and impressive in their system 
 to the great discoveries of revelation, did their 
 utmost in return to corrupt its purity and to sap 
 its foundations. 
 
 Though well aware that life and immortality 
 were brought to light by the Gospel, they would 
 fain have had it believed that the glorious discovery 
 principally belonged to them, and that the best 
 proofs of it were to be found within the sphere of 
 their own misty and unintelligible metaphysics. 
 
 The essential vision of God, which Plato humbly 
 hoped might be the final reward of the pure in 
 
PLOTINUS. 
 
 81 
 
 heart in a higher state of existence, they fanatically 
 persuaded themselves they had attained here below^, 
 by a process which they termed Theurgy and 
 which appears to have been compounded of the 
 choicest m3^steries of Demonology. 
 
 Plotinus macerated his body by extreme absti- 
 nence, to the injury of his health. He sometimes 
 complained of the humiliation of having to en- 
 dure the incumbrance of such a companion ; and 
 bis last words, had he been a sinless being, would 
 have been less open to the charge of excessive 
 pride and self-righteousness: — “I go,” he said, 
 to resolve whatever is divine in me into what- 
 ever is divine in the univ^erse.” Gibbon has well 
 described the New Platonists as men of profound 
 thought and intense application ; but adds, that 
 “ by mistaking the true object of philosophy, their 
 labours had contributed much less to improve 
 than to corrupt the human understanding. The 
 knowledge that is suited to our situation and 
 powers, — the whole compass of moral, natural, and 
 
 * Tantopere vero liunc sibi entbusiasmum cordi hose secta 
 habuit, ut quod Plato post banc demum vitam fieri posse sta- 
 tuebat, vivis adbuc pbilosopbis obtingere posse bi pseudo- 
 Platonici contenderent,” &c. — Brucher, vol. ii. p. 365. 
 
 t “ Hie gradus tbeurgorum est, qui ita dicitur, quod bomines 
 in Deos transmutat.” — BrucJier^ vol. ii. p. 459. 
 
 “Sic (anima) ipsi Deo jungatur, et intellectui divino ex quo 
 particula ejus quasi avulsa emanavit, preesens sistatur, eumque 
 sine imagine intueatur, et ita divina communioiie fruatur,” — 
 Brucher, vol. ii. p. 462. 
 
 VOL. T. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 mathematical science, — was neglected by the New 
 Platonists ; whilst they exhausted their strength in 
 the verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to 
 explore the secrets of the invisible world, and 
 studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato on sub- 
 jects of which both those philosophers were as 
 ignorant as the rest of mankind. Consuming their 
 reason in these deep but unsubstantial meditations, 
 their minds were exposed to illusions of fancy ; 
 they flattered themselves that they possessed the 
 secret of disengaging the soul from its corporeal 
 prison ; claimed a familiar intercourse with demons 
 and spirits ; and, by a very singular revolution, 
 converted the study of philosophy into that of 
 magic. 
 
 Porphyry states that the familiar spirit of Plo- 
 tinus once became visible, and proved to be a god, 
 not a demon ; and that, in requital of the attempts 
 of one Olympius, a sorcerer, to injure him by his 
 spells, he was able, by his magical power, to bend 
 and twist his body like a thread-paper, though at 
 the time they were far distant from each other. 
 
 Such were the ancient characteristics of the 
 school of which, under the abused name of Plato, 
 Cosmo de’ Medici became the ardent patron. In 
 an age in which the Church of Christ was steeped 
 in sin and corruption, and in which princes and 
 public men were altogether swayed by Machiavel- 
 lian policy, he probably found relief from the dis- 
 gust with which his more honest mind surveyed 
 
PANTHEISTIC TENDENCIES. 
 
 83 
 
 such a state of religion and morals, in the lofty 
 sentiments and elevated pretensions which more or 
 less belong to every form of Platonism. Moreover, 
 the pantheistic tendencies of the system were care- 
 fully veiled by Pletho Gemisthus and Bessarion 
 from the dread of ecclesiastical censures ; but those 
 who will take the pains to examine for themselves 
 the commentaries of Marsiglio Ficino upon Plotinus 
 and his followers, will find every where abundant 
 proofs that such was its bearing and tendency. 
 
84 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 CHAPTER yi. 
 
 THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 In the Fourth Chapter we have contemplated the 
 advantages accruing to the youthful Buonarotti 
 from his intimate association, through his patron’s 
 favour, with a galaxy of learned men, zealously 
 engaged, under his auspices, in promoting the pro- 
 gress of literature, philosophy, and taste. Lorenzo 
 shines forth among them, not as a mere Mecaenas, 
 but as himself occupying one of the foremost 
 places as a scholar, a philosopher, and a poet ; 
 and in these capacities, as well as in his generous 
 patronage of learning, his name will never cease 
 to attract to itself the esteem and admiration of 
 the most distant ages. 
 
 But there is another point of view in which it is 
 essential to contemplate him, with reference to 
 many of the coming facts of the present biography ; 
 we mean his political character. Even while his 
 power was at its height, he was regarded by the 
 popular party at Florence with great jealousy, from 
 their conviction that it was his fixed aim to deprive 
 them of what remained to them of their constitu- 
 
PATRIOTISM OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 85 
 
 tional rights, and to stifle altogether the indepen- 
 dent functions of their ancient republic. 
 
 Soon after his death, this party, availing itself of 
 a favourable occasion, excited the people to cast otf 
 the yoke thus imposed upon them ; an act which 
 cost Florence a struggle extending through thirty- 
 eight years, and which at last terminated disas- 
 trously for the cause of liberty, by the establish- 
 ment of a hated tyranny, in the person of the noto- 
 rious Alessandro de’ Medici. 
 
 When this struggle commenced, Michael Angelo’s 
 feelings of gratitude and affection to the memory 
 of Lorenzo were fresh and ardent, and he would 
 have deemed it almost a parricidal act to have 
 taken any part against the interests of his patron’s 
 family. Nevertheless, in his heart of hearts, he 
 was a partizan of the old republic ; and in after life, 
 when the same struggle was revived, and the legi- 
 timate descendants of Lorenzo had all passed from 
 the stage, finding himself at full liberty to exercise 
 his independent judgment, he ranged himself, with 
 all the fervour of patriotism, in the ranks of those 
 who were prepared, at any sacrifice, to maintain 
 the liberties of Florence. It therefore becomes the 
 duty of his biographer briefly to sketch the mode 
 in which the ancient constitution of the republic 
 was practically superseded by the Medici. 
 
 After Florence became, in the course of the 
 twelfth century, an independent republic, its insti- 
 tutions gradually verged towards intense demo- 
 
86 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 cracy. Its ancient government had been chiefly 
 swayed by the nobility ; but when the fierce con- 
 tests which long raged between the Guelph and 
 Ghibelline factions had terminated in the complete 
 triumph of the former, a, D, 1266, the essential 
 powers of legislation and magistracy were thrown 
 into the scale of the commons.^ Still the old 
 nobility, entrenched within their fortress-like pa- 
 laces, surrounded by their armed followers, and 
 skilful in combining means for mutual defence, 
 long continued to exercise, in defiance of the laws, 
 no small degree of power and influence. Often 
 did the streets of Florence flow with blood, during 
 the fierce contests which ensued between them and 
 the citizens ; and often did they successfully trample 
 upon popular rights by means altogether unconsti- 
 tutional. Witnesses, for example, in those times, 
 scarcely dared to appear against noble ofienders, 
 who scrupled not to maintain their pretensions by 
 bribery and assassination, no less than by open 
 force. This same spirit, more or less, pervaded 
 most of the Italian republics, and produced in 
 some of them the utter extinction of liberty, and 
 the establishment of one and another form of 
 usurped and tyrannous domination; and it was 
 not till towards the close of the thirteenth century 
 that these violent invasions of popular rights were 
 effectually checked in Florence. 
 
 * Machiavelli, Istorie Florentine, vol. i. p. 66., edit. Milan, 
 8vo., A. D, 1813. 
 
CONSTITUTION OU FLORENCE. 
 
 87 
 
 A state of tranquillity of short duration followed 
 these tierce collisions, during which Florence, as 
 described by Machiavelli, was singularly prosperous 
 and happy. Never, he says, was our city in a 
 greater or happier condition, than in these times, 
 being abundant in men, in riches, and in reputa- 
 tation : the armed citizens amounted in number to 
 30,000, and those of the country districts to 70,000. 
 All Tuscany obeyed her Government, partly as sub- 
 jects, partly as allies; and, although there were still 
 suspicions and animosities between the people and 
 the nobles, yet they led to no malignant results ; 
 but the tv/o bodies lived in concord and peace.” ^ 
 
 The Florentine constitution took the form to 
 which it adhered till the fall of the republic, in 
 1282, and was full of singular devices for the re- 
 pression of the undue influence of the nobility. 
 
 It was based upon a division of the citizens exer- 
 cising commerce, into various arts, called greater 
 and less. The greater arts, seven in number, had 
 each its separate council, its distinctive standard, 
 and its elective privileges. The lesser, or inferior 
 arts, were fourteen in number, and had also their 
 peculiar privileges, though of a lower grade. The 
 executive magistrates, denominated Priors from the 
 thirteenth century downwards, were at first six, 
 and afterwards eight in number. They were elected 
 from the six quarters of the city, and from each of 
 the greater arts. To these was added in the same 
 * Mf^ch. Istorie Fior. lib. ii. p. 84 . 
 
88 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 century a chief magistrate, called the Gonfaloniere 
 of Justice, at whose disposal a numerous civic guard 
 or militia was placed, for the purpose of preserving 
 the peace of the city, and effectually repressing the 
 encroachments of the nobility. This officer, to- 
 gether with the Priors, formed the seignory, or 
 executive government, and a public palace was as- 
 signed them. They held office only two months 
 together. All citizens within a certain grade were 
 capable of bearing office, and were admitted to it 
 by lot from lists made out according to certain de- 
 fined principles of favouritism. In the earlier stages 
 of the republic there were four civic councils, which 
 were resolved, during the thirteenth century, with 
 great advantage to the public service^, into two. 
 The one, consisting of 300 members, all plebeians, 
 was called Consiglio del Popolo; the other, consisting 
 of 250 members, into which the nobles, under certain 
 restrictions, might enter, was called Consiglio di 
 Commune. They had to decide upon any proposi- 
 tions made by the executive power, whether of a 
 political or legislative nature. The members were 
 changed, by the same rotation as the magistracy, 
 every two months. Thus the councils, the magis- 
 tracy, and the chief magistrates, were perpetually 
 changing ; and the principal citizens in their turn 
 were called upon to assume and to lay down office, 
 to command and to obey. The lottery of names 
 was intended to act as a complete check to undue 
 
 * Machiavelli, lib. ii. p. 108. 120. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF FLORENCE. 
 
 89 
 
 influence in the election to offices, but there were 
 various secret means of effectually exercising it. It 
 will be easily conceived how devoid, a government, 
 so constituted, must have been of stedfast policy, or 
 of fixed principle, and how peculiarly exposed to 
 the agitating influences of faction and party. The 
 head, or the heads, of a successful faction became, so 
 long as their popularity endured, the real deposi- 
 taries of power ; and a constitutional expedient ex- 
 isted for actually investing them with it by a sus- 
 pension of the safeguards of personal liberty and 
 property. This expedient, termed the Balia, con- 
 sisted in a delegation of the legislative and exe- 
 cutive functions of the state, for a defined period 
 of time, to a certain number of the citizens chosen 
 out of the dominant party f, by the parliament 
 or general assembly of the people. The dictator- 
 ship thus constituted, might, on its expiration, be 
 carried on by renewed Balias for further periods of 
 of time. Balias were sometimes granted for several 
 years; and as they were usually called for and 
 created under the influence of some dominant fac- 
 tion, they were rendered the ready instruments of 
 its ambition or vengeance. Proscription, capital 
 punishment, sequestration of property, and the exile 
 of the principal families of the opposite party, fol- 
 lowed in their train. It was chiefly by means of 
 the Balia that the great principles of justice and 
 
 * Macliiavelli, lib. ii. p. 139. 
 
 I Sismondi, Hist. Repub. Ital. vol. x. p. 361. 
 
90 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 humanity were so grossly and frequently violated 
 during the existence of the republic, and that am- 
 bition and perfidy enacted their foul deeds beneath 
 the semblance of constituted authority. The suc- 
 cessive triumphs of opposite parties, and the vicis- 
 situdes of their failure or success, were the habitual 
 precursors of these often-repeated scenes of ven- 
 geance and proscription. 
 
 To this description of the constitution of the 
 Florentine republic we will add, that the adminis- 
 tration of criminal justice belonged to a foreign 
 podesta, or rather to two foreign magistrates, the 
 podesta and the capitano del popolo, whose juris- 
 diction appears to have been concurrent. These 
 otfices were preserved till the innovations of the 
 Medici.^ 
 
 The struggle for power between the nobility and 
 the citizens was carried on for nearly two centuries 
 with various fortune, but towards the middle of the 
 fourteenth century the triumph of democracy f 
 became so signal that nobility rendered a man ine- 
 ligible for office. At this time, what were called 
 the ordinances of justice were enacted. They were 
 intended to humble and curb the nobles, and were 
 regarded in after-times as the bulwarks of demo- 
 
 * Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 422. 
 
 f Machiavelli, lib. ii. p. 135. 
 
 “ In Firenze, vincendo il popolo, i nobili privi de’ magistrati 
 rimavenevano, e volendo racquistargli, era loro necessaria con il 
 governo, con 1’ animo, con il mode del vivere, simili ai popolani 
 non solamente essere, ma parere.” — Machiavelli^ lib. iii. p. 141. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF FLORENCE. 
 
 91 
 
 cracy; but they effected their object by a signal 
 violation of the great principles of equity. Though 
 these ordinances were subsequently relaxed in order 
 to admit the nobility to office, it was only on the 
 degrading condition that they should, by way of 
 qualification, first enrol their names in the plebeian 
 order. This humiliation of the ancient patricians 
 was followed by the elevation of many leading fa- 
 milies into what may justly be termed plebeian 
 nobility. Such were the Albizzi and the Medici, 
 whose families had taken a prominent part on the 
 popular side in these struggles. 
 
 Machiavelli has well observed that republican 
 institutions are apt to produce a mixed interchange 
 of licence and servitude. In certain extraordinary 
 emergencies, the Florentines resorted to a dictator- 
 ship in the person of some foreigner of distinction. 
 Though bound by oath not to alter the statutes of 
 the city, the object of their choice, in such case, 
 exercised almost absolute executive powers. Charles 
 of Anjou, and Robert, king of Naples, had each filled 
 this office, the one for ten, the other for five years. 
 It was a dangerous precedent, as was proved in the 
 the year 1342, when Walter de Brienne, titular Duke 
 of Athens, was invested with this power for life. Had 
 he been a man of sound judgment and enterprise, he 
 might probably have established a permanent sove- 
 reignty ; but his administration, from the beginning, 
 was signalised by caprice, tyranny, and blood; and, 
 after giving Florence a terrible example of the evils 
 
92 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 of despotism, he was driven from his post by the 
 concurrent efforts of all parties and factions. 
 
 The bitter consequences of popular licence were 
 severely experienced in Florence in the year 1378, 
 when the low populace, or the Ciarnpi as they were 
 called, became ascendant, and signalised their 
 triumph by plunder and conflagration. Though 
 this insurrection was soon put down, it was the pre- 
 cursor of a plebeian tyranny, which terminated, in 
 1382, by the accession of the Guelph aristocracy to 
 power, under the auspices of the Albizzi family.* 
 After resorting to the usual expedient of proscribing 
 or banishing their opponents, they presided over the 
 state for nearly half a century, with an ability and 
 moderation unusual in the Florentine annals. As 
 time advanced, this party, by means of Balias, and 
 by otherwise undue influence, made various en- 
 croachments on the constitution, some of which 
 were effectually resisted by Giovanni de’ Medici, 
 whose high character and great wealth first raised 
 his family to eminence, and who, from thus taking 
 the part of the people, was regarded by them as a 
 champion of their rights. His son Cosmo, on suc- 
 ceeding to his father’s fortune, soon proved that, in 
 addition to his good sense, quiet firmness, and 
 amiable qualities, he possessed the talents proper to 
 a statesman. 
 
 His extensive commercial connections, and his 
 
 Macliiavelli, lib. iv. p. 204. &c. 
 
CONSTITUTION OF FLORENCE. 
 
 93 
 
 intimacy with the Sforza family at Milan, rendered 
 him the most influential citizen of Florence. Liberal 
 and almost lavish of his wealth, he was the friend 
 of every man who needed support or assistance, the 
 patron of learning and art, and the generous 
 founder or supporter of many noble establishments 
 devoted to useful or charitable objects. Though 
 jealous, like his father, of the encroachments of the 
 Albizzi, he did nothing that could justly provoke 
 their displeasure or resentment ; but in secret they 
 beheld in him the head of a party whose growing 
 influence must soon prove incompatible with the 
 maintenance of their own supremacy. He wns 
 therefore to be put down at all events. At this 
 juncture (a. d. 1433), the death of Nicola d’ Albizzi 
 deprived his party of a wise and able leader, and 
 subjected them to the guidance of his son Linaldo, 
 whose impetuous and fiery temper caused his own 
 ruin and that of his family. Cosmo, though viewed 
 by him with the utmost jealousy, gave him, in con- 
 sequence of his prudence and moderation, no legal 
 ground of complaint. A Balia therefore, whose 
 concealed object was the persecution, and if possible 
 the destruction, of this eminent citizen, was resorted 
 to by Rinaldo. It was readily granted; but the 
 populace who authorised it had no suspicion of its 
 end and aim. The next step was the iinprisonment 
 of Cosmo; and if the other leading men of the 
 Albizzi faction had been as unscrupulous as their 
 leader, he would have been beheaded forthwith. 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Even as it was, the gold of Cosmo, secretly admi- 
 nistered to the Gonfaloniere * Bernardo Guadagni, 
 effected more for his preservation than the fact that 
 no crime could be laid to his charge, nor any pro- 
 cess of trial be attempted. Rinaldo was at length 
 forced to concur in commuting death by the execu- 
 tioner into a sentence of exile. 
 
 Cosmo quitted Florence, almost wondering at his 
 escape. Wherever he went, public honours were 
 lavished upon him; and scarcely a year elapsed 
 before he was recalled to Florence by the voice of 
 the great majority of her citizens; and only a short 
 time before his death their attachment to his person 
 and character was expressively recorded, by their 
 hailing him with the honourable title of Pater Pa- 
 tria3, a title which was finally engraven on his tomb. 
 And now the same scenes were renewed which had 
 so often occurred before in the annals of Florentine 
 faction. Not only the heads and leading men of 
 the Albizzi party were exiled, but several were put 
 to death. A Balia was appointed for ten years, for 
 the express purpose of excluding all the Albizzi 
 from the magistracy: in other words, the legitimate 
 functions of the republic were suspended during this 
 long period, and its powers were concentrated in 
 Cosmo de’ Medici and Neri Capponi, the latter of 
 whom was devoted to the interests of Cosmo. At 
 
 * Sismondi, Hist, Rep. Ital. vol. ix. p. 41.; Roscoe’s L. de’ 
 Medici, vol. i. p. 23. 
 
PLORENTINE FACTIONS. 
 
 95 
 
 the close of the specified term, the same dictatorship 
 was renewed upon the plea of fresh danger ; and 
 during twenty-one years in which they administered 
 the government, there were six Balias, always con- 
 stituted according to legal form.^ For the three 
 years following the death of Capponi, Balia was sus- 
 pended, and the power of Cosmo somewhat declined; 
 but it was then revived ; and Luca Pitti, whose 
 wealth and position marked him out as the rival of 
 Cosmo, was won over by his astute policy to sup- 
 port his family interests. Upon the death of Cosmo, 
 in the year 1464, the friends of liberty, under the 
 influence of Isicola Soderini, again raised their 
 heads, and Luca Pitti professed to join them. The 
 weak health of Cosmo’s son, Piero, and the youth of 
 his grandsons, created a favourable conj uncture ; 
 but their measures were ill taken, and Pitti proved 
 treacherous; his real object being, to take the 
 place of the Medici : the party of Piero therefore 
 triumphed. The Balia was again resorted to, for a 
 space of ten years, and the faction of the Medici, 
 confirmed in power, wreaked vengeance on their 
 opponents by confiscation and banishment. 
 
 For a brief moment, the emigrants, who were 
 both numerous and influential, took courage, in 
 consequence of the show of assistance vouchsafed 
 to them by Venice and other states ; but this in the 
 
 * 
 
 Sismondi, Hist. Rep. Ital. vol. x. p. 163. and 294. &c. 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 end came to nothing ; and, in the year 1468, a 
 peace was concluded between those powers and 
 Florence, which left the party of the Medici at full 
 liberty to renew their proscriptions, and to deepen 
 the foundations of their power.* 
 
 Nothing can more strongly prove how success- 
 fully the set of men who governed Florence in the 
 name of Piero de’ Medici, had stifled the sentiment 
 of constitutional liberty in that city, by their mea- 
 sures, than the easy way in which the reins of 
 government passed from the feeble grasp of Piero, 
 at his death, into the hands of his sons Lorenzo and 
 Giuliano de’ Medici. The death of Giuliano, upon 
 the breaking out of the conspiracy of the Pazzi, left 
 Lorenzo in full possession of the sovereignty of 
 Florence; and his measures were of a nature to 
 chase away even the shadow of republican liberty. 
 He abolished the two Councils, which for centuries 
 had exercised a control over the executive, by 
 resolving them into one, consisting of seventy mem- 
 bers, entirely subject to his nomination, and there- 
 fore to his wilL Thus all the various magistrates 
 were appointed at his dictation, and he concentred 
 in his person the whole power and conduct of the 
 state. 
 
 The principal steps of that wily policy by means 
 of which Lorenzo, at the time of his death, had 
 rendered his power next to absolute, have been 
 
 Sismondi, Hist. vol. x. p. 308. 
 
SELFISH POLICY OF LORENZO. 
 
 97 
 
 pointed out by one of his contemporaries, Jacopo 
 Pitti, in his Chronicle *, extending from the year 
 1494 to 1520. 
 
 On a review, therefore, of the preceding facts, 
 we would say, in the words of Mr. Hallam, — As a 
 patriot we can never bestow upon Lorenzo de’ Medici 
 the meed of disinterested virtue. He completed 
 the subversion of the Florentine republic which 
 his two immediate ancestors had so well prepared.’’ 
 Whatever was the ability of Lorenzo as a states- 
 man,” says Sismondi, it is not in this capacity that 
 he can be placed in the rank of the greatest men of 
 whom Italy boasts. Honour such as this is reserved 
 for those who, superior to personal interests, secure, 
 by the labour of their life, the peace, the glory, or 
 the liberty of their country. Lorenzo, on the con- 
 trary, habitually pursued an egoistic policy; he 
 sustained by bloody executions a usurped power ; 
 
 * This Chronicle, which is to be found in vol. i. of the Archivio 
 Storico Italiano, Firenze, 1850, is stated by the learned editors of 
 that collection, to be the best existing narrative of the period of 
 time which it embraces. The editors express much surprise 
 that Roscoe’s partiality for the Medici should have induced him 
 to state that Lorenzo, in the latter part of his life, seriously me- 
 ditated resigning his power to his son Piero, and of going into 
 philosophical retirement. ‘‘ Certo egli e (they go on to say), 
 die a quel tempo comincib a disporre, a sua posta, cosi ddle 
 arme, cosi del danaro del Publico ; senza quelle ambagi e 
 quest! scaltrissimi infingimenti, coi quali il vecchio ed astuto 
 Cosimo era uso gabbare 1’ altrui pecoragine e mantellare la pro- 
 pria ambizione.” See further extracts from Pitti’s Chronicle 
 in Appendix, No. I. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 he every day added to the weight of a yoke detested 
 by a free city; he deprived the legitimate magis- 
 trates of the authority assigned to them by the 
 constitution ; and he excluded his fellow-citizens 
 from that political career, in which, before his time, 
 they had developed so much talent. We shall see, 
 in the sequel of this history, the fatal consequences 
 of his ambition, and of the overthrow of the national 
 institutions.’^ * 
 
 Sismondi, Hist, des Repub. Ital., vol. xi. p. 369. 
 
99 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEATH OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. MICHAEL ANGELO PROSE- 
 CUTES HIS STUDIES OF ANATOMY, ETC. PIERO De’ MEDICI 
 
 SUCCEEDS HIS FATHER AS HEAD OF THE FLORENTINE GO- 
 VERNMENT. HIS CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. INVASION OF 
 
 ITALY BY CHARLES VIII. OF FRANCE, AND ITS CAUSES. HE AP- 
 PROACHES FLORENCE. THE MEDICI ARE EXPELLED, AND THE 
 
 POPULAR PARTY TRIUMPH. — A CURIOUS DREAM. MICHAEL 
 
 ANGELO RETIRES TO BOLOGNA, WHERE HE IS HOSPITABLY 
 
 ENTERTAINED. EMPLOYED TO FINISH THE TOMB OF ST. 
 
 DOMINIC BY NICOLA PISANO. MERITS AND INFLUENCE OF 
 
 THAT GREAT ARTIST. 
 
 1492 TO 1494. 
 
 In the year 1492, Michael Angelo’s bright prospects 
 were suddenly clouded by the untimely death of his 
 generous patron Lorenzo de’ Medici. How pro- 
 found was his grief may well be imagined. For a 
 time he felt inconsolable, and seemed to have lost 
 one of liis most impelling motives to application 
 and diligence. Youthful eiiterjirise at length re- 
 sumed its empire, and he undertook, at his father’s 
 residence, whither he at first returned, a statue of 
 Hercules, which is mentioned by both his bio- 
 graphers. Condivi describes it as of bronze, and 
 Vasari states that it was to be seen for some years 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 in the Strozzi Palace, but finally came into the pos- 
 session of Francis I. It is supposed no longer to 
 exist. 
 
 He was intimate with the prior of the monastery 
 of Santo Spirito, and about this time executed for 
 its church a crucifix in wood of a size rather less 
 than the natural. The prior, who highly appre- 
 ciated his talents, accommodated him with an 
 apartment for the prosecution of his anatomical 
 studies. He soon took to the dissecting knife ; but 
 the use of it so painfully affected his nervous sys- 
 tem, that for a time it seemed as though he must 
 cast it away for ever. Nothing but an unquench- 
 able desire to render himself a complete master of 
 design, could have enabled him to overcome this 
 difficulty. At length he was able to use it with 
 more indifference and with almost surgical pre- 
 cision, and subjects were frequently supplied to 
 him from the hospital of the monastery. 
 
 “ We have in this great master,” as Sir C. Bell 
 justly observes, “ a proof of the manner in which 
 genius submits to labour, in order to attain perfec- 
 tion. He patiently, and painfully to himself, un- 
 derwent the severe toil of the anatomist, to acquire 
 a power of design such as it is hardly to be sup- 
 posed could be duly appreciated either then or 
 now.” 
 
 Bell adds, that he made careful examinations of 
 the anatomical studies of Michael Angelo while at 
 Florence, and found that lie had avoided the errors 
 
HIS ANATOMICAL LEAKNING. 
 
 101 
 
 of artists of less geniuSj who, in showing their learn- 
 ing, deviate from living nature. He recognised the 
 utmost accuracy of anatomy in his studies, parti- 
 cularly in his pen-and-ink sketches of the knee ; 
 for example, every point of bone, muscle, tendon, 
 and ligament, was marked, and perhaps a little 
 exaggerated. But he found, on surveying the 
 limbs of the statues for which some of these draw- 
 ings had been made, that this peculiarity was not 
 visible : there were none of the details of anatomy, 
 but only the effects of muscular action.^ 
 
 Upon the death of Lorenzo, his eldest son, Piero, 
 succeeded to his almost princely dignity and autho- 
 rity without opposition or question. At this time he 
 was only twenty-one years of age ; and it quickly 
 became manifest that the great qualities of the 
 father had no counterpart in the son. Politian had 
 bestowed unwearied pains on his education, and in 
 some respects they had been successful. His per- 
 son was fine and commanding, his elocution easy 
 and graceful : he was an elegant classical scholar, a 
 clever improvisatore poet, and had much showy 
 talent. In manly exercises, and in bodily agility, 
 he excelled most men. He was an admirable 
 horseman and wrestler, and in the fashionable 
 game of tennis few could compete with him. But 
 his accomplishments were superficial. They dazzled 
 the multitude, but filled him with insufferable 
 
 * Vide Bell on Anatomy of Expression, Essay 9. 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 vanity and presumption. He had nothing of his 
 father’s profound sagacity, sober caution, and wise 
 moderation.^ Headstrong, haughty, and arrogant, 
 he was incapable of self-command ; and the magis- 
 trates and functionaries, who had been used to re- 
 ceive, with deference, the law from Lorenzo’s lips, 
 often retired from the son’s presence displeased and 
 disgusted. Addicted to gross and sensual indul- 
 gences, he disliked all serious application to busi- 
 ness, and committed the conduct of his affairs to 
 unworthy favourites, who abused his confidence. 
 When difficult points were submitted to his con- 
 sideration, he was wont to make his will the law, 
 little regardful of the opinions of those Avho from 
 their experience and position were the most entitled 
 to deference. These bad qualities procured him 
 numberless enemies, and daily provoked compari- 
 sons between himself and his father, much to his 
 disadvantage f ; yet he professed a desire to tread 
 in his steps, and affected to imitate his patronage 
 of letters and of art. Michael Angelo was even 
 invited to resume his apartment in the Medici 
 
 * Guicciardini, Hist., lib. i. p. 13. 
 
 t Lorenzo’s sagacity, in spite of the flattering representations 
 given by Politian of Piero, led him to prognosticate the conse- 
 quences of his son’s headstrong character. Guicciardini, lib. i. 
 p. 136., records the following fact: “II padre Lorenzo con- 
 templando la sua natura si era spesso lamentato con gli amici 
 piu intimi, che 1’ imprudenza e 1’ arroganza del figliuolo parto- 
 rirebbe la rovina della sua casa.” See, also, Jacopo Pitti, Cron, 
 lib. i. p. 31. 
 
103 
 
 riERO DE’ MEDICI. 
 
 Palace, and his judgment was occasionally appealed 
 to about the purchase of gems, intaglios, and articles 
 of vertii. But the patronage of Piero was exercised 
 with so little discrimination, that he showed much 
 less interest in the works and the growing reputa- 
 tion of the youthful Buonarroti, than in the feats 
 of a Spanish staffiere, who had won his heart by 
 his agility, keeping side by side with his horse 
 when it went at full stretch. This man was even 
 admitted to his table. And as to his patronage of 
 Michael Angelo, instead of employing his talents 
 upon durable materials, he imposed upon him, 
 during a severe winter, the fruitless labour of 
 forming a colossal figure of snow. It is said to 
 have borne upon it the impress of his genius ; but 
 how disgusting to such a mind must have been this 
 ridiculous consumption of labour and invention. 
 
 Had the public beheld in Piero only occasional 
 outbreaks of folly, his youth would readily have 
 supplied an apology, but, as things of constant 
 recurrence, they naturally excited general dissatis- 
 faction. Nor could the prudent conduct and cour- 
 teous demeanour of his two brothers, the Cardinal 
 Giovanni (afterwards Leo X.), and of Giuliano 
 (subsequently Duke of Nemours), allay the gather- 
 ing resentment. 
 
 It had been the sage policy of Cosmo and Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici, while extending and deepening their 
 authority, to preserve the tone, habits, and de- 
 meanour of citizens of Florence. Piero’s vanity 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 led him to cast aside any such caution, and to 
 assume much of the show and the style of royalty. 
 In a joint embassy to the court of Eome from the 
 states of Naples and Florence, Venice and Milan, 
 he chiefly aspired to dazzle all eyes by his personal 
 splendour, and by the rich liveries and dresses of 
 his attendants. A close and friendly union had 
 hitherto subsisted between the heads of the Flo- 
 rentine and Milanese states. This bond of concord 
 was severed by his arrogance during this embassy. 
 But the time was at hand when the political con- 
 dition of Italy became fraught with difficulties 
 which might have baffled even his father’s sagacity, 
 and which, in consequence of his imprudences, 
 rendered him for the rest of his days a fugitive and 
 an adventurer. So far back as the year 1262, 
 Urban IV., in the plenitude of papal presumption, 
 and in pursuance of a project, already formed by 
 his predecessor Innocent IV., to wrest the crown 
 of the two Sicilies from its rightful heirs of the 
 house of Arragon, had offered it, as a fief of the 
 Holy See, to Charles of Anjou, brother of St. 
 Louis. The offer was made in the first instance to 
 this pious monarch himself, in favour of either of 
 his younger sons, but had been rejected by him in 
 consequence of its obvious injustice. His brother, 
 less scrupulous, gladly accepted it ; and Italy was, 
 in consequence, scourged by bloody wars for up- 
 wards of a century. The claim, such as it was, of 
 the house of Anjou, was revived (again to deluge 
 
ITALY INVADED BY CHARLES VIII. 
 
 105 
 
 Italy with blood) in the person of Charles VIII., 
 successor of Louis XL In the year 1494, he in- 
 vaded Italy with a powerful army, in assertion of 
 this claim. Italy, without union or concord among 
 its states, was unprepared for resistance, and Piero 
 de’ Medici almost invited an invasion of the Tuscan 
 states, in particular, by rashly declaring himself a 
 partisan of the house of Arragon. Scarcely had 
 he taken this step, than he saw his error, and 
 sought to deprecate the displeasure of Charles by 
 abject submission. Almost the first notice wdiicli 
 reached Florence of the advance of the French, 
 after their passage of the Alps, w^as the alarming 
 intelligence that they had already passed the Tus- 
 can frontier, and were marking their progress by 
 devastation and pillage. Piero now set off for the 
 French head-quarters, and, acting on his own 
 responsibility, consented, as the price of Charles’s 
 favour and forbearance, to place the fortresses of 
 Sarzana, Pietra-santa and Serezanello (keys of the 
 Tuscan states) in the king’s custody, and to sur- 
 render Pisa and Leghorn. The fortresses w^ere 
 accordingly given up, by his orders, to the French ; 
 after wdiich he hastened to Florence, and arrived 
 there on the evening of Xovember 8th, 1494. He 
 found it pervaded by a general panic, in conse- 
 quence of his rash proceedings, and from the terror 
 of a French invasion. 
 
 The friends on wdiose support he most relied 
 Avere either alienated or irresolute ; and the next 
 
106 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 morning, on going to the Palazzo Vecchio, where 
 the council of state was sitting, he found the gates 
 closed and guarded, and Luca Corsini, one of the 
 priors, was in waiting to forbid his entry. In this 
 emergency he summoned to his aid Paolo Orsini, 
 his brother-in-law, and the gendarmes whom he 
 commanded ; but the people, discovering his inten- 
 tions, armed in force to support the council. In 
 vain did the Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici and 
 others of his partisans raise the rallying cry of his 
 family, Palle, palle ! ” nobody obeyed the summons. 
 Every moment added to the popular ferment ; and 
 at length Piero and his brother Giuliano, hearing 
 themselves proclaimed rebels, and the public toscin 
 sounding for a levy en masse, sought their safety 
 in flight^, and, guarded by a few of the gendarmes 
 of Orsini, passed through one of the city gates, 
 which was instantly closed upon them. The car- 
 dinal made his escape in the disguise of a Franciscan 
 monk, and, overtaking his brothers in the Apennines, 
 they all three pushed on for Bologna. Here they 
 were received by Giovanni Bentivoglio, who was 
 astonished to behold the heads of the house of Me- 
 dici, fugitives and outcasts from Florence ; and still 
 more, to find they had become such, without any 
 struggle to maintain their power. “ Should you 
 ever hear that Bentivoglio has been chased out of 
 Bologna,’’ he exclaimed, ‘Hike you out of Florence, 
 
 a 
 
 Guicciardini, lib. i. p. 144. 
 
EXPULSION OF THE MEDICI. 
 
 107 
 
 believe it not. I would rather be cut to pieces by 
 my enemies than thus yield to them.’’ These 
 words were uttered with no just prognostic of the 
 future. This chieftain’s daring under circumstances 
 somewhat similar was so tested. He did succumb 
 to his enemies, and passed the remainder of his 
 days in exile. 
 
 By a decree of the Florentine council, Piero and 
 his brothers had in the meantime been proclaimed 
 rebels, and a price set upon their heads. All the 
 families which had been exiled or degraded during 
 the sixty years of the Medici dynasty were restored 
 to their former privileges. The palaces of such of 
 the leading functionaries as were deemed to be op- 
 posed to the popular will, were pillaged, and among 
 others that of the Cardinal de’ Medici. The Medici 
 palace itself, now called Kiccardi, built by Cosmo 
 in the Via Larga, escaped for a time, in consequence 
 of its being reserved for the reception of the French 
 monarch ; but upon his occupation of it, liis troops 
 or their officers ransacked its precious treasures, 
 and after the king’s departure what remained of 
 them was sold by the state. In this way was dis- 
 persed the unique and magnificent collection of 
 pictures, statues, gems, intaglios, cameos, and 
 other exquisite objects of art, sought out and pur- 
 chased at an enormous cost and with equal taste 
 by Cosmo and Lorenzo de’ Medici. The splendid 
 library of manuscripts and books shared a similar 
 fate. When fortune again smiled upon the family 
 
108 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 some of the finest objects of art, and a great part 
 of the manuscripts, were either recovered or re- 
 purchased. 
 
 Michael Angelo, anticipating the consequences 
 of this storm while it was yet gathering, and fearing 
 that he might be involved in the proscription of his 
 patrons, had retired first to Bologna and soon after 
 to Venice. Condivi mentions having often heard 
 him relate a curious story of an alleged superna- 
 tural intimation of Piero’s approaching fate to one 
 Cardiere, an improvisatore poet, who had been pa- 
 tronised by Lorenzo. This man told him that an 
 apparition of Lorenzo had appeared beside his bed, 
 a night or two before, clad in a sable, tattered vest- 
 ment, and had commanded him, in a stern tone of 
 voice, to go to his son Piero, and tell him that he 
 would ere long be driven from Florence, and must 
 never expect to return. Michael Angelo added that 
 he had urged him to lose no time in delivering the 
 message, but that he had failed to do so, from want 
 of courage. The artist and the poet soon after met 
 again; and the former observing that Cardiere looked 
 very sad, inquired the cause. He replied that, 
 during the preceding night, Lorenzo had reappeared 
 to him, habited as before ; that he had awoke him with 
 a blow on the ear, and had reproached him for not 
 having conveyed the message to his son. Michael 
 Angelo repeated his former advice ; and accordingly 
 Cardiere set off to Careggi, where Piero then was, 
 to perform his mission. He met him on the road to 
 
A CURIOUS DREAM. 
 
 109 
 
 Florence, in his litter, and, stopping it, tremblingly 
 told his story. Piero ridiculed both it and him ; and 
 his chancellor Bibbiena exclaimed, ‘‘You are a fool : 
 had Lorenzo wished to communicate with his son, 
 he would not have made use of you, but would have 
 appeared to him himself.” Cardiere, on his return, 
 so worked on the superstition of Michael Angelo, 
 that, under the apprehension of imminent danger, 
 he hastened his departure.^ 
 
 How much of Cardiere’s story was founded on 
 fact, and how much more of it was mere fancy and 
 fear, it may be difficult to determine : doubtless. 
 
 “ There are more things in heaven and earthy Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 
 
 But, before having recourse to the supernatural, let 
 us, according to Horace’s maxim, “ Nec Deus inter- 
 sit,” &c., inquire how far the whole maybe accounted 
 for by natural causes. At this moment, many 
 wiser heads than Cardiere’s were prognosticating 
 the probable fall of Piero from power. He might 
 have derived his first impressions of this kind from 
 public opinion; his excited feelings might soon 
 shape them into a dream, which appeared a reality; 
 and the conflict which ensued in his mind miofht 
 
 o 
 
 * This story closely accords with one related hy Clarendon, 
 in the early part of liis Instory, of an apparition of old Sir 
 George Yillicrs to a dependant of the family, commanding him 
 to warn his son the Duke of Buckingliam of his impending 
 danger. 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 have stirred up, on the final occasion, a nightmare 
 accompanied by a vivid renewal of the first dream, 
 and by what seemed to him a box on the ear. 
 
 The want of ready money shortened Michael 
 Angelo's stay at Venice, and he returned to Bo- 
 logna, which he found in a state of much agitation 
 in consequence of the presence of the heads of the 
 Medici family, and of the unsettled condition of 
 Italy. The city gates were in consequence strictly 
 guarded, and an order had been published forbid- 
 ding every one, on pain of a penalty of 50 livres, 
 to go beyond the ramparts without a passport for 
 readmission. One day, inadvertently, he infringed 
 this regulation, and, being unable to pay the fine, 
 was placed in custody. From this painful situation 
 he was quickly liberated by the interposition of a 
 gentleman of the name of Aldovrandi, one of the 
 Council of Sixteen, who was so touched on wit- 
 nessing his distress, that he generously paid the 
 fine for him. Interested by his manners and intel- 
 ligence, he followed up this kindness by inviting 
 him to spend some days at his house, which he 
 most gladly did, and when about to take leave, his 
 friendly host would not hear of his departure. 
 
 During this brief space of time, acquaintance had 
 grown into intimacy, and, step by step, the few days 
 expanded into a twelvemonth, at the end of which 
 Aldovrandi, who had now learnt to love his guest 
 almost as a son, and to honour him as a youth of 
 exalted genius, would gladly have detained him 
 
TOMB OF ST. DOMINIC AT BOLOGNA. Ill 
 
 still longer; but inclination and duty both prompted 
 his return to Florence. Aldovrandi delighted in 
 the native beauties of the Tuscan Muse, and found 
 a corresponding taste in his guest, so that they 
 spent much time in reading together the finest 
 parts of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccacio, as well as in 
 cultivating other branches of elegant literature. 
 On these occasions, Michael Angelo was usually 
 the reader, for his correct pronunciation (so highly 
 cultivated under the roof of Lorenzo) charmed the 
 ear of his friend, and imparted great effect to the 
 beauties of their favourite authors. Nor was he, 
 as an artist, wholly unemployed during his stay in 
 Bologna. It so happened that the celebrated tomb 
 of St. Dominic, in the Jesuits’ church in Bologna, 
 executed by Nicola Pisano, between two and three 
 centuries before (a. d. 1230), still wanted two 
 figures, that of a St. Petronius and an angel, to com- 
 plete the original design. These, at the instigation 
 of his friend Aldovrandi, he was commissioned to 
 supply for the sum of thirty ducats. It would have 
 been incongruous to have executed them in his 
 own free and masterly style ; he therefore judi- 
 ciously adopted that of the monument. The Pe- 
 tronius is a well conceived figure ; that of the angel 
 is full of dignity and grace, and adds much to the 
 interest of the composition. This tomb justly ranks 
 among the most remarkable works of the Revival, 
 and as such, it must have gratified Michael Angelo to 
 study its merits and to supply what was still wanting 
 
112 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 to its completion. The numerous bas-reliefs which 
 adorn it (some of which were executed by Nicola’s 
 scholars from his designs) illustrate the acts of the 
 life of St. Dominic, — a name which grates harshly 
 on Protestant ears, — but, viewing them as works 
 of art, they are full of spirit and expression. 
 
 In the principal compartment a knight is intro- 
 duced as fallen from his horse, and as restored to 
 life by the saint in the presence of his mourning and 
 terrified friends. The pathos infused into this 
 composition, and its fine grouping, have justly ren- 
 dered it an object of special admiration ; and con- 
 sidering the date of its execution it deserves to be 
 regarded as a marvellous production. 
 
 There is no greater name in the annals of resus- 
 citated Christian art than that of Nicola Pisano. 
 He was one of the ablest architects of his time; but 
 it is as a sculptor that he is to be referred to with 
 enthusiasm. He found his art far behind the two 
 sister ones in all the qualities which address the 
 mind and the imagination. Witness the grotesque 
 barbaric forms of Lombard, and the stiff, starch, 
 figures “ staring wide with stony eyes,” of Byzantine 
 art, from which he had to choose his models. He 
 left behind him a school, founded upon principles, 
 the full development of which has produced all that 
 is most beautiful, dignified, and graceful in modern 
 sculpture. His works exemplify the truth of nature, 
 heightened by poetic invention, refined taste, and 
 vigorous execution. As such he deserves to be 
 
•/’ ■ 
 
1 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 < 
 
 to 
 
 
 
^ BO I? ATI ON OF THF MAGI. 
 
 t; BY I.S. HARFORD. ESP".': FROM THE PULPIT BY N.PISANO.IN THE BAPTISTERY OF PISA, 
 
i 
 
 V? 
 
 
 
NICOLA PISANO. 
 
 115 
 
 In its form it is hexagonal; six Corinthian columns 
 support it; and five of its compartments are enriched 
 with bas-reliefs of surpassing beauty and interest. 
 The subjects are the Nativity, — the Adoration of the 
 Magi, — the Presentation in the Temple, —the Cruci- 
 fixion, — and the Last Judgment. This last, though 
 the least successful of the five, attests the spirited 
 efibrts of Nicola to delineate the nude, and to catch 
 the inspiration of the antique models. The Ado- 
 ration of the Magi is one of the finest of the com- 
 partments. In this charming composition the seated 
 female figure on the sarcophagus became to him 
 the model for a graceful conception of the Virgin 
 Mary ; and the attitudes, contours, and draperies of 
 this and of the accompanying figures, are such as 
 almost to anticipate some of the best qualities of 
 art in the time of Ghiberti. Three horses are intro- 
 duced in the background, evidently studied from 
 the sarcophagus, and rivalling them in spirit. The 
 drawing, it is true, throughout these bas-reliefs, 
 while it aims thus high, betrays not a little of the 
 imperfection of early art, and the heads in particular 
 are somewhat too large for the figures to which they 
 belong. 
 
 The pulpit of the cathedral of Siena is a still 
 
 arte : ci si fara, manifesto, die a lui sopra tutti i contempo- 
 ranei e successor! immediate debbesi il vanto di restaiiratore 
 deir arte.” 
 
 It is evident,” said Rosini to me, in reference to the compo- 
 sitions of Duccio in the catliedral of Siena, ‘‘that lie had closely 
 studied and worked from Nicola’s pulpit at Pisa.” 
 
116 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 more elaborate production. There is a close rela- 
 tion between the subjects of both, but the compo- 
 sitions are more crowded in that of Siena, and 
 the execution is inferior, the result probably of 
 his having committed it in many parts to his 
 pupils. 
 
 D’Agincourt gives good reasons for supposing 
 that the great Arnolfo di Lapo was Nicola’s pupil 
 both in sculpture and architecture, as also for con- 
 cluding that, although he derived, himself, his first 
 impulse in art from studying the sarcophagus at 
 Pisa, he perfected his study of the antique at Eome 
 and elsewhere.* 
 
 The school of this great artist was carried on after 
 his death, with eminent success, by his son Giovanni, 
 and his pupil Andrea Pisano. The elaborate bas- 
 reliefs which adorn the fa9ade of the cathedral of 
 Orvieto attest Giovanni’s wonderful power of de- 
 lineating the passions and feelings of the human 
 mind. The subjects embrace leading events both 
 of the Old and New Testaments, ending with the 
 Last Judgment. Giovanni was assisted in the vast 
 labour of this work by Arnolfo, and other able 
 scholars of his father Nicola. Vasari and others 
 have stated that Nicola himself worked upon them, 
 whereas his death took place fifteen years before 
 the foundation of the cathedral. f 
 
 * D’Agincourt, Italian edition in folio, vol. i. p. 344., Ve- 
 nezia, 1813. 
 
 t Giovanni’s sculptures at Orvieto have been engraved with 
 
GHIBERTI. 
 
 117 
 
 Andrea Pisano was the friend and coadjutor 
 of Arnolfo di Lapo, and of Giotto, and executed 
 under them some of the finest sculptures which 
 decorate the cathedral at Florence. To him also 
 we owe the most ancient of the three bronze gates 
 of its baptistery. According to Vasari his own 
 taste and talent were aided by those of Giotto in 
 the figures and compositions which adorn it. 
 
 Andrea Orcagna, whose marble shrine in Or-San- 
 Michele at Florence, richly adorned with sculpture, 
 forms one of the finest gems of art in the fourteenth 
 century, was a pupil of Andrea Pisano. 
 
 The art of sculpture, throughout the ensuing 
 century, progressed but little beyond the point at 
 which it was left by Nicola Pisano in 1241. Ghi- 
 berti then arose in his majesty and strength, and 
 left far behind him all his predecessors. The 
 bronze portals of the baptistery at Florence, which 
 bear upon them his finest productions, were pro- 
 nounced by Michael Angelo to be worthy of forming 
 the gates of Paradise. The bas-reliefs which adorn 
 them are replete with poetic grace, brilliant fancy, 
 and masterly execution, whilst a spirit of devout 
 elevation breathes and burns throughout the whole 
 range of their compositions. They have acted power- 
 fully not only upon sculpture but also upon painting; 
 and even Raphael made them his study, and bor- 
 
 the utmost fidelity and talent by Mr. L. Gruner, an artist of 
 the highest merit. 
 
 I 3 
 
118 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 rowed from them many bright ideas. What Raphael 
 was to Giotto, Ghiberti was to Nicola Pisano. 
 The same creative and elevated sentiment reigns 
 throughout their works: the essential difference 
 between them is a consequence of the perfection as 
 compared with the infancy of art. Among the com- 
 petitors for constructing the gates of the baptistery, 
 it is interesting to find the great names of Donatello 
 and Brunelleschi. Thence the transition to Michael 
 Angelo is easy and natural. 
 
 It is thus that we may trace a golden thread of 
 connection between Nicola Pisano and all that is 
 greatest in modern sculpture. 
 
119 
 
 CHAPTER VllL 
 
 TART FIRST. 
 
 RETURN OF MICHAEL ANGELO TO FLORENCE. — FINDS IT IN A 
 STATE OP GREAT POLITICAL EXCITEMENT. — POPULAR GO« 
 VERNMENT ESTABLISHED THERE BENEATH THE AUSPICES OF 
 SAVONAROLA. — MICHAEL ANGELO’s ESTEEM FOR HIM, AND 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY MAN. 
 
 HIS EARLY PREFERENCE FOR THE MONASTIC LIFE. ENTERS 
 
 A CONVENT OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER AT BOLOGNA. — HIS 
 FAILURE AT FIRST AS A PREACHER, AND IIIS SUBSEQUENT 
 SUCCESS. — CLAIMS PROPHETIC POWERS. — SETTLES AT FLO- 
 RENCE, AND BECOMES PRIOR OF THE CONVENT OF SAN 
 
 MARCO. HIS ZEAL AND SUCCESS AS A PREACHER, AND 
 
 GREAT INFLUENCE. HIS REFOR3IS. HE REJECTS THE AD- 
 VANCES OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI, AND WHY. DENOUNCES 
 
 THE CORRUPTIONS OF THE CHURCH AND OF THE AGE. A 
 
 BRIEF VIEW OF THOSE CORRUPTIONS. LAST ILLNESS OF 
 
 LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. HE SENDS FOR SAVONAROLA. THE 
 
 REVOLUTION WHICH FOLLOWED HIS DEATH. SAVONAROLA 
 
 IS CALLED UPON TO ACT AS AN ENVOY TO CHARLES VIII., 
 AND SUBSEQUENTLY TO REMODEL THE FLORENTINE RE- 
 PUBLIC. HIS POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS SCHEMES AND 
 
 PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 1491 - 5 . 
 
 It may readily be conceived with what grateful 
 feelings Michael Angelo quitted the hospitable man- 
 sion which had so long afforded him a happy asy- 
 lum, and what regrets his departure must have 
 
 I 4 
 
120 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 caused to his kind host, and to his Bolognese 
 friends. He found Florence, on his return, fiercely 
 agitated by conflicting opinions, both civil and re- 
 ligious. The events which led to the expulsion of 
 the Medici, and to the establishment of constitu- 
 tional government there, have already been nar- 
 rated. The adherents of the exiled family were 
 still numerous and powerful, and party-feeling ran 
 high between them and their opponents. Michael 
 Angelo, to a considerable degree, stood aloof from 
 both. He looked on with very mingled feelings, 
 arising out of affectionate and devoted gratitude to 
 the house of Medici, and of secret sympathy with 
 those of his fellow-citizens who were nobly strug- 
 gling for the permanent restoration of the ancient 
 republic. Among these was to be found one of the 
 most remarkable characters in the annals of modern 
 history. We allude to the celebrated Savonarola, 
 a great master of sacred oratory, and who was now 
 placed by peculiar circumstances in a situation of 
 political pre-eminence, which rendered him, for a 
 time, arbiter of the destinies of Florence. Vasari 
 and Condivi both assure us that Michael Angelo 
 reo:arded him with atfectionate veneration, — that he 
 delighted to recur to the fine tones of his voice in 
 preaching, — and that, in his declining years, the 
 Holy Scriptures, and the writings of Savonarola, 
 were his favourite study.* 
 
 * “ Dilettosi molto della Scrittura sacra, come ottimo cris- 
 tiano, che egli era, ed ebbe in gran venerazione V opere scritte 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 121 
 
 As he finally devoted himself to the same pa- 
 triotic cause which now engaged all the energies 
 of Savonarola, whose history, for the five ensuing 
 years, was the history of Florence itself, we think 
 that we shall further the ends of our biography, 
 and consult the wishes of our readers, if we relate, 
 at some length, the particulars of his eventful 
 career. 
 
 Savonarola was born at Ferrara, on the 21st of 
 September, 1452. His family, originally of Padua, 
 was of noble extraction. Destined by his father 
 for the medical profession, he had all the advan- 
 tages of a learned education, and gave early proofs 
 of an acute intellect, by the pertinent questions 
 which he often put to his teachers, and by the faci- 
 lity with which he mastered the dialectic subtleties 
 of the scholastic philosophy.* 
 
 The petty sovereigns and heads of the various 
 small states of Italy, in the fifteenth century, vied 
 with each other in the patronage of learning and 
 
 da fra Girolamo Savonarola, per avere udita la voce di quel 
 frate in pergamo.” — Vasari^ p. 131. 4to. Roma. 
 
 “ Ha con grande studio ed attenzione lette le sacre Scritture, 
 si del Testamento vecchio, come del nuovo, e chi sopra di cio 
 s’ e affaticato, come gli scritti del Savonarola, al quale egli ha 
 sempre avuta grande affezione, restandogli ancor nella mente 
 la memoria della sua viva voce.” — Condivi, p. 79. 
 
 “ II Michelangiolo si ricordava ne’ suoi tardi anni delle parole 
 del povero frate,” says the editor of a volume of his works 
 printed in Florence in 1845. 
 
 * Picus Mirandulae Princeps, Vita Savonarolfe, with additions 
 by Quetif, Paris, 1574, tom. i. p. 9. Burlamachi, Vita Sav. 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 learned men ; and the court of Ferrara in particu- 
 lar, under the auspices of its first Duke Hercules, 
 was a centre of literary attraction and festive 
 gaiety. Assemblies and days of reception at court 
 were frequent ; and the principal families of Fer- 
 rara, mingling with the crowd of distinguished 
 strangers, shared on these occasions with them in 
 the duke’s attentions. 
 
 Savonarola, it is said, was never seen but at one 
 of these parties."^ His tastes, even in childhood were 
 devotional ; and while pursuing his philosophical 
 studies, he gave many indications of a preference 
 for that of theology beyond all others. He de- 
 lighted also in poetry, and some of his earliest 
 compositions were poetic. One of these, written 
 at the age of twenty, and entitled “ De Kuina 
 Mundi,” expatiates at considerable length, and in 
 verse more remarkable for its vigour than its har- 
 mony, upon the vices of the age, and the corrup- 
 tions of the Church. 
 
 When the time arrived for choosing a profession, 
 he felt an unconquerable aversion from that of me- 
 dicine, and was ardently desirous of embracing the 
 monastic life. 
 
 In this state of mind he reached the age of 
 twenty-three years, and was only withheld from a 
 frank avowal of his wishes by the fear of their being 
 frustrated through the entreaties and persuasions of 
 
 ^ Burlamachi, Vita Sav. p. 30. Pici Mir, Vit. Sav. p. 10. 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 123 
 
 his friends, who he knew Avould oppose them. At 
 length he cut short the conflict, by secretly quit- 
 ting the paternal roof, and uniting himself with a 
 Dominican fraternity at Bologna, leaving behind 
 him a written paper explanatory of his motives. 
 Thence he addressed an apologetic letter to his 
 parents (dated April, 1475), in which he tells them, 
 that the profligate condition of society throughout 
 Italy rendered it impossible for him, so long as he 
 lived in the midst of the world, to carry out his 
 own views of Christian duty, and had therefore 
 almost forced this step upon him. His letter, 
 though expressive of much pain for the grief he 
 had caused his friends, manifests unalterable reso- 
 lution in his new course. 
 
 Within monastic walls he expected to find him- 
 self living among human angels ; he was therefore 
 shocked to observe ambition and selfishness little 
 less actively at work beneath monkish hoods than 
 in the busy haunts of men. He had long been 
 desirous of devoting himself, in retirement, to a 
 profound fitudy of the Sacred Oracles ; he thought 
 the time for this was now come ; but soon found 
 that within these walls such studies were lightly 
 esteemed, and that the dogmas of Aristotle were 
 made of greater account than the precepts and 
 example of Jesus Christ.^ Instead of being en- 
 couraged in his higher aspirations, he was obliged, 
 
 * Burlamaclii, Vita di Sav. p. 31. 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 in obedience to bis superiors, to consume much of 
 his time in preparing and delivering lectures on the 
 belles lettres and on metaphysics.^ He obeyed with 
 a heavy heart; and years rolled away f before he was 
 released from this bondage, and allowed, in pur- 
 suance of his original purpose, to make the Holy 
 Scriptures his principal study. He also found 
 much pleasure in perusing the works of Aquinas. 
 
 On entering the monastery, he had formed no 
 settled purpose of exercising the office of a preacher, 
 but, after a time, the advice of his superiors, and 
 his own wishes, equally inclined him to it. 
 
 His first appearance at Florence, as a preacher, 
 was in the year 1483, in the church of San Lo- 
 renzo, but with little success, in consequence of a 
 want of address, and from a natural difficulty of 
 articulation, which had operated to his disadvan- 
 tagn as a lecturer. After repeated trials, he re- 
 turned to Bologna, humbled, mortified, and dis- 
 couraged ; yet not so cast down as to relinquish 
 his object. For a twelvemonth he laboured, in the 
 spirit of the great orator of Greece, to overcome 
 this infirmity ; and so successfully, that being ap- 
 pointed, in the course of 1486, to preach at Brescia, 
 scarcely a vestige of it was apparent. 
 
 * He found, says Burlamachi, the monks of his time disposed 
 ‘‘ occuparsi in moltissime vanita, massime studiando pin Ari- 
 totile che la Santa Scrittura,” &c. — Burlamachi, Vit. Sav, 
 p. 35. 
 
 t Pici Mir. Vit. Sav. p. 14. 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 125 
 
 On this occasion he addressed his auditory from 
 the Apocalypse, and electrified them by the burn- 
 ing words in which he denounced the reigning cor- 
 ruptions of the Church and of the world. From 
 this time he preached with the zeal of a Keformer ; 
 his language, his imagery, and his denunciations, 
 were in the spirit and in the words of the ancient 
 prophets ; and he scrupled not to point to Rome as 
 the mystic Babylon, and rnother of abominations. 
 He glanced at the voluptuousness of the popes, at 
 the flagitious profligacy of their lives, and at the 
 simoniacal arts by which they grasped at the pope- 
 dom ; as also at the immorality of cardinals and 
 bishops *, and at the similar arts by which they 
 won their way to ecclesiastical honours. He de- 
 nounced the impurities of the cloister, and the 
 general absence of discipline in the Church. He 
 depicted in strong colours the tyranny and vices of 
 
 * ‘‘Inter omnes vero ejus persequutores, hi acerrimi inventi 
 sunt qui moribus pessimis, et potissimum ecclesiae praesides 
 quorum vita foedissima universum orbem foetore repleverat ; 
 illorum luxus simoniacasque labes insectabatur publice pri- 
 vatimque monere solitus, a Babilone (Romam intelligens) fugi- 
 endum esse,” &c. — PicuSj Vit. Sav. cap. 9. 
 
 “ Pontifices summo astu et dolo, necnon simoniaca perfidia 
 supremum auspicari sacerdotium dicebantur palam, sic ut nec 
 quisquam id fere revocaret in dubium. Mox adepti solium, 
 scortis et cyn^dis eos, auroque conservando vacare, fama 
 publica circumferebat, atque ad eorum exemplum qui su- 
 berant cardinales et episcopi sese instituere. Nulla in eis vel 
 modicus Dei cultus, iis eadem vivendi ratio, nullaque religio.” 
 — Picus^ Vit. Sav. cap. 5. Burlamacbi, p. 39. 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 princes, and tlie corruption of manners through- 
 out the inferior classes ; and he grounded upon 
 these facts a stirring call to repentance and re- 
 formation. 
 
 For the ensuing four years, though he occasion- 
 ally appeared in the pulpit in various parts of 
 Northern Italy, his time was chiefly devoted to 
 theological study, and to further preparation for 
 the ministry. In the year 1487, he preached at 
 a provincial chapter of the Dominicans of Lom- 
 bardy at Keggio, and among his hearers was the 
 celebrated Giovanni Pico, Prince of Mirandula, who 
 was so smitten by his eloquence, that he felt 
 anxious it should find scope on a more public 
 theatre. He therefore wrote to this effect to Lo- 
 renzo de’ Medici, who, in consequence (according 
 to Burlamachi), encouraged Savonarola to settle at 
 Florence. Yet as two or three years elapsed be- 
 fore he did so, we cannot but think, with M. Per- 
 rens, that some subsequent cause led him thither. 
 On his arrival, a. d. 1490, he united himself to the 
 Dominican convent of San Marco, a grand con- 
 ventual establishment, which, if not founded, had 
 been liberally endowed by Cosmo de^ Medici, and 
 possessed a fine library. 
 
 His first employment was that of a reader ; his 
 next the instruction of the novices ; and his ad- 
 dresses to them were felt to be so full of interest, 
 that they were soon attended by most of the mem- 
 bers of the convent. At length he preached in 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 127 
 
 the garden of the convent, on the edge of a par- 
 terre of roses, to increasing auditories. 
 
 His profound learning, and his brilliant talent as 
 a preacher, in unison with great simplicity of man- 
 ners, procured him general esteem ; and upon the 
 death of the prior, in 1491, he was appointed his 
 successor, and thus found himself unexpectedly 
 placed in a position of equal honour, credit, 
 and usefulness. His zeal, labours, and eloquence, 
 quickly attracted general notice. Those who had 
 witnessed, some years before, his first attempts in 
 sacred oratory at Florence, could scarcely be per- 
 suaded that the great and impassioned preacher 
 who now addressed them could be the same man.* 
 
 The church of San Marco quickly became inca- 
 pable of accommodating the increasing crowd of 
 auditors; that of the Annunciata, and, soon after, 
 the spacious cathedral, were opened to him; but 
 even these proved insufficient. Not only Florence 
 poured forth a vast tide of hearers ; they flocked 
 in also from the neighbouring villages ; and when 
 the area of the church in which he preached be- 
 came full, later comers would climb up wherever 
 it was possible, in order to see and hear the great 
 preacher. 
 
 After the Medici dynasty had become established 
 in Florence, it had been customary for the prior 
 of San Marco, when he had entered on his office, to 
 
 * Burlamaclii, p. 39. Perrens, Vie de Sav. vol. i. p. 33. 
 Ficus, Vita Sav. cap. 7. 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 wait upon the head of that family, and do homage 
 to him. Upon being apprised by some of the lead- 
 ing members of the convent that such was the cus- 
 tom, he declined compliance. In this refusal we 
 already trace the workings of that political aliena- 
 tion from the existing government which prepared 
 him at a later period to become the life and soul of 
 the popular party in Florence. ‘‘ Do I owe this 
 appointment,” was his question, to God or to 
 Lorenzo de’ Medici ?” “ To God, undoubtedly,” 
 
 was the reply. “ Suffer me, then,” he rejoined, 
 “ to pay my homage to God, and not to a man.” 
 
 In the mean time his popularity and influence 
 daily gathered strength. 
 
 Many of the tradesmen forbore to open their 
 shops till after the morning preaching was over, 
 and not a few of them were in the habit of exercis- 
 ing hospitality to such of the peasants as had come 
 in from a great distance and needed refreshment. 
 Even during the rigours of winter the area in front 
 of San Marco was thronged, long before the doors 
 were opened, by a multitude of devotees anxious 
 to obtain the best places.f The people hung upon 
 his lips with intense interest, for he addressed them 
 with a fervour, an affection, and a fidelity which 
 they had never before witnessed, and which deeply 
 touched their consciences and their hearts. An 
 
 * Burlamachi, Vit. Sav. pp. 88. and 93. Picus, p. 32. 
 I Sismondi, Hist. Ital. vol. xii. p. 72. 
 
:;AVGNAMOLA 
 
 iA52_uiFD 141)8. 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 129 
 
 increased attention to the duties of religion, and a 
 remarkable reformation of life and manners, gra- 
 dually became the visible consequences of Savona- 
 rola’s preaching. 
 
 The reforms thus wrought, were, however, scorned 
 and ridiculed in many quarters, especially among 
 theyounger branches of the nobility, who denounced 
 the holy monk as a harsh disciplinarian and a 
 flighty enthusiast. Even some of the monks of his 
 convent complained of the strictness with which the 
 prior enforced the ascetic and severe rules of their 
 order ; but as he required nothing from them which 
 he did not rigidly practise himself, their murmurs 
 were little heeded. Equally indifferent to the voice 
 of censure or of praise, he stedfastly pursued what 
 he conceived to be the path of Christian duty. 
 While he exposed the vices of society, he was kind 
 in his demeanour to all : his Jgreat object appeared 
 to be to do good, and to convert souls ; and he was 
 not only indefatigable as a preacher, but actively 
 promoted the relief of the poor, and the Christian 
 education of the young. These practical virtues 
 won for him the love of his auditors as much as his 
 eloquence their admiration; and at length Lorenzo 
 de’ Medici felt it important to secure his good will 
 and support to his government. Honours and pre- 
 ferment would, no doubt, have rewarded his sub- 
 serviency ; but these lie sought not ; and being jea- 
 lous of his independence, he shunned rather than 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 courted the advances of that illustrious man. 
 After attending mass at San Marco, as Lorenzo now 
 and then did, he would walk in the convent garden; 
 and it was known among the fraternity that he 
 would have been well pleased had the prior some- 
 times joined him in his walk, and thus have given 
 him opportunities of winning his regard. Burla- 
 inachi ^ mentions an occasion on which a monk in 
 the interest of Lorenzo went to apprise the prior 
 that the Magnifico was walking in the garden. 
 “Has he asked for me?” was his reply. “No, 
 father,” said the monk. “ Let him then pursue his 
 devotions undisturbed,” rejoined he, and remained 
 tranquil in his cell. “This man is a true monk,” 
 said Lorenzo, “and the only one I have known who 
 acts up to his profession.” Lorenzo, among other 
 advances, sometimes put into the poor-box of the 
 convent a large sum in golden crowns. Upon 
 opening the box, the prior separated them from the 
 silver, and observed, “ The silver is enough for 
 our wants ; take the golden ducats to the good 
 brothers of San Martino, for distribution among the 
 poor.” 
 
 In the mean time Savonarola continued to preach 
 with all boldness, and occasionally lashed the vices 
 of the Roman court, and alluded to those of its 
 head in so pointed a way, that Lorenzo, fearful of 
 the consequences, deemed it needful to interfere, 
 
 * Burlam. p. 43. 
 
SAVONAROLA. 
 
 131 
 
 and deputed five citizens of the highest rank, credit, 
 and character, to wait on the prior, and try to per- 
 suade him to act more discreetly, and to consult the 
 common good and peace of the city. Among the 
 citizens deputed were Antonio Soderini, Francesco 
 Valori, and Lorenzo’s near relative Bernardo Ru- 
 cellai.* They called on him professedly of their 
 own accord. 
 
 He listened to their remonstrances with calm 
 attention, and then expressed his conviction that 
 their visit was not spontaneous, but imposed upon 
 them by Lorenzo. Tell him,” he said, that he 
 is a Florentine and the head of the republic, whereas 
 I am only a stranger and a poor monk ; but entreat 
 him, in my name, to repent of his errors, for cala- 
 mities from on high impend over him and his 
 family.” f 
 
 Though all the advances of Lorenzo had failed 
 of success, he appears to have conducted himself, 
 under the disappointment, with singular magnani- 
 mity, for we find Savonarola appointed to preach 
 the course of Lent sermons, in the year 1492, at 
 the church of San Lorenzo. J 
 
 The conviction that his vocation from God was 
 that of a reformer and a prophet, was so present 
 to Savonarola’s mind, that his zeal often mastered 
 
 * Vita Sav. Pici Mir. p. 22. ; and Burlamaclii, p. 48. 
 f This version of S.’s reply is made up of the joint state- 
 ments of Burlamachi, p. 49., and Pico di Mir. cap. 6. 
 i Perrens, vol. i. p. 58. 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 his prudence, and he would pour forth his soul 
 with the fervour and authority of an inspired 
 teacher, depicturing in energetic words, and in 
 highly figurative language, the awful judgments 
 which, as he conceived, were about to be inflicted 
 by Divine Justice upon Italy, and upon Rome in 
 particular. In order to elucidate his motives, it 
 may be well to dwell briefly upon what was then 
 passing in the Romish Church, and also to take a 
 rapid retrospective glance at its condition during 
 much of the fourteenth and the whole of the fif- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 The transfer of the papal throne from Rome to 
 Avignon, for a space of seventy years during the 
 early part of the fourteenth century, entailed enor- 
 mous evils on Europe, and on the States of the 
 Church in particular. It was a deliberate renun- 
 ciation by the popes of their most sacred duties 
 as bishops of Rome and as temporal sovereigns. 
 While they passed their days in Epicurean ease 
 and luxury on the banks of the Rhone, the patri- 
 mony of the Church was trodden down by lawless 
 barons and contending factions, and, as was na- 
 tural in such a state of things, the people, both 
 clerical and lay, equally despised the laws of God 
 and of man. Venality, impurity, and licentious- 
 ness pervaded the papal court, and had reached 
 such a pitch at the time that Petrarch was a re- 
 sident at or near Avignon, that he points to the 
 Romish court there, in his Epistles sine titulOy and 
 
COERUPTIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 133 
 
 in three of his Sonnets, as the Western Babylon, a 
 sink of iniquity, a very hell upon earth. Matteo 
 Villani, a contemporary chronicler*, confirms Pe- 
 trarch’s descriptions, especially with reference to 
 the pontificate of Clement VI., whose court appears 
 to have surpassed even that of our Charles II. in 
 open profligacy. Some translated extracts from 
 these Letters of Petrarch are given below f, and 
 various passages from the originals will be found 
 in fuller detail in the Appendix. 
 
 * Cronica de Matteo Villani, lib. iii. cap. 13., edit. Milan, 183. 
 ■f ‘‘ This Babylon, situated on the banks of the Rhone, is the 
 enemy of the good, and the asylum of the wicked — an asylum 
 for the worst of evils : — famous, shall I call her, or the infamous 
 harlot, who hath committed fornication with the kings of the 
 earth ? Thou art, in truth, the very same whom the Evangelist 
 beheld seated on many waters, arrayed in purple and scarlet, 
 and decked v it'i gold and precious stones and pearls. Thou 
 hast in thy hands a golden cup, full of abominations and 
 filthiness of thy fornications. Dost thou recognise thyself 
 Babylon ? If thou dissemblest, hear what follows ; ‘ And I 
 saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with 
 the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.’ Why art thou silent ? prove 
 that any other but thyself is thus drunken, or at least say if 
 thou canst deny thyself to be this drunken one. Mark what 
 follows : ‘ Hear a voice from heaven saying. Come out from 
 her, my people, lest ye partake of her sins and of her plagues.’ ” 
 — Rev. xvii. xviii. 
 
 “ Such,” Petrarch adds, is the modern Babylon. Whatever 
 of perfidy or fraud, whatever of cruelty and pride, whatever of 
 impurity and unbridled licentiousness you may have heard or 
 read of, whatever of impiety and of the vilest manners the 
 world has elsewhere witnessed, you will behold all such evils 
 
 K 3 
 
134 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Then followed the great Western schism, which 
 displayed to Europe the appalling spectacle, during 
 
 accumulated in fullest measure here.” Again, Here, in Ba- 
 bylon, all that is good expires. In this kingdom of avarice, 
 nothing is deemed a loss excepting the loss of money. What 
 is told us of hell is treated as fabulous : the resurrection of the 
 body, the end of the world, the coming of Christ to judgment, 
 are esteemed fables. Here truth is deemed folly, abstinence 
 rusticity, chastity a signal reproach, licence in sin magnanimity 
 and praiseworthy freedom.” — Opera Petrarchce, 2 vols. folio, 
 vol. i. Epist. 15, 16. pp. 807. 803. 806. Basil, 1554. 
 
 A bitter sarcasm was played off upon Clement VI. and his 
 cardinals about this time, the credit of which is given, by some, 
 to John Visconti, Archbishop of Milan ; by others, and with 
 greater probability, to Petrarch. The pope had been holding a 
 consistory, and one of the cardinals contrived adroitly to let 
 fall, without being seen, a paper, which was picked up and 
 carried to Clement, and read in his presence. It was a letter 
 with this prefix : “ The Prince of Darkness, to Pope Clement 
 his vicar, and the cardinals his faithful counsellors and good 
 friends.” At the end was written, “ Given out in the centre 
 of hell, amidst a crowd of demons.” 
 
 The letter contained an enumeration of all the crimes which 
 the prince of darkness conceived the prelates had been guilty 
 of, with respect to which he paid them great compliments, 
 exhorting them to go on thus, so as to win more and more of 
 his favour. He then attacked the doctrine of the apostles, and 
 ridiculed their poor and frugal mode of living. “ I well know,’’ 
 he added, ‘‘that far from imitating all this, you hold it in de- 
 testation : on this point, therefore, I have no cause to reproach 
 you. But your language does not always correspond with your 
 actions ; correct yourselves in this particular, in case you wish for 
 preferment in my kingdom.” He ended by saying “ Pride, your 
 mother, salutes you, and so also do your sisters Avarice, Un- 
 cleanness, &c., who are making daily progress under your 
 
COREUPTIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 135 
 
 the space of twenty-five years, of two or more con- 
 tending popes, anathematising each other, scourg- 
 ing Italy, by their fierce contentions, with anarchy 
 and blood, — rivals for the triple crown, and rivals 
 no less in perfidy and crime. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifteenth century the 
 sentiments of deference and consideration, hitherto 
 habitually accorded to the princes and prelates of 
 the Church, were converted, by events like these, 
 into contempt and hatred ; and the cry for reform, 
 raised at first by Wiclitfe in England, and echoed 
 in deep tones from amidst the distant regions of 
 Bohemia and Moravia, was no less taken up in 
 various parts of Germany. 
 
 The Church, and the Western world over which 
 it presided, were hastening on towards a crisis 
 of general anarchy^, when John .XXIIL, one of 
 three contending popes, yielded to the earnest 
 entreaties of the Emperor Sigismund, and con- 
 
 auspices.” — See De Sade, Vie de Petr arque^ liv. iv. p. 174.; 
 and also Villani, Cron. lib. ii. p. 48. 
 
 Mr. Hallam in his Middle Ages,” vol. ii. p. 337., touches in 
 forcible terms on the rapacity and licence of the Avignon popes, 
 and justly doubts whether even the avarice of John XXII. re- 
 flected greater dishonour on the Church, than the licentious 
 profuseness of Clement VI. Petrarch uses language which 
 we shall not repeat, upon the personal vices of those popes. 
 
 See also Sismondi, Hist. Ital. vol. vii. pp. 3 — 7. 
 
 * L’Enfant, Hist, of the Council of Constance, 4to. London, 
 vol. i. pp. 437. and 44d. Moshcim’s Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 410. 
 
 K 4 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 yoked, in the year 1414, a general council of the 
 Church to meet at Constance ; its professed objects 
 being the termination of the Western schism and 
 the reform of the Church. The first of these 
 objects it did effect; but though the preachers 
 who addressed the council exposed the practical 
 corruptions of the Church with unsparing fidelity, 
 reform was cast to the winds. Yet the assembled 
 clergy, however willing to deal thus gently with 
 their own sins, were fierce and implacable pro- 
 secutors of alleged heretics in the persons of John 
 Huss and Jerom of Prague, who were successively 
 arraigned as such, and condemned to the flames. 
 These men were, in fact, devout Roman Catholics, 
 whose real guilt, in the eye of their persecutors, 
 consisted in the boldness with which they had ex- 
 posed the condition of the Church, and the evils 
 resulting from papal despotism. They shine forth 
 by their superior learning, wisdom, and piety, like 
 stars in this age of moral and religious darkness."^ 
 The pontificate of Nicholas V. the amiable and 
 enlightened protector of learning and art, and 
 that of Martin V., form for brief periods pleasing 
 contrasts to the revolting scenes to which we have 
 thus adverted: but succeeding popes more or less 
 fell back into the old system, till at length our 
 attention is fixed on Sixtus IV., a. d. 1473, and on 
 
 * L’Enfant, vol. ii. p. 136. Weismanni Hist. Eccles. vol, i, 
 p. 1235, &c. 
 
CORRUPTIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 137 
 
 Ills successors Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI., 
 under whom the youth and manhood of Savo- 
 narola were passed. It was thus from reflection 
 upon the condition of the Church both past and 
 present, that he imbibed his unquenchable zeal in 
 the cause of reform. What was called religion had 
 in fact become so separated from morality, that no 
 surprise was felt at hearing of the most atrocious 
 crimes perpe trated by persons in high places, whe- 
 ther lay or clerical ; and the reflex crimes enacted 
 upon themselves in return excited no astonishment. 
 The dictates of truth and justice, when opposed 
 to self-interest, were unblushingly violated ; and 
 Machiavelli, in noticing the fact, adds that men 
 had come to the pass of accounting it no shame to 
 plot schemes of perfidy, but shame only to fail in 
 their accomplishment. 
 
 Sixtus IV. attained the popedom by perfidious 
 and simoniacal arts. The conspiracy of the Pazzi, 
 the object of which was the assassination of Lorenzo 
 and Giuliano de’ Medici, was concocted under his 
 auspices, his principal auxiliaries in it, besides 
 Francesco dei Pazzi himself, being a cardinal and 
 an archbishop. 
 
 The foulest personal crimes are ascribed to this 
 pontiff, with the mention of which we shall not sully 
 our pages.* 
 
 * Machiavelli, lib. viii. 1st. Fior. p. 210., asserts in the most 
 positive terms the participation ot Sixtus in this plot. Sis- 
 mondi, chap. Ixxxviii. p. 237. 
 
138 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 As to Innocent VIII. , though he did not rival 
 his predecessor in dark and daring criminality, he 
 was a gay, unprincipled voluptuary * ; weak, ir- 
 resolute, the slave of favourites, the vicious head of 
 a vicious court, grasping at wealth by simony and 
 every species of peculation. 
 
 Beneath his sway the worst of crimes were par- 
 doned upon the payment of certain fixed sums ; and 
 it was only because he could not in common decency 
 avoid it, that he renewed, in the year 1488, a con- 
 stitution of Pius Il.f, passed A. d. 1473, forbidding 
 priests to keep taverns, playhouses, and houses of 
 ill-fame, or to act as the secret agents of courtezans. 
 Many natural children had been born to him by 
 various mothers, and he scrupled not publicly to 
 recognise them as his offspring, and to load them 
 with the spoils and honours of the Church. The 
 grossest simony and the sale of Indulgences were 
 practised in open day, under his sanction. By 
 acts and arts like these he had won the papal tiara, 
 and had then trampled on the promises made to the 
 cardinals who had promoted his elevation. And 
 yet Lorenzo de’ Medici, about the time Savonarola 
 first settled in Florence, prompted by personal and 
 political ambition, had so stooped from his own 
 high position as to contract an alliance with this 
 pope by giving his daughter Madalena in marriage 
 
 ^ Guicciardini describes him as “ voltato totalmente 1’ animo 
 ad oziosi diletti.” — Lib. x. 
 
 t Sismondi, Hist, d’ Ital. chap. xc. p. 330. 
 
LOKENZO DE’ MEDICI AND SAVONAROLA* 139 
 
 to one of his natural sons. The easy pope, in 
 return, bestowed a cardinal’s hat on his son John, 
 afterwards Leo X., then a boy only thirteen years 
 old, coupled solely with the condition that he was 
 not to act or vote in the consistory till he attained 
 the age of sixteen. 
 
 In such a state of the Church, and of the world, 
 who can be surprised if a spirit like Savonarola’s 
 felt it at times impossible to keep strictly within 
 the limits of human prudence? ‘‘ The zeal of thine 
 house hath eaten me up ” well expresses the work- 
 ing of his fervent feelings. 
 
 He and Lorenzo, though feeling much mutual 
 . respect, were continually crossing each other’s paths. 
 His schemes of reform, amidst much that was ex- 
 cellent, partook largely of monkish rigidity ; and 
 Lorenzo very naturally regarded them as suited 
 only to the cloister. ‘‘Yet one cannot but admire,” 
 says Rio, “ the contest, so lively, so dramatic, and 
 so imposing, carried on by a simple monk against 
 the spirit of the age, in face of all Italy. His object 
 was to re-establish the kingdom of Christ in the 
 heart, in the spirit, and in the imagination of man- 
 kind, and to extend the benefits of his redemption 
 to all the human faculties, and to all their produc- 
 tions.” ^ Lorenzo, on the other hand, was daily 
 planning fresh schemes for the pleasure and amuse- 
 ment of the people at Florence, impelled thereto by 
 an amiable desire to promote their gratification, as 
 
 * Rio, Poesie Chretienne, cap. 8. 
 
140 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 also by a wily wish to turn their thoughts from 
 politics, so as to leave him at liberty to carry out 
 his projects of personal aggrandisement. Popularity 
 was one of the chief instruments by which he 
 hoped to effect his object, and with this end in 
 view, he exercised the art of becoming all things to 
 all men with wonderful tact and ingenuity. 
 
 According as the occasion called for it, he could 
 eloquently descant on Plato’s views of Divine Love, 
 with such men as Pico di Mirandula and Marsiglio 
 Ficino ; or contend with Argiropolo on the doctrines 
 of Aristotle, or with Politian upon the point of a 
 Greek epigram ; or win the admiration of men of 
 contemplative taste (such as Girolamo Benivieni) 
 by his spiritual songs, or by the lofty flights of his 
 philosophic muse ; while for a Matteo Franco, and 
 others of a comic stamp, he was always ready 
 for an encounter of brilliant wit and smart re- 
 partee."^ 
 
 The fetes and the festivals with which he thus 
 charmed the people, and averted their thoughts 
 from his own political designs, were of the most 
 exciting description. 
 
 Such amusements, with burlesque accompani- 
 ments, had long been common in Florence ; but he 
 multiplied their number, and heightened their 
 effect by scenical devices and mythological figures 
 
 * Di P. Vincenzo Marcliese. Memoir of Savonarola, embodied 
 in the preliminary dissertation to the works of Fra Angelico di 
 Fiesole, lib. ii. p. 107. 
 
BACCHANALIAN SONGS. 
 
 141 
 
 and emblems, got up with equal taste and cost. 
 On these occasions he often became himself a pro- 
 minent actor, mingling in the processions and 
 dances, and encouraging every species of sport 
 and merriment. His muse also then descended 
 with ease from the sublime of Plato to the ribaldry 
 of Aristophanes, and clothed licentious and Bac- 
 chanalian sentiments in gay and easy language, 
 adapted to the level of the populace. Such is the 
 direct tendency of his Canti Carnaleschi which 
 were sung in chorus on these festive occasions, and 
 of which Ginguene, the elegant historian of Italian 
 literature, has justly remarked, that they imply a 
 state of public manners, if not really worse than 
 those of after-times, at least more openly licentious. 
 The parties that he headed at these festivals issued 
 forth at twilight in pompous procession, about five 
 hundred in number, singing to the joyous sound of 
 musical instruments the ballads and songs above 
 referred to, the populace taking part in the chorus. 
 To what species of licence these songs stirred up 
 the excited multitude may be best judged of from 
 the specimens we have given in the Appendix, 
 Xo. 3. 
 
 When the shades of night set in, four hundred 
 torch-bearers joined the procession, which ceased 
 not to make its rounds throughout the city till a 
 late hour of the ensuing morning ; thus reviving 
 
 * Maffei, Storia dell. Let. Ital. lib. ii. cap. 2. 
 
142 
 
 LIEE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 something very like the Bacchanalian orgies of 
 Paganism. 
 
 Lorenzo’s aim, to win over the populace to his 
 interest by these means, proved eminently success- 
 ful. A numerous association of the young men 
 of Florence of all grades was formed, who were 
 always ready to meet if summoned, armed or un- 
 armed as the occasion might be, to support his 
 interests and those of his family. They were 
 called Campagnacci, and the pass-word of the 
 party was “ palle, palle;” in allusion to the well- 
 known balls in the Medici coat of arms. Mean- 
 while the partizans of the old republic regarded 
 these proceedings with jealousy and indignation. 
 Among them were many of the most grave, influ- 
 ential citizens, such, for example, as Piero Capponi, 
 Farinata degli Uberti, Jacopo Nardi the historian, 
 Francesco Valori, called the Florentine Cato, and, 
 above all, Savonarola. 
 
 The third year of Savonarola’s residence at Flo- 
 rence (1492) was marked by the death of Innocent 
 VIII., and of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Lorenzo was 
 cut off at the early age of forty-seven by an insi- 
 dious fever, which in a short time so reduced his 
 strength that his recovery became hopeless. Poli- 
 tian has given, in a most interesting letter, a 
 detailed account of his last moments. He was at 
 his villa of Careggi, not far from Florence, sur- 
 rounded by the members of his family ; and 
 becoming fully aware of his imminent danger, sent 
 
LAST ILLNESS OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI. 143 
 
 for a priest to administer the sacrament to him, 
 and to receive his confession. He arrived in the 
 dead of the night, and Lorenzo made exertions 
 beyond his strength, in manifestation of his earnest 
 desire to profit by the solemn occasion. His con- 
 fession, which was poured forth in the audience of 
 all around him, was prefaced by exclamations in 
 adoration of the sacramental wafer ; after which 
 the sentiments he expressed were those of a hum- 
 ble penitent and believing Christian. Though 
 loaded,” he exclaimed, ‘‘with thy benefits, most 
 benignant Jesus, I have never duly listened to thy 
 word, and have continually offended thy majesty: 
 but by that divine love, with which thou didst em- 
 brace the whole race of mankind ; which brought 
 thee down from heaven to earth, which enveloped 
 thee with the bands of our humanity, which pre- 
 vailed on thee to endure hunger, thirst, cold, heat, 
 labour, derision, reproach, scourging, stripes, and 
 finally death and the cross itself ; by that love, 
 oh! Jesus, our Saviour, I beseech thee to hide thy 
 face from my sins, so that when I shall appear 
 before thy judgment-seat (to which I am even now 
 summoned), my guilt and my sins may not prevail 
 to my punishment, but that I may be pardoned 
 through the merits of thy cross.” He then, in a 
 calm manner, took an affectionate leave of his 
 eldest son, Piero, suggesting much, both of caution 
 and of counsel, as to his future conduct. After- 
 wards he conversed in terms of affectionate regard 
 
144 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 with his old friend Pico di Mirandula, who came 
 to visit him, and also with Politian. Just as Pico 
 left him, Savonarola arrived. Lorenzo, from the 
 high opinion he entertained of his character, had 
 himself sent for him. What passed at this inter- 
 view is variously related by his biographers, two 
 of whom, Burlamachi and Pico di Mirandula, have 
 stated that Savonarola urged on him, as the price 
 of taking his confession, three promises ; the third 
 being the restoration to Florence of her ancient 
 liberties. To the two first conditions they say 
 that he readily assented, but that on the mention 
 of the third, he turned his head away and was 
 silent. Tiraboschi^, in his article upon Lorenzo, 
 rejects the statements of Burlamachi, &c., and 
 adheres to that of Politian. He justly observes 
 that the opposing narrative makes Lorenzo’s com- 
 pliance with the promises required of him the 
 condition of his receiving the viaticum ; whereas 
 this had already been administered to him in the 
 preceding night. Burlamachi, in this and in many 
 other instances, wrote from hearsay^ and when he 
 does so, is apt to deal much in the incredible. 
 
 To have disturbed a dying man by such an 
 exciting topic would have lieen harsh and uncha- 
 ritable. Politian was an eye and ear- witness of 
 what passed, and we doubt not that his narrative 
 is substantially correct. It is as followsf : — “ Pico 
 
 * Storia della Lett. Ital., Pt. i. p. 17. 39. 
 
 f Politian! Epis. lib. iv. Ep. 2. 
 
LAST ILLNESS OF LORENZO De’ MEDICI. 145 
 
 had scarcely gone when Girolamo of Ferrara, a 
 man eminent for learning and holiness of character, 
 a celebrated preacher also of heavenly doctrine, 
 entered the chamber. He exhorted Lorenzo to 
 adhere to the faith. He replied that he firmly did. 
 He further exhorted him, in case of recovery, to 
 lead a new life. Such, he said, was his most fixed 
 intention. He then urged him, as death seemed 
 inevitable, to resign himself to the Divine will. 
 ‘ Nothing can be more grateful to me,’ he replied, 
 ‘ since it is the will of God.’ He was about to take 
 his departure when Lorenzo called after him, 
 ‘ What, father, are you going without giving me 
 your blessing ? ’ He then declined his head, and 
 composed his countenance in the most devout man- 
 ner, and responded, duly and readily, to his words 
 and prayers.” 
 
 In the year 1493, Savonarola preached during 
 Lent at Bologna to crowded auditories. Giovanni 
 Bentivoglio then presided over the state^; and 
 his lady, it appears, was in the habit of coming 
 late to the service attended by a numerous suite, 
 so that her entry caused no small confusion. Sa- 
 vonarola hinted his displeasure again and again, 
 but without effect. At length, upon a studied re- 
 petition of the offence, he publicly addressed the 
 lady in a tone of such earnest remonstrance that 
 she became furious, and ordered two of her satel- 
 
 * Burlam. p. 50. 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 lites to push forward instantly, and revenge the 
 insult. They were prompt to obey, but could not 
 penetrate the dense phalanx which surrounded the 
 pulpit and formed an effectual body-guard to the 
 preacher. Assassins, it is added, were afterwards 
 hired to put an end to him, but were so awed on 
 approaching his presence, as to say they came by 
 desire of the princess to receive his commands. 
 We give the outline of the story, as related by Bur- 
 lamachi, without the legendary matter which, as 
 we conceive, he has mixed up with it. Soon after 
 he returned to Florence in safety, and resumed his 
 usual duties. 
 
 What occurred in that city, after the death of 
 Lorenzo, up to the time which laid low the dynasty 
 of the Medici, and re-introduced the republic, has 
 been already stated. After the flight of Piero de’ 
 Medici and his brothers, the leading citizens debated 
 amon^ themselves what modifications should take 
 place in its ancient forms, so as to adapt it most 
 perfectly to present exigencies. Whilst they were 
 thus occupied, news arrived that Charles VIIl., 
 whose conquering sword had borne down all be- 
 fore him, might shortly be expected before the 
 walls of Florence. This intelligence produced 
 general consternation, it being extremely doubtful 
 what part the king would take v/ith reference to 
 the recent changes. All parties looked upon each 
 other with mutual suspicion, and hope and fear 
 variously agitated the public mind. In the midst 
 
EMBASSY TO CHxVRLES VIII. 
 
 147 
 
 of this political excitement there was one man, and 
 almost only one, who was calm and hopeful, nay, 
 confident, and that man was Savonarola. He had 
 long been persuaded that the corruptions of the 
 age, and in particular those of the Church, would 
 provoke some such crisis as the present. He had 
 expressed this conviction, it will be remembered, as 
 far back as when he first preached at Brescia, a. d. 
 1484. He now persuaded himself that the approach 
 of the French army signified the speedy fulfilment 
 of his predictions. Under this impression, he ad- 
 dressed his auditors in cheering and triumphant 
 language, and bid them hope that the invasion of 
 Charles VIH. was the precursor of a new era of 
 religious, civil, and moral light in Italy. 
 
 The seignory now appointed an embassy, com- 
 posed of five of the leading citizens (including Sa- 
 vonarola*) to wait on the French king, in order to 
 ascertain his intentions, and, if possible, to dis- 
 suade him from approaching Florence. They found 
 Charles at Pisa, and were quickly introduced into 
 his presence. The young monarch, elated with 
 success, and burning for conquest, expected, no 
 doubt, to find in these envoys a set of men humble, 
 submissive, and anxious to win his favour. Great 
 was his surprise when they entered, headed by a 
 man of undaunted mien and aspect, clothed in 
 
 ^ Nardi, 1st. Fior. lib. i. p. 23. ; and Compendium Uevela- 
 tionum Savon, p. 237, &c. Scipione Ammiralo, 1st. Fiorcn. 
 lib. xxvi. p. 3o2. 
 
148 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 monkish vestments, who approached him with an 
 air of authority, bearing in his hand the open 
 Gospel, and, as he pointed to it, addressed him, 
 not in the unctuous tones of human flattery, but in 
 a strain of mingled admonition and welcome. 
 
 Great King,” he exclaimed, thou minister of 
 Divine Justice, the mercy of God has long borne 
 with the grievous sins of Italy, and has graciously 
 waited for her repentance. Despite the most sacred 
 obligations, she has lifted up her meretricious and 
 adamantine face, till at length the hour of Divine 
 vengeance is at hand. To his unworthy servant, 
 now before thee, he revealed, more than four years 
 ago, his purpose of reforming the Church by means 
 of severe chastisement. From that time to this, 
 that servant has never ceased urgently to call the 
 people to repentance. Men of all degrees will con- 
 firm this assertion. Few believed his words, — the 
 great multitude derided them. 
 
 ^^At length, thou art come, 0 King ! as the 
 minister of God — the minister of J ustice. May thy 
 arrival prove to us altogether propitious. Thy ap- 
 proach fills with joy all the servants of Christ, all 
 the lovers of justice, and those who are zealous to 
 act on religious principle. Come on, then, joyful, 
 secure, and triumphant, since He who sent thee is 
 the same who triumphed on the cross for our salva- 
 tion. But, most Christian King, give ear to my 
 words, and apply them to thy heart. 
 
 “ The unworthy servant of God to whom those 
 
SAVONAKOLA^S ADDEESS TO CIIAELES VIII. 149 
 
 things have been revealed, on the part of the Holy 
 Trinity, and especially on the part of Christ, who 
 is King of kings and Lord of lords, admonishes 
 thee that, after his example, thou must in all things 
 incline to mercy; but most of all towards his city 
 of Florence, which, although it labours beneath a 
 heavy load of transgression, contains many true 
 servants of God, of both sexes. For their sake, 
 thou must preserve the city, that we may with a 
 more quiet mind pray for thee, and render God 
 propitious to thee in this expedition. The same 
 unworthy servant exhorts and admonishes thee, 
 that with all diligence thou mayest protect and de- 
 fend the innocent, the widows, the orphans, and all 
 who deserve mercy ; but, most of all, that thou 
 guard the chastity of those devoted to Christ in 
 the nunneries, lest through thee sin should siiper- 
 abound, and the strength vouchsafed to thee from 
 on high should be converted into weakness.” 
 
 There was nothing in the character and habits of 
 Charles, as drawn by Guicciardini, to encourage the 
 sanguine anticipations of the Florentine Reformer. 
 Rash, unstable, voluptuous, uncultivated in mind 
 and deformed in person, easy good-nature was his 
 best quality. Hurried forward by a blind ambi- 
 tion, which had no definite object but conquest, he 
 grew tired of his enterprise as soon as difficulties 
 thwarted him; and after marching to the extre- 
 mity of Italy with little or no opposition, he be- 
 came as eager to retrace his steps as he had origi- 
 
150 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 nally been to push onward ; and at length he re- 
 crossed the Alps, leaving, as the principal vestiges 
 of his presence in fair Italy, wide-spread devasta- 
 tion, and augmented discord. 
 
 Savonarola^s address, accordingly, was listened 
 to by Charles with astonishment, succeeded by in- 
 difference. The ambassadors were dismissed from 
 his presence with vague assurances, and the king 
 was quickly on his march to Florence, where he 
 entered as a conqueror^, and dictated his own 
 terms of peace. They were in the first instance 
 severe, but were subsequently mitigated. The 
 peace was proclaimed in the cathedral of Florence 
 on the 26th of November, 1494. 
 
 Within two days after, the French army was in 
 full march for the Papal States, and the Florentines 
 were left at liberty to arrange for themselves their 
 future form of government. The rival pretensions 
 and struggles of contending parties now filled the 
 
 ^ Guicciardini, 1st. lib. i. p. 151. 
 
 In the train of Charles VIII. when he entered Florence, 
 was Philip de Comines, the well-known French chronicler, tie 
 had heard of the talents and prophetic fame of Savonarola, and 
 sought and obtained an interview with him. He speaks of him 
 as having predicted various events before they occurred, and 
 in particular the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and as main- 
 taining that the Church would be reformed by the sword. He 
 adds, that various opinions existed as to his prophetic powers ; 
 but that he himself believed him to be a good man ; and fur- 
 ther says, he consulted him as to whether Charles VIII. might 
 venture to go on without danger of his life. De Comines, 
 lib. viii. p. 223. 
 
EXCITEMENT AT ELOEENCE. 
 
 151 
 
 city with excitement ; to put an end to which, and 
 to adopt measures the best suited to win public con- 
 fidence, the seignory resorted to a Balia, which in- 
 vested twenty of the leading citizens with supreme 
 authority for the ensuing twelvemonth. In spite of 
 this expedient, dissatisfaction prevailed ; a more dis- 
 tinct appeal to the people was deemed necessary ; and 
 this feeling was fostered by a treatise from the pen 
 of Savonarola, in which he pointed out, in a sen- 
 sible and learned manner, the leading arguments in 
 favour both of monarchical and popular government, 
 but recommended that the latter should be adhered 
 to in the case of Florence, as being best adapted to 
 the enterprising temper of its people, and to the 
 cherished traditions of its ancient liberty. This 
 publication produced a great and favourable impres- 
 sion on the public mind, and was followed by an 
 application to its author, from the leading members 
 of the new government, to take some means of 
 more fully explaining to them what he deemed the 
 measures best adapted to the present crisis. Thus 
 urged, he invited the leading authorities of the 
 city, and its male population, to assemble in his 
 church, when he further expatiated upon the ad- 
 vice offered in his pamphlet, and concluded an elo- 
 quent address by exhorting the citizens — 1st, To do 
 whatsoever they resolved upon in the fear of God. 
 2ndly, To act on a patriotic preference of the pub- 
 lic to private interests. 3rdly, To promulgate a 
 
152 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 general amnesty. 4thly, To fix the government 
 on a popular basis. Antonio Soderini, the Gonfa- 
 loniere, a citizen of commanding influence, and the 
 other popular leaders, seconded the counsels of Sa- 
 vonarola ; and under his advice, the basis of a re- 
 formed constitution was laid, by the appointment 
 of a grand council, consisting of all such citizens 
 as could prove that their proximate ancestors had 
 shared in the offices or honours of the state. 
 
 No laws were to be framed, nor taxes raised, 
 but by the authority of this council, and it was 
 invested with the power of nominating the execu- 
 tive seignory. A sort of privy council, or senate, 
 composed of eighty members, to be elected by the 
 great council, was also appointed, intermediate be- 
 tween itself and the seignory, to whose judgment 
 all propositions for new laws were to be submitted, 
 before they could come under discussion in the 
 general council."^ 
 
 In his public address, which led to these import- 
 ant results, Savonarola displayed much learned 
 familiarity with the various forms of government, 
 both ancient and modern ; and the advice which he 
 gave was conveyed in terms of moderation and 
 mildness. The vast hall, which forms so striking 
 a feature of the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, was 
 now erected by the advice of Savonarola for the 
 
 ^ Guicciardini, lib. ii. p. 213. Nardi, lib. ii. pp. 29. 34. 
 Scipione Ammirato, Ibt. Fior. lib. xxvii. p. 354. 
 
Savonarola’s disinterestedness, 153 
 
 meetings of the council, which appear to have con- 
 sisted of nearly two thousand members^; and 
 places of trust and honour Avere filled by men 
 devoted to republican institutions. Placed by 
 unforeseen circumstances in this elevated position, 
 any mistakes and errors into which Savonarola 
 subsequently fell, Avere not those of selfish or vul- 
 gar ambition, but of a mind possessed Avith the 
 noble, though visionary, hope of firmly establish- 
 ing a theocracy in Florence, in AAdiich religion and 
 laAv should be one and the same. The deference 
 thus paid to his authority, and the commanding 
 influence AAdiich it procured him, noAV put his real 
 character to the test. The avenues of preferment 
 and power Avere open to him, but he declined office, 
 and voluntary poverty continued to be no less his 
 choice than his practice; and as to reputation and 
 influence, he appeared chiefly to A^alue them as 
 means for giving effect to his various plans of use- 
 fulness and reform. 
 
 Among these was one for extensive reforms in 
 the con Agents of his OAvn order throughout Tuscany. 
 He thought the monks led much too easy IHes ; 
 and AAuth the view of obliging them to turn their 
 leisure to good account, he introduced among them 
 the critical study of the Holy Scriptures, and the 
 culture of the oriental tongues Avith a Anew to it ; 
 
 * It is difficult to ascertain the precise number. Sismondi 
 lixcs it at ISOO. Hist. vol. xii. p. 244. 
 
154 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 as also schools for painting, and for other branches 
 of art. Some eminent men issued from the order, 
 as a consequence of these salutary measures.* 
 
 The Christian education of the children and of the 
 youth of Florence had for some time been an object 
 of his special care ; and he now formed them, for this 
 purpose, into a distinct order, under the superin- 
 tendence of his friend and coadjutor Domenico 
 Pescia, a zealous member of the fraternity of San 
 Marco, who often preached for him. How much 
 the forms of instruction in the existing schools 
 needed improvement, may be judged of by various 
 passages in his published sermons. “ Go,” he says, 
 ‘‘into all the schools of Florence f; you will find 
 tutors paid to teach logic and philosophy, the 
 sciences and the arts, but not a single one is charged 
 with the function of teaching the Holy Scriptures. 
 Insensate teachers ! see you not, that in making the 
 profane sciences the basis of faith, you lower and 
 degrade instead of raising and exalting it ? ” In 
 another sermon he says : “ What inefihble sweet- 
 ness does a devout soul experience in reading the 
 Holy Scriptures ! He w^ho, amidst the fatigues of 
 the weary pilgrimage of human life, occasionally 
 sits down to refresh and strengthen himself by this 
 viaticum, enjoys the presence of Christ, the beloved 
 of his soul, and is consoled by those tears of ten- 
 
 * Lett. ined. di Sav. in Archiv. Istor. Fior. 
 t Kio, Pocide ChreliennC; voL i. p. 317. 
 
STATE OF EDUCATION AT FLORENCE. 155 
 
 derness which fill his eyes in contemplating the 
 mercies of God.” * 
 
 In passages similar in their spirit to these, he 
 often expatiates, in the course of his Sermons, upon 
 the value and authority of the Holy Scriptures. 
 Far from wishing to keep them out of the hands of 
 the laity, his wish was that they should form the 
 basis of all public instruction. 
 
 His educational schemes proved so efficacious, 
 that the citizens beheld with wonder their youthful 
 population, hitherto so undisciplined, cheerfully 
 submitting to the restraints of religion and order, 
 and taking delight in mental improvement. The 
 Florentines were fond of music, and, to meet this 
 taste, Savonarola composed a variety of simple 
 hymns, which he adapted to popular airs, and they 
 were recited or sung by the children with equal 
 energy and delight. 
 
 * Rio, Poesie Chretienne, p. 317. 
 
156 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 SPECIMENS OP Savonarola’s eloquence and power as a 
 
 PREACHER. — INDIGNATION OP THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT ON 
 HEARING OP THE PREEDOM WITH WHICH HE EXPOSED THE 
 CORRUPTIONS OP THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY. — VAIN 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO WIN HIM OVER TO ITS INTERESTS. INPAMOUS 
 
 CHARACTER OP POPE ALEXANDER VI. CONSPIRACY TO RE- 
 
 STORE THE MEDICI, AND CONSEQUENT TRIAL AND DEATH OP 
 
 FIVE LEADING CITIZENS. REFLECTIONS ON THIS ACT. — 
 
 THE CARNIVAL CONVERTED INTO A RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL BY 
 SAVONAROLA. — CENSURE ON THE EXTRAVAGANCES ATTEND- 
 ING IT. HIS POLITICAL INFLUENCE DECLINES. EXCOMMU- 
 
 NICATED BY THE POPE. — Savonarola’s exposure of the 
 pontiff’s vices. — addresses letters to the potentates 
 
 OF EUROPE DECLARING HIM TO BE NO TRUE POPE. — ORDEAL 
 
 OF FIRE. — PUBLIC COMMOTIONS. TRIAL, CONDEMNATION, 
 
 DEATH, AND CHARACTER OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 1494 TO 1498. 
 
 In preaching, Savonarola was as indefatigable as 
 ever, and as impressive. Many volumes of his Ser- 
 mons have been published, chiefly taken down from 
 liis lips, between the years 1494 and 1498. The 
 art of reporting was then in its infancy, but imper- 
 fect as they must be deemed, these Sermons convey 
 a very high idea of the learning and ability, the lofty 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 157 
 
 energy, and the devout earnestness of the preacher. 
 If they cannot be praised for an accurate division 
 of the parts, for a logical process of reasoning, or 
 for great elegance of diction, it will be found, to 
 use the words of Tiraboschi^, that, ‘‘ from time to 
 time, he inveighs and thunders with a power akin 
 to lightning.” After citing some illustrative pas- 
 sages, he concludes thus : “ Be it remembered that 
 these discourses were not committed to paper by 
 Savonarola himself, but were taken down by re- 
 porters ; so that we not only want in them the im- 
 pressive influence of the orator’s animated voice, 
 but we must also bear in mind that they come down 
 to us mutilated and imperfect. Yet such as we 
 have them, they are justly to be regarded as the 
 most eloquent that are to be found in the age of 
 which we are treating.” 
 
 We will now proceed to place before our readers 
 various specimens of the style and matter of these 
 addresses. In doing so we shall, in order to bring 
 the more striking passages before our readers, 
 compress some of those that are introductory to 
 them, yet so as to preserve their spirit and mean- 
 ing ; and even in the important passages, we have 
 occasionally found it essential to use a certain de- 
 gree of compression, for Savonarola is very discur- 
 sive. But, as truth is our object, we have given in 
 the Appendix the principal passages in Italian, in 
 
 * Tirabosclii, Storia dell. Lett. Ital. lib. iii. p. 329. 
 
158 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 proper order and succession, thus enabling readers 
 to judge for themselves. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Extract from Sermon "^Zrd of the Collection entitled 
 “ Quam bonus Israel Deusf preached in the 
 Advent of 1493. Its subject is^ the Condition of the 
 Modern^ as contrasted with that of the Primitive 
 Church. 
 
 The primitive Church was constructed of 
 living stones, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
 corner-stone. The Church was then a garden 
 of delights, a very heaven upon earth. How 
 holy was the zeal which animated its pastors for 
 the good of souls ! How anxiously did they em- 
 ploy themselves in things divine ! What obe- 
 dience was there in the people; what prudence and 
 discretion in the prelates; what wisdom in the 
 teachers ; what truth flowed from the lips of the 
 preachers ; what holiness animated the priests ; 
 what purity distinguished the youths ; what chas- 
 tity the virgins ; what continence the widowed ; 
 what mutual faith the married ; what love and 
 charity animated the whole body of the faithful ! 
 No imagination can adequately conceive the happi- 
 ness of that time, when they who believed were of 
 one heart and one soul ; and when every tongue 
 could feelingly unite in the spirit of that fine sen- 
 timent of the psalmist, ‘ Behold, how sweet and 
 
savonahola’s sermons. 
 
 159 
 
 how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity.^ Alas, how changed the scene ! 
 The devil, through the instrumentality of wicked 
 prelates, has destroyed the temple of God, 
 
 ‘‘ The Church is shaken to its foundations. No 
 more are the prophets remembered. The apostles 
 are no longer reverenced. The columns of the 
 Church strew the ground because their bases have 
 given way; in other words, the Evangelists are 
 treated with neglect. The teachers who should 
 expound the Gospels to the people are no longer to 
 be found. Where is the justice of princes and rulers? 
 — where the holy solicitude of the pastors ? — where 
 the pious example of the priests and the religious 
 orders ? Where is the obedience of the people 
 towards the prelates ? — where the discretion of the 
 prelates in their dealings with the people ? — where 
 the reverence of the students towards the priests ? 
 Lord, why art thou quiet ? The enemy rages in thy 
 sanctuary, and, what is worst of all, they who thus 
 act glory in their shame. To sin is the frailty of 
 mortals ; to glory in sin is the disposition of devils. 
 The holiest festivals are devoted to worldly amuse- 
 ments, to indecent spectacles, and to games suited 
 to a heathen taste. On Christmas Eve, instead of 
 filling our churches and sharing in their sacred 
 offices, and proffering to God their thanksgivings 
 for his inestimable love in the redemption of the 
 world, Christians, so called, go off to taverns, to gra- 
 tify their appetites, and to practise all sorts of evil. 
 
160 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 This very day I beheld in the streets females, who 
 know better, exercising seductive arts, and clothed 
 with meretricious ornaments. Such are not the in- 
 signia of female purity. Priests appear in public, 
 arrayed more pompously than laymen. They are to 
 be found in gambling houses and taverns. They 
 keep concubines. Is not this publicly to blazon the 
 evidence of their sins. The nuns too: their delight 
 is to stand at the grate all the day, and to chatter 
 with thoughtless youths. What does such conduct 
 argue, but the absence of all real devotion ? When 
 the pastor revels in vice, his flock will naturally 
 precipitate themselves into vice also. The cure of 
 souls involves a high responsibility. The prelates 
 and pastors of our day are prostrated in their afiec- 
 tions to earth and to earthly things. The cure of 
 souls has no hold upon their hearts. The aim of 
 preachers is to please those in authority, so as to en- 
 sure their praise and approbation. Thus the Church, 
 once so justly honoured, has been remoulded into 
 a Church according to their own fashion. This is 
 the modern Church. It is not built with living 
 stones. Within it are not found Christians rooted 
 in that living faith which works by love. It is an 
 edifice of wood ; made up in no small degree of 
 Christians prepared as fuel for the fires of perdition. 
 Their love is only in word, not in deed and in truth. 
 Go to Rome, — go through all Christendom ; study 
 what is passing in the houses of great prelates and 
 grand masters. Poetry and oratory chiefly occupy 
 
Savonarola’s sermons. 
 
 161 
 
 their thoughts. They prepare themselves by the 
 study of Virgil, and Horace, and Cicero, for the 
 cure of souls. Will you believe it? the government 
 of the Church is in no small degree directed by 
 astrologers. There is hardly a prelate or grand 
 master who has not something to do with astrolo- 
 gers; they will even rely upon them to calculate 
 the precise hour at which they may ride out, or do 
 any other ordinary act of every-day life. And, as 
 to our preachers, they may be said to have deserted 
 the Holy Scriptures for astrology and philosophy. 
 These they idolise, and only regard the Scriptures 
 as the handmaidens of philosophy. Our Church 
 is not wanting in outward ceremonies. Its sacred 
 rites are solemnised with splendid vestments, rich 
 hangings, and candlesticks of gold and silver. The 
 chalices are numerous and beautiful, and produce 
 a brilliant effect. There you may behold prelates 
 with mitres of gold, adorned with precious stones, 
 and bearing croziers of silver. You may see them, 
 at the altar, arrayed in copes stiff with gold, and 
 bordered Avith brocade, chanting the finest vespers, 
 and the most beautiful masses, Avith the accompani- 
 ment of such striking ceremonies, such voices, and 
 such organ music, that you are perfectly astonished. 
 You cannot doubt that they must be men of great 
 holiness and gravity. You can hardly believe that 
 such men can possibly be in error ; you are ready 
 to conclude that Avhat they say and do is true as 
 the Gospel. Such is the modern Church. Its 
 
 ATJL. I. AI 
 
162 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 members feed on these husks, and are enchanted 
 with these ceremonies. And they say that the 
 Church of CHRIST JESUS was never before in so 
 flourishing a condition; and that divine worship 
 was never before so well conducted. As for the pri- 
 mitive bishops, in comparison of those we have been 
 describing, they proclaim them to have scarcely 
 deserved the appellation of prelates. The primitive 
 bishops, it is true, were scarcely to be termed 'pre- 
 lates^ because forsooth they were poor and humble 
 men ; they could not boast of great revenues and 
 rich abbeys like the modern. They had neither 
 mitres nor chalices of gold ; or, if they had them, 
 they were ready to sacrifice them for the necessities 
 of the poor : whereas modern prelates extort from 
 the poor the very pittance which their necessities 
 require, in order to procure such chalices. In the 
 primitive Church, the chalices were of wood, and 
 the prelates of gold. Now-a-days the Church has 
 prelates of wood, and chalices of gold. St. Tliomas 
 Aquinas was one day addressed by a great prelate, 
 similar probably to those we have been describing ; 
 he had in his hands one or two basons of gold full of 
 ducats ; and, holding them out, he exclaimed, ^ See, 
 Master Thomas, the Church can no longer say, like 
 St. Peter, silver and gold have I none.’ ‘ True,’ 
 replied St. Thomas, ‘ neither can the Church any 
 longer effectually use the words that follow your 
 citation. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth 
 rise up and ivalhi^ The bishops of those days were 
 
SAVONAROLA S SERMONS. 
 
 163 
 
 not prelates in virtue of grand temporalities, but 
 they were such in a far higher sense ; they were 
 emphatically great prelates. They were men of 
 holiness and virtue ; of high authority with the 
 people ; and much reverenced by them on account 
 of their admirable qualities, and for the miracles 
 which they wrought. 
 
 “ What then. Lord, doest thou ? why dost thou 
 sleep ? Eise, Lord, and liberate thy Church from 
 the power of demons and tyrants, from the hands 
 of wicked prelates. Lord, beholdest thou not our 
 affliction ? Hast thou forgotten thy Church ? 
 Dost thou no longer love her ? has she ceased to be 
 dear to thee ? She is still thy bride ; dost thou not 
 know her? Yet she is the same for which thou 
 didst descend into the Virgin’s womb, and didst 
 assume our human nature, and didst suffer re- 
 proach ; for which also thou didst shed thy blood 
 upon the cross. Come, then. Lord, for her deliver- 
 ance,—" come, I say, and punish these wicked men ; 
 confound and humble them that we may peaceably 
 serve thee,” 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Extracts and Sentiments from a Sermon preached in 
 the Cathedral of Florence^ on January 13th, 1494, 
 on Reform in the Church. 
 
 “ The Church may be compared to a fig-tree, 
 which, in the first year of its maturity, produced a 
 great many figs and no leaves ; in the second, many 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 figs and few leaves ; in the third, as many leaves as 
 figs ; in the fourth, more leaves than figs ; in the 
 fifth, few figs and a multitude of leaves ; till at 
 length, as time rolled on, it yielded leaves alone ; 
 and not only produced no fruit, but injured the 
 neighbouring plants by its overshadowing foliage. 
 You cannot doubt that the gardener would cut 
 down such a tree, and condemn it to the flames. 
 Thus the Church, which in primitive times pro- 
 duced abundant fruit, and, as it were, no leaves, 
 has gradually deteriorated, and now bears leaves 
 only and fruit none. In other words, outward cere- 
 monies abound; so also do pomp and superfluities; 
 and as the thick foliage of the barren fig-tree in- 
 jured the adjoining plants, so the prelates, by their 
 evil example and influence, seduce men into sins 
 innumerable. The husbandman, that is to say, 
 Christ, will at length come, and will cut down the 
 tree. Then will the Church be reformed. 
 
 “ When Pope Innocent VIII. died, I was laughed 
 at for saying that the Church must be reformed. 
 At that time I beheld, in vision, a black cross 
 suspended over Babylonian Rome; on that cross 
 was inscribed — The wrath of the Lord, Swords, 
 daggers, lances, arms of all sorts, gleamed around 
 it, mingled with hail, with devouring lightning and 
 thunderbolts ; all enveloj)ed in the lurid obscurity 
 of a dark and horrible tempest. I saw also another 
 cross; it was of gold, ard reached from earth to 
 heaven. It hovered above Jerusalem, and on it 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 165 
 
 was inscribed — mercy of God, A serene, lim- 
 pid, and pure atinospbere surrounded it. Hence, I 
 gather that a reform of the Church is at hand. 
 
 I predicted, years before it happened, the death 
 of Lorenzo de’ Medici, that of Pope Innocent, and 
 the crisis which would occur here at Florence in a 
 change of the government. 
 
 ‘^Oh! Florence, this supernatural light has not 
 been vouchsafed me for any merit of my own, 
 but for your sake ; so that when the scourge de- 
 scends it may not be in your power to plead igno- 
 rance. You well know how earnest have been 
 my warnings, and yet you are still obdurate. 
 
 “ Oh ! Italy, oh ! princes of Italy, and you pre- 
 lates of the Church, the wrath of God impends over 
 you; and repentance is the sole remedy. Repent, 
 then, while the sword still remains undrawn; re- 
 pent before it leaps from its scabbard, and becomes 
 dyed in blood. 
 
 ‘‘And thou, Rome, hast also been faithfully warned, 
 yet continuest obdurate. The wrath of God is at 
 hand. Say whether Rome is not full of pride and 
 luxury, of avarice and simony ; say whether the 
 ungodly do not daily multiply within her, and that 
 therefore the scourge inpends.” 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 From Sermon^ Quam bonus est Deus. 
 
 “ The wisdom of God has said beautiful things 
 concerning the power of Charity or Divine Love. 
 
166 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Under its constraining influence the apostles and 
 saints of the Primitive Church became as separated 
 from the spirit of the world as the body is from the 
 soul by death. In vain the Jews tried to put down 
 these champions of the faith by bitter persecution. 
 In vain the Roman power set in array against them 
 every species of punishment, and every form of 
 martyrdom. No less vain were the arts and efforts 
 of philosophers, rhetoricians, and heretics, to subdue 
 their constancy by specious arguments and bland 
 insinuations. 
 
 How is it that so little of this spirit of Divine 
 Love, by means of which they effected such wonders, 
 still exists among Christians ? Is it not because 
 they are so absorbed by earthly objects and earthly 
 affections as to be incapable of yielding to the con- 
 descending appeal of Divine mercy— ‘ My son^ give 
 me thine heai^t^l To hearts thus preoccupied, it is 
 in vain to descant on the love of Jesus Christ, and on 
 the deep humiliation and bitter sufferings which he 
 voluntarily endured in order to achieve the great 
 work of human redemption. They are as incapable 
 of comprehending it, as of participating in the ele- 
 vated feelings which prompted St. Paul, in the con- 
 templation of this love, to exclaim ^ I count all things 
 but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus my Lord ; ’ and again, ‘ I account all 
 things but dung that I may win Christ.^ (Phil, 
 iii. 7, 8.)’^ 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 167 
 
 Pursuing tliis train of thought in a style of lofty 
 enthusiasm, he concludes as follows: — 
 
 ‘‘1 will endure all things for the sake of that 
 redeeming Love which makes all other things sweet 
 and pleasant to me. This is sufficient for me, and 
 fills up all my desires. This is my exceeding great 
 reward. If I possessed the whole world, but had 
 no part in Christ, I should be utterly destitute ; but 
 if I possess Thee, oh, my Saviour ! and nothing else 
 besides, I possess in Thee everything ; because. 
 Thou art ‘ all in all.’ In Thee is the sum of all 
 good ; out of Thee, there is no real good : what 
 can I possibly desire which is not far more inherent 
 in Thee than in everything else without Thee? In 
 Thee are riches, incorruptible and perpetual: in 
 Thee honour and glory, stable and true : in Thee 
 power and strength, irresistible and indefectible : 
 in Thee health and beauty, free from all decay or 
 change : in Thee is knowledge without error ; 
 pleasure without amaritude ; joy without sorrow ; 
 light without darkness ; life without death ; dura- 
 tion without end ; good without any admixture of 
 evil ; beatitude without misery : finally, I am ever 
 with Thee, because it is good for me to draw nigh 
 unto God. See then, how the love of Jesus Christ 
 reduces all mortal objects to nothing.” 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 The following passage ranks among the most 
 remarkable to be found in the Sermons of Savona ' 
 
168 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 rola, since it forcibly condemns, on the authority 
 of the Kew Testament, that system of Maryology, 
 to which Komari Catholics cling (especially in 
 Italy) with such fond tenacity. It occurs in his 
 twenty-second Sermon on the book of Job, page 
 180., edit. Venet. 1545. 
 
 We give the original in a note below. 
 
 ‘‘You may perhaps inquire why, since the Vir- 
 gin is in the highest degree to be praised, I so 
 rarely preach about her ; and I first beg to ask you, 
 why the Holy Spirit has in so few instances made 
 mention of her in the Scriptures, and why the pri- 
 mitive saints preached not, or but little, about her ? 
 And should you say, that in these days people are 
 more devoted to her than were those primitive 
 saints and fathers, I should deem such an answer 
 nothing to the purpose, nor credible : for we see 
 that the apostles, who so much loved and honoured 
 her, have made little or no mention of her in their 
 writings. How did this happen ? The apostles have 
 not written about the Virgin, because our salvation 
 depends on faith in Christ, and they, who were 
 wholly bent upon this point, preached nothing but 
 Christ. Besides, in consequence of the great light 
 they had from God, their views were wholly fixed 
 upon Him, and not on the creature. Favoured with 
 that great light, the apostles had no need to have 
 recourse to such a topic in order to excite people to 
 faith : yet they did not the less feel for her the 
 greatest love and revereiicc. Besides, had those 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 169 
 
 apostles recorded the praises of the Virgin, and 
 dwelt on her profound humility, her immense cha- 
 rity, and her other boundless virtues, people would 
 probably have read the Gospel of the Virgin more 
 than the Gospel of the Acts of Christ, and would 
 have made a Divinity of her, and have regarded 
 her as such. The devotion of people towards the 
 Virgin is very great ; even wicked men have a 
 greater fear and dread of blaspheming her than any 
 other being. Since, then, the object of the apostles 
 was to praise and exalt Christ, and to prove that 
 He alone is God, and that He and He alone is the 
 Messiah who came to save the wwld, I, like them, 
 have attempted, as you well know, for many years 
 to preach according to the Scripture. And since 
 the Scripture makes little mention of the Virgin, 
 it has not been my habit to speak much of her.” ^ 
 
 * “ Ma perche tu mi potresti dire essendo la Vergine da esser 
 laudata quanto dir si possa : perche cagione io ne prediclii cosi 
 rade volte : e io domando prima a te : lo Spirito Santo perche 
 ha fatto cosi poche volte nelle scritture mentione di lei ? E 
 perche cagione quelli primi Santi non predicavano di lei, o 
 poco ? E se tu dicessi die hoggidi gli huomini sono piu de- 
 voti di lei, che quelli primi Santi e antichi padri nostri : questo 
 per niente non e da dire ne da crederlo : e tamen noi vediamo 
 che gli Apostoli che tanto 1’ amavano e tanto 1’ havevano in 
 veneratione, non hanno scritto di lei, o poco. Dimmi perche e 
 stato questo? Gli Apostoli non hanno scritto della Vergine, 
 perche la salute nostra depende dalla fede di Christo : e loro 
 ch’ erano intenti tutti a questo, non predicavano altro che 
 Christo. Praiterea per il lume grande che havevano di Dio, 
 erano a lui sempre intenti e non alle creature : e per il grande 
 lume che havevano, non havevano bisogno quegli Apostoli di 
 
170 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 God is a just judge, and an avenger. He 
 cannot err through ignorance, for He is essential 
 wisdom; nor through malice, for He is super- 
 eminent goodness: nor can any power stay the 
 force of His judgments, for He is omnipotent. 
 Let us then patiently wait for the final judgment ; 
 for it will then clearly appear that His providence 
 presides over all things, and that, either here or 
 hereafter. He will requite the faithful with good, 
 and the unrighteous with evil.” 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 From the 28^A Sermon of the series Quam bonus ^ (fc. 
 (pp. 466, 467.). 
 
 ‘‘ Christ has declared Gt is. hard for a rich man 
 to enter into the kingdom of God ; ’ and all experi- 
 
 questa esca, per incitare le persone alia fide : benche niente di- 
 inanco havessino sempre a lei grandissimo amore, e grandissima 
 reverentia. Pra3terea se quegli Apostoli havessino scritto le 
 laude della Vergine, e della sua profonda humilita e della im- 
 mensa charitaj e dell’ altre virtu che sono infinite ; le persone 
 sempre per avventura piu harebbono letto V evangelio della 
 Vergine, che delle cose di Christo, e harebbonla fatta e tenuta 
 come Dio. La devotione delle persone verso della Vergine e 
 molto grande : vedilo che etiam i cattivi huomini hanno piu 
 timore e horrore nel biastemmare la Vergine, che ognaltri : 
 e perb gli Apostoli attesono a laudare e essaltare Christo e a 
 mostrare che lui solo era Dio, e era il Messia venuto a salvare il 
 mondo e non altri. lo ho atteso a predicare la scrittura come 
 tu hai veduto piu e piu anni : e perche la scrittura parla poco 
 della Vergine, non m’ e occorso molto parlare, per questo non 
 te ne pigliarc amrniratione.” — sopra Job, Pred. 22. 
 
 p. 188 . 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 171 
 
 ence teaches us how difficult it is for men, under 
 the influence of a high state of worldly prosperity, 
 ‘to walk with God.’ Point out to me one man 
 who has lived a saintly life under such circum- 
 stances, and I will engage to point out to you, in 
 return for this one, ten thousand who have served 
 God faithfully in a condition of trial and adversity. 
 
 “What is the first desire of a just man who is 
 truly bent upon leading a spiritual life ? You will 
 find that at the very outset he is content to become 
 familiar with what the world deems adversity, and 
 that he even loves it. You will find him willing, 
 for instance, to suffer reproach for the sake of 
 Christ, and disposed to contemn worldly wealth in 
 comparison of spiritual treasures. 
 
 “ Examine the conduct of a true penitent. You 
 will find him anxious to make restitution to the 
 last farthing of all that he may have usuriously or 
 unjustly derived from his neighbour ; he will act 
 thus, not grudgingly, but magnanimously. It is 
 thus that he will begin to love poverty, which is 
 accounted one of the forms of adversity. Acting 
 in the same spirit, he will bring his body into sub- 
 jection by fasting, by discipline, and by abstinence ; 
 and the more he acquires the spirit of Divine Love, 
 the more highly he will love and embrace adversity. 
 We see how God conducted Joseph, by the path of 
 tribulation, to the greatest glory, even in this world. 
 Josepli is the representative of the just man who 
 continually advances in Divine charity. And as 
 
172 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Joseph might have enjoyed great delights and plea- 
 sures, and not have been imprisoned, yet he chose 
 to renounce them all, and to be incarcerated rather 
 than to sin; in like manner, the just man suffers 
 adversity even unto death, rather than to wander 
 from God into the ways of sin. By the path of 
 tribulation Joseph was advanced to a temporal 
 kingdom; by the same path the just man reaches 
 the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 So infinite are the perfections of God, that He 
 ought to be loved by His creatures for His own 
 sake, without reference to mercenary motives. All 
 creatures are imperfect and finite. God is perfect 
 and infinite. He, and only He, can adequately fill 
 and satisfy the capacities of our immortal nature. 
 To know, and love, and serve Him, and faithfully 
 to adhere to Him, is the proper aim and end of our 
 being.’' 
 
 Substance of pp. 469. and 473., 18/4 Sermon* 
 
 “ Ask the martyrs whether it was good for them 
 thus to adhere unto God. Had not their faith and 
 constancy been sustained by His grace, they could 
 not have endured their inconceivable sufferings. 
 This it was which rendered them proof against the 
 nails, the rack, the gridiron, and the flames. Since 
 it proved thus good for them to adhere to God, it 
 must be equally so for you and for me. Thou, 
 Lord, art my Supreme good, without admixture of 
 
savonaeola’s sermons. 
 
 173 
 
 evil ; Thou art my joy without sorrow, my strength 
 without weakness, my essential truth without error ; 
 Thou, Lord, art my all in all. Thou kindlest the 
 affections into love, and thou canst beatify all the 
 powers of the mind and heart. It is therefore 
 good for me to draw nigh to God. And, finally, 
 thou wilt beatify the body as well as the soul, by 
 raising it up incorruptible and immortal, spiritual 
 and impassible. Yes, it is good to draw nigh to 
 God, and on Him to repose all our hopes, — not on 
 earthly possessions; not on money, nor power, nor 
 worldly reputation, not on friends or relatives. 
 ‘ Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and 
 maketh flesh his arm. Blessed is the man that 
 trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.’ 
 (Jer. xvii. 5. 7.) ” 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 Extracts from the 1th Sermon of the same Series. 
 
 The doctors and preachers of the present day, 
 whose duty it is to awaken the dead in sin to new- 
 ness of life, know not how to set about it. Instead 
 of arousing dead souls to life, they amuse them 
 with curious questions and subtleties, or with fine 
 similes or brilliant passages derived from Aristotle 
 and Yirgil, from Ovid and Cicero, or from the 
 beautiful poems of Dante and Petrarch. Used for 
 such a purpose, these are strains of death ; for in- 
 stead of resuscitating torpid souls, tliey tend to lull 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the living into a deathly slumber. Oh ! my God, 
 what can equal the infatuation of those modern 
 teachers and theologians who thus attempt to ex- 
 plain the great doctrines which concern our salva- 
 tion by authorities derived from pagan authors ! 
 Of them, and of their teaching, it may well be said, 
 ‘ But Israel does not know.’ And why have they 
 not known me? saith God; — why have they de- 
 stroyed my people ? why have they not taught 
 them the way of truth ? Instead of thus instruct- 
 ing them, they will say to them, ‘ Good people, hoAV 
 much good you do; how devout you are; what 
 precious relics you possess ; what hospitals, what 
 monasteries ; how grand are your processions, how 
 numerous your festivals ! You have great reason 
 to bless God. We really know of no city so ad- 
 mirably ordered in all that concerns Divine wor- 
 ship ; nor so devoted to almsgiving.’ Alas ! these 
 are vain flatteries. My brethren, the men who 
 thus pronounce you blessed^ are only deceiving you 
 with vain words. They teach you not the way of 
 holy living ; nor how to exercise patience in tribu- 
 lation ; nor how to interpret the providence of God 
 when you see His true servants afflicted and de- 
 pressed, and His enemies triumphant and exalted. 
 The solution of such questions is beyond the scope 
 of their philosophy. What you ought to be taught 
 is, that the doctrine of the Church is the Gospel, 
 which explains the goodness of God, and the mode 
 of attaining eternal happiness ; the doctrine of 
 
Savonarola’s sermons. 
 
 175 
 
 Divine Love, how it perfects the soul, and moulds 
 it to the contemplation of things invisible. The 
 lively perception of these great truths depends 
 upon the grace of the Holy Spirit; and the com- 
 munication of this grace is the great privilege at- 
 tendant on the Gospel. The prophet Jeremiah, 
 rapt into future times, thus forcibly delineates its 
 transforming influence : — ‘ After those days, saith 
 the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, 
 and write it in their hearts.’ (Jer. xxxi. 33.) The 
 latter times here referred to, are those of the Mes- 
 siah, who should thus communicate the grace of 
 His Spirit to His disciples. And St. Paul writes to 
 the same efiect in his Second Epistle to the Co- 
 rinthians Ye are our epistle, written in our 
 hearts, known and read of all men;’ Gvritten,’ he 
 goes on to say, ‘ not with ink, but with the Spirit 
 of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in 
 fleshy tables of the heart.’ (2 Cor. iii. 2, 3.) St. 
 Paul, in the eighth of the Romans, says, ‘ The 
 law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set 
 me free from the law of sin and death:’ that is 
 to say, the written law is the law of life, when 
 it instrumentally imparts life by uniting the soul 
 to Jesus Christ in faith and love. It is Vv^ell for 
 you to carry about this Gospel: I do not mean 
 the written Gospel, though it is well for you to 
 carry this about reverently ; but if you possess 
 not the grace of the Holy Spirit, carry about 
 as many printed copies as you will, and as many 
 
176 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 prayers as you can collect ; nay, carry about with 
 you all the four Gospels, and they will all avail 
 you little. Still more deluded are those who carry 
 about their necks multitudes of texts which they 
 sell at the fairs, and hope to be saved by them; 
 and think, whatever harm they do, God is bound 
 to preserve them, on account of these charms — 
 deluded that they are. 
 
 ‘Wear,’ says a friar or priest, ‘ this brief, and this 
 text of Scripture, and nothing will hurt you.’ Be- 
 hold into what ignorance we are plunged : we neg- 
 lect truths that are essential, and of the greatest 
 importance, and we betake ourselves to idle stories, 
 and paper charms, and to prayers, some of which 
 proceed from the Evil One. We neglect the Gospels 
 of Christ, and the books of Christ, by means of 
 which we might learn how to live as Christians, and 
 we give ourselves to fables. By all means, then, 
 read the books of Christ. But what are they? The 
 books of Christ are the apostles, and the holy and 
 good men who have trod in their steps. But in 
 our days these books, that is to say, such holy 
 men, are past away. The present race of men 
 are become, as it were, books of the devil. Read 
 them, and you will see that so it is ; consider their 
 lives and manners, and you will find that they are 
 books of the devil ; the ecclesiastics more espe- 
 cially; they are forward enough to give orders to 
 their dependants, but as to raising their own hands 
 to do any thing essentially good, expect it not. 
 
Savonarola’s sermons. 
 
 177 
 
 They are such as those of whom our Lord has said, 
 ‘ The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat,’ add- 
 ing, ‘ they say, and do not. They bind heavy 
 burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them 
 upon men’s shoulders : but they will not move them 
 with one of their fingers.’ (Matt, xxiii. 4.) These 
 are the men who profess to detest pride and ambi- 
 tion, and yet are absolutely engulphed in both : 
 they preach chastity, and keep concubines ; they 
 enjoin fasting, and they live splendidly ; they 
 praise charity, and will give nothing to the poor. 
 Are not these, then, like bad books — books of the 
 devil ? He writes, he imprints within them his o'wn 
 malice, his own vices ; and therefore the Church is 
 ruined ; and the holy books of which I spoke, the 
 Scriptures, and the lives of the saints, are no longer 
 seen. Neither is there anything like salutary doc- 
 trine to be found. The Lord describes such per- 
 sons as ‘ salt which has lost its savour,’ ‘ good for 
 nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot 
 of men.’ They may have the salt of mere know- 
 ledge, but it becomes salt without savour, in con- 
 sequence of their bad example. 
 
 “ Let us, then, turn away from these, to the true 
 doctrine of the Church, which preaches to us equally 
 by precept and example.” 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 Predica 7. Quarn bonus. 
 
 “ The ark from which we extract our doctrine 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 is the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Our Sa- 
 viour is the true Moses saved out of the waters, 
 mild and gentle above all men. ‘ Learn of me,’ he 
 himself says, ‘ for I am meek and lowly of heart.’ 
 Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter ; he shed 
 his blood upon the cross, and paid the debt of 
 Adam and of the whole human race; and so deli- 
 vered his people from the hard servitude of the devil. 
 This ark is the Church which the Saviour founded 
 by means of his doctrine, of his miracles, and of 
 the holy example of his most innocent life. And 
 then dying on the cross, he presented it spotless to 
 his Father. Over this ark God sits; for the mercy- 
 seat means the human nature of Christ, which is, as 
 it were, the seat of God, according to our Lord’s 
 words, ‘ The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth 
 the works.’ (John xiv. 12.) And well may we 
 call our Saviour the mercy-seat, since St. Paul de- 
 clares, concerning him, ^ Whom God hath set forth 
 to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.’ 
 (Rom. iii. 15.) St. John writes to the same effect 
 in his first Epistle ; ‘ He is the propitiation for our 
 sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins 
 of the whole world.’ (1 John ii. 2.) Through the 
 medium of this propitiatory we receive the an- 
 swers of God; for all the grace and all the di- 
 vine illumination of the Holy Spirit come to us 
 through Christ. If you feel the burden of your 
 sins, if you are sensible that you have offended 
 God, betake yourselves to this medium of re- 
 
SA v^onarola’s sermons. 179 
 
 conciliation, to this mercy-seat; come to Jesus 
 Christ with faith and humble confidence. You 
 shall thus receive the remission of your sins, and 
 shall be reconciled to the Father through the me- 
 diation of the Son. See how St. John invites you 
 to this propitiatory. ‘ My little children,’ he says, 
 ‘ these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. 
 And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the 
 Father.’ And who is he ? ‘ Christ the righteous. 
 
 And he is the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John ii. 
 1, 2.) If, then, you desire to partake of the grace 
 of the Saviour, and to be instructed in the way of 
 salvation, you must come to this mercy-seat. There 
 is no grace to be obtained but through this one 
 medium. It is for this very reason that the Church 
 beseeches God to impart to her all the graces which 
 she requires, on account of the merits of Christ, 
 saying, ‘ through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Let me, 
 then, earnestly invite people of every class, whether 
 old or young, high or low, rich or poor, healthy or 
 infirm, sinners or just, to this mercy-seat. There 
 make known your wants; and doubt not that if 
 you ask in faith and humility, a gracious answer 
 will proceed thence. Be it unto thee even as thou 
 wilt.” 
 
 No. 8. 
 Predica 7. 
 
 ‘‘ Evangelical truth is assailed in the present day 
 by hypocrites, and by Christians falsely so called; 
 
180 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 they corrupt it by word of mouth, and still more 
 by their bad examples. They are more dangerous 
 enemies of the truth than even the heretics, be- 
 cause people are on their guard against heretics, as 
 such, but not against them. The simple sheep 
 imagine that so long as they assent to what they 
 hear, they may live like their teachers, whose ac- 
 tions and words are at total variance ; and thus 
 their souls are ruined. Nevertheless the true doc- 
 trine shall never be wholly extinguished, for the 
 Providence of God will always raise up, as need 
 may be, champions for its defence. Thus it always 
 lias been, and shall be. 
 
 The transforming, sanctifying influence of the 
 doctrine of Christ, upon the minds and dispositions 
 of those who truly receive it, attests its truth. 
 From earthly and sensual, they are rendered by 
 it spiritual and heavenly-minded. Great and signal 
 have been the holy triumphs of the faith in past 
 times. Through the influence of this life-giving 
 doctrine, the proud became humble, the ambitious 
 unassuming, the luxurious self-denying, the sensual 
 chaste, the avaricious charitable ; in one word, its 
 disciples became eminent in every species of holy 
 living. 
 
 “ It is in vain, however, that I preach this doc- 
 trine to you, unless it reaches your hearts, and is 
 written on them. The soul of the just man is the 
 seat of wisdom. God himself speaks to such souls, 
 and enlightens them in all that concerns their sal- 
 
SAVONAROLA’S SERMONS. 
 
 181 
 
 vation. ‘ What house will ye build me ? saith the 
 Lord ; or what is the place of my rest ? Hath not 
 my hand made all these things ? ’ (Acts vii. 49, 50.) 
 I want not, he seems to say, your churches, nor 
 your sacerdotal vestments; although when you 
 order these things aright, with a view to my glory, 
 I esteem them duly. But again, ‘ What house will 
 ye build me, or what is the place of my rest? ’ As 
 though he had said, ‘ I am not a body that can be 
 inclosed within any of these material objects ; nor 
 do I delight in pompous outward ceremonies ; for I 
 am a spirit, and I dwell in the minds of such men 
 as are truly humble and contrite.’ ‘To that man 
 will I look, saith the Lord ; even to him who is 
 poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my 
 word.’ (Isa. Ixvi. 2.) 
 
 “ The saints of God have often chosen the path 
 of present suffering and difficulty, because it led 
 them to eternal felicity. Thus ‘Moses, when he 
 came to years, refused to be called the son of Pha- 
 raoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction 
 with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
 of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of 
 Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of 
 Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompence of 
 the reward.’ (Heb. xi. 24 — 26.) 
 
 “ Those who have been dearest to God, in every 
 age, belong to the same class as Moses, and have 
 acted upon the same high and holy principles which 
 swayed his clioicc and conduct. This is the doc- 
 
182 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 trine of the mercy-seat ; this the light which con- 
 ducts to eternal truth and blessedness.” 
 
 The papal court, full of indignation at the mode 
 in which Savonarola thus denounced the vices of 
 the clergy and invoked a reform of the Church, 
 cited him to Rome in the year 1495 to explain his 
 opinions and to vindicate his conduct; but the 
 seignory zealously interposed on his behalf, and 
 pressed for a withdrawal of the citation, assuring 
 the pope in their dispatches that his character was 
 unimpeachable and his preaching truly edifying. 
 In consequence of the citation he suspended his 
 preaching, but at the earnest request of the seig- 
 nory resumed it towards the close of the year. 
 
 The people, regarding him as a persecuted con- 
 fessor, flocked in greater numbers than ever to hear 
 him. The interest which he took in the education 
 and religious instruction of the children continued 
 to be unceasing, as also the assistance rendered him 
 in this work by his friend Domenico Pescia. 
 
 Had this important branch of Christian duty 
 been pursued as it commenced, in a wise and sober 
 spirit, the consequences would have been altogether 
 beneficial; but the empire which Savonarola ob- 
 tained over the youth of the city was so complete, 
 that he ended by making them the agents of his 
 reforming schemes in ways which often rendered 
 their interference troublesome and intrusive. 
 
 The year 1495 appears to have been the most 
 
SAVONAROLA FORBIDDEN TO PREACH. 183 
 
 brilliant epoch of his brief autocracy. His influence 
 pervaded more or less every department of the 
 state ; the seignory, aided by public opinion, pro- 
 tected him against papal vengeance ; and he was left 
 at liberty to prosecute his plans of reform with 
 little opposition. 
 
 Before the close of the year 1495 brief had suc- 
 ceeded brief, forbidding him to preach at Florence, 
 and ordering him to quit the city, and to exercise 
 his ministry where he should be further directed. 
 He prepared to depart, but neither the magistracy 
 nor the people would hear of it, and at their 
 call he quickly resumed his public ministrations. 
 Charles VIII. quitted Naples in the course of this 
 year, and it was much feared he might revisit 
 Florence on his march homewards. Savonarola 
 was in consequence deputed to wait on him, which 
 he did at Poggibondi ; and whether owing to his 
 persuasion or to the anxiety of the king to reach 
 France without delay, he showed no disposition to 
 embarrass the Florentines by his presence. In the 
 year 1496, he reappeared in the cathedral as the 
 Lent preacher ; and its vast area was so densely 
 crowded, that various expedients were necessarily 
 resorted to, for increasing the means of accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 Hitherto the proceedings of the Romish court 
 towards him had been marked by much modera- 
 tion, and neither his own contumacy, nor that of 
 the seignory, had provoked any signal act of 
 
184 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 retaliation. Attempts, there is good reason to 
 suppose, were even made to win him over to the 
 interests of the papacy by baits held out to his 
 ambition ; and one of these especially, mentioned 
 by his friend Burlamachi, is so remarkable, and 
 yet rests, we may add, on such credible authority, 
 that we will recite the particulars.* 
 
 To his great surprise, he one day received a 
 visit froniLodovico di Ferrara, Master of the Papal 
 Palace, who, in the course of a long interview, gave 
 him to understand, that if he would consent to re- 
 linquish his undutiful course of conduct to the 
 court of Pome, and pay it due homage and de- 
 ference, there was nothing that the pope would not 
 be disposed to do for his advantage, hinting that 
 he might, in such case, even look forward to the 
 honour of a red hat. He treated his visitor with 
 great respect, and told him, that if he would con- 
 descend to become one of his auditors at the church 
 of San Marco, on the ensuing morning, he would 
 take means of conveying his reply. Thither the 
 Dignitary accordingly went, and the holy monk, 
 soon after commencing his sermon, took occasion 
 
 * M. Perrens cites various satisfactory proofs of the authen- 
 ticity of this anecdote, to which he shows that Savonarola 
 often alluded, and in particular in his 18th Sermon, on the 
 prophet Micah, where he says, “lo non voglio cappelli, non 
 mitre grandi ne piccoli. Non voglio se non quello che tu hai 
 daio alii tuoi santi, la morte, uno cappello rosso, uno cappello 
 di sangue.” — Vol. i. p. 93. 
 
POPE ALEXANDER VI. 
 
 185 
 
 to say in a most impressive manner, that could he 
 conceive the offer of a red hat to be made to him 
 as the price of his integrity, he would reply, that 
 the only red hat to which he aspired was one dyed 
 red in the blood of his own martyrdom. When 
 this reply was reported to the pope by his agent, 
 he is said to have exclaimed, ‘‘ This man, after all, 
 must be a true servant of God.” 
 
 Koderic Borgia, from whose lips these words are 
 said to have escaped, and who now wore the triple 
 crown under the title of Alexander Yl., united 
 great talents to shameless profligacy. The vices 
 of his immediate predecessors Sixtus IV. and In- 
 nocent VIIL had been sufficiently notorious. It 
 remained for him to acquire a name almost un- 
 paralleled in the annals of infamy. Plausible and 
 insinuating, but faithless and vindictive, insatiable 
 of power and wealth, but reckless of the means of 
 acquiring them, his time and thoughts were divided 
 between schemes of unbounded ambition and of 
 the grossest sensuality. Raised to the papacy by 
 notorious simoniacal acts *, he habitually practised 
 them by the open sale of indulgences, and by dis- 
 posing of ecclesiastical dignities and benefices with- 
 out reserve to the highest bidders. By means like 
 
 ^ In all which relates to the career of Savonarola, and to his 
 tragical death, I have resorted with much confidence to what 
 appears to me the honest testimony of Jacopo Nardi, the Flo- 
 rentine historian. 
 
186 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 these he raised funds to recruit his armies, wasted 
 by perpetual warfare with the Roman barons ; he 
 provided for the splendours of his voluptuous 
 court, for his own personal pleasures, and for the 
 prodigal expenditure of his natural children. These 
 he scrupled not to introduce as such, on public 
 occasions, in contempt of common decency, and of 
 all that is most sacred in the laws of God and man. 
 He loaded them with titles and places, and sought 
 to form matrimonial alliances for them with fo- 
 reign potentates, some of whom were base enough 
 to encourage his advances. His second son, CsBsar 
 Borgia, created first of all Archbishop of Toledo, 
 then a cardinal, and finally, after being allowed to 
 renounce his ecclesiastical dignities, Duke of Valen- 
 tino, and General of the Papal Armies, inherited 
 his father’s talents and rivalled his father’s crimes. 
 The circumstances of domestic wickedness and im- 
 purity recorded of both recall the blackest scenes 
 in the annals of the courts of Imperial Rome. 
 The Duke of Gandia, the Pope’s eldest son, and 
 his beautiful but vicious daughter, Lucretia, form 
 also conspicuous figures in the same scenes. In a 
 military point of view, and in the success of his 
 political schemes, his life had been, on the whole, 
 prosperous ; but the closing circumstances of his 
 earthly career seemed to intimate, that Providence 
 had specially reserved for that hour, an appropriate 
 retribution of his monstrous crimes. He and his 
 son C^sar had often used poison to rid themselves of 
 
DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI. 
 
 187 
 
 enemies, or to gain possession of the wealth of rich 
 ecclesiastics, whom they called their dear friends. 
 Among these Cardinal Corneto was a suitable 
 victim, on account of his numerous benefices and 
 large fortune. His death was therefore decreed, 
 and poison was to be the instrument. A flattering 
 invitation was sent to the cardinal to a banquet in 
 the Villa of the Belvidere adjoining the Vatican. 
 When the day arrived, the duke delivered a poisoned 
 wine to the pope’s butler, with strict injunctions 
 not to hand it round at the banquet till he gave 
 him orders. During a short absence of the butler, 
 another servant served this wine by mistake, and 
 the pope, the duke, and the cardinal, all drank of 
 it. Its deleterious effects were rapid and awful. 
 The poison quickly acted on the duke, but by the 
 use of powerful antidotes, and by the strength of 
 his constitution, he recovered after a severe illness. 
 As for the cardinal, he assured his contemporary 
 Paulus Jovius, that soon after drinking the wine 
 he felt a consuming fire in his entrails, followed by 
 loss of sight, and then by stupefaction, and that, 
 though he finally rallied, his whole body became 
 tettered and excoriated. But the pope was an 
 aged man, and on him the poison operated fatally. 
 He Avas carried back to his palace in a state of 
 agony which quickly terminated in his death, A. D. 
 1503, at the age of 71, and after a reign of eleven 
 years and one day. Public horror and hatred rose 
 to the highest pitch on hearing the various versions 
 
188 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 of this story.* The body of the deceased pope 
 quickly became black and loathsome. It was ex- 
 posed for a short time with the usual ceremonies 
 in St. Peter’s. All Rome,” says Guicciardini, 
 “ flocked to that sight, and could not sufliciently 
 satiate their eyes with gazing on the remains of 
 this extinct serpent, who, by his immoderate ambi- 
 tion, pestiferous perfidy, monstrous lust, and every 
 sort of horrible cruelty, and unexampled avarice, 
 selling without distinction property sacred and 
 profane, had compassed the destruction of so many 
 by poison, and was now become its victim.” 
 
 Such is the language in which the great Italian 
 historian heaps infamy upon the memory of Alex- 
 ander VI., — such was the man whom Savonarola 
 at length provoked beyond redress, and who became 
 bent on compassing his destruction. 
 
 His course of Sermons during the Lent of 1496 
 Avas upon the prophet Amos ; and aware that, in 
 preaching at all, he Avas acting in defiance of papal 
 authority, he attempted by specious and ingenious 
 
 * Guicciardini, lib. vi. p. 163. There are various versions 
 of this story, which Voltaire has questioned on no sufficient 
 grounds. Ranke, in his History of the Popes, relates the facts 
 substantially as we have done. (History of the Popes, vol. i. 
 p. 52.) So, also, does Sismondi, Hist. Ital. Rep. vol. xiii. p. 246. 
 B orchard’s different version, which makes the pope die of a 
 fever, may be reconciled with the fact of poison, by merely 
 supposing that Alexander’s consequent death was more linger- 
 ing than Guicciardini supposes. The best contemporary 
 authorities,” says Sismondi, “ all agree upon the main facts.” 
 
CONDEMNATION OF FIVE CITIZENS. 
 
 189 
 
 statements to reconcile the act with his acknow- 
 ledgment of the doctrine of papal supremacy. He 
 had better have said at once that he acted under 
 the influence of a mission from above, superior to 
 papal authority; but this would have identified him 
 with heresy in the judgment of his hearers, and he 
 therefore vainly twists and turns in his arguments, 
 to prove that, in spite of his contumacy, he was still 
 orthodox. In the midst of all this, he thunders 
 forth against Rome and its corruptions more fiercely 
 than ever, and with such effect, that the pope put 
 forth a commission to pass judgment on his pro- 
 ceedings, which adjudged him guilty of heresy and 
 schism. 
 
 In the year 1497, a conspiracy for the restoration 
 of the Medici was discovered and frustrated, and 
 five citizens of high consideration implicated in it 
 were, after trial by a commission specially appointed 
 for the purpose, condemned to capital punishment. 
 They and their friends, upon the passing of the 
 sentence, claimed the benefit of an article in the 
 new constitution, granting the privilege of an ap- 
 peal to the Great Council in capital cases. 
 
 After debates extending through several days, a 
 majority of the seignory, and of the members of 
 the commission, came to the conclusion that in 
 convictions like the present, for high treason, crimi- 
 nals were excluded from this privilege, and they 
 were accordingly beheaded in the night of August 
 21st. During the period of debate and suspense, 
 
190 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Florence was fiercely agitated by contrary interests 
 and conflicting opinions, and, as many of those who 
 voted against the appeal were friends of Savonarola, 
 reproaches were cast upon him for not having inter- 
 posed his influence and his eloquent voice on the 
 side of mercy, and of the law of appeal. We should 
 have been glad that it had been so ; although it is 
 not probable that at such a crisis, Avhen the very 
 existence of the Government was at stake, even his 
 influence could have prevailed against the general 
 conviction of the heads of the popular party that 
 the only course of safety for themselves, and for the 
 State, was the one taken. Savonarola, however, 
 does appear, on the authority of a statement of his 
 own, quoted by M. Perrens, to have recommended 
 that the capital punishment should have been com- 
 muted into a sentence of banishment.* 
 
 We must now advert to certain circumstances 
 
 * Bayle is very severe upon Savonarola in the above matter, 
 but quotes no authority worthy of notice excepting Guicciardini, 
 whom he misrepresents. That historian says that those opposed 
 to granting the appeal were friends of Savonarola, and that 
 much abuse was, in consequence, cast upon him. But he and 
 Nardi clearly indicate the ground of resistance to the appeal, 
 in the following passages : — 
 
 E percio fecero rileggere i process!, e confrontando con essi 
 i nuovi amici, giudicavano finalmente che eziandio, secondo le 
 leggiy non si poteva, ne si doveva in cosa tan to importante 
 ammettere V appelazione.” — Nardi, lib. ii. p. 67. 
 
 Guicciardini states that it was argued by those opposed to 
 the appeal, “ Che le leggi medesime concedevano, che per fuggire 
 i tumulti potessero essere le leggi in caso simile dispensate.” 
 — Guicc. Hist. lib. iii. p. 140. 
 
CARNIVAL MADE A RELIGIOUS FESTIVAL. 191 
 
 in which his monkish rigidity betrayed him into 
 indefensible errors. 
 
 The last day of the carnival had long been 
 regarded by the people as their own, and had been 
 habitually spent in excess of licence. Assisted by 
 his youthful police, and seconded by his coadjutor 
 Domenico Pescia and others, he had succeeded, 
 among his other reforms, in transmuting this day 
 into a religious festival. There was a showy pro- 
 cession enlivened by bands of music ; the children 
 of his various schools, to the number of many thou- 
 sands, followed in ordered files ; the Dominican 
 friars, also, and large numbers of the citizens took 
 part in the ceremonial. A halt was made at the 
 doors of the principal houses of the city, and the 
 owners were invited to give up any books or pictures 
 of an indecorous character, in order that they might 
 be dealt with as might afterwards be determined. 
 The enthusiasm of the children in pressing this 
 demand knew no bounds, and many of the citizens 
 so shared in it, as almost to force compliance. 
 
 Trinkets, ornaments, money, and rich dresses, 
 were also collected, as voluntary ofierings in aid of 
 a charitable establishment for the relief of the poor, 
 entitled Monte di Pieta. It had been founded by 
 Savonarola, and appears to have been admirably 
 conducted. 
 
 Mystic dances and sacred songs formed part 
 of the ceremonial, and the whole scene was strongly 
 tinged by fanaticism. 
 
192 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Such were the leading features of the festival in 
 the year 1496 ; but in the following year the extrava- 
 gance of the parties concerned in it knew no bounds. 
 
 Savonarola’s friend, Francesco Valori, was now at 
 the head of the Government, and all the arrangements 
 of the carnival were consequently subject to their 
 mutual disposal. In addition to the sort of showy 
 procession already described, and to its former 
 accompaniments, Savonarola resolved upon a holo- 
 caust of all the various offending objects which the 
 children and citizens had collected in their rounds 
 through the city, now or on any former occasion. 
 
 A pyramidal scaffold was erected for this pur- 
 pose in the public place, opposite the palace of the 
 seignory. At its base were to be seen false beards 
 and hair, masquerading dresses, cards and dice, 
 mirrors and perfumery, beads and trinkets of 
 various sorts ; higher up were arranged books and 
 drawings, busts, and portraits of the most celebrated 
 Florentine beauties; and even pictures by great 
 artists, condemned in many instances, on very in- 
 sufficient grounds, as indecorous or irreligious. 
 
 Even Fra Bartolomeo, one of the greatest artists 
 of that or of any age, was so carried away by 
 the enthusiasm of the moment, as to bring his 
 life-academy studies to be consumed on this pyre, 
 forgetful that, in the absence of such studies, he 
 could never himself have risen above low medio- 
 crity, nor such painters as Raphael and Michael 
 Angelo ever have been trained to glory. Lorenzo 
 
SAVONAROLA’S EXTRAVAGANCES. 
 
 193 
 
 di Credi, like himself a devoted follower of Savo- 
 narola, did the same. 
 
 Had the books which swelled the flames been 
 such as were unquestionably demoralising, public 
 censure could only have been applied to the mode 
 in which they had been obtained; but the same 
 blind zeal appears to have presided over the selec- 
 tion, as in the case of many of the works of art. 
 
 It was thus that a man of great learning and 
 lofty eloquence, full of zeal also for the glory of 
 God, and for the highest interests of humanity, was 
 betrayed by monkish extravagance into an indis- 
 criminating warfare against taste and genius. The 
 pile thus constructed was set fire to by the en- 
 thusiastic procession, amidst hymns and accla- 
 mations; and its value may be judged of by the 
 fact that a merchant of Venice offered to purchase 
 the whole at the price of 20,000 crowns. 
 
 It was impossible but that such outrages as these 
 on common sense and right reason should lower 
 their author in the judgment of the discerning part 
 of the public The political power of Savonarola 
 became henceforth still more on the wane, and his 
 enemies took fresh courai^e. But his own strength 
 
 o o 
 
 of resolution suffered no abatement, and nothing 
 could daunt his determination to stand forth, in the 
 front of danger and of death, as the resolute cham- 
 pion of Church reforms and the denouncer of papal 
 immorality.* 
 
 * Perrens, Sav. vol. i. cap. 6. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 On the 12th of May, 1497, the pope put forth a 
 thundering excommunication against him, terming 
 him a heretic and a son of perdition. When this act 
 was published in Florence, it produced great public 
 excitement, and the question of its validity was 
 hotly canvassed ; many high authorities declaring 
 it to be invalid, in consequence of irregularity in 
 form. For some months after its arrival, Savo- 
 narola abstained from preaching, but, at length, 
 under the renewed sanction of the seignory, he re- 
 commenced in the cathedral, and also published an 
 able and eloquent tract, entitled the Triumph 
 of the Cross.” The archiepiscopal Vicar of Flo- 
 rence now threatened to excommunicate all who 
 should attend his preaching. The seignory, on the 
 other hand, banished the vicar. They also again 
 addressed the pope in his vindication, and two 
 hundred members of the fraternity of San Marco 
 did the same in a respectful but spirited address. 
 He himself boldly maintained the invalidity of the 
 act, and ably answered all the charges preferred 
 against him. The pope signified his readiness to 
 withdraw it, if he would appear at Home, and 
 submit to a trial ; but he was too wary to court 
 in this way certain destruction. In the mean- 
 time the storm thickened around Savonarola : 
 democratic sway was becoming every day less po- 
 pular in Florence, and the party of the Medici 
 held up their heads with confidence. One of 
 their avowed supporters had been chosen Presi- 
 
SAVONAROLA'S INFLUENCE DECLINES. 195 
 
 sident of the Great Council in the year 1496, and 
 their partisans, together with those of the court of 
 Kome, had ever since been indefatigable in their 
 efforts to undermine Savonarola’s influence. The 
 success of their efforts became every day more 
 evident ; and, from this time to the close of his 
 eventful career, he found himself placed on the de- 
 fensive, instead of riding triumphant, as had been 
 the case for more than three years, on the waves of 
 popular favour. The series of his Sermons mark 
 these vicissitudes, and unfold, from time to time, 
 the facts of his personal history. In those of 
 Advent 1493, on the text “Quam bonus Israel 
 Deus,” his zeal energetically breaks forth in pro- 
 testing manfully against the corruptions of the 
 Church and of the world, and in unfolding the 
 sublime glories of the Gospel of Christ. Those of 
 1494, on the book of Job, and some other parts of 
 Scripture, are in the same spirit; but it will be 
 found, on examining the series upon the prophet 
 Amos, delivered during the year 1496, and those 
 upon Ezekiel, in the Lent of the following year, 
 when his power was on the decline, that the dignity 
 and the persuasive charity of the minister of Christ 
 are too often converted into the defying tone, nay, 
 not seldom, the rant of the politician. 
 
 The year 1497 was fraught with confusion and 
 terror throughout Florence. 
 
 ^‘Luctus, iibique pavor, et plurima mortis imago.' 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 The trial, and finally, as already related, the de- 
 capitation of the five citizens; the ravages of the 
 plague, an event which the followers of Savonarola 
 imagined was to be found among his predictions ; 
 his excommunication by the pope, and the fierce 
 debates ensuing upon it, kept the city in a per- 
 petual state of fierce excitement and controversy. 
 
 The year 1498 was ushered in by a seignory the 
 majority of whom were friends of Savonarola. 
 They invited him, in defiance of the papal excom- 
 munication, to renew his preachings, and they even 
 received the eucharist from his hand. He now 
 commenced his last and most remarkable course of 
 Sermons, on the book of Exodus, in the course of 
 which he entered, as it were, into direct collision with 
 the pope, in a spirit which seemed to proclaim that 
 in this contest he would conquer or die. In the 
 course of his comments he denounced more point- 
 edly than ever the vices of the sovereign pontifi*. 
 A new mistress, Giulia Bella, had, for some time, 
 absorbed Alexander’s affections. In the course of 
 the year 1497 she had presented him with a son, 
 and had been paraded in public, and made conspi- 
 cuous at various church ceremonies. He alludes 
 in the following terms to these startling facts, in 
 the twelfth of his Sermons on the said book. 
 “ We no longer hear in high quarters of my nephews 
 and nieces^ but of my little son and my little 
 daughter. Women of ill fame are paraded in St. 
 Peter’s; every priest has his concubine; they sin 
 
INFAMY OF THE BORGIA FAMILY. 
 
 197 
 
 in open day-light ; and this poison is so generally 
 diffused, that every thing about them is envenomed. 
 There is so much of this poison at Rome that it has 
 infected the whole world : it is diffused in France, 
 in Germany, and everywhere. How is this to end ? 
 since all is pollution and poison.” * But even this 
 scandal was outdone by another, which occurred a 
 few months later in the papal family. His eldest 
 son, the Duke of Gandia, had been assassinated on 
 the 14th of June 1497, in the streets of Rome, and 
 this murder was generally attributed to his brother 
 Caesar Borgia, instigated, it was asserted, by feelings 
 of jealousy against him as his rival in a most fla- 
 gitious amour. Alluding to these various events, 
 and to the recent act of excommunication, I am 
 called,” said Savonarola, in a document from 
 Rome, a son of perdition. My reply to this papal 
 denunciation is. He whom you thus reprobate is 
 not one who assorts with profligates, and keeps 
 concubines, but who entirely devotes himself to 
 preaching the faith of Christ. Mine are spiritual 
 sons and daughters. They receive my doctrines, 
 they confess regularly, they communicate habitually, 
 they walk uprightly. My great object is to exalt 
 the Church of Christ ; that of my calumniators is 
 to ruin it.” 
 
 On another occasion, defending himself against 
 the charge of contumacy, he said, ‘‘ I am charged 
 
 * Sermon xii. sup. Exod. p. 143. Edit. Veiiet. 1540. 
 
198 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 with opposing myself to ecclesiastical authority. 
 This is quite untrue. When supreme authority 
 is employed, as it now is, to ruin the Church, it is 
 not ecclesiastical, but Satanical power that is at 
 work. Yes ; when it lends itself to patronise 
 harlots, profligates, and robbers ; when it per- 
 secutes the just, and insidiously exerts itself to 
 corrupt and undermine Christian virtue, it becomes 
 — I repeat it — infernal and Satanical power.^^ 
 
 Again, in reply to a similar charge : “You tell 
 me I am lowering ecclesiastical authority. It is 
 no such thing. My desire is to act under such 
 power, lawfully constituted; and to aid in up- 
 holding it : but I cannot pay homage to infernal 
 and Satanical power.” ^ 
 
 About this time appeared on the scene an en- 
 thusiastic advocate of the late papal proceedings, 
 Francesco de Pouilles. He severely attacked Sa- 
 vonarola from the pulpit, and zealously defended 
 the act of excommunication. The great body of 
 
 ^ The following are his words in one of these passages. 
 “ Voglio stare sotfo la potesta ecclesiastica, e cosi mi sottometto 
 me ; e tutto quello che ho sempre detto alia corretione della 
 Romana Chiesa e della potesta ecclesiastica — voglio star sotto 
 quella, non gia sotto la potesta infernale e non sotto la potesta 
 -- Predica 22. p. 263. 12mo. Venet. 1540. 
 
 The last sermon which he preached beyond the precincts of 
 S. Marco, was in March, 1498. On this occasion he graphically 
 described, under a feigned name, the profligate life, habits, and 
 manners, of the sovereign pontiff. He then denounced coming 
 wars on Rome and on Italy, and finished by anticipating the 
 approaching tragedy of his own death. 
 
LETTERS TO THE SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE. 199 
 
 the Romish clergy in Florence urged him on to 
 further opposition; and their numerous partisans, 
 together with those of the exiled family, now felt 
 themselves sufficiently strong in public opinion 
 to provoke a disgraceful riot against Savonarola, 
 within the walls of the cathedral, on Ascension Day. 
 On this occasion, a set of profane wretches entered 
 the church early in the morning, and placed a 
 stuffed ass’s skin within or above the pulpit, 
 sprinkling, at the same time, the most filthy excre- 
 ments over the pavement. 
 
 These were all removed by the zeal of his par- 
 tisans before the service commenced ; and he was 
 calmly proceeding with his sermon, when indications 
 of tumult became manifest in the congregation; 
 and, in spite of every effort to restore order, they 
 so increased that it was deemed prudent for him to 
 quit the pulpit ; when a body-guard of his friends 
 rallied around him, and he was escorted home by 
 them in safety to San Marco. 
 
 In this extremity, he addressed letters to the 
 emperor, to the kings of England and France, and 
 to the king and queen of Spain ; exhorting them to 
 convoke a general council, before whom he bound 
 himself to prove that Alexander VI. was no true 
 pope, and no Christian, because he had gained his 
 election by simony and bribery, and because he was 
 stained with the guilt of such foul crimes as un- 
 fitted him for all ecclesiastical functions. On 
 these grounds he justified his own apparent con- 
 
200 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 tumacy, and bold defiance of the papal brief ; and 
 proclaimed that the Church of Christ was without 
 any legal head. An agent of the Duke of Milan, 
 having intercepted one of these letters, transmitted 
 it to Kome, and the pope instantly put forth a bull, 
 menacing Florence with his vengeance unless his 
 former decrees were instantly obeyed. 
 
 As interdict and excommunication were now 
 suspended over Florence, a mandate was issued by 
 the seignory, imposing silence on Savonarola ; and 
 De Pouilles followed this up by publicly challeng- 
 ing him, in the church of Santa Croce, to test with 
 him the validity of the papal excommunication by 
 an appeal to the ordeal of fire. In that age of 
 superstition and ferocity, the insane folly of such a 
 test was not generally felt. It enlisted in its favour 
 the zeal of an excitable people, familiar with the 
 miraculous pretensions of Eomanism ; and it was 
 approved by the pope, who, anticipating mischief 
 from it in some way or other to Savonarola, pro- 
 nounced it to be a proposition worthy of the best 
 days of the Church. Thus acted upon, even the 
 seignory, strange as it may appear, declared in its 
 favour. But Savonarola from first to last was op- 
 posed to it ; and though he at length yielded a re- 
 luctant assent, it was only because a large number 
 of his most devoted followers, catching the growing 
 enthusiasm, were numbered among its advocates. 
 In fact, but for the temerity of one of his own dis- 
 ciples, who publicly offered to accept De Pouilles’ 
 
OKDEAL BY FIRE. 
 
 201 
 
 challenge, the whole matter would have died away. 
 De Pouilles, upon this, shrunk from his offer, and 
 declared that he would accept of no substitute. A 
 remarkable rivalry then commenced. Two other 
 Franciscan monks, Pilii and Rondinelli, eagerly 
 offered themselves in the place of De Pouilles ; and 
 a multitude of monks, priests, women, and even 
 children, contended for the honour of going through 
 the ordeal for Savonarola. He would most gladly 
 have stopped this new movement, but the seignory 
 interposed, and decreed that the ordeal should take 
 place ; that Pescia and Rondinelli should go through 
 it; and that the ensuing 7 th of April, 1498, should 
 be the day. Combustible materials were piled up 
 to a great height in the Piazza dei Signori, now 
 Gran Duca, in two separate rows, leaving a narrow 
 path of two feet only between them, along which 
 the rival challengers were to walk after the furnace 
 was lighted. 
 
 When the day arrived, public excitement had 
 risen to the highest pitch. The Piazza was so 
 thronged with spectators that even the windows, 
 balconies, and roofs of the houses were crowded. 
 The multitude looked on, awe-struck at the dread- 
 ful preparations. About mid-day Domenico Pescia 
 came to the spot, clad in sacerdotal vestments, 
 bearing in a crystal vase the consecrated wafer, 
 followed by Savonarola, and a long train of Domi- 
 nican monks, carrying red crosses and singing 
 hymns. The Franciscans soon appeared escorting 
 
202 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Eondinelli, silent, and without ceremony. Ex- 
 pectation stood in horror, when suddenly the 
 Franciscans interposed delay, declaring that they 
 would never allow Pescia to carry the sacrament, 
 at the risk of its being consumed, into the flames. 
 Savonarola, who superstitiously placed great re- 
 liance upon it as a safeguard, inflexibly refused to 
 yield to the objection. New difficulties were then 
 raised by the Franciscans, in discussing which 
 whole hours passed away. At length twilight 
 came on, and with it came so soaking a rain, that it 
 quickly dispersed the multitude, and rendered the 
 two piles incombustible. The populace went off 
 full of ill humour. Disappointment had succeeded 
 to enthusiasm, and Savonarola sunk greatly in 
 their esteem. 
 
 He was insulted in his way back to San Marco; 
 and the waves of popular resentment, swelled by 
 the arts of his enemies, rose so high on the ensuing 
 day, that a terrible tumult broke forth in the 
 church of San Marco while he was preaching; 
 when one of his friends was killed in front of the 
 altar. Before the evening closed, the convent was 
 besieged by a ferocious mob, and the houses of 
 many of his adherents were plundered. The arrest 
 of Savonarola, Pescia, and others, was now decreed 
 by the seignory. The partisans of the Medici, and 
 of the Eomish court, aided by the popular voice, 
 had become ascendant in the councils of the 
 
SAVONAKOLA PUT TO THE TORTURE. 203 
 
 government. The officers of police found him in 
 the beautiful library of San Marco, surrounded by 
 the fraternity; and to this day the very spot is 
 pointed out, with deep interest, where he stood, on 
 yielding himself up a prisoner. 
 
 A messenger was instantly dispatched to Kome, 
 announcing his arrest. The incensed pontiff would 
 fain have had him committed to his own hands, for 
 special punishment ; but this the seignory refused ; 
 and at length he satisfied himself with dispatching 
 two judges, so called., to Florence, who left Rome 
 with a strict charge on no account to fail in 
 compassing his condemnation. These hirelings, 
 assisted by the seignory, formed the tribunal 
 before whom he went through the mockery of a 
 trial. 
 
 There was no fair hearing of witnesses ; no appeal 
 to real facts ; no opportunity given for explanation 
 or defence. Torture was the instrument employed 
 to force from him such avowals of guilt as were 
 deemed needful to effect the purpose of his enemies. 
 It had been barbarously applied to him before the 
 tribunal sat, and it was now mercilessly renewed. 
 His feeble constitution and irritable nerves sunk 
 under the anguish of its infliction, and various 
 admissions against himself were thus wrung from 
 him, which he disavowed as soon as the torture 
 was suspended. Upon this the torture was re- 
 peated. Again the admissions and disavowals 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 followed. And such, he declared, should be the 
 case, so long as he was thus cruelly treated*; 
 adding how deeply he lamented that insufferable 
 pain should for a moment suspend his constancy. 
 
 He passed a month in prison with the daily an- 
 ticipation of a violent death. No friend was al- 
 lowed to approach him. If, at times, faith and 
 hope gave way to despondency, they quickly re- 
 sumed their empire, enduing him with fortitude and 
 peace. What his inward conflicts were, and whence 
 he derived comfort and support, he has recorded in 
 touching expositions of two Psalms, the 31st and 
 51st, composed during his imprisonment, with spe- 
 cial reference to his own afilicting circumstances. 
 Luther, who greatly honoured the memory of Sa- 
 vonarola, and in a certain sense deemed him his 
 precursor, translated and published these Exposi- 
 tions, and offered a tribute of high esteem and 
 commendation to his memory. 
 
 The sentence passed upon him was that he should 
 be strangled and then burnt. A similar sentence 
 was passed upon two of his disciples, Pescia and 
 Maraffi Sylvestre. On the 23rd of May, 1498, it 
 was carried into effect in the very same place in 
 which the abortive attempt at the ordeal by fire 
 had been made five weeks before. After the bodies 
 of all three were consumed, their ashes were cast 
 into the Arno. Some few relics of the holy monk 
 
 * Picus Miran. Vit. Sav. p. 77. Scipione Ammirato, lib. 27. 
 
MARTYRDOM OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 205 
 
 were carefully gathered up and reverentially pre- 
 served by his devoted followers. 
 
 The deportment of Savonarola was perfectly calm 
 and composed. Before leaving the prison he com- 
 municated, pouring forth his soul in prayer with 
 devout fervour. 
 
 To his confessor, who asked for his last com- 
 mands, he said, “ Pray for me, and tell my friends 
 not to be discouraged at my death, but to continue 
 stedfast in my doctrine, and to live in peace.” 
 
 After all three were attached to the pile, the 
 Bishop Pagagnotti, addressing Savonarola, declared 
 that he separated him from the Church. ‘‘You 
 may separate me,” he replied, “ from the Church 
 militant,” implying that he could not sever him 
 from the Church triumphant. 
 
 Thus perished, in his forty-sixth year, by a cruel 
 and unjust sentence, Girolamo Savonarola, a Re- 
 former, as he has significantly been called, before 
 the Reformation. 
 
 Various and opposite opinions have been put 
 forth concerning this extraordinary man. The 
 wonderful powers of his eloquence; his untiring 
 zeal and energy as a preacher ; his life of self-denial 
 and charity; his irreproachable moral character; 
 the ascendancy which he acquired over others by 
 the force of his talents; and the moral reform p>ro- 
 duced in Florence through his labours and in- 
 fluence, are all matters of history. The expulsion 
 of the Medici from Florence in the year I49t, un- 
 
206 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 expectedly invested him with great political power. 
 Called upon by his fellow-citizens to act as one of 
 their envoys to Charles VIII., and afterwards to 
 take a leading part in reconstructing their ancient 
 republic, he may be regarded as the principal au- 
 thor of the constitution then adopted. He knew 
 what it was to govern a convent according to a 
 fixed code of discipline ; but he knew very little of 
 the busy world, and of the difficulty of wisely 
 adapting political institutions to the special wants 
 and the peculiar circumstances of a whole people. 
 His scheme will always excite curiosity and in- 
 terest, as one of the earliest attempts, in modern 
 times, to establish constitutional government upon 
 the basis of popular representation ; but it was in 
 many respects crude and ill digested, and by no 
 means adapted to unite and harmonise the jarring 
 interests of the nobility and commonalty of Florence. 
 It therefore contained within itself the seeds of its 
 own dissolution. 
 
 After the new government was established, his 
 authority and opinion were greatly deferred to ; and 
 his favourite object was to render Florence a centre 
 of moral rectitude and political freedom. But here 
 his monkish strictness and ascetic tastes betrayed 
 him into the error of unwisely and injudiciously in- 
 terfering with the liberty of private judgment, and 
 of attempting to enforce religious principles and 
 observances by an approach to coercive measures. 
 
 The principal charge alleged against him by 
 
CHARACTER OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 207 
 
 Bayle and others has been his pretension to pro- 
 phetic light, assumed, as they maintain, for further- 
 ing his projects of personal ambition. That he did 
 believe himself thus supernaturally enlightened is 
 true, and striking specimens of the fervid fancy 
 and hardihood with which he gave utterance to his 
 thoughts at such times have been quoted. But his 
 prophetic denunciations were always subservient to 
 the one great end of his preaching, — reformation 
 of the Church, and general reformation of manners. 
 His pretensions of this kind may expose him to the 
 charge of fanatical delusion, but not of wilful im- 
 posture. Any such charge is refuted by the whole 
 tenor of his life and character. At the same time 
 it must be acknowledged that on various occasions 
 he was driven to great shifts to reply to the charges 
 brought against him of being a false prophet. 
 
 Brought up in a Church which maintains that 
 miraculous gifts still exist within her communion, 
 there is no cause for wonder (considering his highly 
 imaginative temperament) that he thought himself 
 endowed with one of these gifts. From his early 
 youth the crying sins and corruptions of the age 
 had weighed heavily upon his mind, and he beheld 
 in them the sure prognostics of coming judgments. 
 Penetrated with this conviction, he regarded the 
 political changes of the world as the instruments of 
 their infliction ; and, in particular, he thought he 
 saw their forecast shadows in the French invasion 
 of Italy under Charles VIIL 
 
208 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 These topics possessed both his dreaming and 
 waking thoughts; and his excited fancy was peopled 
 with picturesque images of their speedy accomplish- 
 ment. Thus it was that he, at times, gave utterance 
 to these highly wrought impressions in prophetic 
 denunciations, delivered in the most positive and 
 precise terms. 
 
 It is not strange that he should have himself be- 
 lieved that he spoke under divine inspiration on 
 such occasions ; but it does seem so that, jn spite of 
 the obvious failure of his predictions, so many emi- 
 nent men among his contemporaries regarded and 
 continued to regard him as a prophet. 
 
 Had Savonarola, instead of denouncing the cor- 
 ruptions of the Romish Church, found a vent for 
 his zeal in some mode accordant with her interests; 
 had he, for example, like St. Bruno, founded a rigid 
 religious order, in strict subordination to her system 
 of government ; had his lofty enthusiasm in any 
 such way been exerted in her cause ; he would have 
 been lauded and perhaps even canonised by her as 
 a saint, instead of being condemned and executed 
 as a heretic. Even his prophetic visions might 
 probably, in this case, have been adopted and placed 
 by her on a par with the spiritual reveries and 
 visions of Catherine of Siena and other pious en- 
 thusiasts. 
 
 But Savonarola, in this case, would not have 
 ranked, as he now j ustly does, foremost among the 
 Christian heroes of the fifteenth century. Casting 
 
CHARACTER OF SAVONAROLA. 
 
 209 
 
 away all desires of secular advancement, he stood 
 forth, single and unsupported, in the spirit of the 
 ancient prophets, the bold reprover of the vices of 
 the age in which he lived, and of the corruptions 
 of the Church; especially of the shameless profli- 
 gacy of him who was its papal head at the close 
 of his career, and whom he pointed to in his ser- 
 mons as no Vicar of Jesus Christ, but the Minister 
 of Satan. 
 
 The principal drawback to his reputation is his 
 having given in any degree his sanction to that 
 outrage upon reason, the ordeal by fire. It proves 
 that a strong tinge of fanatical superstition was 
 blended with his great qualities of mind and heart. 
 
 But, though Savonarola was a remarkable wit- 
 ness and champion of the purity and truth of the 
 Christian Kevelation in an age of gross venality 
 and unblushing crime, he had no claim to be re- 
 garded as a reformer of the Church in any such 
 sense as had a Wickliffe or a Luther. In some 
 respects he approximated to the doctrinal prin- 
 ciples of the Reformation, more especially in the 
 article of Justification ; but in the main he was 
 what he professed to be, a devoted, (and we may 
 well add,) a most devout son of the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church. Abundant evidence in proof of this 
 is supplied by his numerous publications, replete, 
 in spite of great drawbacks on the score of monkish 
 superstition, and frequent want of judgment, with 
 learning, eloquence, and piety. 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
210 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Luther commenced his career in the spirit of 
 Savonarola, by indignantly attacking the sale of 
 indulgences, as an insult to reason and to God. 
 Had he stopped here, his reformation, like Savo- 
 narola’s, would have died with him. But as his 
 enquiries enlarged, he gradually came, on just 
 grounds of argument and evidence, to the con- 
 clusion, that the doctrines of papal supremacy and 
 infallibility have no foundation in scripture, or in 
 reason, and that the system of priestly domination, 
 built upon them, is a monstrous usurpation upon 
 liberty of conscience and the right of private judg- 
 ment. At the same time, his example proves, that 
 he deemed a sober reverence for Christian antiquity 
 a wise accompaniment of the exercise of this right. 
 
 By ably exposing the facts of this usurpation, 
 and by further establishing the great antagonistic 
 principle of Protestantism, that the Bible is the 
 sole rule of faith, Luther enlisted on his side the 
 champions of truth and reason in his own time, and 
 in succeeding ages, and won for himself an im- 
 perishable name. 
 
 He also restored to the Church a fundamental 
 dogma, which had been almost lost sight of amidst 
 the perversions of scholastic theology, the doctrine 
 that man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by faith in Jesus Christ. This doctrine, taught 
 by Christ himself and by his apostles, forms a pro- 
 minent feature in the Confessions and Articles of 
 the Protestant Churches ; and, while it opens the 
 
Savonarola’s influence on art. 
 
 211 
 
 door of imiuortal hope to the true believer, is the 
 most potent principle of moral renovation which 
 can be brought to bear upon the powers of the 
 mind and of the heart. 
 
 In the above summary, it is hoped that the lights 
 and shades of Savonarola’s character are fairly por- 
 trayed. More than three centuries have passed 
 away since his eloquent tongue became silent in 
 death. Infamy brands the name of his persecutor 
 Alexander VI. ; but such became the general con- 
 viction of his own just claim to public veneration, 
 that, within ten years after his death, the pencil of 
 Raphael was employed by Pope Julius II. to intro- 
 duce his portrait among the Saints and Doctors of 
 the Church in his celebrated picture, entitled the 
 Dispute of the Sacrament. Even at this day, his 
 name is fragrant in the traditional memory of the 
 Florentine population, and strangers who visit the 
 convent of San Marco are conducted to his cell, as 
 to the once hallowed abode of a saint and confessor. 
 
 We cannot part from Savonarola without noticing 
 the powerful influence which he exercised upon 
 some of the most eminent artists of his day, as also 
 his high appreciation of the beauties of Art. 
 
 With an imagination so vivid and picturesque, it 
 could hardly have been otherwise; but, in strict 
 consistency with the main objects of his life and 
 labours, he zealously opposed the growing influence 
 of what he termed P-aganism in Art. 
 
 Though he could not question the obvious beau- 
 
212 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 ties of the various models of ancient sculpture open 
 to the study of the Florentine artists, he regarded 
 them, as he did the great writers of classical anti- 
 quity, with jealous apprehension, lest they should 
 communicate to their admirers tastes opposed to 
 the purity of the Christian vocation. He also cen- 
 sured, with severity, those artists who painted the 
 face of the Virgin Mary after living models, instead 
 of strictly conforming to the types of the early 
 Italian Church. 
 
 Some of the most devoted of his partisans were 
 artists and their families ; and among them was to be 
 found, as we have already stated, the great name of 
 Fra Bartolomeo. Early in life, he became a convert 
 of Savonarola, and from that time consecrated his 
 pencil almost exclusively to religious subjects. So 
 deeply was he affected by his tragical death, that 
 for a time he renounced his art, and assumed the 
 religious habit in the convent of Prato. Thence he 
 removed to that of San Marco, where the entreaties 
 of his friends and superiors induced him to resume 
 his enchanting pencil. Its productions became 
 increasingly attractive after the year 1504, in con- 
 sequence of the influence produced upon his own 
 genius by association with that of the youthful 
 Raphael ; who, on the other hand, is said to have 
 profited by studying the harmony and richness of 
 the Fra’s colouring and the magic of his clair-obscur. 
 At a later period of life he visited Rome, attracted 
 thither by what he heard of the wonders of the 
 

 F 
 
SAYOWAROLAo 
 
 BORN, 1452_D1ED, 1498. 
 
SAVONAROLA'S INFLUENCE ON ART. 
 
 213 
 
 Sistine ceiling, and of the halls of the Vatican. 
 From that time, his art rose to a still higher grade, 
 and he painted apostles and evangelists which 
 rivalled in grandeur those of Michael Angelo and 
 Eaphael. 
 
 Lorenzo de Credi was another eminent painter, 
 who was a devotee of Savonarola. Educated in the 
 school of Andrea Verrochio, and the friend of 
 Leonardo da Vinci and Pietro Perugino, his pic- 
 tures are distinguished by a depth of devotion and 
 a purity of feeling, which, in spite of a certain 
 mediocrity of drawing, stamps on them no common 
 interest. 
 
 Luca della Robbia, whose name is celebrated for 
 his dramatic and devotional sentiment in Art, and 
 for the fine porcelain in which his productions are 
 usually executed; Andrea della Robbia, also, his 
 nephew and pupil ; together with many other mem- 
 bers of that gifted family, were disciples and 
 friends of Savonarola. So also was Giovanni delle 
 Corniole, so called from his many beautiful cameos 
 executed in Cornelian, one of the finest of which 
 is the head of Savonarola, reputed to be the best 
 likeness existing of him. The architect, Cronaca, 
 also, who crowned the Strozzi Palace at Florence 
 with its superb cornice, was so deeply attached to 
 him, and so fondly cherished his memory, that 
 Vasari tells us, he was sure, on whatever subject 
 he might begin to talk with his friends, to end 
 with Savonarola. 
 
214 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 It was a natural consequence of the ascendency 
 which he thus exercised upon his adherents, that 
 their art should betray not a little of his own 
 monkish tastes. Accordingly, v/e find legendary 
 and superstitious subjects abounding among them. 
 The first, and certainly the noblest example of a 
 school of scriptural historical painting in which the 
 grand ideal is united with the truth of nature, is to 
 be found in the cartoons of Eaphael. 
 
 Michael Angelo’s good sense and mental inde- 
 pendence raised him far above any of the extra- 
 vagances of Savonarola; but though incapable of 
 sympathising with him in this respect, he admired 
 his eloquence, took pleasure in his writings, and 
 shared in his love of civil freedom : and on hearing 
 from Leone Leoni* that he was about to execute 
 his medal, he suggested that a suitable inscription 
 for the reverse would be, — I will teach Thy ways 
 unto the wicked, and sinners shall be converted unto 
 Thee.” Doceho iniqiws vias tuas^ et impii ad te 
 convertentur, (Ps. li.) 
 
 We cannot better close this chapter than by the 
 following tribute to his memory, from the pen of 
 one of the most elegant Latin poets of modern 
 times, the amiable Marco Flaminio: — 
 
 ‘‘ Dum fera flamma tuos, Hieronyme, pascitur artus, 
 Keligio sanctas dilaniata comas, 
 
 Flevit, et O, dixit, crudeles parcite ilammas, 
 
 Farcite ; sunt isto viscera nostra rogo.” 
 
 * Avvertimento alia Ediz. delle Fred, di Sav. Firenze, 
 1845, 8vo. p. vi. 
 
215 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO, ON HIS RETURN FROM BOLOGNA, EXECUTES 
 
 VARIOUS WORKS IN SCULPTURE HIS FIRST VISIT TO ROME, 
 
 AND OCCASION OF IT. EXECUTES HIS BACCHUS, AND THE 
 
 GROUP OF THE PIETA NOW IN ST. PETER’s. 
 
 1495 - 6 . 
 
 AVe will now proceed to describe the artistic pur- 
 suits and labours of Michael Angelo, after his return 
 from Bologna to Florence, at the troubled period 
 to which the last chapter has reference. 
 
 One of the first works which he undertook was a 
 small statue of St. John, for Lorenzo, son of Piero 
 Francesco de’ Medici; and the next was a Cupid, of 
 the natural size, about which and its final fate there 
 are various and somewhat contradictory statements. 
 It was executed for a Milanese gentleman, of the 
 name of Balthasar. Vasari tells us, that such was its 
 grace and fine finish, that it was suggested to the 
 possessor that it Avould readily pass for an antique, 
 if a slight appearance of age were imparted to its 
 surface. 
 
 Balthasar, it is added, acted on the hint, and 
 then sent it to Rome, where it was sold as such to 
 
 p 4 
 
216 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the Cardinal Giorgio di Riario, who valued himself 
 on his connoisseurship. His Eminence had not 
 long rejoiced in his acquisition when rumours of 
 the real truth became current, and, impelled by cu- 
 riosity and mortified vanity, he employed an agent 
 at Florence to see the reputed sculptor, and not 
 only to inquire into the facts, but to ascertain, by 
 an inspection of his works, whether he was capable 
 of producing so beautiful a figure. Michael Angelo 
 easily convinced his visitor that he had been no 
 party to the fraud ; but it was not so easy to impart 
 to him an adequate notion of his powers, as at this 
 time he had no important work in progress. 
 
 He therefore, with a few powerful and expressive 
 strokes of his pen, delineated a hand and wrist, in a 
 style so spirited, that the agent felt himself to be 
 in the presence of no ordinary artist ; and, using a 
 discretion entrusted to him, invited him to visit 
 Rome, and to become the guest of the cardinal. 
 The invitation was so cordially pressed home, that 
 it was gladly accepted, and became the occasion of 
 Michael Angelo’s first sight of a city in which he 
 was destined to establish, by his great works, an 
 imperishable fame. His reception was friendly; 
 and though Riario was a man of no real taste, and 
 did not himself employ his guest’s chisel or pencil, 
 they both soon found adequate employment in 
 other quarters. 
 
 Tile fine specimens of Grecian sculpture, together 
 with the stately ruins and the picturesque remains 
 
VARIOUS WORKS IN SCULPTURE. 
 
 217 
 
 of imperial grandeur, which impart such high 
 interest to Rome, must have stirred up, in such a 
 mind as his, feelings of delight and admiration. 
 
 How ardently must he have participated in the 
 zeal called forth about this time in excavating an- 
 cient statues from the ruins of baths, temples, and 
 villas ; and with what delight must he have sur- 
 veyed the fresh wonders of art which were thus 
 continually brought to light from their deep re- 
 cesses! He spent about two years in Rome, and 
 during this time produced various works of high 
 excellence, chiefly in sculpture. 
 
 The cartoon of a St. Francis receiving the stig- 
 mata, mentioned by Vasari, as having been painted 
 or designed for one of Riario’s dependants, appears 
 to have been only a slight work thrown off in 
 moments of relaxation from severer labours. 
 
 tlis first production was a Cupid ; and he after- 
 wards undertook a statue of Bacchus for Jacopo 
 Galli, a Roman gentleman. The Bacchus now 
 forms one of the ornaments of the Florentine 
 Gallery. This statue does not represent Bacchus in 
 the character in which ancient sculpture so often 
 portrays him, as the rapt, inspired leader of mystic 
 orgies, and as the hero of classical romance, but in 
 the grosser form of the god of the vintage, and of 
 its jocund festivities. The expression of the face 
 is sensual ; the limbs are plump ; a slight inclina- 
 tion of the head, and the general attitude, convey 
 the idea of inebriety. In his right hand is a cup, 
 
218 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 from which he appears about to drink, and on 
 which his eyes are complacently fixed. A garland 
 of vine-leaves encircles his temples; and a tiger’s 
 skin, an animal sacred to Bacchus, hangs over his 
 left arm, the hand of which grasps a bunch of 
 grapes, which a boyish Satyr, placed at his feet, is 
 waggishly devouring. The boy is as playful a 
 figure, in marble, as any of the Cupids which grace 
 the pictures of Correggio. In drawing, in anato- 
 mical truth, and in finish, this statue is in the style 
 of the Greeks ; but, from the above description, it 
 will be readily understood, that in sentiment and ex- 
 pression it is scarcely worthy of the lofty genius of 
 Michael Angelo. We conclude that the subject was 
 imposed upon him by his employer ; and that, as a 
 youthful artist, seeking patronage, he could not 
 have his own way. Its masterly execution, however, 
 secured him at once so high a reputation, that he was 
 soon after applied to by the Cardinal de St. Denys, 
 ambassador from Charles VIII. to the Eoman court, 
 to undertake a composition, in sculpture, for the 
 French chapel of St. Petronilla, in the ancient 
 St. Peter’s. The celebrated Pieta, which now adorns 
 the first right-hand chapel on entering the great 
 door of the modern St. Peter’s, was the result of 
 this commission. It consists of two figures, the 
 Virgin mother, seated in a dignified attitude, and 
 supporting on her knees a dead Christ, whom she 
 regards with inexpressible reverence, tenderness, 
 and grief. Her sorrow is profoundly mental, with- 
 
VARIOUS WORKS IN SCULPTURE. 
 
 219 
 
 out any distortion of the features. Meekness and 
 benignity characterise the features of the Christ: 
 the body is somewhat meagre, but its anatomical 
 and plastic truth is admirable. The drapery has 
 been criticised as somewhat stiff ; and it must be 
 acknowledged that the style of the whole group 
 partakes of the rigidity of the early school of paint- 
 ing and sculpture. 
 
 This, however, must have been intentional, since 
 the style of the Bacchus, its predecessor, has all the 
 freedom and breadth of the most advanced stage of 
 Art. Possibly, this difference was the consequence 
 of a qualified accommodation of his own manner to 
 the conventional mode, yet prevalent, of treating 
 such subjects. 
 
 The finish of the whole work is exquisite, espe- 
 cially the body of the Christ, in which respect it 
 differs greatly from the unlaboured freedom and 
 force of his later works, bespeaking the assiduous 
 application of a rising artist. He was now in his 
 twenty-fifth year. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the celebrity which this 
 great work immediately attached to his name. It 
 was the theme of universal admiration. Poets 
 celebrated its merits, artists multiplied studies from 
 it, and Michael Angelo was henceforth regarded as 
 the first of living sculptors. 
 
 Modern criticism has taken a middle course 
 between this high appreciation of its merits, and 
 the detracting tone of certain later censors. More 
 
220 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 freedom and breadth of manner would have height- 
 ened its effect ; but its touching pathos, its dignified 
 conception, and its masterly execution, are incon- 
 testable. In its present position, it is placed far 
 too much above the level of the eye, to allow of its 
 beauties being duly appreciated.^ 
 
 A current criticism, coeval with its first appear- 
 ance, was the too youthful aspect of the Virgin, as 
 compared with the indications of age in the Christ. 
 
 The artist’s own reply to the censure is recorded 
 by Condivi, and it was as follows: — “Is it not 
 obvious that the impress of youth would naturally 
 be of long duration in a virgin pure and unconta- 
 minate ? whereas, traces of premature age would no 
 less naturally be visible in the frame of the Man 
 of Sorrows; of Him who assumed our suffering 
 nature, and was subject to all the trials of humanity, 
 sin only excepted.” 
 
 The name of the artist, contrary to his usual 
 practice, is inscribed on the girdle of the Virgin. 
 He is said to have added it in consequence of 
 overhearing the group ascribed, by some Milanese 
 people, while viewing it, to one of their own country- 
 men. 
 
 * One of the first sculptors of the present day, our fellow- 
 countryman, Gibson, expressed himself to me, in the year 1853, 
 at Rome, in high admiration of this group ; and especially of 
 the exquisite and masterly drawing and finish of the arms and 
 hands of the Christ ; adding his regret that it was placed too 
 high to produce its due effect. 
 
221 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MICHAEL ANGELO REVISITS FLORENCE. — EXECUTES IIIS DAVID. 
 
 PAINTS A HOLY FAMILY FOR ANGELO DONE DESIGNS 
 
 THE FAMOUS CARTOON OF PISA IN COMPETITION WITH LEO- 
 NARDO DA VINCI. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LATTER 
 
 ARTIST. — RESPECTIVE MERITS OF THE TWO CARTOONS. 
 
 1502 TO 1504. 
 
 The fame of the great works in sculpture, exe- 
 cuted by Michael Angelo at Rome, quickly pervaded 
 Florence, whose citizens felt not a little proud of 
 the honour reflected upon their School of Art in 
 his person. This sentiment naturally prompted a 
 very general wish that he should be requested to 
 execute a group, or a statue, for the embellishment 
 of the city which claimed him as her own. The 
 mode of paying him this compliment was quickly 
 devised, but in a less liberal spirit than the occasion 
 demanded. A great block of marble had long lain 
 neglected in the court of the Palazzo Yecchio, out 
 of which Simone de Fiesole, a sculptor of very 
 moderate ability, had in former years undertaken 
 to produce a colossal statue ; but, after inflicting 
 much injury on it, he had. Anally, in despair of 
 success, abandoned the attempt. It was now pro- 
 j)Osed that Michael Angelo should be requested to 
 
222 
 
 LIPE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 extract a statue out of this mutilated marble. The 
 Gonfaloniere Soderini, who had previously thought 
 of applying to Leonardo da Vinci, or Contucci, for 
 the same purpose, was foremost among the civic 
 authorities who pressed the commission on Michael 
 Angelo. He came, in consequence, to Florence ; 
 and, in spite of the injured condition of the block, 
 he assented to their wishes, prompted, perhaps, by 
 the youthful ambition of proving his power of 
 coping with difficulties which to many would have 
 appeared insuperable. The result was the colossal 
 statue of David, which now stands in the open air 
 in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. 
 
 It is called by Condivi a giant, but Vasari, and 
 Benvenuto Cellini, who mentions it in his Auto- 
 biography, both refer to it as a David ; and there is 
 no doubt that such was the intention of the artist, 
 for, in more than one of his drawings, this figure is 
 introduced in a somewhat different attitude from the 
 existing statue, with the head of a Goliath beneath 
 its feet. It may be inferred from these drawings 
 that his wish was to have introduced this appro- 
 priate accompaniment, and to have imparted more 
 of action to the statue ; but that he found it impos- 
 sible, in consequence of the want of due compass in 
 the marble. To the same cause is to be ascribed a 
 slight appearance of contraction in the chest of the 
 figure. What specially denotes it to be a David is a 
 sling over one of the shoulders ; it might otherwise 
 pass for a youthful Hector or Achilles. The head of 
 
HIS DAVID. 
 
 223 
 
 Goliath, from his potent chisel, would not only- 
 have identified it as a David, but have doubtless 
 proved a miracle of Art. In spite of these disad- 
 vantages, the result is a truly grand statue. Its 
 simple, yet noble attitude and bearing ; its plastic 
 feeling ; its muscular energy ; the learned precision 
 and force of its anatomical development ; the beauty 
 of the hyacinthine locks, which cluster round a 
 forehead and countenance expressive of youthful 
 courage, lofty enterprise, and guileless truth, place 
 it high among the finest works of modern sculpture. 
 How often have I surveyed it with admiration 
 under every variety of light and shadow, and in 
 every direction ; and how often have I come to the 
 conclusion that, with the exception of the Perseus 
 of Benvenuto Cellini, none of the adjacent statues 
 rival it in the highest qualities of Art ! ^ The Her- 
 cules and Cacus of Baccio Bandinelli, for instance, 
 is spiritless as compared with it : Hercules strangles 
 his victim with apathy ; and Cacus, while being 
 squeezed to death, betrays no agony. 
 
 Yet Bandinelli flattered himself that the David 
 would be little thought of after his group was 
 placed beside it. The public voice undeceived him. 
 One and another stinging satire apprised him how 
 
 * Again to quote Mr. Gibson’s opinion, he remarked of the 
 David nearly as follows : — “ What a fine statue is the David ! 
 how grand the spirit, and how perfect the execution ; and how' 
 free the whole from the mannerism into which Michael Angelo 
 after'wards degenerated ! ” 
 
224 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 signal was his failure. Among them was the fol- 
 lowing. It is Cacus who speaks. 
 
 “ Ercole non mi dar, che i tuoi vitelli 
 
 Ti rendero con tutto il tuo bestiame ; 
 
 Ma il bue V ha avuto Baccio Bandinelli.” 
 
 It is often expedient, on public occasions, to 
 humour the little caprices of self-important but 
 amiable functionaries. A pleasant anecdote of this 
 kind is told of the gonfalon iere Pietro Soderini. 
 When, on the appointed day, the ceremonial of 
 elevating the statue into its proper position had 
 been gone through in the presence of a vast crowd 
 of spectators, Michael Angelo himself superin- 
 tended the removal of the guard-boards. Soderini, 
 who was at this moment just beneath the statue, 
 expressed himself as perfectly enchanted: — There 
 is, however,” he added, ‘‘one slight defect, which can 
 easily be corrected, — the nose is rather too thick.” 
 Michael Angelo saw that the worthy magistrate 
 was so placed as to be incapable of really judging 
 of this feature, but, as there was no time for dis- 
 cussion, he seemed to assent to the criticism, and 
 catching up, unperceived, some marble dust, and 
 mounting a temporary bridge on the side of the 
 statue, affected to work lightly on the nose with 
 a file, letting fall at the same moment some of the 
 dust in his hand on the head of Soderini. He 
 then called out, “ How does it look now ? ” “I 
 am perfectly satisfied,” replied the gonfaloniere. 
 
VARIOUS STATUES AND BAS-RELIEFS. 225 
 
 You have actually imparted life to it.’’ The 
 artist descended quite as much pleased with the 
 success of his stratagem, as the worthy functionary 
 with his own critical discernment. According to 
 Vasari, he next executed a bronze statue of David 
 for Soderini, which was sent into France. Condivi 
 mentions the statue, but not the subject. The 
 correctness of both statements is questioned, as it 
 has never been heard of in any collection. A 
 bronze of David and Goliath is also referred to by 
 Condivi, which is equally unknown. 
 
 Two circular bas-reliefs, one for Taddeo Taddi, 
 the other for Bartolomeo Pitti, but afterwards pre- 
 sented to Luigi Guicciardini, are referred by Vasari 
 to this period, but without any mention of the 
 subjects. They appear to have been left unfinished; 
 but as other bas-reliefs by him exist in the same 
 condition, it is not possible correctly to distinguish 
 between them. There is a very fine one of a 
 Virgin and Child, in the Florentine Gallery, answer- 
 ing to this description ; and another, still finer, was 
 brought over to England by Sir George Beaumont, 
 and presented to the Royal Academy. The last- 
 named of these is a master-piece of sculpture, un- 
 finished though it be. The figure and action of the 
 infant Christ are allowed to be as fine as anything 
 which the chisel of this great artist has produced. 
 
 One or two more works, on a small scale, in 
 bronze or marble, are also referred to by Vasari and 
 
 VOL. r. Q 
 
226 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Condivi, but in terms too vague to admit of their 
 accurate identification. 
 
 About this time he painted a picture of a cir- 
 cular form, the subject a Holy Family, for Agnolo 
 Doni. It now hangs in the Tribune of the Floren- 
 tine Gallery, and is one of the very few paint- 
 ings known to have entirely proceeded from his 
 pencil. The Virgin is represented on her knees, 
 and as leaning back in the act of receiving the 
 infant Saviour from the lap of Joseph, who is 
 behind her. The Child is finely drawn, and the 
 picture exemplifies his power of placing his figures 
 with perfect ease and correctness in the most dif- 
 ficult attitudes ; but the expression of the Virgin is 
 hard and unpleasing, her position is constrained, 
 and the colouring, which has probably suffered much 
 from age, is now dark and crude. It is executed in 
 distemper. In the background are several small 
 academical figures, admirably sketched, and placed 
 there, it would seem, as playful exemplications of 
 his power of design ; certainly not as belonging to 
 the subject. 
 
 Vasari tells us the picture, when finished, was 
 sent to Doni by a special messenger, who was 
 desired to bring back the sum of seventy ducats as 
 its price. Doni, who was of a bargaining turn, 
 said it was too much, and sent only forty ducats. 
 Michael Angelo upon this desired the messenger to 
 return immediately, and either to bring back the 
 picture or a hundred ducats. Doni now trans- 
 
COMPETITION WITH LEONARDO DA VINCI. 227 
 
 mitted the first-named price of seventy ducats ; but 
 the inexorable artist still rose in his demands, and 
 peremptorily required the return of the picture, or 
 double the price he had at first named. Doni was 
 afraid of making another move, and retained the 
 picture by paying for it a hundred and forty ducats. 
 The anecdote is an amusing proof of the artist’s 
 decision of character, and of his resolution to up- 
 hold the dignity of his profession. 
 
 The picture of the Fates^ now in the Pitti Palace, 
 was, till lately, confidently ascribed to him, but 
 modern criticism has decided otherwise. It may 
 probably have been painted from one of his designs, 
 for the character and expression of these weird- 
 sisters are not unworthy of his pencil, — ^keen, 
 cunning, penetrating, relentless; but nothing can 
 possibly be more unlike the strokes of his broad 
 and vigorous brush than its execution, which is 
 laboured, minute, and feeble. It is now pretty 
 generally ascribed to Rosso Fiorentino. 
 
 Circumstances about this time occurred to place 
 Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, the two 
 greatest masters of design that the modern world 
 had seen, in honourable competition with each 
 other ; and the consequences emanating from it 
 form a distinguished epoch in the history of Art. 
 
 It having been determined by the heads of the 
 Florentine government, in the year 1503, to deco- 
 rate tlie two opposite sides of their great council 
 chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio with historical 
 
228 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 paintings, they applied to Leonardo da Vinci, who 
 happened then to be at Florence, and to Michael 
 Angelo, to realise their intentions. In furtherance 
 of this scheme, they were each to produce, in the 
 first instance, a finished cartoon of the subject 
 selected, and afterwards to execute it in painting 
 on the wall of the council chamber. 
 
 Leonardo was born in the year 1452, and died 
 in 1519. He was a Florentine by birth, and his 
 first studies in Art were under Andrea Verrochio, 
 who excelled both in painting and sculpture. So 
 great was his proficiency, that Verocchio often 
 employed him to work on his own pictures, and at 
 length entrusted him to introduce into one of them — 
 the subject being the Baptism of Christ — the figure 
 of an angel beside one which he had just painted 
 himself. The angel of Leonardo so far excelled 
 his own in beauty and expression, that Verocchio, 
 while he greatly admired it, felt chagrined at his 
 obvious inferiority; and is said to have formed 
 from that moment the resolution, from which he 
 never departed, of abandoning an art in which 
 he was so distanced by his highly gifted pupil. 
 
 Ludovico Sforza, regent, and afterwards duke of 
 Milan, invited him to his court, A. d. 1490, and he 
 there met with such encouragement that he became 
 the founder of a school^ of painting in that city, 
 which extended its influence over Northern Italy, 
 and formed the genius of many able artists. At 
 the time at which the competition above referred 
 
LEO NAM O BA YIN Cl. 
 
 BORN 1452_D1ED, 1519. 
 
^.- :'■ ' : ' "" "::- ’■ . _ ,/ ' . 'i ■ / : ' ' ' ' 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 
 ■e ■ 
 
LEONARDO DA VINCI. 
 
 229 
 
 to took place, he had passed his fiftieth year, and 
 had long enjoyed all the honours which the homage 
 of admiring contemporaries can confer on superior 
 genius and eminent learning. He had already 
 done much, by his example and influence, for the 
 development of those principles on which the great 
 school of Art is based, and which were carried to 
 their highest perfection by his present rival, and by 
 Raphael. 
 
 The genius of Leonardo, like that of Buonarroti, 
 embraced the whole sphere of imagination and 
 taste ; for he was at once a painter, sculptor, 
 architect, musician, and poet; and his powers of 
 body, no less than of mind, were extraordinary. 
 He was a great master of mechanical and anato- 
 mical science, and was accomplished in all manly 
 and chivalrous exercises. While he imbibed the 
 liveliest impressions from all that is objective in 
 nature and in art, his works were replete with a 
 refined elevation of sentiment and feeling which 
 invests them with a peculiar interest. The deep 
 impressions which he was capable of communicating 
 to his pupils are attested by their works, which 
 more or less faithfully reflect his own peculiar yet 
 charming conceptions of beauty, and his graceful 
 style of composition. Of his greatest work in 
 painting, the Last Supper, in the refectory of the 
 church of S. Maria delle Grazie, at Milan, only a 
 faint shadow now exists, but in its perfection it must 
 
230 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 have been a perfect work of Art. ^ The skill with 
 which he has surmounted the difficulty of relieving 
 a long straight line of figures from stiffness and 
 monotony^ the fine disposition of the various 
 groups, the speaking physiognomy of their ex- 
 pression, and the sublime tenderness with which 
 he has invested the features and the figure of the 
 Saviour, are such as to leave nothing to desire in 
 this composition but that it had been executed 
 with more permanent colours, and that barbarism 
 had less rudely invaded its remains. 
 
 Leonardo’s colouring is rich and harmonious, 
 his drawing grand, and his finish exquisite. In 
 addition to his lofty qualities of mind, his person 
 was signally handsome both in youth and old age, 
 and he was an honoured and cherished guest in 
 the highest circles of Italy and France. Michael 
 Angelo, unlike his great competitor, was in the 
 prime of youth ; and, though his reputation was 
 already high, his master-pieces of Art were as yet 
 unachieved. 
 
 Thus placed, by a happy accident, in amicable 
 rivalry, each selected, for the subject of his cartoon, 
 
 A fine and highly finished copy of this grand work, from 
 the pencil of his pupil, Marco d’ Oggione, is in the possession of 
 the lioyal Academy in London ; and there is a beautiful tapestry 
 of it in the private apartments of the pope, in the palace of the 
 Vatican. 
 
 The Royal Academy may also justly pride itself in the pos- 
 session of a most beautiful cartoon, in black chalk, by Leonardo, 
 the subject — a Holy Family. 
 
CARTOONS OF DA VINCI AND M. ANGELO. 231 
 
 popular incidents in the wars between Florence 
 and Pisa. That fixed upon by Leonardo was an 
 encounter of cavalry in the battle of Anghiari, 
 A. D. 1440, which ended in the defeat of Piccinino, 
 a general of F. M. Visconti, Duke of Milan. The 
 cartoon has altogether perished ; but a fragment of 
 it, representing the furious encounter of four horse- 
 men, was copied by Rubens, and engraved by 
 Edelinck. The print is known by the name of the 
 Battle of the Standard, the object of the com- 
 petitors being, on the one side to capture, on the 
 other to defend, their colours. The grand drawing, 
 and the fire and spirit which pervade this fragment, 
 may well make us deplore the loss of the whole 
 composition. The horse was a most favourite ani- 
 mal with Da Vinci, and the subject was probably 
 chosen to illustrate his power of delineating it in 
 every variety of action. 
 
 The subject chosen by Michael Angelo had re- 
 ference to an occurrence in the commencement of 
 the same battle. A company of infantry, bathing 
 in the Arno, are supposed suddenly to receive 
 notice of the near approach of the enemy. All, in 
 a moment, becomes movement and alarm. The 
 scattered soldiers commingle ; some have already 
 dashed out of the water, others are just emerging 
 from it ; while many are hastily engaged in seizing 
 their arms, or tearing on their clothes, or in help- 
 ing their comrades to climb up the steep banks of 
 the river : here and there, one and anotlier are seen 
 
232 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 completely armed; whilst a seated figure points 
 with his finger in the direction of the enemy’s 
 approach. 
 
 Such a subject, in the hands of such an artist, 
 became an occasion of conveying to the world of 
 Art an incomparable lesson in the science of the 
 Nude, displaying, as it did, the human figure in 
 every form of movement, attitude, and foreshorten- 
 ing. The figures were of the size of life, and were 
 drawn in black chalk, the shadows being in brown, 
 and the lights in different degrees of white. Ben- 
 venuto Cellini, scarcely second to any one as an 
 authority on questions of design, was one of the 
 many artists who beheld and studied this great 
 work, of which he speaks in the following terms. 
 
 After alluding to his own studies from it, and 
 to the credit they had procured him, he adds : 
 
 While these cartoons thus hung opposite to each 
 other, they formed the school of the world. Al- 
 though the divine Michael Angelo afterwards 
 painted the great chapel of Pope Julius, he never 
 again fully realised the force of these, his earlier 
 studies.”^ 
 
 The cartoon of Da Vinci, according to Cellini, 
 was at first exhibited in a large apartment in the 
 Medici Palace, and that of Michael Angelo in the 
 hall of the Popes attached to S. Maria Novella. 
 There is reason to believe that the former was 
 
 Vitii di liciiveiiuLo Ctiilini, Firenze, 1832, p. 28, 29. 
 
CARTOONS OF DA VINCI AND xM. ANGELO. 233 
 
 finished and exhibited for some time before that of 
 Buonarroti. Vasari chiefly dwells on the extra- 
 ordinary merits of the latter : he describes, in glow- 
 ing terms, the admiration it excited, and the con- 
 course of people who flocked to behold it, and of 
 eminent artists who made studies from it, among 
 whom were Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Baccio 
 Bandinelli, Sansovino, Perino del Vaga, &c. 
 
 Here, for the first time, was seen the science of 
 drawing in its perfection ; in other words, the 
 practical development of its fundamental principles, 
 devoid of some considerable proficiency in which, 
 what is called genius ^in Art cannot take a single 
 step with confidence, nor attempt to embody the 
 images of fancy without the danger of rendering 
 itself ridiculous. 
 
 The science embodied in this cartoon went far 
 beyond a masterly delineation of the several figures. 
 It also exemplified the mode of rendering attitude, 
 gesture, and movement subservient to the expression 
 of mental emotion, while the effect of the whole 
 was heightened by an almost sculptural degree of 
 rounding and relief. 
 
 Neither of the eminent competitors, in this tour- 
 nay of Art, ever realised the original intention of 
 the Florentine government, by executing paintings 
 from their respective designs. Leonardo is said to 
 have commenced his in the great council-chamber, 
 and to have made use of a peculiar process of colour 
 in oil, which not answering, he abandoned the Avork. 
 
23i 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 The cartoon of Michael Angelo was finally removed 
 from its first locality to the hall of the palace of 
 the Medici, and placed opposite to tliat of Da Vinci. 
 It disappeared during the troubles of Florence, in 
 1512. Baccio Bandinelli is accused of having de- 
 stroyed it with impious hands, impelled by personal 
 enmity to Michael Angelo, and by displeasure at 
 its acknowledged superiority to the rival cartoon of 
 Leonardo. 
 
 Vasari alludes, as follows, to this transaction: — 
 
 ‘^In the year 1512, during the revolution which 
 expelled the Gonfaloniere Piero Soderini, and re- 
 called the Medici, Bandinelli, by means of a false 
 key, introduced himself into the hall where this 
 cartoon hung, and tore it in pieces. Some have 
 pretended that he destroyed this chef -d' oeuvre in 
 order to possess himself of parts of the fragments ; 
 others maintained that he was anxious to deprive 
 his younger rivals of the benefits which must accrue 
 to them from studying this admirable work ; while 
 others say that his prompting motive was affection 
 for Leonardo da Vinci, who now felt his reputation 
 lowered : but those who best knew how to divine 
 his intentions, attributed this action to the hatred 
 with which throughout life he pursued the great 
 Michael Angelo. It was an immense loss to the 
 arts ; and he was very generally accused of envy 
 and malevolence.’’ 
 
 This charge, which fastens such odious imputa- 
 tions on the memory of Bandinelli, lias never been 
 
CARTOONS OF DA VINCI AND M. ANGELO. 235 
 
 refuted. Rossini, the historian of Italian art, adopts 
 and repeats it ; and the only fact that casts some 
 degree of doubt upon it, is the silence of Condivi. 
 
 All that can be said respecting its final fate is, 
 that fragments are known to have existed in dif- 
 ferent places, and in particular at Mantua, where 
 they were long preserved with a sort of idolatrous 
 reverence. From one of these fragments, Marc 
 Antonio probably engraved the fine figures which 
 go by the name of Les Grimpeurs and a few 
 more were engraved, with less effect, by Andrea 
 Veneziano. Until the year 1808, no other record 
 of this great work was supposed to exist; but a 
 spirited engraving by Schiavonetti then appeared, 
 from a picture in the collection at Holkham, pur- 
 porting to include the whole composition. There 
 is reason to suppose that such may be the case. 
 The Holkham picture is possibly a study made from 
 the cartoon at the time of its exhibition.* 
 
 Whether Raphael may justly be supposed to 
 have first caught the inspiration of the grand style 
 in Art from studying the cartoon of Pisa is a ques- 
 tion which has led to much discussion. Vasari, 
 in his anxiety to establish this point, falls into 
 the gross error of fixing the date of Raphael’s 
 first visit to Florence as early as 1502, and of re- 
 
 * This picture was exhibited in the Gallery of the British 
 Institution in the summer of 1856. It conveys no slight idea 
 of the fervid energy and spirit of the original, and of the mas- 
 terly precision of the drawing. 
 
236 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 presenting him as setting off from Siena (where 
 he had been aiding Pinturicchio with some fine 
 designs for the great pictorial work which he was 
 then carrying on in the library of the cathedral) 
 for the express purpose of beholding the rival car- 
 toons of Pisa. Now, it is an acknowledged fact, 
 that Raphael did not make his first visit to Florence 
 till 1504 ; and we have stated that the cartoon 
 of Buonarroti was not publicly exhibited before 
 the year 1506. The proofs of these facts are so 
 Avell established, that it would only be making a 
 parade of knowledge to go into the evidence. They 
 bring home to Vasari a glaring anachronism; and 
 they prove that Raphael’s first acquirement of a 
 nobler style of design preceded his acquaintance 
 with the cartoon of Pisa by about two years. On 
 coming to Florence, he enjoyed all the advantages 
 of its Academy of Painting, and of its fine collec- 
 tion of Greek and Roman sculpture; he studied 
 the works of Masaccio, and of Lorenzo Ghiberti ; 
 and he had the high privilege of an intimacy with 
 Fra Bartolomeo, and probably of an acquaintance 
 with Leonardo da Vinci. ^ 
 
 It was under these bright auspices that he com- 
 menced his career in Florence ; and, as he did not 
 leave it for Rome till the year 1508, he had for a 
 
 * Passavant states that he wished to know Da Vinci before 
 his coming to Florence, and Sir C. Eastlake (p. 228.) traces 
 close imitation of the smiling expression of this great artist’s 
 Madonnas, in some of those of Raphael, painted at Florence. 
 
HIS CARTOON OF PISA. 
 
 287 
 
 great length of time constant opportunities of con- 
 templating the cartoon of Pisa. To suppose that 
 he contemned the noble lessons which it conveyed 
 to the world of Art, would be to suppose that he 
 was no longer himself. 
 
 He saw it for the first time at the close of 1506 ; 
 and a closer study of anatomy and form is soon after 
 apparent in his own works.* 
 
 * Sir C. Eastlake’s Life of Raphael, p. 228. 
 
238 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 MICHAEL Angelo’s delight in literary studies. — is sum- 
 moned TO ROME BY POPE JULIUS II. — CHARACTER OF THIS 
 
 POPE. M. ANGELO IS COMMANDED BY HIM TO COMMENCE 
 
 HIS MAUSOLEUM. ACCOUNT OF THE PLAN FOR IT. HE 
 
 GOES TO CARRARA TO RAISE THE NECESSARY MARBLES. 
 
 HE ZEALOUSLY PROSECUTES THE WORK ; BUT SUDDENLY THE 
 pope’s ardour cools, and he TREATS MICHAEL ANGELO 
 
 WITH STUDIED NEGLECT. INDIGNANT AT THIS TREATMENT, 
 
 HE RETIRES TO FLORENCE, AND RESUMES HIS LABOURS ON 
 THE CARTOON OF PISA. — THE POPE SUMMONS HIM TO RE- 
 TURN, BUT IN VAIN THEIR RECONCILIATION. — EXECUTES 
 
 A BRONZE STATUE OF JULIUS II. — ITS SUBSEQUENT DESTRUC- 
 TION. 
 
 1504 TO 1507 . 
 
 In the midst of these artistic pursuits, literary- 
 studies ceased not to engage the attention of Michael 
 Angelo. The Tuscan poets had long been the de- 
 light of his leisure hours, and Condivi tells us that 
 at this particular time he was also occupied in 
 studying the best Italian prose writers.* But what- 
 ever range his mind took in collecting various 
 sweets within the precincts of the Italian Par- 
 nassus, he ever returned with fresh admiration 
 and preference to the page of Dante; and we are 
 
 Condivi, cap. 23. 
 
HIS LITEKARY STUDIES. 
 
 - 239 
 
 assured that he even knew by heart the “ Divina 
 Commedia.” This preference was a natural conse- 
 quence of the sympathy which existed between the 
 sublime and philosophical mind of that great poet 
 and his own. The same rich, creative, soaring, and 
 somewhat sombre imagination belonged to both ; 
 the same sagacious penetration into character, the 
 same love of the mysterious and marvellous, the 
 same lofty independence, and wide excursiveness of 
 thought. 
 
 How deep was the impression which the great 
 Florentine’s immortal genius had made upon his 
 imagination, was so obvious in some of his subse- 
 quent works, as to procure for him the distinctive 
 appellation of the Dante of Art. 
 
 In the composition, however, of those beautiful 
 and intellectual Sonnets, which have established his 
 claim to a fourth crown in the race of genius, 
 Petrarch was his model. That some of these effu- 
 sions of his muse were penned at this time, we 
 know from the testimony of Condivi * ; and it might 
 also be inferred from the various memoranda found 
 amidst his artistic studies ; for instance, on the re- 
 verse of one of his drawings for the colossal statue 
 of David, formerly in the possession of Mariette, 
 the following elegant couplet occurs in his hand- 
 writing : — 
 
 “ A] dolce mormorar cT im fumicello 
 Ch’ aduggia di verd’ ombra im chiaro fonte.” 
 
 * Condivi, cap. 23. 
 
240 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 While his time was divided between these quiet 
 and delightful pursuits and the prosecution of the 
 cartoon of Pisa, a gracious and flattering summons 
 reached him, in the year 1504, from Julius IL, to 
 wait upon him at Eome in the line of his profession. 
 The summons was accompanied by a remittance of 
 two hundred ducats for the expenses of his journey. 
 The character of the pontiff with whom Michael 
 Angelo was thus about to be placed in close rela- 
 tion, was one of the most stirring and remarkable 
 of modern history. From youth to age, his life was 
 one continued career of bold, daring, and successful 
 enterprise. The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII., 
 the revolutions in the duchy of Milan, the various 
 intrigues of opposing factions at Rome, were all 
 matters in the complications of which he had 
 busied himself intensely, and had exercised a potent 
 influence. 
 
 He laid his schemes for possessing himself of the 
 papal tiara with singular dexterity and foresight ; 
 and, once in possession, he made Europe ring with 
 the fame of his exploits. 
 
 His great objects as pope were threefold : to re- 
 cover those states to the Church which had been 
 wrested from it by conquest ; to extend her temporal 
 dominion ; and to exalt her spiritual supremacy 
 to the greatest possible height. As to the moral 
 qualities of Christian wisdom, forbearance, and 
 equity, or as to the pastoral virtues which ought 
 to dignify and adorn the alleged Vicar of Jesus 
 
POPE JULIUS II. 
 
 241 
 
 Christ, they were wholly foreign to his disposition 
 and habits. Promises and obligations of every sort 
 were trampled upon by him without scruple, in 
 order to carry out his ambitious schemes, and to 
 put down opposition. The greatest powers in 
 Europe became more or less, one after another, the 
 ministers of that ambition ; and by their aid, united 
 to his own bold policy and indomitable spirit, he 
 effectually humbled the pride of Venice, trampled 
 down the Bentivogli at Bologna, and finally secured 
 to the papal dominion far more than had been wrung 
 from it through the weakness of his predecessors. 
 
 With no less success, he subdued and put down 
 the rebellious Roman barons. In effecting these 
 objects, he manifested equal promptitude, sagacity, 
 and energy. No difficulties, no dangers, could relax 
 his courage, or subdue his resolution. 
 
 The siege of Mirandula was carried on by him in 
 the depth of a severe and snowy winter; and, braving 
 its inclemency, he was wont to be seen, at the age 
 of seventy, in the trenches, prompting the courage 
 of his soldiers, and animating the counsels of their 
 chiefs. 
 
 He mingled feelings of Italian patriotism with 
 those of papal ambition. Though freely using, by 
 turns, according to his necessities, the aid of the 
 Emperor, or of the French king, he was so jealous 
 of the interference of both in the affairs of Italy, 
 that lie meditated the formation of a federal leao’ue, 
 composed of her various states, of which Rome 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 should be the centre, for the express purpose of 
 expelling the stranger from her fair territory. 
 
 Even on the verge of the grave, though enfeebled 
 by intemperance and debauchery, “he wanted,’^ as a 
 Venetian aptly said, “ to be lord and master of the 
 game of the world.’’ ^ 
 
 To no pontiff are the fine arts more indebted. 
 He loved Art for its own sake, and he loved it still 
 more as a means of exalting the grandeur and ex- 
 tending the influence of the Komish Church. He 
 founded the majestic fabric of the modern St. 
 Peter’s. The Sistine Chapel, and the halls of the 
 Vatican, attest his enlightened patronage of paint- 
 ing ; and the great names of Michael Angelo, Ra- 
 phael, and Bramante, are indelibly associated with 
 that of Julius II. His personal vanity prompted 
 him, at the commencement of his reign, to conceive 
 the scheme of a splendid mausoleum, from the 
 chisel of Buonarroti, which should perpetuate the 
 claims which he had already, as he thought, esta- 
 blished to the admiration of posterity. The first 
 call made upon Michael Angelo by the pope, after 
 his arrival in Rome, was for the plan of such a 
 mausoleum; and he further directed that a place, 
 in the ancient church of St. Peter’s, should be fixed 
 upon for its reception. The tribune of this church 
 had been enlarged, and, in part rebuilt, by Nicho- 
 
 Guicciardini, 1st. d’ Ital. lib. xi. p. 75-6. Hanke’s Hist, 
 of the Popes, cap. ii. p. 54, &c. Sismondi, cap. cx. 
 
MAUSOLEUM OF JULIUS II. 
 
 243 
 
 las V., but was still unfinished, and Michael An- 
 gelo stated that its immediate completion was an 
 essential preliminary. San Gallo and Bramante, 
 architects of high reputation, and the latter a 
 special favourite with the pope, were accordingly 
 commissioned to survey the tribune, and to report 
 upon the proposed site. Out of the conferences 
 which ensued between Bramante and Julius upon 
 this matter, originated the idea of rebuilding St. 
 Peter’s, in a style of superior grandeur and magni- 
 ficence, and of placing the tomb in some conspi- 
 cuous part of the new edifice. Plans were sub- 
 sequently submitted to the pope for this purpose, 
 and that of Bramante was preferred as the finest. 
 Hence, the modern church of St. Peter’s was a con- 
 sequence of what proved the abortive scheme for 
 the tomb of Julius. The projected mausoleum, 
 had it been completed, would have given ample 
 scope for the display of Michael Angelo’s great 
 powers as a sculptor, and would doubtless have 
 been a prodigy of Art. Vasari and Condivi de- 
 scribe the plan in terms mainly accordant with a 
 design, still to be seen in the collection of Michael 
 Angelo’s drawings, in the Florentine Gallery. It 
 was to have been isolated ; in form a parallelogram, 
 presenting four fronts ; and the whole was to have 
 been surmounted by a light marble baldaquin, or 
 temple, beneath which was to have been the sar- 
 cophagus of Julius, with two angels above it, the 
 one in an attitude of grief, as deploring his loss, 
 
244 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the other pointing to heaven, — a region to hold 
 communion with which, while upon earth, it must 
 be acknowledged that the bluff old pontiff had 
 never shown any disposition. In the principal 
 fronts were to have been two niches, with figures 
 of Victories treading down vanquished enemies, 
 emblematical of the provinces conquered by Julius, 
 or reunited to the Church by his policy; and, 
 on each side of the niches, termini, with figures 
 enchained to them, among which were to have 
 been those of the liberal arts, including Paint- 
 ing, Sculpture, and Architecture, all restricted and 
 paralysed, as it were, in consequence of his death. 
 Over the termini, a rich entablature was to have 
 projected, and to have architecturally bound to- 
 gether the lower parts of the edifice ; and on a 
 platform, above, were to have been placed the 
 most imposing features of the mausoleum, consist- 
 ing of eight colossal statues of Prophets, Apostles, 
 and Virtues, including those of Moses and St. Paul. 
 The statues were to have been altogether forty in 
 number; and, among them, those of a Leah and a 
 Rachel,— “as emblems of active and contemplative 
 life, in conformity to Dante’s poetic fancy, — were to 
 have been introduced. The surface of the edifice 
 was to have been further diversified, and adorned 
 by appropriate bas-reliefs, in marble and in bronze. 
 
 Such was the ardour of the pope to realize this 
 grand design, that Michael Angelo, in obedience to 
 his wishes, set off, after the plan was approved, 
 
MAUSOLEUM OF JULIUS II. 
 
 245 
 
 with two companions, for Carrara, to superintend 
 the raising of the necessary marbles. 
 
 Eight tedious months were consumed in this 
 process ; and sometimes, as he strolled beneath the 
 magnificent peaks of the marble mountain of Car- 
 rara, and surveyed the vast blocks heaped together 
 in its quarries, he felt tempted to solace his leisure 
 by shaping some of them into a colossus, which 
 should perpetuate to future times the memory of 
 his sojourn there. 
 
 The marbles, when raised, were expedited to 
 Rome, where they nearly filled up the piazza of the 
 old St. Peter’s. The sight of them delighted the 
 pope, who was also charmed by witnessing the fer- 
 vour with which Michael Angelo, on his return, com- 
 menced his labours. His visits now became so fre- 
 quent, that a temporary bridge was constructed to 
 connect the studio of the artist with the corridor 
 of the papal palace, so as to give Julius easy ac- 
 cess. For some time nothing could exceed his 
 good humour ; so much so, that Condivi, quoting 
 Michael Angelo’s words to himself, states, that the 
 pope used to come and talk with him about the 
 tomb, and upon other topics also, with the cordiality 
 of a brother. 
 
 During this interval of calm and prosperity, lie 
 terminated two figures of slaves, destined for tlie 
 tomb, in an incomparable style of art. They were 
 afterward presented by him to Roberto Strozzi, in 
 
246 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 grateful acknowledgment of his having received him 
 into his house during an illness; from him they 
 passed into the possession of Francis I., who pre- 
 sented them to the Constable de Montmorency. 
 They are now to be seen in the Louvre.* He also 
 nearly finished one of the Victories, with a figure 
 prostrate beneath it, which finally found its way into 
 the great council-chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio 
 at Florence. The grand statue of Moses, of which 
 we shall have to speak more particularly, was now 
 also advanced to a high degree of finish. Some 
 marbles were sent by him to Florence, with the in- 
 tention of working on them during the season of 
 malaria at Rome ; and he commenced eight other 
 statues. Proceeding at this rate, his principal 
 labours would have been speedily terminated, had 
 they not been suddenly arrested by means of a 
 court intrigue. 
 
 The extraordinary marks of preference shown 
 him by the pope, excited, it seems, the jealousy of 
 many of those who competed with him for his 
 favour, and especially that of Bramante, a name of 
 the highest reputation in architecture. Anxious 
 to check an influence from which he augured a 
 diminution of his own, he is said, among other 
 
 * It was with some difficulty the author traced out these fine 
 statues in the Louvre, in 1847 ; and, on inquiry, he was surprised 
 to find various accomplished Frenchmen ignorant that their 
 Musee possessed such a treasure. They have since been ap- 
 propriately placed in the “ Galerie de la Renaissance.” 
 
BRAMANTE. 
 
 247 
 
 expedients for cooling the pope’s ardour in favour 
 of the mausoleum, to have worked on his supersth 
 tion, by suggesting, that for a man to prepare his 
 tomb in his own life-time, was well known to 
 be a fatal omen. ‘‘ But not envy alone/’ says Con- 
 divi, ‘‘stimulated Bramante; he had already learned 
 to appreciate the scientific skill and honest inde- 
 pendence of Buonarroti, and he had reason to fear 
 that they were sometimes employed in exposing his 
 own mistakes and carelessness in the construction 
 of some of the public buildings then in course of 
 erection from his plans.” ^ Both he and Vasari 
 add, that Bramante was so entirely a man of plea- 
 sure, and lived so much beyond his means, that 
 the provision assigned him by the pope was inade- 
 quate to his expenditure, and that the public build- 
 ings suffered, in consequence, in various ways.f 
 This charge is verified by fact ; for Sixtus V. was 
 obliged to take down various parts of the expen- 
 sive ornamental constructions erected by Julius in 
 and about the Belvidere of the Vatican, under 
 the directions of Bramante, in consequence of de- 
 fects in the materials or the foundations ; and it 
 ^vas found necessary, again and again, to strengthen 
 
 * Condivi, cap. xxv., sajs, “ Ma oltre questo (jealousy of 
 the high favour of the Pope to M. A.) lo stimolava il timore 
 ch’ aveva del giudizio di Michelagnolo, il quale molti suoi 
 eiTori scopriva.” 
 
 f French edition of Vasari, vol. iv. p. 95.; Condivi, cap. 
 XXV.; and Vasari, Vit. di M. Aug. Vasari’s Life of Bra- 
 mante. 
 
248 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the foundations of the four great arches on which 
 the dome of St. Peter’s reposes. 
 
 The impatience of Julius might in some of these 
 cases have put the architect off his guard. It was 
 such, that he seemed almost to expect to see the 
 edifices, which he had ordered to be erected, start 
 out of the earth by a sort of enchantment. Bra- 
 mante’s star, however, was just now so much on the 
 ascendant, that he gradually contrived to alienate 
 the mind of Julius from the effectual prosecution 
 of the mausoleum. This change of feeling first be- 
 came manifest upon the arrival of a further ship- 
 ment of marbles from Carrara, when, in conformity 
 with previous directions, Michael Angelo went to 
 the papal palace to request payment of the sum re- 
 quired for the freight, and other expenses. Find- 
 ing that the pope was engaged on public business 
 when he called, and could not see him, he imme- 
 diately advanced the required amount, in expecta- 
 tion of quickly receiving an order for his reim- 
 bursement; but, as none arrived, he repeated his 
 visit. On entering the papal antechamber, he was 
 stopped by one of the officers on duty, who told 
 him he must not proceed further. A bishop, who 
 overheard what passed, addressing the officer, said, 
 “ Surely, you cannot be aware whom you are 
 speaking to ?” “ Oh ! yes, I am,” he replied ; “ but 
 
 my duty is to attend to the orders of my superiors.” 
 The repulse, it now became clear, was a studied 
 one; and Michael Angelo, indignant at this treat- 
 
HE LEAVES ROME IN DISPLEASURE. 
 
 249 
 
 ment, turning upon his heel, exclaimed, ‘‘You may 
 tell the pope that, should he wish to see me again, 
 he will have to seek me elsewhere.’’ Keturning 
 home, he impetuously ordered his two servants to 
 sell his household furniture, and, after securing the 
 money, to follow him to Florence. Then taking 
 horse, he quitted Rome in high displeasure, and 
 pushed on for Poggibondi, within the Florentine 
 territory, where he arrived at two o’clock the en- 
 suing morning. Here he felt personally safe, and 
 stopped to take some rest. In the meantime, no 
 less than five couriers had been despatched after 
 him by Julius, with orders to bring him back, 
 wherever they might find him ; but none of them 
 dared attempt any such violence beyond the pre- 
 cincts of the Roman state ; they, therefore, quickly 
 passed from menaces to entreaties, and, finding 
 both equally vain, they at length requested, as a 
 favour, that he would at least commit to paper a 
 few lines stating that he had passed the Roman 
 frontiers before they overtook him. The pope’s 
 written order, which they exhibited, was a sum- 
 mons, directing him instantly to return to Rome, 
 on pain of his high displeasure. Michael Angelo, 
 after reading it, briefly expressed his resolution 
 never to return, seeing that his zealous and faithful 
 services had been requited by a contumelious re- 
 pulse from the papal presence. 
 
 He added that, as his Holiness no longer chose to 
 trouble himself about the tomb, he felt himself set 
 
250 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 free, and would not again part with his liberty to 
 any one. He proceeded to Florence ; and, during a 
 stay of three months there, no less than as many 
 briefs were addressed by the pope to the seignory, 
 ordering them to send back the fugitive to Rome, 
 by fair means or by force. 
 
 He now employed himself in finishing the cartoon 
 of Pisa. It must ever be a subject of deep regret 
 to the lovers of Art, that the interval thus employed 
 was not long enough to allow of his perpetuating 
 this grand composition, by painting it upon the 
 walls of the great council-chamber, as was originally 
 intended. 
 
 His friend, Pietro Soderini, who was still gon- 
 faloniere, and who formed the animating soul of 
 the Florentine councils, took little notice of the 
 first of the briefs, thinking the pope’s wrath would 
 cool ; but on the arrival of a second and a third, 
 he said to their object, ‘‘My friend, you have had 
 an encounter with the pope, upon which even a 
 king of France could hardly have ventured. This 
 cannot proceed further ; nor must you imagine that 
 we are disposed to go to war on your account. Do 
 therefore, I entreat you, make up your mind to re- 
 turn.” It so happened that Michael Angelo had 
 received a message from the Grand Seignior just 
 before this conversation, through certain Franciscan 
 friars, inviting him to Constantinople, to construct 
 a bridge from that city to Pera. Thither he felt 
 inclined to proceed, since he could not remain at 
 
HE MEETS THE POPE AT BOLONGA. 
 
 251 
 
 Florence ; but Soderini earnestly dissuaded him 
 from it, and, at length, overcame his reluctance to 
 return to Koine, by proposing to invest him with 
 diplomatic functions on the part of the republic, so 
 as to render his person sacred. This had scarcely 
 been arranged, when news arrived that Bologna had 
 been taken by the papal troops ; that Julius was 
 there in person, and that the success of his arms 
 had put him into the highest spirits and good 
 humour. Michael Angelo thoroughly understood 
 the pope’s character, and concluding that, if he 
 presented himself at this moment of elation, he 
 should be sure of a favourable reception, set off 
 without delay for Bologna. His Holiness was at 
 table in the palace of the Sedici, when his arrival 
 was announced : he instantly desired he might be 
 ushered into his presence. On his entering, he re- 
 ceived him with a stern countenance, and ex- 
 claimed, “So you are there! You ought to have 
 come and sought us out, instead of waiting for us 
 to come and seek you, ” — implying that Bologna 
 being much nearer to Florence than to Rome, the 
 pope might, in a certain sense, be said to have 
 come thither in search of him. Michael Angelo, 
 in a kneeling attitude, now entreated forgiveness ; 
 adding, that he had not erred from any want of 
 duty, but in consequence of having so keenly felt 
 the repulse he had encountered. Julius all this 
 time sat with his head declined, and with angry 
 looks, as though swallowing his wrath, but making 
 
252 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 no reply; when a monsignore, in attendance, at- 
 tempted to add to his apology, by saying that he 
 lioped the pope would pardon him, as ignorance 
 had caused his offence ; and that such men knew 
 nothing beyond the limits of their Art. Julius, dis- 
 pleased at this interference, now exclaimed, ‘^You 
 are insulting him, which I have not ; — you are the 
 ignoramus, not he. Instantly quit my presence.’^ 
 Upon which he was pushed to the door by the offi- 
 cers in waiting ; and the pope, turning to Michael 
 Angelo, assured him of his pardon, and desired him 
 not to quit Bologna, as he required his services. 
 
 This interview was immediately followed by a 
 commission to execute his statue, in bronze, on a 
 colossal scale, for the fa9ade of the great church of 
 St. Petronius. He accordingly proceeded to model 
 the figure ; the right hand of which was raised in 
 the attitude of benediction ; but being a little du- 
 bious how to dispose of the left, he consulted the 
 pope upon it, in one of his frequent visits to watch 
 the progress of the work. To the question whether 
 he would like a book to be placed in his left hand ; 
 
 A sword rather was his characteristic reply ; I 
 was never addicted to letters.” Then pointing to 
 the right arm, he inquired, Is it raised by way of 
 blessing or menace ? ” The artist, knowing the 
 fiery spirit of the pontiff, interpreted his private 
 
 * Vasari and Condi vi slightly differ in their account of this 
 interview ; hut not in the main facts. 
 
BRONZE STATUE OF JULIUS II. 
 
 253 
 
 feelings in the latter sense, and replied, It 
 menaces the people. Holy Father, in case they 
 should prove rebellious.” Sixteen months of pre- 
 cious time, which might have imprinted the cartoon 
 of Pisa, in fresco, upon the walls of the council 
 chamber, were consumed upon this vain labour, 
 for vain it proved. It was placed in its destined 
 niche over the portal of St. Petronius, in the year 
 1507, and was universally admired as a grand and 
 imposing statue; but, in the year 1511, upon the 
 re-entry of the Bentivogli, it became the object of 
 popular fury, was thrown down from its pedestal, 
 and broken in pieces. The fragments were pur- 
 chased by Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara, and con- 
 verted into a piece of artillery, which he used to 
 call his “Julian”; a fitter emblem this of the real 
 spirit of the pontiff, than the sacerdotal figure 
 which furnished the materials. After all, the loss 
 of a fine bronze statue, of so remarkable a man as 
 Pope Julius II. by Michael Angelo, is a just subject 
 of regret. 
 
 In this altercation with Julius, should it appear 
 that Michael Angelo was hasty in giving no time 
 for explanation, it must be borne in mind that the 
 provocation was extreme. After his severe per- 
 sonal privations at Carrara, and after the prodigality 
 of zeal with which, in obedience to the pope’s urgent 
 wishes, he had prosecuted the statues for the tomb, — 
 
 after receiving also such high marks of favour, to 
 
 find himself suddenly spurned without any reason 
 
254 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 from the papal presence, was more than his feelings, 
 impetuous by nature, and very sensitive upon the 
 point of honour, could quietly endure. He felt 
 that tame submission to such treatment would com- 
 promise his independence and self-respect, and 
 would expose him to a recurrence of similar in- 
 dignities. To remain, under such circumstances, in 
 the power of a man whose will was law, and who, 
 when opposed, exacted unbounded submission, was 
 not less dangerous than degrading. He had, there- 
 fore, deemed flight his only resource. His pro- 
 ceeding was the rebound of a lofty and honourable 
 mind at unjust and contumelious treatment; and it 
 probably guarded him, in a great degree, in his 
 future relations with Julius, from the caprices of 
 despotism. 
 
255 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AT THE URGENT INSTANCE OF JULIUS II., BUT CONTRARY TO 
 Ills OWN WISHES, MICHAEL ANGELO PAINTS THE CEILING OF 
 
 THE SISTINE CHAPEL. HIS ADMIRABLE SUCCESS IN THIS 
 
 GREAT WORK. — RENEWED ALTERCATION WITH THE POPE, 
 WHICH PROVES MOMENTARY. 
 
 In the year 1508, Michael Angelo returned to 
 Rome. During his absence, other objects, to the 
 exclusion of the projected mausoleum, had gained 
 full possession of the mind of the sovereign pontiff. 
 The stupendous scheme of rebuilding St. Peter’s, 
 on a scale of unparalleled magnificence, was in 
 progress, from the plans and under the direction 
 of Bramante. Great additions and decorations 
 had been carrying on in the palace of the Vatican, 
 and plans for adding still further to its splendour 
 were under consideration. Foremost among these 
 was the employment of the pencil of Raphael, in 
 adorning its principal halls and apartments with 
 paintings in fresco on a grand scale. 
 
 This illustrious artist, then in the prime of youth, 
 and approaching the maturity of his wonderful 
 powers, had recently been introduced to Julius by 
 
256 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Bramante, who was his cousin. The pope, capti- 
 vated by the charm of his address and by his great 
 talents, had treated him with equal kindness and 
 confidence, and was so anxious to find ample space 
 within the Vatican for the productions of his 
 enchanting pencil, that he had already, for this 
 special purpose, consigned to premature destruction 
 many frescoes of high interest, by earlier painters 
 of great name. 
 
 It was no small disappointment and vexation to 
 Michael Angelo to find himself, although restored 
 to the pope’s favour, still excluded from the prose- 
 cution of the great work upon which he had already 
 expended so much precious time, and which he was 
 most anxious to resume. He found, in fact, that the 
 mind of Julius was altogether alienated from his 
 once favourite project, and that the question was 
 unresolved in what Avay his talents were to be 
 employed. In this emergency, if we are to trust 
 the united testimony of Vasari and Condivi, Bra- 
 mante followed up his former cabals by suggesting 
 to the pope a proposition calculated, as he con- 
 ceived, seriously to injure the reputation of the 
 man whom he both feared and envied, by engaging 
 him in an undertaking in which he would be almost 
 sure to fail, from its being wholly unsuited to 
 his experience and habits. This was to invite 
 Michael Angelo to paint, in fresco, the vast ceiling 
 of the Sistine Chapel, an appendage of the Vatican 
 palace, and so called from its having been built by 
 
THE SISTINE CHAPEL. 
 
 257 
 
 Sixtus IV. Whatever were the motives of Bra- 
 mante, the suggestion so much pleased Julius, that 
 he lost no time in pressing it on Michael Angelo, 
 to whom it proved equally unexpected and un- 
 palatable. He earnestly entreated the pope not to 
 insist upon it ; he told him that he was a sculptor^ 
 and that painting in fresco was a branch of art in 
 which he had had no experience ; and he con- 
 cluded by saying that Eaphael was the man, of all 
 others, the most qualified for such an undertaking. 
 These objections were urged in vain : the inexor- 
 able Julius would admit of no refusal, and, at 
 length, he almost forced from him a reluctant 
 assent. 
 
 Happy was it for the fine arts that he did so. 
 The result was the production of a work so in- 
 comparably grand and impressive, both in its con- 
 ception and execution, that we are tempted to 
 hope Bramante’s advice was not the result of any 
 malignant feeling, but a consequence of his high 
 and just estimate of the powers of Buonarroti. It 
 may be urged in favour of this view of the case, 
 that he was justified in regarding the artist who 
 had produced, and who had been ready to paint, in 
 fresco, the cartoon of Pisa, as fully equal to the 
 task Avhich it was now sought to impose on him. 
 
 It is true, that vault-painting requires the exercise 
 of far greater science and skill than mere wall- 
 painting; and that therefore ilichael Angelo, though 
 
 VOL. I. s 
 
258 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 ready to engage in the one, might, with just show 
 of reason, decline the other. 
 
 Sensitive minds are often apt, without sufficient 
 reason, to impute to those opposed to them corrupt 
 motives. We would not willingly load the me- 
 mory of so great an artist as Bramante with the 
 odious imputation fastened on him by the bio- 
 graphers of Michael Angelo, and as it would seem 
 by himself. 
 
 The point once yielded, he braced up all his 
 powers of mind and body to the gigantic task. 
 As a necessary preliminary, Bramante was com- 
 manded by the pope to construct the requisite 
 scaffolding in the chapel. He prepared, accordingly, 
 a hanging platform bound together with cordage, 
 the supporting beams of which were to be fixed 
 into holes in the walls. ‘‘ But,’^ inquired Michael 
 Angelo, when my labours are completed, and your 
 scaffolding is removed, how are the holes to be 
 filled up ?” The difficulty had not occurred to 
 him, and his unsatisfactory reply was, ‘‘As to that, 
 we will think of it afterwards ; there is no other 
 way of proceeding.’^ “ Leave the remedy to me,” 
 replied the artist, who then proposed a plan of 
 his own, which effected the object by means of 
 props and counterprops, and other resources which 
 should not touch the wall ; an invention which, it 
 is added, proved very useful, not only to future 
 vault-painters, but to Bramante himself, in the build- 
 
THE SISTINE CHAPEL. 
 
 259 
 
 ing of St. Peter’s.^ He now proceeded to form 
 his general design, the adaptation of which, to 
 the shape and the accidents of the vaulted ceiling, 
 is not less skilful than the conception and style of 
 the subjects which adorn it is sublime and original. 
 When his cartoons were finished, and he was pre- 
 pared to set to work, he almost despaired of suc- 
 cess ; for never having practised vault-painting, and 
 having had only moderate experience of painting 
 in fresco twenty years before in the school of 
 Ghirlandajo, he found himself at a loss in the 
 mechanical processes of the art, and therefore 
 summoned from Florence several of his artistic 
 friends of former days, to aid him with their counsel 
 and assistance. Among these were Granacci, the 
 friend of his youth, G. Bugiardini, L’Indico vecchio, 
 Agnolo di Domino, and Salviati Lanzi. They all 
 understood the processes of fresco painting, and so 
 far rendered him service ; but, on his attempting to 
 make use of them as Eaphael did of Julio Romano, 
 Perino di Vaga, and others, to paint from his 
 cartoons, they proved so incapable of catching their 
 fire and inspiration, that he found himself com- 
 pelled, not only to dispense with their services, but 
 to efface their work, and to recommence the whole 
 himself. As none of the suitors of Penelope could 
 bend the bow of Ulysses, so one hand alone was 
 capable of wielding the pencil of Buonarroti. 
 
 ^ Vasari, and Note of Roman Editors, p. 95. 
 
260 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Henceforth he relied wholly on himself : he even 
 ground his own colours ; and daily pursued his 
 work in solitude and silence, taking the keys of the 
 chapel into his own custody, and allowing no one 
 to enter within its precincts. 
 
 Owing to its great length and elevation, and to 
 the very imperfect diffusion of the light, he found 
 it impossible to fix the point of perspective, so as 
 to convey to spectators, from any one spot, a just 
 impression of the whole composition. Had it been 
 the good fortune of Michael Angelo at Eome, and 
 of Corregio at Parma, to have exerted their great 
 powers in apartments or localities duly lighted, 
 the impressions produced by their works, profound 
 as they are, would have been far more so. Each 
 figure and compartment, though a study in itself, 
 has special reference to a ruling idea, which we 
 shall presently explain. 
 
 A fresh difficulty now presented itself. The 
 colours which had produced, when first laid on, 
 the precise effect which he intended, became, after 
 a short time, so absorbed into the plaster in various 
 parts, and so suffused by a misty hue, that the 
 great artist deemed his labour vain, and told the 
 pope, with deep emotion, that all his first sinister 
 anticipations were fully realised, and that he must 
 abandon the undertaking. Julius upon this sent 
 San Gallo to him, whose experience in fresco- 
 painting enabled him immediately to detect the 
 cause. It was a consequence of the peculiar nature 
 
THE SISTINE CHAPEL. 
 
 261 
 
 of the lime of Rome, which, being made from tra- 
 vertine, dried very slowly, and produced this effect, 
 until the stucco became free from moisture. Re- 
 assured by this intelligence, he again rigorously 
 prosecuted his labours, and soon found, to his great 
 delight, the anticipations of San Gallo verified. 
 
 The mystery of his proceedings naturally aug- 
 mented the public curiosity; and Julius, who had 
 long been bursting with impatience to inspect the 
 work, and had already submitted to more than 
 one refusal of admittance, now urged his suit so 
 strongly that compliance became necessary. The 
 paintings could only be viewed from the platform ; 
 and the aged pontiff, aided by a small staircase 
 contrived on purpose for him, mounted to the 
 platform with much spirit, and was profoundly 
 impressed by a survey of the marvellous work of 
 art which then opened on his view. He repeated 
 these visits until one side of the whole length of 
 the chapel was completed, and then expressed an 
 earnest wish that the public might share in his 
 gratification. In vain Michael Angelo protested 
 against the removal of the scaffolding, as he had 
 still to bestow on the figures many finishing 
 touches. He was forced to yield compliance to 
 the pope’s solicitations, and to leave the work less 
 perfect than he had intended. 
 
 The scaffolding was in consequence removed, 
 and before the dust had dissipated, Julius was the 
 first to enter the chapel. All that was most emi- 
 
262 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 nent in taste, rank, and talent in Kome, quickly 
 followed ; and it may readily be imagined with 
 what feelings of wonder and admiration the grand 
 creations of the Sistine Chapel were surveyed, 
 when in all their first freshness and brilliancy. 
 
 When the eye of the spectator glanced from 
 figures and compositions so replete with sublime 
 conception and masterly design, to the compara- 
 tively timid pencilling and feeble drawing of the 
 ancient frescoes below, they beheld a new epoch in 
 Art ; and recognised in Michael Angelo a painter 
 no less than a sculptor of the highest grade, whose 
 works, in both the sister arts, already stamped upon 
 his age a new character. 
 
 Such was the universal sentiment ; and yet, 
 strange to say, Braraante is charged by Condivi 
 with having intrigued with the pope^ to commit 
 the execution of the remaining half of the ceiling 
 to the pencil of Kaphael, who, he scruples not to 
 add, entered into the plot. It appears incredible 
 that his generous and amiable nature should have 
 shared in an attempt to offer such an indignity to 
 such a man, and there is good reason to discredit 
 the story, because Vasari makes no mention of it. 
 
 Some occasion did however arise, possibly about 
 this time, when Michael Angelo felt called upon, 
 in justice to himself, to comment, in conversation 
 with Julius, upon what he conceived to be attempts, 
 
 * 
 
 Condivi, cap. xxxviii. 
 
CARELESSNESS OF BRAMANTE. 
 
 263 
 
 on the part of Bramante, to lower him in the pope’s 
 favour. On this occasion, he not only touched 
 upon his own wrongs, but also upon those of which 
 he thought the public had just reason to complain, 
 in consequence of Bramante’s careless discharge of 
 his professional duties; in particular he pointed 
 out the want of skill with which, under his orders, 
 the superb marble columns, which adorned the 
 aisles of the old St. Peter’s (many of them single 
 shafts, the spoils of the temples and palaces of Im- 
 perial Rome), had been taken down, and irreparably 
 injured or fractured. He explained how all this 
 might have been avoided by a skilful application of 
 machinery ; and he touched also on the slights 
 and opposition which he had in various ways ex- 
 perienced from him. 
 
 Bramante, according to Vasari, in his imprudent 
 eagerness to push forward the new church, had not 
 only dealt in this way with the columns, but had 
 unnecessarily destroyed many things of high archa3- 
 ological interest in the ancient Basilica, such as 
 mosaics, paintings, and numerous portraits of illus- 
 trious personages."^ 
 
 The pope, though indissolubly bound to Bra- 
 mante and Raphael, was so much charmed with 
 the great Avorks of the Sistine Chapel, that he 
 expressed himself, on this occasion, in the most 
 soothing and confiding terms to Michael Angelo ; 
 
 * A^iisari, Vita Brain, 
 s 4 
 
264 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 and, with many assurances of his favour, urged an 
 immediate resumption of his labours. ^ 
 
 The scaffolding being replaced, he again ad- 
 dressed himself to the work with all his former 
 ardour, and his biographers declare that, within 
 the space of twenty months, the whole of it was 
 completed. In this statement, there must proba- 
 bly be some exaggeration, since the conception, 
 preparation for, and perfection of such a vast and 
 laborious work appear suthcient to have employed 
 much of the life of an artist, rather than the brief 
 space of something less than two years. 
 
 Condivi adds that he often heard Michael Angelo 
 say that he should have brought the whole to a 
 much higher degree of finish, had it not been for 
 the hindrances created by the petulant and re- 
 peated impatience of Julius. A curious instance of 
 the kind is related, in somewhat different terms, by 
 his two biographers. We shall, therefore, place 
 before our readers both versions. 
 
 One day, towards the close of his labours, 
 Julius, according to Condivi, pressed him to state 
 how soon the chapel would be completed: the 
 only reply he could get was, “As soon as I am 
 able.’^ The pope, taking fire, rejoined, “ I see you 
 want that I should order you to be thrown down 
 from this platform.” “ I’ll take care you shall not 
 
 “ FacentlogliV’ says Condivi, piu favori die mai facesse.” 
 Cap. xxxviii. 
 
THE pope’s petulance. 
 
 265 
 
 have the opportunity,” replied the painter, and, 
 instantly retiring, gave orders for the removal of 
 the scaiFolding.^ 
 
 Vasari recounts the same incident as follows: — 
 Not long before the termination of his labours, 
 Michael Angelo, having a pressing call to Florence, 
 requested a short leave of absence, and also the 
 payment of a sum of money due to him. ‘‘ But,” 
 said the pope, when will the chapel be finished ? ” 
 
 As soon as I am able,” he replied. ‘‘ As soon as 
 you are able, indeed^'' exclaimed Julius; I’ll take 
 care that you quickly finish it giving him, as 
 he uttered these words, a touch with his stick. 
 Michael Angelo, construing this as a personal 
 affront, hastened home, and was preparing to de- 
 part for Florence, when the pope’s chamberlain 
 arrived with 500 scudi for him, and a message to 
 say that he was to regard what had just passed as 
 a mere joke. He readily accepted this explana- 
 tion, and found Julius quite prepared to resume 
 friendly relations towards him. This great work, 
 being at length completed, was displayed to public 
 view on All Saints’ day (November 1st), in the 
 year 1512. Julius himself attended the service 
 of the chapel on this occasion, and partook of 
 the admiration with which it was surveyed by a 
 crowded auditory. 
 
 * Condivi, p. 41. Vasari, p. 47. Condivi also mentions tlie 
 facts here stated by Vasari. 
 
266 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 For a length of time after its termination, 
 Michael Angelo suffered severely from the conse- 
 quences of having, for a space of nearly two years, 
 perpetually worked with his eyes in an elevated 
 position. The consequence was utter inability to 
 read a letter, or look at a drawing, without holding 
 it above his forehead. This infirmity gradually 
 subsided. 
 
 When the first ardour of the pontiff became 
 abated, he recollected that, but for his impatience, 
 various parts of the draperies of the figures would 
 have been touched with ultramarine and gold, and 
 many finishing strokes have been added. He was 
 now anxious that all this should be done ; but 
 Michael Angelo, shrinking from the trouble of again 
 erecting the scaffolding, maintained that it was 
 unnecessary. “I must have it touched thus in parts 
 with gold,” said the pope. ‘‘ Holy Father,” he re- 
 plied, “the sainted characters depicted above did not 
 wear ornaments of gold.” “Without the gold,” re- 
 joined the pope, “ the work will look poor.” “They 
 were poor men,” he replied ; “ they were saints 
 who despised riches.” This was said in a tone of 
 good humour ; and, as Julius did not further press 
 the point, these additions were never made. 
 
 According to Vasari, 15,000 ducats was the sum 
 which Julius engaged to pay for this great work, 
 but he only paid down 3,000. He appears, however, 
 to have made his engagement good by other means ; 
 forVasari adds, that he manifested his delight in the 
 
PRICES PAID FOR WORKS OF ART. 
 
 267 
 
 result, by loading Michael Angelo with pecuniary 
 and personal favours ; and, it is certain from the 
 way in which the latter always spoke of Julius II., 
 that he had no reason to charge him with want of 
 liberality, much less with any actual breach of good 
 faith. 
 
 ‘‘ The increasing consideration of the public for 
 Art was marked,’’ says Vasari, “by the augmented 
 prices paid henceforth for pictures.” “The prices 
 of our day,” he adds, “ are twenty times higher 
 than were those of our predecessors.” They began 
 to mount up from the time that Benvenuto Cellini 
 demanded 7,000 scudi as the price for his Perseus, 
 though the ministers of the Grand Duke Cosmo 
 refused to pay him more than 3,000.” 
 
 Michael Angelo stands single and alone, no less 
 in the force and spirit of his execution, than in the 
 grandeur of his conceptions. Never was pencil 
 more obedient than his to the suggestions of the 
 intellect. Those who have had the privilege of 
 mounting, by means of temporary scaffolding, 
 nearer to those awful Titanic forms of prophets 
 and sibyls, who look down like another race of 
 beings from their lofty seats, or who have availed 
 themselves of the use of mirrors to bring them 
 beneath the eye, never fail to be smitten with 
 admiration at the dash and vigour of each stroke, 
 and not less at its certainty and truth. On a 
 line day, aids like these will ensure, to the artist 
 and the amateur, impressions of indelible wonder 
 
268 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 and delight at the originality of this great artist’s 
 mind and style ; a style in which the relief of 
 sculpture appears to blend with the richness and 
 clair-obscur of painting. On this subject, the fol- 
 lowing passage from the learned Platner* will 
 convey, we are persuaded, equal pleasure and in- 
 struction to the reader. 
 
 “Michael Angelo seems to have looked upon 
 sculpture, for which he entertained a particular 
 partiality, and which he was always inclined to 
 consider as superior to the art of painting, as his 
 principal vocation. 
 
 “ In the mastery and perfection of his execution 
 perhaps no modern sculptor can dispute the palm 
 with him ; but earlier artists, especially the Pisani 
 and their contemporaries, kept more strictly than 
 he within the proper limits of the plastic art. 
 
 “ We think, moreover, his style to be more ap- 
 propriate to painting than to sculpture, and are of 
 opinion that he displays his greatness more par- 
 ticularly in the former art. It is therefore from 
 his paintings in the Sistine Chapel, that his cha- 
 racter as an artist must be chiefly estimated. And 
 here we would observe, that we not only admire 
 his paintings as far as form is concerned, but also 
 his colouring and lights ; and, more especially, his 
 poetical invention. 
 
 * See Beschreibung cler Stadt Rom, von E. Plainer, C. 
 Bunsen, &c. 
 
HIS STYLE IN PAINTING. 
 
 269 
 
 The subjects of the creation have never been 
 represented with such sublimity and significance as 
 in his works : Kaphael was fond of draAving them 
 doAvn into a purely human sphere ; Michael Angelo, 
 on the other hand, always strove to represent the 
 supernatural effects of the Eternal Word by visible 
 actions; and in this respect he appears to have 
 accomplished all that art can do. His ideal style 
 appears more suited for ideal subjects, such as most 
 of those in the Sistine Chapel, which refer to the 
 general relation of man to God, than for those 
 Avhich, although belonging to sacred history, are 
 yet conceived as historical phenomena of our actual 
 world ; into which we consequently desire to be 
 transplaced by the style of their representation 
 more than in the case of subjects of the former 
 kind. 
 
 ‘Hn the correctness of his designs, and the perfect 
 representation of form, Michael Angelo surpasses 
 all masters of modern art. In him, the painter 
 had, as it Avere, groAvn out of the sculptor. He 
 therefore exerted himself in exhibiting the art of 
 painting in rivalry Avith the plastic art, and en- 
 deavoured to attain in the former, by perspective 
 and by the effect of light and shade, an equal perfec- 
 tion as in the real representations of sculpture. 
 With his inclination to transfer the latter art to 
 painting, the picturesque element of sculpture be- 
 came an additional advantage to painting, Avhich, 
 if he had had a purer principle of the plastic art. 
 
270 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 he would perhaps have confined within its peculiar 
 limits. In the letter to Varchi, above referred to, 
 he called sculpture the lantern {la lucerna) of 
 painting ; and he was right, in so far as the plastic 
 art must be regarded, not indeed as the whole, but 
 as the basis of painting, and in so far as it appears 
 that it can be perfectly comprehended only by 
 practising the real representation of form in sculp- 
 ture. For, in order to give by the appearance in 
 the art of painting a truly correct image of the 
 bodily form, this form must be recognised in its 
 real existence, just as a geometrical knowledge of 
 a building is necessary in order to draw it in cor- 
 rect perspective. The fact of the early painters 
 being usually not unacquainted with the plastic 
 art, was undoubtedly a great assistance to them in 
 acquiring a correct knowledge of form ; and it 
 would have been impossible for Michael Angelo, in 
 particular, to attain his extraordinary plastic per- 
 fection in painting, without the mastery he had 
 acquired in the art of sculpture. According to 
 the testimony of Vasari, he used to model the 
 figures for his cartoons in clay or wax, and to 
 avail himself of these models in studying the light 
 and shade, but more especially the perspective, in 
 which, though it is the most difficult part of design, 
 he attained a degree of perfection which it seems 
 impossible to surpass. 
 
 “His desire to solve the most difficult problems of 
 design has certainly sometimes led him, especially 
 
HIS STYLE IN PAINTING. 
 
 271 
 
 in his Last Judgment, to sacrifice to the boldness 
 and variety of attitudes their consistency with the 
 expression of the action. This desire may have 
 been excited, to some extent, by the dispute which 
 was going on in his time between the painters and 
 sculptors, with regard to the superiority of their re- 
 spective arts. Among the arguments they advanced 
 in favour of sculpture, they laid particular stress 
 upon the fact, that the plastic art is able to repre- 
 sent a figure on all sides, while painting can only 
 show one side of it.* It has really the appearance, 
 as if Michael Angelo, in his Last Judgment, had 
 intended to decide this dispute, and to show the 
 art of painting in its victorious contest with sculp- 
 ture, by endeavouring to supply the deficiency in 
 consequence of Avhich painting can exhibit only 
 one side of the same figure, by the utmost possible 
 variety of figures in all imaginable movements and 
 aspects. Condivi, his pupil and contemporary, in 
 fact, says that in this work he showed everything 
 that the art of painting can make of the human 
 bod}q no possible attitude or movement being 
 omitted. 
 
 “ His strong desire to attain perfect correctness 
 and certainty in his designs must have awakened 
 in him a great wish to study anatomy, affording, 
 
 * In order to refute this objection of the sculptors, the cele- 
 brated Giorgione painted a figure from behind, which showed 
 its two sides by means of two mirrors introduced into the 
 picture, and its front by means of a water-mirror. See Vasari. 
 
272 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 as it does, a scientific knowledge of the system of 
 bones and muscles concealed under the skin, which 
 produces the varied appearance of the forms of the 
 human body in its manifold movements. Those 
 critics who reproached Michael Angelo for having 
 been led by his zealous study of this science to re- 
 present bodies stripped of their skin, seem to betray 
 by this statement that they know his style either 
 from prints only, which usually give a very false 
 notion of it, or from the works of his disciples and 
 imitators, though several of those critics had been 
 at Rome, and speak of their having seen the works 
 of his own hand. The design of Michael Angelo is 
 extremely distinct, but never harsh ; and, notwith- 
 standing this distinctness, the muscles are indicated 
 by soft and gentle transitions ; and we know of no 
 artist who has been more perfectly successful than 
 he in expressing the peculiar character of the skin 
 and of the flesh full of nourishment and strength. 
 The ideal formation of his human bodies, which 
 appear to be exempt from the disturbing influences 
 of reality, is indeed indicated also by a more delicate 
 play of the muscles than in real nature, but never 
 to the detriment of the main forms, which, on the 
 contrary, are set forth in the manner which is re- 
 quired in a grand style.’' 
 
273 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE COMPOSITION AND 
 PAINTING OF THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 In the preceding chapter, we have described the 
 circumstances under which the painting of the 
 Sistine ceiling was commenced and carried on. We 
 will now touch upon the scope of the whole compo- 
 sition, upon the connection of its various parts, and 
 upon its most prominent and remarkable features. 
 
 The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel exhibits the 
 genius of Michael Angelo and his unrivalled powers 
 of design in their highest perfection.^ The cycle 
 of Scriptural subjects which it includes forms the 
 most comprehensive, the most exquisitely com- 
 bined, and the most sublime of all his works. The 
 subjects are chiefly supernatural or symbolical, and 
 were, therefore, peculiarly suited to excite and 
 animate the powers of his creative mind, which de- 
 lighted in the picturesque and the ideal, in per- 
 sonifying abstract images, and in giving expres- 
 sion to Scriptural facts by forms the most grand 
 
 * Vasari, 4to. ed., Roma, 1760, p. 41. 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 and commanding. Sublimity is the prevailing cha- 
 racter of his art ; and his most ardent admirers are, 
 therefore, to be found among those whom a spark 
 of kindred feeling qualifies to elevate their views 
 above the ordinary forms and images of physical 
 and material objects, and to expatiate in the lofty 
 regions of the possible and the intellectual. 
 
 The ceiling of the chapel forms in its section an 
 expansive flattened arch, plane in the centre, and, 
 therefore, affording convenient space for the series 
 of subjects, nine in number, in which he has de- 
 picted the principal facts recorded in the book of 
 Genesis, respecting the creation of the world, and 
 the primeval history of mankind. They are dis- 
 posed, in successive compartments, along its surface, 
 the length of which is 132 English feet, the breadth 
 44, and the height from the pavement 68. At the 
 springing of the vault, all around the chapel, he has 
 introduced majestic figures of prophets and sibyls, 
 as foretellers of the coming of the Saviour ; and 
 between them, and within the arches below, are a 
 series of lunettes and figures illustrative of the 
 Scriptural genealogy of the Virgin Mary and Christ. 
 
 These various compartments are formed by 
 means of architectural divisions and ornaments 
 painted in relief, which skilfully bind together the 
 great central subjects, and also interlace all the 
 subsidiary figures and subjects, assigning to each, 
 according to its relative importance, an appropriate 
 position, and yet so separating them that there is 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 275 
 
 no confusion of parts. It required a mind rich in 
 the resources of architecture, painting, and sculp- 
 ture, thus to combine, into one harmonious whole, 
 the numerous portions of so vast and various a 
 composition. 
 
 In the first five compartments, the great poet- 
 painter aims to represent, by visible actions, the 
 supernatural effects of the Eternal Word in crea- 
 tion ; and it is generally admitted that, in this re- 
 spect, he has accomplished all that Art is capable 
 of by such means. 
 
 And here it may be observed, that it is beyond 
 the scope of human power to represent superna- 
 tural objects as such. All that it can do, is to 
 convey an idea of them by appropriate signs and 
 symbols ; in the use of which, reason and revelation 
 equally inculcate a sacred reserve and awe with re- 
 spect to those which have reference to the Supreme 
 and Sovereign Majesty. Early Christian Art set 
 the example of this sacred reserve. Byzantine Art 
 led the way in its presumptuous transgression ; 
 and early Italian Art, though it gradually eman- 
 cipated itself from Byzantine trammels, adhered in 
 many points to its conventional types, and not least 
 in this particular. Early German Art did the same. 
 And we consequently find figures representing the 
 Almighty, in his pure essence, most irreverently 
 introduced by painters of all schools since the Re- 
 vival. Early Christian Art indicated the spiritual 
 presence of the Omnipresent Deity by expressive 
 
276 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 symbols ; and when they introduced the figure of 
 Christ in his Divine Nature, it was either as the 
 Creator of the World, assuming a visible form for 
 special purposes, or as the glorified Redeemer. 
 Examples of the first more frequently occur in 
 sculpture, on tombs, than in painting. 
 
 Considering the tenor of Scriptural language 
 (our only safe guide in such matters), it would 
 seem, that the Creative Word, in gracious accom- 
 modation to human infirmity, did occasionally con- 
 verse with man in his primeval state of innocence 
 under a human semblance ; and that, after his for- 
 feiture of Paradise, he occasionally exercised, by 
 similar means, his merciful assumption of the ofiice 
 of Saviour and Intercessor. In this sense, the 
 language of the Bible was understood by one of the 
 most sublime of human intellects, deeply versed also 
 in theological learning — the immortal Milton ; who, 
 amidst the laments which he puts into the mouth 
 of Adam after his fall, makes him speak as 
 follows : — 
 
 This most afflicts me, that departing hence 
 As from his face I shall be hid, deprived 
 His blessed countenance ; here I could frequynt 
 With worship, place by place, where he vouchsafed 
 Presence divine, and to my sons relate; 
 
 On this mount he appeared, under this tree 
 Stood visible, among these pines his voice 
 I heard, here with him at this fountain talked.’^ 
 
 And again, 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 277 
 
 How shall I behold the face 
 Henceforth of God or angel, erst with joy 
 And rapture so oft beheld ? those heavenly shapes 
 Will dazzle now this earthly, with their blaze 
 Insufferably bright.” 
 
 Paradise Lost, books ix. and xi. 
 
 In such a semblance, he condescendingly visits 
 and confers with Abraham,— Avrestles with Jacob, 
 to whom also he manifests himself at the summit of 
 the mystic ladder, — and animates, as captain of the 
 Lord’s hosts, the faith and courage of Joshua. 
 Thus, also, Isaiah and Ezekiel beheld him, in vision, 
 enthroned in glory. 
 
 In the theology of the most ancient fathers of the 
 Church, these appearances were regarded as mani- 
 festations of the Son of God, of whom Scripture 
 speaks as the Lamb slain from the foundation of 
 the world ; and who, previously to his incarnation, 
 is represented as exercising various acts of grace 
 and power, preparatory to that great event. From 
 the moment of the promise, that the Seed of the 
 Woman should bruise the Serpent’s head, he became 
 head over all things to his future Church and 
 people. To Him — the Eternal AVord — the creation 
 of the world is unequivocally ascribed ; and to his 
 providence and grace are referred the miraculous 
 interpositions vouchsafed to Moses, and to the Is- 
 raelites, in their progress towards Canaan. “ They 
 did all eat,” says St. Paul, “the same spiritual meat, 
 and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they 
 
 * Justini Mart. Dial, cum Tryphonc, p. 97, Paris, folio, 1554. 
 
278 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, 
 and that rock was Christ.” 
 
 It has already been stated that Michael Angelo 
 was intimately conversant with the sacred oracles, 
 both of the Old and New Testaments, and that in 
 the decline of life they formed the object of his 
 special study ; and it was in the spirit of the pas- 
 sages which record these manifestations that he 
 painted the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 The first compartment represents the Deity (as 
 the Word personified) in the act of separating 
 light from darkness. The action of the figure is 
 most grand and commanding.^ 
 
 Two separate acts of almighty power are repre- 
 sented in the second compartment. First, the crea- 
 tion of the sun and moon, whose luminous orbs are 
 supposed to have just taken their places in the 
 heavens in obedience to the divine mandate. Se- 
 condly, the creation of trees, herbs, and vegetable 
 substances. These are indicated by a mass of green 
 vegetation in a corner of the picture, above which 
 the assumed form of the Omnific Word is seen 
 floating in the air, with his back to the spectator. 
 The attitude and bearing of this averted figure are 
 sublime, and the foreshortening marvellous. It 
 
 * The attention of the British public has been specially 
 drawn to it by the eloquent terms in which Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds, in his Lectures upon Painting, refers to this compartment. 
 It was afterwards imitated by Raphael in one of those of the 
 Loggie, but with inferior power. 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 279 
 
 catches the eye from every part of the chapel, and 
 fascinates by its overpowering grandeur. 
 
 In the third compartment, the Creator is repre- 
 sented as bending over the waters in an attitude of 
 impressive dignity, and calling into existence marine 
 and aquatic substances. The creation of man fol- 
 lows. The figure of Adam, the original type of the 
 human race, is distinguished by its manly beauty, 
 perfect drawing, fine proportion and attitude, and 
 plastic energy. Just awoke, as it were, into con- 
 scious being, his eye is directed to his Divine Maker, 
 who looks down majestically and graciously upon 
 him, from amidst a choir of seraphic beings ; while 
 at the same time he unfolds to him the awful co- 
 venant of life and death. Rauch, of Berlin, one of 
 the greatest of modern sculptors, recently told me 
 he considered this compartment to be unrivalled in 
 design and composition ; adding of the Sistine, It 
 is the chapel of chapels.” 
 
 The succeeding subject is the creation of woman. 
 The mysterious process of her formation is indi- 
 cated by the figure of Adam buried in profound 
 sleep in a corner of the picture. That of Eve is 
 just in advance of him, gracefully bending forward 
 in supplicatory homage to her Creator, who is re- 
 presented as benignantly regarding and addressing 
 her. This subject occupies the central point of the 
 ceiling ; and the great painter, in so placing it, may 
 be supposed to point to woman as at once the love- 
 liest of the works of God, and the source of human 
 
280 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 woe; as the instigator of the first transgression, 
 and yet the mother of that “ promised seed ” who 
 should reverse its direful consequences, and reopen 
 to man the gate of life and immortality. 
 
 Two subjects are combined in the next compart- 
 ment, — the fall of our first parents, and their conse- 
 quent ejection from Paradise. The tempter is seen 
 in the appearance, often assigned to him in earlier 
 Christian Art, of a body, human and beautiful above, 
 but terminating in serpentine folds, which encircle 
 the trunk of the forbidden tree. Adam is painted 
 in the act of plucking the fatal fruit, and Eve, a 
 most graceful and elegant figure, as reclining below, 
 and anxious to receive it from him. The second 
 subject emanates from the first : The unhappy 
 
 pair, after hearing their sentence pronounced by 
 the voice of God, are represented as overwhelmed 
 with guilt and sorrow, and as fiying with piteous 
 gestures from their blissful seat, under the guidance 
 of a cherub, whose sword of flame waves over their 
 heads in signal of divine wrath. 
 
 The awful consequences of sin in the prevalence 
 of universal corruption, and the consequent de- 
 struction of the human race by the waters of the 
 deluge, form the subjects of the seventh and eighth 
 compartments. In the former, the figure of the 
 venerable Noah appears as offering sacrifice before 
 entering into the ark, and imploring, with out- 
 stretched arms, the continued protection of the God 
 of his fathers, who had so wonderfully interposed 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 281 
 
 for his deliverance. Before him is an altar with 
 fire upon it, in front of which his sons are seen 
 energetically employed in preparing the sacrificial 
 victims. These and the other attendant figures 
 are models of fine drawing ; and the whole compo- 
 sition is noble and picturesque. The deluge itself 
 follows. In consequence of the complexity of the 
 subject, the figures composing it are much smaller 
 than in the former, and it requires artificial aid 
 fully to appreciate its beauties, which are of a high 
 order. On the right and left hand, appear the sum- 
 mits of mountains, upon which groups of figures, 
 crowded together in various attitudes of misery and 
 dismay, of mutual grief and affection, are vainly 
 seeking to escape the coming destruction; a vessel 
 is seen in the centre ready to be submerged ; while 
 above it appears the ark safely riding on the bosom 
 of the waters, a type of the Church of Christ as the 
 sole and sure refuge of the people of God amidst 
 the final destruction of the earth and its works. 
 The heavens above are dark, lurid, and charged 
 with the symbols of wrath and vengeance. 
 
 The last compartment represents the sin and ma- 
 lediction of Ham, the first recorded transgression 
 after the deluge. In correspondence with the whole 
 tenor of the Bible, and no less with the recorded 
 facts of profane history, the great artist intimates 
 by this painful subject that, in spite of judgments 
 and mercies, the natural tendency of mankind is 
 habitual proneness to evil, and, therefore, that 
 
282 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 without some fresh and signal interposition of divine 
 mercy, there could have been no hope of their re- 
 covery and restoration. Such a conclusion prepares 
 the way for the annunciation of a Saviour, a Ke- 
 storer, a Redeemer; and to this point the principal 
 remaining portions of the composition have re- 
 ference. 
 
 Here, then, the scene changes, and the subjects 
 and figures which remain to be noticed refer di- 
 rectly or typically to the coming redemption. At 
 each of the four corners of the spandrils of the 
 ceiling, is a large compartment symbolical of the 
 perpetual presence of God with his Church and 
 people. The first in dignity and interest is that of 
 the Brazen Serpent — one of the most striking and 
 impressive biblical types of redemption, and ex- 
 pressly referred to by Christ himself as emblema- 
 tical of his propitiatory sacrifice. In consequence 
 of its distance from the eye, and the want of light, 
 it is difficult duly to appreciate the grand drawing 
 and the tragic expression of this truly wonderful 
 composition. The subject of the opposite compart- 
 ment is the Punishment of Haman. It is justly 
 lauded by Vasari as a signal triumph over great 
 difficulties, created by the swell of the surface- wall 
 on which it is painted, in spite of which, the figure 
 of Haman, suspended on the cross destined for 
 Mordecai, is a model of fine drawing, and of skilful 
 accommodation of light and shadow to the circum- 
 stances of its locality. The corresponding com- 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 283 
 
 partments, at the two extreme corners of the chapel, 
 represent David decapitating Goliath, and Judith 
 bearing the head of Holofernes. Each is intended 
 to be typical of deliverance and redemption. 
 
 All around the chapel, within large triangular 
 compartments at the springing of the vault, are 
 seated, each within a species of ornamental throne, 
 formed by parts of the architectural framework 
 already described, twelve majestic and colossal 
 figures of prophets and sibyls. The prophets are 
 seven in number, the sibyls five. Though little 
 beyond fabulous existence and pretensions can be 
 claimed for the sibyls, they are expressive symbols 
 of important traditions. 
 
 “ The style of these figures,” says Lanzi, is 
 pronounced by Lomazzo, an impartial judge, be- 
 cause an artist of a different school, to be the finest 
 in the world. The dignity of their aspect, the 
 solemn expression of the eyes, a certain wild and 
 uncommon cast of the drapery, and the attitudes, 
 whether representing rest or motion, announce an 
 order of beings who hold converse with the Deity, 
 and whose lips utter what he inspires.”^ 
 
 Pagan antiquity ascribed to these female hiero- 
 phants a prophetic spirit, and the delivery of oracles 
 respecting the fates and revolutions of kingdoms. 
 Plato speaks of one, iElian of four, and Yarro of 
 ten, and his authority has been chiefly followed by 
 
 * Lanzi, Storia della Pittura. Epoca ii. 
 
284 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 subsequent writers. The story of the Sibylline vo- 
 lumes purchased by Tarquin, and of their having 
 subsequently perished in a fire, and the still earlier 
 existence ascribed by Virgil to the Cumgean Sibyl, 
 are facts familiar to scholars. That popular super- 
 stition continued, after the diffusion of Christianity, 
 to cherish the fable of their prophetic power, is 
 attested by St. Augustin and by Lactantius^, the 
 latter of whom quotes from a Greek document 
 various alleged predictions respecting the humilia- 
 tion and resurrection of Christ, closely accordant 
 with the facts of his history. To the Erythrean 
 Sibyl, in particular, St. Augustin ascribes similar 
 predictions, mingled with figurative allusions to 
 the glories of his spiritual kingdom, and the great 
 crisis of the universal judgment. These, and other 
 passages, formed the staple of a work which ap- 
 peared, it is supposed, in the second century, under 
 the title of the Sibylline Oracles, and is most justly 
 classed among the numerous forgeries of that pe- 
 riod. They are made up, like some remarkable 
 passages in the Pollio of Virgil, from the prophetic 
 Scriptures, and from the literal facts of the evan- 
 gelical history. The translation of the Bible into 
 Greek, the frequent migration of Jews from the 
 East into various parts oF the Western Empire, 
 bringing with them the national expectation of the 
 speedy appearance of the Messiah, excited the at- 
 
 * St. Augustin de Civitate Dei, lib. vii. 107.; Lactantius, edit. 
 Spark. Oxon. 1684, lib. i. p. 23, and lib. iv. p. 371. 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 285 
 
 tention of the pagan priesthood; and portions of 
 these prophecies, especially of Isaiah, thus became 
 mingled with the spells of their soothsayers and 
 priestesses. It is pretended that the Cumasan Sibyl 
 explained to Augustus the remarkable accordance 
 between the history of Christ and the Scriptural pro- 
 phecies respecting him. The expectation through- 
 out the East, about the time of the advent of Christ, 
 of the speedy appearance of a great deliverer, who 
 should have universal dominion, is a fact specially 
 stated by Suetonius and Tacitus, and is to be ac- 
 counted for in the same way. Such appear to have 
 been the grounds upon which the sibyls obtained 
 a place in the Christian mythology of the Middle 
 Ages, and became associated, subsequently, with 
 prophets and apostles, in sculpture and painting. 
 
 The I^uremburg Chronicle records their proper 
 number, attributes, and attire, the colours of their 
 robes, and their alleged predictions. 
 
 The sibyls, therefore, are to be regarded, in the 
 conventional language of Art, as hailing the pro- 
 mised Redemption ; as expressing, on the part of 
 the pagan world, a deep sense of the insufficiency 
 of the light of nature, and therefore as uniting 
 with the inspired prophets in pointing to Christ as 
 
 the Desire of all nations.” In this symbolical 
 character they are introduced by Michael Angelo, 
 though he no doubt gladly availed himself of the 
 picturesque effect imparted to his composition by 
 
286 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the variety and contrasts of their sex, attire, and 
 attitudes. 
 
 The figure first in order of the prophetic series 
 is that of Jonas ; so placed, probably, from being a 
 favourite and conventional type of the great doc- 
 trine of the Eesurrection. Vasari lauds, in glow- 
 ing terms, its marvellous foreshortening and high 
 relief. He is represented as just cast out from the 
 belly of the fish, and as looking up to heaven with 
 wonder, joy, and adoration. To the left of Jonas is 
 seen the mournful prophet Jeremiah, with his head 
 declined upon his breast, weeping over the woes of 
 his beloved Sion, which he has depicted in elegiac 
 strains of such unrivalled pathos and tenderness. 
 He may be supposed to be gathering comfort, amidst 
 his sorrows, from contemplating the promises of 
 her restoration, and the future glories and perpe- 
 tual reign of the true David. As a work of art, 
 this figure is impressively grand and dignified, and 
 has all the relief of a statue. 
 
 Not less grand and impressive is the bearing of 
 Ezekiel, whose fine features and venerable aspect 
 reflect all the great qualities of a heavenly teacher. 
 His uplifted head and hand appear to mark the 
 forms and incidents of one of those wondrous visions 
 which depict in his pages, in such strong contrast, 
 the present humiliation and the future glories of 
 Sion. 
 
 The prophet Joel follows; less poetical and ideal- 
 ised in his aspect than the two just referred to. 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 287 
 
 but fraught with the expression of animated and 
 profound reflection, and a commission of high im- 
 port. Before his eyes he holds a scroll, from Avhich 
 he may be supposed to be proclaiming his impres- 
 sive declaration that the entrance into the kingdom 
 of God is granted only to the repentant, and to the 
 humble and contrite in spirit ; or as enunciating 
 the prophecy quoted by St. Peter, of the gift of 
 the Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost. 
 
 The figure of Zacharias, which follows, is mild 
 and majestic, dignified and venerable. He has a 
 peculiar claim to the distinctive place assigned him 
 over the entrance door of the chapel, since he not 
 only sets forth in striking terms the perpetual 
 priesthood of Christ, but declares in words, at once 
 precise and poetical, that Bethlehem should be the 
 place of his nativity, and Jerusalem the scene of 
 his mild glories and triumph during the day of his 
 incarnation. 
 
 Kext comes Isaiah, the Evangelical Prophet, who 
 so uplifts the veil of futurity, by the precision and 
 truth of his predictions respecting the coming re- 
 demption, as almost to touch the confines of actual 
 history. His expressive looks and listening attitude 
 bespeak profound attention to the whispers of a 
 seraph who is pouring into his ravished ear those 
 tidings of great joy to all people which it was his 
 high privilege to enunciate. 
 
 The concluding prophet is Daniel ; whose figure 
 is second to none in dignity and interest. The eyes 
 
288 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 of the prophet and sage look down upon an open 
 volume, in which he may be supposed to have just 
 recorded his expressive figurative symbols of the 
 succession of the great empires of the world ; of 
 the final triumph of that of Christ ; of the grand 
 facts of a future resurrection and universal judg- 
 ment ; and of the glories of the redeemed. It is 
 impossible too much to laud the dignified bearing, 
 the masterly execution and foreshortening, and the 
 rich colouring of this figure. The book which he 
 is surveying is borne up by an attendant cherub, 
 who is gracefully introduced within the drapery of 
 his knees. The heart, the mind, the fancy of the 
 prophet appear to be so instinct with inspiration, 
 that, acting on the outward man, his very hair, 
 sharing in the impulse, assumes the form and aspect 
 of a lambent flame above his forehead. 
 
 The sibyls being poetic inventions can only be 
 treated as such ; but as works of art they merit 
 scarcely less admiration than the prophets; and 
 their traditionary character is powerfully impressed 
 on their bearing and attitudes. 
 
 The Persian Sibyl, the first in order, represents 
 the occult and subtle philosophy of the East. Her 
 aspect is penetrating and acute ; she is poring over 
 the pages of a book, whence she may be conceived 
 to be collecting truths of loftier import than any- 
 thing to be found in the lore of Oriental sages. The 
 attendant genii regard her, while thus employed, 
 with silent awe and wonder. 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 289 
 
 The Erythrean Sibyl, the tenant of the renowned 
 oracular seat of that name in Greece, follows. Her 
 figure is graceful and easy, and has a martial aspect ; 
 while her fixed uplifted eyes appear to be inviting 
 celestial discoveries. 
 
 Next comes the Delphic Sibyl, the representative 
 of classical art and of the lofty poetry and philo- 
 sophy of Greece. Her looks are fraught v/ith in- 
 tellectual expression, and her form and features 
 with youthful grace and severe beauty : fit emblems 
 of the noblest and most finished schools which the 
 world has ever seen of taste and eloquence. To 
 the beauty of this figure, the Cumman Sibyl, a 
 female of gigantic mould, and of a cunning but 
 sagacious aspect, forms a striking contrast. 
 
 The Libyan Sibyl closes the series. The ease 
 and CTandeur of her attitude are strikino^. She is 
 handing down a volume, which may be supposed to 
 contain the fruits of her prophetic researches. 
 
 As types of inspiration, this series of figures will 
 probably never be exceeded or equalled. They are 
 fraught with poetical imagination and unrivalled 
 powers of design. Though every figure is marked 
 by individuality, and is a study in itself, unity of 
 action pervades the whole series. All seem to 
 concur in earnestly inviting the coming of the great 
 Deliverer. 
 
 The lunettes depict the Scriptural genealogy of 
 the Virgin and Christ, and form a succession of 
 beautiful domestic groups which admit of com- 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 parison with the Holy Families of Raphael. The 
 figures on each side of the arches below them form 
 part of the same series, and are truly dignified in 
 form, drapery, and attitude. 
 
 The pedestals which shut in the thrones or seats 
 of the prophets and sibyls, are flanked by youthful 
 Termini painted in imitation of sculpture, with a 
 charming variety of attitude and freedom of pencil- 
 ling. These pedestals are surmounted by coupled 
 nude figures, between each of whom a bronze- 
 coloured shield is interposed, on which are painted 
 in bas-relief scenes and subjects of heroism, or 
 miracle, from J ewish history. Bands of fruits and 
 flowers are suspended between or gracefully de- 
 scend below them. These figures bound the smaller 
 compartments of the ceiling, and are unrivalled, in 
 the history of design, as models of grand drawing 
 and foreshortening, of sculptural relief and physical 
 energy. Kiigler suggests that they may be regarded 
 as the genii of architecture. We would claim for 
 them a meaning of more extensive import, by sup- 
 posing them to represent the energies of physical, 
 active life and industry, — the habits of the human 
 race condemned to the toil of labour in consequence 
 of sin, — the sources of productive wealth and power. 
 
 Thus it will be found that the subjects and senti- 
 ments to which expression is given on the vaults of 
 the Sistine Chapel, are among the most elevated 
 and interesting whicli can employ the human ima- 
 gination. 
 
THE SISTINE CEILING. 
 
 291 
 
 The grand works of creation; the primeval his- 
 tory of man; the entry of sin into Paradise; the 
 curse which it brought on this fair creation, and its 
 awful consequences ; the reversal of that curse, and 
 the re-entry of life and immortality through the 
 Gospel ; the initiatory preparation for the incarna- 
 tion of that divine Kedeemer to whom all the pro- 
 phets bear witness, and to whom at length every 
 knee shall bow: such are the great subjects chosen 
 by Michael Angelo to employ his creative pencil. 
 We are carried back to the patriarchal age, to the 
 mystic age of prophecy and poetry ; and we have 
 also before us a magnificent display of the mighty 
 energies of physical force and industry. Sublimity 
 of sentiment and unrivalled powers of design, un- 
 debased by any admixture of puerile superstition, 
 here reign and triumph. Although damp, and 
 time, and smoke, have not a little dimmed the 
 lustre of this great work, it still produces (viewed 
 on a fine day) a lively impression of its original 
 harmony of colour and force of execution. 
 
 We should like to see the Sistine Chapel freed 
 from the obscuring vapours of incense and wax 
 candles, and measures taken studiously to guard its 
 marvellous paintings from further injury and dese- 
 cration. 
 
 We have shown in the preceding chapter, that the 
 principal subjects of the Sistine ceiling, and in a 
 
292 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 great degree those that are subordinate, have re- 
 ference to the fall and redemption of man, and 
 point to Christ as the Desire of all nations.’’ 
 Nothing can be more grand and original than the 
 style of design in which Michael Angelo has treated 
 these subjects; but in their order and connection 
 he appears to have followed, as Sir Charles East- 
 lake has shown in a learned dissertation, an estab- 
 lished series of Biblical types and antitypes, fami- 
 liar in his time ; and which, we conceive, may be 
 traced back, in their general spirit and intention, 
 to the paintings of the catacombs of Rome and 
 Naples ; in other words, in the case of the earliest 
 of them, to the latter end of the third and the be- 
 ginning of the fourth century. Many of those 
 paintings are of a more recent date, and extend to 
 the fifth century, or even beyond it. The earliest 
 appear by their style and treatment to belong to 
 the school of Roman classical Art in its decline. 
 The paintings of the catacombs abound in sym- 
 bolic emblems, and in cycles of typical scriptural 
 representations, mostly taken from the Old Testa- 
 ment, and having their antitypes in the great events 
 of the Gospel. They almost exclusively refer to 
 Christ, to the triumphs of His kingdom, and to His 
 glorification ; to the gift of the Holy Spirit, and to 
 the certainty of a future resurrection ; subjects, all 
 of them, specially suited to comfort and support 
 Christians under the bitter trials of persecution. 
 Thus, in one of the principal chambers of the Ca- 
 
SYMBOLICAL PAINTINGS. 
 
 293 
 
 tacoinb of Calixtus, in the Via Appia, at Rome, 
 among various cycles of this description, ‘the fol- 
 lowing is found on the ceiling of the second cubi- 
 culurn : — Abraham in the act of sacrificing Isaac, 
 a type of the atonement; Moses striking the Rock, 
 a type of the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit ; 
 Noah, after the deluge, receiving the Dove with 
 the Olive branch, a symbol of reconciliation and 
 peace; the Three Children in the fiery Furnace, 
 with the fourth fisfure of the Son of God, an emblem 
 of the presence of Christ with his suffering servants, 
 and a type also of the resurrection ; Baskets of the 
 Manna from heaven, symbolical of the bread of 
 life under the Gospel. These pictures are found 
 in compartments around a centre on the ceiling, in 
 which was originally some leading subject, now 
 wholly obliterated. The general design and ar- 
 rangement of this ceiling is classical in its taste, 
 but only shadowy traces of the paintings we have 
 described now exist. 
 
 This predilection for symbolism was perpetuated 
 in the Church, as may be seen by an examination 
 of the numerous mosaics to be found in Rome, 
 in Ravenna, in Sicily, and in various cities of 
 Italy. During the middle ages, the Church, as the 
 above mentioned Dissertation shows, appears to 
 have authorised a certain order and connection of 
 subjects, to which Michael Angelo in the main con- 
 formed. It states that, among numerous MSS., both 
 Italian and Transalpine, which set forth this order. 
 
294 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 the most authoritative series is to be found in one 
 denominated “ Speculum Humanas Salvationist^ 
 copies of which exist in the Imperial Library of 
 Paris, in the British Museum, and elsewhere. The 
 earliest of them are supposed to be of the twelftli 
 century. This cycle commences with the Fall of 
 Lucifer, and is carried on to the Last Judgment. 
 Accordingly we find that Michael Angelo intended 
 to have painted the former of these two subjects 
 on the wall over the entrance door of the Sis- 
 tine Chapel and on its two sides, and that he 
 had prepared various sketches and studies for 
 this purpose. The Last Judgment, on the altar- 
 wall opposite, would, in this case, have appro- 
 priately formed the conclusion of the cycle, the 
 intermediate subjects of which consist of the 
 various paintings now seen upon and under the 
 ceiling, — such as the Creation, the Fall of Man, 
 the Deluge, the Prophets and Sibyls who predict 
 the coming of Christ, his human genealogy from 
 David through the Virgin, &c. Thus the mind 
 of the spectator is led, from the earliest events 
 recorded in Scripture, and from the prophecies, to 
 their antitypes represented by the pictures on the 
 walls below. These pictures consist of a grand 
 cycle of subjects, forming a parallel between the 
 old and the new Law, signified by the acts of 
 Moses and of Christ. They were painted by 
 various masters of celebrity, including Perugino, 
 Luca Signorelli, D. Ghirlandajo, &c. Underneath 
 
SYMBOLICAL PAINTINGS. 
 
 295 
 
 them, at a later period, were placed the tapestries 
 from Raphaers cartoons, arranged in a defined 
 order of chronology or association ; thus carrying 
 on the cycle of subjects to the triumphs of the 
 Gospel by the conversion of the Gentiles. Hereby 
 it will be seen that the connection on the whole 
 was natural and noble. That it should have been 
 marred by certain superstitious adjuncts is not to 
 be wondered at, considering that the locality is a 
 sort of sanctum of the Romish hierarchy. Thus 
 we find that the altar was overhung by a tapestry, 
 the subject of which was the Coronation of the 
 Virgin, above which was an Assumption by Peru- 
 gino. These subsequently gave place to the Last 
 Judgment by Michael Angelo."^ 
 
 In the cycles of the tliird, and of the earlier part 
 of the fourth century, and even later, we find 
 nothing that can be resolved into Marjmlogy. The 
 introduction of the fif^ure of the Virgin in the 
 catacombs is extremely rare ; and when it occurs, 
 it almost exclusively belongs to the subject of 
 the Adoration of the Magi ; and it is a remarkable 
 fact that, in the series of mosaics, dating from a.d. 
 432 to 4 10, in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, 
 at Rome, one of vdiich represents the visit of the 
 
 * For many of the above particulars, and in part for the 
 words which convey them, I am indebted to Sir C. Eastlake’s 
 Dissertation, which is to be found in his interesting work, en- 
 titled ‘^Contributions to the Literature of the P"ine Arts;” 
 and also in Kugler’s Handbook of Painting,” p. 310. 
 
29(3 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Magi, the infant Saviour is placed on a raised 
 throne, as the object of worshipful homage, while 
 the Virgin sits by him on one side, and Joseph on 
 the other, quite in a subordinate position : behind 
 are angelic attendants. On this point Kiigler 
 observes, that the Virgin Mary occurs so seldom 
 in the earlier paintings of the catacombs, and then 
 only subordinately, that in those times no par- 
 ticular type had been established for her.* 
 
 In that early period the various types of the 
 Old Testament are referred almost exclusively to 
 the Kedeemer; but in the middle ages they are 
 often interpreted as having also, in a secondary 
 sense, a reference to the Madonna. Thus, on the 
 authority already cited, we find, in manuscripts of 
 the twelfth century, that the mediation of Esther 
 with Ahasuerus for the Jews is treated as a type of 
 the intercession of the Virgin ; and that Judith with 
 the head of Holofernes is made to be typical of the 
 
 * There is, it is true, in the catacomb already referred to, a 
 figure supposed to be that of the Virgin, with uplifted arms, 
 and with an infant in her lap. It is of a much larger size than 
 the usual figures of the catacombs ; and, by its style, appears 
 to belong to the Byzantine epoch, being probably of the 5th or 
 6th century, M. De Rossi, the learned keeper of the MSS. of 
 the Vatican, assigns this date to it. The author happened to 
 be present when a zealous Roman Catholic expressed his 
 opinion to that gentleman, that the uplifted arms of this figure 
 implied the Virgin’s intercession for the Church. “No,” re- 
 plied M. De R., “ it is the attitude which symbolises prayer, 
 and is to be found, as such, in numberless figures through- 
 out the catacombs.” 
 
TYPICAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 297 
 
 Virgin surrounded with the instruments of the 
 passion. These are only specimens of similar in- 
 terpretations still more farfetched and marvellous. 
 
 We have already shown, in the preceding chapter, 
 that the four subjects in the angles of the Sistine, 
 exhibiting great Jewish deliverances, were intro- 
 duced as typical of redemption. That of the 
 Brazen Serpent is prominently and most expres- 
 sively such, as having been referred to, in this 
 sense, by Christ himself. 
 
298 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DEATH OF JULIUS II., AND SUCCESSION OF LEO X. TO THE 
 
 POPEDOM. HIS CHARACTER. EMPLOYS MICHAEL ANGELO, 
 
 AS AN ARCHITECT, TO DESIGN A FA9ADE FOR THE CHURCH 
 OF SAN LORENZO, WHICH HE APPROVES, AND INTRUSTS ITS 
 EXECUTION TO HIM. — THIS COMMISSION PROVED ONE OF THE 
 GREAT MISFORTUNES OF HIS LIFE. — AFTER SEVEN TEARS OF 
 
 PREPARATION THE POPE ABANDONS THE SCHEME. GRIEF 
 
 AND DISAPPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL ANGELO. FAILURE OF A 
 
 SCHEME, IN WHICH HE TOOK PECULIAR INTEREST, FOR ERECT- 
 ING A TOMB TO THE MEMORY OF DANTE. BRILLIANT CAREER 
 
 OF RAPHAEL DURING THIS UNFORTUNATE PERIOD OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF BUONARROTI. — DEATH OF LEO X. IS SUCCEEDED BY 
 
 ADRIAN VI. 
 
 During the two closing years of the life of J ulius 
 nothing could be more friendly and pacific than his 
 relations with Michael Angelo. He had long ere 
 this learnt duly to appreciate his moral courage 
 and honesty of purpose, no less than his great and 
 various talents ; and he, oblivious of all past differ- 
 ences, honoured and loved the aged pope for his 
 frank and friendly qualities, and also as his early 
 patron and employer. In spite of all the trials and 
 vexations attendant on the abortive tomb, he had 
 reason indeed to feel grateful to the man whose 
 potent will had forced him to paint the Sistine 
 
POPE LEO X. 
 
 299 
 
 Chapel, from which he had derived greater fame 
 and glory than from any work in which he ever 
 engaged. 
 
 o o 
 
 Such were their mutual feelings as Julius ap- 
 proached his latter end. Before his death, he 
 charged his nephews, the Cardinals Santiquattro 
 and Anginense, to employ Michael Angelo in finish- 
 ing the projected mausoleum upon a very re- 
 duced scale of expenditure. He accordingly pre- 
 pared a design conformable to this intention, and 
 thus (to use the expressive language of Condivi) 
 he entered upon the second act of the Tragedy of 
 the Sepulchre. Anxious to terminate it, as also 
 to do honour to his patron’s memory, he went vi- 
 gorously to work, and procured sculptors from 
 Florence to work from his designs on the less im- 
 portant parts. Even before the death of Julius 
 (Feb. 21. 1513) he was thus employed; but his 
 labours were speedily interrupted by a summons 
 from the new pope, Leo X., on the plea that he 
 required his immediate services. 
 
 The name of Leo X. has descended to posterity 
 encircled with glory, as the Coryphasus of a golden 
 age of art and literature. It was his good fortune 
 to commence his reign at a mornent when Europe 
 was gathering in the richest fruits of that intellec- 
 tual harvest Avhich had been gradually maturing 
 for upwards of three centuries, by means of the 
 labours, researches, and sacrifices of innumerable 
 scholars and literati, artists and poets. Though he 
 
300 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 had done little himself, in comparison of his grand- 
 father and father, in furtherance of this great move- 
 ment, he was truly a man of letters, and patronised 
 them for their own sake not less than from what he 
 felt was due to his high position and to the name 
 he bore. He was a man of mild disposition, and 
 easy temper, and the favours he conferred were 
 not a little enhanced by the amenity and grace of 
 his manners. Though, in disposing of patronage, 
 he occasionally selected individuals eminent for 
 theological erudition, his delight was to bestow the 
 honours and dignities of the Church on men of 
 genius and classical learning, with little regard to 
 their fitness and qualifications in other respects. 
 They, in return, resounded his praises throughout 
 Europe, and were profuse of the incense of adula- 
 tion. As a politician, Leo was astute, subtle, and 
 not unfrequently perfidious.^ This he excused to 
 himself by the difficulties of his position, which 
 often made him tremble for the independence of his 
 own states, and of Italy itself. Jealous sometimes 
 of the designs of E ranee, at other times of those of 
 the Emperor, he cleverly intrigued between them, 
 setting one against the other, and making light of 
 his engagements with both, when it suited his in- 
 terest. Not less ambitious than Julius II., his am- 
 bition was much more selfish. The leading object 
 of Julius was the exaltation of the Church, and the 
 
 * Guicciardini, Hist. lib. xii. pp. 201. 21o. 270. 
 
CHARACTER OF LEO X. 
 
 301 
 
 extension of its temporal power; that of Leo was 
 the particular aggrandisement of his own family.^ 
 
 In pursuance of this object, he had, as Cardinal 
 de’ Medici, stifled, by the assistance of Julius and 
 of the Spanish power, the restored liberties of Flo- 
 rence, and re-established the supremacy of the 
 Medici in that city ; acts against which her native 
 chroniclers indignantly protest, and which admit 
 of no justification.*}* He used his power as pope to 
 rivet the chains of Florentine servitude, and he 
 caballed with foreign powers to aid him in estab- 
 lishing, in the person of one of the members of his 
 own family, a sovereign state, extending far beyond 
 the bounds of Tuscany. But death put an end to 
 this project by cutting off, one after another, all 
 the legitimate offspring of Lorenzo de’ Medici. 
 
 The sanction which he gave to the sale of indul- 
 gences formed the climax of that long train of 
 causes which had been gradually preparing the 
 way for the Eeformation. So shamelessly was this 
 traffic pursued, that the power of delivering souls 
 from purgatory was even gambled for in taverns, 
 or set up at auction to the highest bidder.J 
 
 * Guicciardini, lib. xii. p. 183., where the historian refers to 
 his intrigues to procure the crown of Naples for his brother 
 Giuliano. 
 
 t Nardi, delle Hist. Fioren. lib. v. p. 256. 
 
 J “Aveva (Leone) sparse per tutto il mondo, senza distintione 
 di tempi e di luoglii, indulgenze aniplissime, non solo per poter 
 giovare con esse a quegli, che ancora sono nella vita presente, 
 
302 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Whilst the storm gathering over the Church 
 became every clay more menacing, Leo’s life (to 
 use Sisrnondi’s words) was a perpetual carnival.” 
 The pleasures of the chase, the delights of volup- 
 tuous music, theatrical pastimes, and even low 
 buffoonery, formed the charm of its existence; till 
 at length the public burning of the papal bull in 
 the streets of Wittemberg, by Luther, aroused him 
 to a juster conception of the dangers which me- 
 naced the Romish Church, and of the moral courage 
 and resources of him, who, in the name of the 
 Lord of Hosts, had thus signally defied him. 
 
 The closing year of his life was cheered by the 
 brilliant successes of the papal and imperial arms 
 in Lombardy ; but the paean of victory proved only 
 a prelude to the tomb. He died, A. d. 1521, in 
 the 37th year of his age, not without suspicion of 
 poison. 
 
 As yet Michael Angelo has only appeared before 
 us as a sculptor and a painter ; but it was as an 
 architect that Leo X. sent for him. 
 
 The churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito, 
 
 ma con facolta di potere, oltra a questo, liberare le anime dei 
 defunti dalle pene del Purgatorio ; le quali cose non avendo in 
 se ne verisimilitudine, ne autorita alcuna, percbe era notorio, 
 cbe si concedevano solamente per estorquere danari dagli uo- 
 mini,” &c. &c. And in a few lines after he adds, that in Ger- 
 many these indulgences excited special scandal: — ‘‘Dove a 
 molti dei ministri erano vedute vendere per poco prezzo e gio- 
 carsi in sulle taverne la facolta del liberare le anime dei morti 
 dal Purgatorio.” — Guicciardini, Hist. lib. xiii. p. 109. 
 
FACADE OF SAN LOKENZO. 
 
 303 
 
 at Florence, were built by Cosmo de’ Medici, from 
 the designs of the great Brunelleschi. They are 
 among the earliest and most superb specimens, in 
 modern times, of the successful application of pure 
 and correct principles of classical art to church 
 architecture. The last-named, in particular, is 
 highly picturesque and scientific in its interior 
 arrangements, and charms by the harmony of its 
 proportions. In the place of the small arch leaping 
 from column to column, as seen in most of the 
 early Christian basilicas, each of these churches 
 displays a nave and aisles formed by Corinthian 
 columns of noble dimensions, the capitals of which 
 are surmounted by a rich and regular entablature, 
 whence emanate arches of fine proportion and 
 elegant finish. 
 
 Like others of the leading churches in Florence, 
 their fa9ades were, at the time of which we are 
 writing, as now, altogether in the rough, and un- 
 finished. As, however, that of San Lorenzo con- 
 tained the remains of many of the Medici family, 
 and was destined to receive more within a mauso- 
 leum to be added to the church, it was natural that 
 Leo X. should have felt desirous of attaching to it a 
 fa9ade worthy of the fine style of the interior. It 
 was with reference to this intention that Michael 
 Angelo was summoned to the papal presence. 
 According to Vasari, Raphael, Sansovino, and 
 Giuliano San Gallo, were also required to furnish 
 plans; but that of Micliael Angelo obtained his 
 
304 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 preference, and he was commissioned to carry it 
 into immediate execution. Intensely occupied by 
 the tomb of Julius, he entreated the pope to accept 
 his design, and to allow him to pursue, undisturbed, 
 a work, to the prosecution of which he was equally 
 bound by duty and honour. ‘‘No, no,’’ replied 
 Leo; “leave it to me: I will engage to settle 
 matters for you with the executors of Julius.” 
 This decision gave much offence to the two car- 
 dinals, and no small pain to the artist, which Leo 
 endeavoured to allay by assurances that he would 
 allow both objects to be prosecuted jointly at Flo- 
 rence. This, however, was rendered impossible, by 
 his own subsequent instructions to Michael Angelo, 
 to proceed immediately to Carrara, and give orders 
 for the marbles requisite to carry into effect his 
 plan. Thither he proceeded; but his operations 
 had scarcely commenced, when a papal messenger 
 arrived with a dispatch, stating that marble, said to 
 be equally good, was to be obtained at a place 
 called Seravizza, in the mountains of Pietra Santa, 
 within the Florentine territory ; and directing him 
 to lose no time in ascertaining and reporting upon 
 its quality. Upon his arrival there, he found the 
 marble of an untractable quality, and calculated 
 that the expense of constructing roads for its 
 transport to the coast would be enormous. Un- 
 fortunately there were those about the pope who 
 hinted that probably interested motives influenced 
 Michael Angelo’s objections, and, in particular, that 
 
THE SCHEME ABANDONED. 
 
 305 
 
 he was fearful of giving umbrage to the Marquis 
 of Carrara. Leo, therefore, decided that the marbles 
 should be raised at Seravizza, and the needful 
 roads constructed. 
 
 Nothing could be more ill-advised than this 
 decision. The country to be traversed was rocky 
 in some parts, and in others marshy; money came 
 slowly in ; the expences and delays were very great. 
 Years glided away in these preparatory labours, 
 during which Michael Angelo had chiefly to act the 
 part of an engineer, whilst he was cut off in a great 
 degree from the society of his friends and from his 
 professional avocations. At length a part of the 
 marbles, including five finished columns, reached 
 the sea-shore ; but only one of them was ever con- 
 veyed to the piazza of San Lorenzo. In the mean- 
 time the ardour of Leo had cooled ; he was engaged 
 in a Lombardese war; his treasury became ex- 
 hausted ; he declined advancing money for the 
 transport of more marbles; and the undertaking 
 was abandoned. 
 
 What amount of compensation was adjudged to 
 the much-injured artist for this vain sacrifice of 
 time and labour is not mentioned. Michael Angelo 
 was in the prime of life ; and, in the natural course 
 of things, the five or six years thus consumed would 
 have been fruitful in works of durable fame and 
 profit : he would have finished the tomb of Julius, 
 to the completion of which he was no less bound 
 by inclination than by honour ; and in other ways 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 also he might have advanced the progress of Art 
 both in Eome and Florence. Throughout these 
 same years Raphael was pursuing a glorious course 
 within the precincts of the Vatican, decorating 
 its interior by the noble productions of his en- 
 chanting pencil, and extending his reputation far 
 beyond the bounds of Italy. To Raphael the 
 patronage of Leo was a source of the highest dis- 
 tinction and professional success. To Michael 
 Angelo it proved the greatest misfortune of his 
 life. 
 
 During the intervals of his engagements at 
 Pietra Santa he was occasionally in Florence, 
 and made some visits to Rome. He belonged to 
 the Florentine Academy of Santa Maria Nuova, 
 founded by the Medici family and newly endowed 
 by Leo X. One of the leading objects of its 
 meetings just now was to read and to discuss the 
 poems of Dante, but their interest was also height- 
 ened by recitations of improviso poetry sung to 
 the lyre or the guitar. Michael Angelo took great 
 pleasure in these meetings ; but we are not informed 
 whether he was able so far to shake off his natural 
 reserve and modesty, as to act the part of a per- 
 former. 
 
 Out of these meetings originated a scheme for 
 doing honour to the name and memory of Dante, 
 on the part of his fellow-countrymen, by trans- 
 porting his remains, from the mausoleum in which 
 they repose at Ravenna, to Florence, and of placing 
 
PROPOSED MONUMENT TO DANTE. 
 
 307 
 
 them in one of its principal churches, beneath a 
 magnificent monument, which should be adorned 
 with appropriate sculpture. This proposition was 
 embraced with ardour by the members of the 
 Academy; a suitable address in correspondence 
 with it was drawn up, and presented by them to 
 Leo X., without whose influence and patronage 
 there could be no hope of success. To the address 
 were appended the names of the most distinguished 
 literati of Florence, and among them was that of 
 Michael Angelo, coupled with the generous ofier 
 of executing the sculptural decorations of the tomb 
 gratuitously. The statue of Dante by Michael 
 Angelo, and the allegorical figures with which he 
 might probably have adorned it, would have formed, 
 there can be no doubt, one of the greatest triumphs 
 of modern sculpture, — so inspiring would such a 
 subject have obviously been to the genius of the 
 great artist. 
 
 The address was received by Leo with nothing 
 beyond frigid civility, and the scheme was in coii'* 
 sequence abandoned. Flad the application suc” 
 ceeded, it would have roused Michael Angelo from 
 a state of mingled apathy and anxiety into which 
 he had fallen, in consequence of the injurious treat- 
 ment he had received from the cold-blooded Leo. 
 
 On this point Condi vi forcibly says : Being 
 
 thus detained at Florence, but finding the pope’s 
 ardour altogether spent, full of grief, he was long 
 unable to apply himself to anytliing. He had 
 
308 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 been driven from one vain and fruitless scheme to 
 another, and reflected on the time which he had 
 lost with the utmost dissatisfaction.” 
 
 That such a man should have been so treated, is 
 a great blot upon the memory of Leo. Michael 
 Angelo, it is true, was too little of a courtier, and 
 of too independent a spirit, to win upon him, as 
 Raphael had done, by his graceful address, and by 
 the boundless resources of his art, which readily 
 ministered to every wish of his patron, not only in 
 the higher departments of genius, but in all the 
 luxury of fanciful and gay decoration. Common 
 justice however, and common courtesy, might well 
 have dictated a different course of conduct from 
 that which we have been reviewing. 
 
 And yet we ought not, perhaps, to wonder at it, 
 when we reflect, that he who acted thus was the 
 man who loaded the depraved and malignant Pietro 
 Aretino with the wealth of the Church, while he 
 treated the intimate friend of his youth, and the 
 brightest poetical ornament of his age, the cele- 
 brated Ariosto, when he went to pay his homage to 
 him as pope, with supercilious kindness, followed 
 by studied neglect. Roscoe, in spite of his wish to 
 find an apology for Leo, has depictured the claims 
 of the great poet and the heartless conduct of the 
 pontiff in striking colours. Where so much was 
 due to friendship and to genius, his coldness cut 
 deep, and Ariosto has again and again alluded to it, 
 with just but biting severity. 
 
DEATH OF LEO X. 
 
 309 
 
 The needful stimulus to exertion was at length 
 supplied to Michael Angelo, by the conviction that 
 he was bound in duty and honour to resume and 
 to complete the tomb of Julius II. ; but scarcely 
 were his arrangements completed, to remove to 
 Rome for this purpose, when the Cardinal de’ 
 Medici, at this time Governor of Florence, and 
 afterwards Pope Clement YII., interposed a fresh 
 delay, by laying his commands upon him for the 
 immediate execution of various monuments to the 
 memory of members of the Medici family, to be 
 placed in the sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo. 
 He further required tlie plan of a library to be 
 attached to the same church, in which should be 
 deposited the invaluable collection of rare and 
 beautiful manuscripts, originally made by Cosmo 
 and Lorenzo de’ Medici, and which, after its dis- 
 persion during the troubles of Florence in 1494, 
 had most of them again come into possession of the 
 family. The due consideration of the various de- 
 tails connected with such a commission fully occu- 
 pied his mind, when intelligence reached Florence 
 of the unexpected death of Leo X., on the first of 
 December, 1521, in the forty-sixth year of his age, 
 and the eighth of his pontificate. 
 
 During the preceding year, the world of Art had 
 to lament the premature death of the illustrious 
 Raphael, at a time when he was daily giving birth 
 to fresh prodigies of his creative pencil. 
 
 Leo was succeeded in the papal chair by Adrian 
 
310 
 
 LIEE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 VI., who had been tutor of Charles V., and of 
 whom it has been said that it was long since the 
 election had fallen on a man more worthy of his 
 high and responsible office ; for Adrian was of 
 spotless fame ; upright, pious, industrious, and of 
 such a gravity, that seldom was anything more 
 than a gentle smile seen upon his lips, yet full of 
 benevolent and pure intentions.” The frame and 
 temper of this good man’s mind formed the great- 
 est possible contrast to that of the tasteful and 
 magnificent but voluptuous Leo. A letter is ex- 
 tant in which he says how far rather he would 
 liave served God in his Priory of Louvaine than 
 on the papal throne. Though not insensible to 
 the attractions of painting as they existed in the 
 naturalistic schools of Germany, — to which an Al- 
 bert Purer, a Van Eyck, a Memlin, and others, have 
 attached such high and deserved celebrity, and 
 which greatly contributed to the improvement of 
 the art of colouring at Venice and in various parts 
 of Italy, — yet he had no taste whatever for the 
 ideal and poetical, and therefore looked with cold 
 indifference on the pictorial wonders of the Vati- 
 can. Neither painting nor sculpture in their high- 
 est qualities would ever have found in him, had he 
 lived, a cordial patron ; but he was prepared to wage 
 unrelenting warfare against the pagan and mytho- 
 logical taste, which, proceeding originally from the 
 
 * Ranke’s History of the Popes, cap. iii. p. 92. 
 
ADRIAN VI. 
 
 311 
 
 Paduan school of Squarcione and Mantegna, had 
 long since insinuated itself into that of Florence, 
 Milan, and Parma. The Medici had in various 
 ways lent their influence to the progress of this 
 taste, which, whilst it had enhanced the grace, had 
 by its abuse tended to corrupt the purity of Chris- 
 tian Art. The opposition of Adrian to this abuse 
 was worthy of the oflB.ce which he filled, and the 
 character which he bore ; but any anxiety as to the 
 course he might take was of short duration, for, 
 after a brief reign of eighteen months, he was 
 seized by a mortal disease, and was succeeded on 
 the 19th of November, 1523, by Cardinal de’ 
 Medici, who took the name of Clement VII. He 
 was a natural son of Giuliano, younger brother of 
 Leo X. 
 
312 
 
 LIPE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF RAPHAEL, AND 
 A COMPARISON BETWEEN HIS GENIUS AND THAT OF MICHAEL 
 ANGELO. 
 
 In the year 1520, Raphael was cut off in the prime 
 of youthful manhood, and in the zenith of his^ 
 brilliant fortune. That two such artists as himself 
 and Michael Angelo should have been employed at 
 one and the same time within the palace of the 
 Vatican, and within a few yards of each other, 
 upon works of such transcendant reputation, is so 
 remarkable an event, that we feel impelled, after 
 all that has been said of the one, to pa}^, before 
 parting from the other, a passing tribute to his im- 
 perishable name and memory. 
 
 “ Purpureos spargam flores et fungar inani 
 Munere.”"^ 
 
 * In addition to my own intimate and repeated studies ot 
 the works of Raphael, I have examined, and in various in- 
 stances profited by, in drawing up this sketch, Platner’s Dis- 
 sertation on his Genius, his Life by Passavant (with the aid of 
 a German friend), that also by Sir Charles Eastlake, in his 
 “ Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts,” and the 
 very able notice of him by Kiigler in his Handbook, to say 
 nothing of Vasari and various others. 
 

 
 / 
 
 . >■ • 
 
 i- ■ ■■ ’ 
 
 I 
 
MATFFAEIIE SANEIO = 
 
 B0RN,I483__DIED 1520. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 PERUGINO. 
 
 313 
 
 Born at Urbino, on Good Friday, March 29. 
 1483, he lost his mother in 1491. His father, Gio- 
 vanni Santi, made a second marriage, but died in 
 1494. Neither his stepmother, nor his guardian, 
 Don Bartolomeo, his father’s brother, gained any 
 influence over Kaphael. Their quarrels made his 
 home wretched ; but he found a most kind friend 
 and protector in his maternal uncle, Simone di 
 Battista Ciarla, who won his entire confidence, and 
 was looked up to by him as a father.* By his in- 
 fluence he was sent, in the year 1495, at twelve 
 years of age, to Perugia, in order to become the 
 pupil of Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino, who was 
 at the head of one of the largest schools of paint- 
 ing in Italy. 
 
 Perugino was born a.d. 1446, and died in 1524. 
 His first studies in Art were in the Umbrian school, 
 probably under Niccolo Alunno, an artist of emi- 
 nent merit. He afterwards pursued them at Flo- 
 rence, in the school of Andrea Verocchio, where he 
 was intimate with Lorenzo di Credi, and acquainted 
 with Leonardo da Vinci. The result of his Flo- 
 rentine studies may be traced in a grand picture 
 in the Sistine Chapel, painted, as Kiigler supposes, 
 about 1480, the subject of which is Christ’s Charge 
 to St. Peter. It is one of his noblest works, both 
 in composition and in spirited execution. Towards 
 the end of the fifteenth century, he established 
 
 Passavant’s Life of llaphael, Appendix X. p. 629. 
 
314 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 himself at Perugia, and in the treatment of his 
 subjects fell back into the Umbrian manner. His 
 best pictures display eminent beauties of sentiment 
 and expression, combined with rich and transpa- 
 rent colouring. His saintly and angelic heads 
 are often of surpassing beauty, and he imparts a 
 charming relief to his figures by a soft purple at- 
 mosphere. His drawing is usually deficient in 
 vigour and freedom, and in his latter works be- 
 comes feeble and faulty. 
 
 Among the pupils of this school, Raphael found 
 himself associated with several who afterwards be- 
 came eminent ; in particular, with Lo Spagna, little 
 known beyond the limits of Umbria, but great in 
 all the fine qualities of Art ; with Domenico Alfani, 
 and with other members of his family; as also with 
 Gaudenzio di Ferrara, whom Raphael first knew in 
 1502, and who afterwards followed him to Rome. 
 A most intimate friendship united them, and there 
 is much in his pictures which reminds us of Ra- 
 phael. 
 
 Pinturicchio was probably at this time more a 
 coadjutor than a pupil of Perugino. 
 
 The earliest traces of Raphael’s pencil are to be 
 found in some of his master’s pictures, for, in con- 
 sequence of the talents Avhich he displayed, he 
 quickly employed him as an assistant. 
 
 In 1500, he painted two procession banners for 
 a church in Citta di Gastello, one of which is still 
 to be seen there ; the other passed into the collec- 
 
KAPHAEL. 
 
 315 
 
 tion of Cardinal Fesch. Other orders now came 
 upon him ; and one, in particular, for a large altar- 
 piece representing Christ on the cross, surrounded 
 by the Virgin Mary, St. John, and St. Jerome. 
 Though somewhat feeble in drawing, it was of high 
 promise in point of expression. It is now in the 
 collection of Lord Ward. 
 
 Thence he returned to Perugia, and continued 
 to study under Perugino, and to paint in his man- 
 ner; either borrowing his ideas from his master’s 
 pictures, as in the case of his fine Adoration of the 
 Magi, now in the Berlin collection, or by following 
 his own imagination. 
 
 One of the earliest indications of his superior 
 and independent powers, is to be found in the ex- 
 quisite miniature-painting, known by the name of 
 the StafFa Madonna, in the Casa Conestabile, in 
 Perugia. The Virgin is reading : her pure, hea- 
 venly expression, is suited with the utmost taste to 
 the calm, fairy landscape, with its tiny river, boat, 
 and trees. The Child is looking into the book, and 
 its action and attitude are lovely. 
 
 In the year 1502, he gave a still more striking 
 proof of those powers, by aiding Pinturicchio with 
 ten highly finished sketches^ for his great work in 
 the library of the cathedral of Siena, illustrative of 
 the life of JEneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius II.). 
 This work ranks among the most eminent examples 
 
 * Passavant, vol. i. p. 71., gives the number and the list. 
 
316 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 of the transition style, from the earlier to the more 
 advanced stage of modern Art. 
 
 Vasari states that Kaphael assisted his friend in 
 painting various parts of these frescoes; but the 
 best modern critics, including Passavant, maintain 
 that he only furnished some of the designs.^ Of 
 these one is now at Florence, in the Gallery of the 
 Uffizi ; and a second, highly finished, and charming 
 in composition, is at Perugia, in the Casa Baldeschi. 
 
 Among the pictures in the Sienese Library, there 
 is one in which M. de Rumohr has rightly distin- 
 guished (says Passavant) the portrait of Raphael 
 by the side of Pinturicchio. It is the picture 
 which represents the scene when St. Catherine of 
 Siena is made a saint; and, curiously enough, 
 Pinturicchio stands a little behind the youthful 
 Raphael, evidently gazing at him with admiration ; 
 a worthy monument placed by the elder master to 
 his youthful fellow-pupil, whose remarkable genius 
 he thus wished publicly to commemorate. 
 
 In 1504 we find Raphael again at Citta di Cas- 
 tello, painting the Sposalizio for the chapel of the 
 Franciscans. It is now in the Brera Gallery at 
 
 ^ No one who has studied the frescoes of Pinturicchio in the 
 cathedral of Spello, so rich in colour, so fine in taste and in- 
 vention, can hesitate to regard him as having been fully equal 
 to tlie great wmrk which he undertook at Siena, even though 
 their charm had not been aided by these designs of Raphael, 
 lie possessed, moreover, a superior knowledge of the me- 
 chanical process of painting in fresco ; for few works in this 
 line of art have suffered so little from time, damp, &c., as his. 
 
Raphael’s first manner. 
 
 317 
 
 Milan. In its composition it is a close imitation of 
 a similar subject painted by Perugino, in 1495, for 
 the Duomo di Perugia ; but it rises far above its 
 model in vigour of execution, in depth of colour, 
 and in the grace and beauty of the heads. That 
 of the Virgin is of angelic purity and loveliness. 
 
 The pictures of Raphael, up to the above date, 
 bear upon them, more or less, the impress of Peru- 
 gino’s manner ; but in the designs made for Pin- 
 turicchio, we find him displaying a taste and beauty 
 of composition, and a dramatic power, which gave 
 bright earnest of his future greatness. At Fl 0 “ 
 rence, which he first visited in 1501, he studied, as 
 has been shown, with equal interest and success, 
 the fine models of modern and classical art with 
 which that city is replete. Hence he acquired 
 that mastery of design in which he himself was 
 conscious he had hitherto been defective. It is 
 interesting to trace, in his Florentine pictures, his 
 growing triumph over every such disadvantage, till 
 at length we find him forcibly combining graceful 
 and correct drawing with the refined sentiment, 
 the exquisite type of beauty, and the devout ro- 
 mantic mysticism, which he had brought with him 
 from the school of Umbria. The favourite subjects 
 of that school were Enthronements, Coronations, 
 Assumptions of the A^irgin ; ecstasies and visions of 
 St. Francis; Holy Families with attendant Saints; 
 while those taken from Scripture were chiefly the 
 A^isit of the Alagi, the Crucifixion, and Entombment. 
 
318 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 The finest pictures of his first and second manner 
 are to be found within the range of such subjects ; 
 and though their legendary spirit may often pro- 
 voke a smile, we are enchanted with the purity 
 and charm of their expression. 
 
 We are not, however, to suppose, that when he 
 first came to Florence, he had seen nothing in Art 
 beyond Perugia and its precincts. That the 
 glorious ceiling of Fra Angelico di Fiesole, and of 
 Gozzoli, in the chapel of San Brizio, in the cathe- 
 dral of Orvieto, was well known to him, may be 
 inferred from his fine fresco in the chapel of San 
 Severo, at Perugia, painted a little later than the 
 date of his arrival at Florence, for it is altogether 
 in the spirit of that saintly painter: he had also 
 visited Siena*, where, among other fine works, he 
 beheld in those of Taddeo Bartoli, in the palace of 
 the Signoria (a. d. 1407), much of that solemn 
 sweetness and poetic grace which characterise his 
 own pencil. 
 
 Our limits will not allow us to describe the series 
 of pictures painted by Raphael between the years 
 1501 and 1508, when he was summoned to Rome 
 by Pope Julius II. ; but we will briefly allude to a 
 very few of the finest. 
 
 The Madonna Gran Duca (as it is called) marks 
 
 ^ That he visited Siena may he inferred from a drawing 
 of his, a copy of the marble group of the Three Graces, in the 
 library of the Duomo of that city. — See Sir C. Eastlake’s Life 
 of Raphael, p. 214. 
 
Raphael’s second manner. 
 
 319 
 
 the growing transition from his first to his second 
 manner. The Virgin has all the pensive sweetness 
 and reflective sentiment of the Umbrian school, 
 while the Child is loveliness itself. We think of 
 Perugino still, but we think of him as suddenly 
 endued with a purer, firmer outline, and more 
 refined sentiment. The Madonna and Child en- 
 throned, with the Baptist and St. Nicholas of Bari, 
 painted for the church of the Serviti, at Perugia, 
 now forms the gem of the Blenheim Gallery. In 
 this exquisite picture we see, to use the words of 
 Kiigler, the dreamy intensity of the school of 
 Perugia, combined with the aim at a greater free- 
 dom and truth of nature, the result of assiduous 
 study.”'* The picture of St. Catherine, now in the 
 National Gallery of London, is a striking example 
 of his power of imparting intense interest to a 
 single figure. It has suffered much from time; 
 but, even through its fady aspect, we still admire 
 the saintly enthusiasm with which, leaning on the 
 broken wheel, she seems to liail the ray of celestial 
 light which opens heaven to her uplifted eye. 
 
 The last picture of his Florentine era to which 
 we shall advert, is the Deposition from the Cross, 
 painted in 1507, for the church of San Francesco 
 
 * This picture lias lately been beautifully engraved by Mr. 
 L. Gruner. 
 
 The centre picture of the prerlella, The Preaching of St. 
 John the Baptist, is at Bowood, the seat of the Marquis of 
 Lansdowne. It is very finely coloured, and, as Kiigler observes, 
 is in the manner of Masaccio. 
 
320 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 at Perugia. This picture is finely drawn ; great 
 attention to anatomical precision is visible through- 
 out. And it may here be remarked, that the 
 assiduous care and attention with which he got 
 up his subjects, is attested by numerous existing 
 studies for various parts of this picture, and, above 
 all, by an exquisite and highly finished drawing of 
 the whole, by his own hand, preserved in the Flo- 
 rentine Gallery. He here appears a great master 
 of design and expression, of profound pathos, and 
 touching sentiment : but there is no attempt to 
 imitate the grand execution of Michael Angelo ; on 
 the contrary, a slight degree of stiffness and labour 
 still marks his pencil. The colouring is rich and 
 transparent, and it forms one of the finest spe- 
 cimens, on the whole, of his second manner. 
 
 It was about the middle of the year 1508, that 
 Kaphael, then in his twenty-fifth year, was invited, 
 as stated above, to the court of Pope Julius IL, in 
 order to decorate the palace of the Vatican with 
 the works of his pencil. The subjects he under- 
 took, far more comprehensive than any in which he 
 had hitherto engaged, gave full scope to his great 
 powers ; the proximity of the Sistine Chapel, in 
 which Michael Angelo was exercising his daring 
 genius, inspired him with a noble emulation ; the 
 objects of ancient Pome fired his mind and his 
 fancy. 
 
 Under these influences, the youthful painter 
 commenced those great v/orks which have so justly 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 321 
 
 immortalised his name. They cover the ceilings 
 and walls of three apartments, and a grand saloon. 
 Each wall in these rooms is occupied by one large 
 picture, painted in fresco, the upper part of which 
 is semicircular, corresponding with the form of the 
 ceiling ; the ceiling, again, is decorated with paint- 
 ings, the subjects of which allude to those on the 
 walls below; and even the dado throughout is re- 
 plete with designs in chiaro-oscuro which have a 
 similar reference. He painted the first of these 
 pictures in the camera called della Segnatura 
 the subject is Theology, but it is best known by 
 the name of the “ Dispute of the Sacrament.” It 
 is the noblest and finest specimen of his second 
 manner. 
 
 Its connection with the early school of Italian 
 Art, of which it is the perfection, is indicated not 
 only by its symmetrical arrangement, and by the 
 afiinity of its conception of the heavenly world with 
 the types of Orcagna and Fra Angelico di Fiesole, 
 but also by the free use of gold in the glories of 
 the saints, and by highly wrought and careful 
 finish. He commenced it, Lanzi states, at the 
 riglit, and before he reached the opposite extremity 
 was beginning to paint with more freedom of 
 manner. Poetry, or Parnassus, with Apollo and 
 the Muses in the centre, was painted next after 
 Tlieology. The groups of which it is composed 
 are finely imagined, and combined into a grand and 
 harmonious whole. Yet it may be wished that a 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 place of honour, in advance of Homer, had been 
 assigned to the sacred Bards of Sion, who, in un- 
 rivalled strains, proclaimed, in ages of darkness, the 
 glorious perfections of the true God. In such case 
 it is true that Apollo could not properly have been 
 introduced as the central figure, but this would be 
 no cause of reg^’et, as it greatly fails in appropriate 
 dignity. This picture is painted in what may be 
 calM a transition style, between his second and 
 last manner; but every lingering trace of Perugino’s 
 stiff manner is banished from the School of Athens, 
 his ensuing production, and painted on the opposite 
 wall to Theology. This picture symbolises the 
 schools of ancient philosophy, in a composition, the 
 general arrangement of which is truly noble and 
 harmonious, while its various groups and figures, 
 fraught with characteristic expression, are admir- 
 ably conceived and disposed. An architectural 
 background, of singular beauty and depth, imparts 
 a classical and picturesque charm to the whole. 
 Plato and Aristotle, standing side by side in the 
 centre of the picture, indicate, by their calm dignity 
 and majestic bearing, the historical fact, that during 
 the fifteenth century their philosophy was pre-emi- 
 nent in the world of intellect. The subject of the 
 fourth of the wall paintings in this room is J uris- 
 prudence. The ceiling is beautifully adorned with 
 allegorical figures of Theology, Poetry, Philoso- 
 phy, and Jurisprudence, each in a round com- 
 partment; and between them are four others of an 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 323 
 
 oblong shape, which carry on the allegory. The 
 figure of Poetry crowned with laurel is one of the 
 most exquisite which even the pencil of Raphael 
 has produced. The inspiration of genius blends in 
 it with dignity and beauty. In each apartment 
 the figures on the ceiling aid the effect of those on 
 the walls. 
 
 Our limits will not allow us to be thus particular 
 in describing the paintings of the succeeding apart- 
 ments ; we must therefore content ourselves with 
 a brief reference to some of the finest. But it will 
 be evident, from what has been stated of the just 
 and philosophical connection between the principal 
 wall-paintings and their ceiling accessories, that 
 they display a depth of learning and research, both 
 in the choice and treatment of the subjects, which 
 can only be accounted for, as Sir Charles Eastlake 
 observes, by supposing that the youthful painter 
 availed himself, for this purpose, of the friendly aid 
 of some of those eminent literati who at this time 
 graced the papal court and the society of Rome. 
 Some of these frescoes are as fine in colour as they 
 are masterly in design. Witness, for instance, the 
 miraculous Deliverance of St. Peter, which combines 
 the most graceful drawing with the deep rich tones 
 and the concentrated lights of a Rembrandt ; while 
 the opposite picture, the Punishment of Helioclorus, 
 unites a tone of colour worthy of Titian, with forms 
 of majesty and terror which remind us of the 
 sublimity of Michael Angelo. 
 
324 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 The industry of Kaphael is no less marvellous 
 than his art. During the six years preceding the 
 death of Julius IL, in which he was employed upon 
 these laborious works, he also conceived and ex- 
 ecuted numerous altar-pieces, Holy Families, and 
 portraits of the greatest finish and beauty ; the time 
 and labour essential to which, it might well be 
 supposed, would themselves have given full employ- 
 ment to all his powers for even a longer period 
 than his brief life included. 
 
 Upon the accession of Leo X. to the papal chair, 
 A. D. 1514, Eaphael’s energies were still further 
 pressed upon ; and during the six years which in- 
 tervened between that event and his own death, 
 the series of his works may well excite equal wonder 
 and admiration. He was assisted, it is true, by 
 many able pupils, who painted from his designs; 
 but the amount of toil which necessarily accrued 
 to himself must have been prodigious. Moreover, 
 upon the death of Bramante, he was appointed, in 
 his place, architect of St. Peter’s, and had to re- 
 cover and reconstruct, from amidst the scattered 
 papers of his deceased relative, his plan for the 
 prosecution of that vast fabric. 
 
 It would be too much to attempt, within the 
 limits of this notice, any detailed account of the 
 various and beautiful productions which at this 
 time employed his pencil within the halls and the 
 loggie of the Vatican, in the Farnesina Palace, and 
 in his own studio; but we cannot forbear from re- 
 
Raphael’s cartoons. 
 
 325 
 
 ferring to his well-known Cartoons, painted by 
 desire of Leo X., in order to be copied in tapestry. 
 They comprehend some of his very finest compo- 
 sitions. It is the privilege of England to possess 
 seven of them in the gallery at Hampton Court. 
 Three are preserved only in tapestry, and are in 
 the Vatican, They form altogether the most in- 
 teresting and impressive specimens of pure histori- 
 cal Art in existence, being conceived with a cor- 
 rectness of sentiment, and executed with a masterly 
 vigour, which Raphael has nowhere surpassed. 
 
 In the same spirit is conceived his grand altar- 
 piece Lo Spasimo, so called from its having been 
 originally painted for the convent of that name, 
 near Palermo, and now in the Royal Gallery of 
 Madrid. The subject is, Christ sinking beneath 
 the weight of the Cross, from which Simon the 
 Cyrenian is relieving him. Soldiers are ferociously 
 urging liim on, while the Virgin Mother, with out- 
 stretched arms, is pleading for compassion with all 
 the eloquence of maternal grief. St. John and the 
 Maries form an exquisite group around her. It is 
 one of Raphael’s most perfect compositions, but has 
 suffered much from injurious restoration. 
 
 Yet powerfully and successfully as Raphael thus 
 rose to the loftiest heights of sacred subjects, keep- 
 ing them sufficiently within the bounds of truth 
 and nature to excite the warmest sympathies of a 
 spectator, yet idealising them by the force of poetic 
 Art, he never appears more entirely in his appro- 
 
326 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 priate element than when painting that class of 
 pictures in the composition of which his youthful 
 fancy first expatiated. Forms and images of ex- 
 quisite grace, purity, and beauty, according to his 
 own testimony, peopled that fancy ; and therefore 
 it is, that no painter has ever quite rivalled the 
 charm of his Holy Families. We have alluded to 
 the peculiar beauty of those painted in his second 
 manner ; and we will here briefly observe, that some 
 of those of a later date rank among his finest works ; 
 as, for instance, the Madonna of San Sisto, that of 
 Foligno, and the exquisite group of that ‘‘ della 
 Pesce ’’ in the Koyal Gallery of Madrid. 
 
 This picture, from its being in Spain, is un- 
 known to the great majority of British travellers, 
 except by engravings. In composition and ex- 
 pression it can scarcely be surpassed, and in co- 
 louring it is rich and brilliant. The Virgin is 
 placed on a raised seat, with St. Jerome, a vene- 
 rable and dignified figure, to her left. He bears an 
 open book, on which the infant Saviour places one 
 hand, while, by the inclination of the other and of 
 his body, he appears to be welcoming the youth- 
 ful Tobias, a charming figure, whom an angel of 
 surpassing loveliness is conducting to the Virgin 
 Mother. 
 
 Eaphael was great in portrait, no less than in 
 poetical and historical art ; those of Leo X., of the 
 beautiful Joanna of Arragon, that of Castiglione, 
 and, not least, of Julius II., may be cited, in par- 
 
Raphael’s ‘ ‘ tr ansfigur a tion. ” 327 
 
 ticular, as masterpieces in their way. The reso“ 
 lute and fiery character of Julius is so imprinted 
 on this picture, as fully to verify what Michael 
 Angelo said of it, that his attendants could not 
 look at it without a thrill of something akin to 
 terror. 
 
 The crowning production of his matchless art, the 
 Transfiguration, wanted his last finishing touches 
 when death seized upon him, a. d. 1520, at the 
 early age of thirty-seven. He had worked upon it 
 incessantly with his own hands ; and his concep- 
 tion of deified humanity, in the figure of Christ, in 
 this picture, is so sublime as almost to suggest the 
 idea of a more than mortal pencil. The Saviour 
 floats in a luminous atmosphere ; majesty and 
 benignity beam from his features ; while his uplifted 
 eyes and outstretched arms bespeak highest, holiest 
 contemplation. Moses and Elias shine with radi- 
 ance reflected from him on each side ; while the 
 three apostles below, overpowered by the glorious 
 vision, shade their faces from excess of light. The 
 scene of consternation which is passing below 
 comes into striking contrast v/ith the serene dignity 
 of the figures just described. We forbear any de- 
 tailed remarks upon the striking beauties of the 
 group which composes it; but will just observe, that 
 the want of unity which lias often been objected to 
 in this picture, is obviated by the apostolic per- 
 sonage who points with his finger above, and who 
 seems to say to the terrified relatives of the ma- 
 
328 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Hiac, “ Wait a little, and one will come thence who 
 shall achieve for you that which is beyond our 
 power. 
 
 Every honour that admiration and affection could 
 lavish on the shrine of departed genius was paid to 
 the memory of Eaphael. Previously to the obse- 
 quies, his form, so graceful and elegant, was laid 
 out for public view in his painting-room, and be- 
 hind it the unrivalled work of art upon which we 
 have been expatiating. This production of his 
 immortal pencil, thus brought into contrast with 
 his cold, lifeless clay, melted every beholder into 
 tears. 
 
 He was buried in the Pantheon, as Vasari has 
 stated, a fact which was so brought into doubt 
 about twenty years ago, that an examination was 
 made for his tomb in the year 1833, under the 
 auspices of the Prince Odescalchi, beneath the 
 particular altar of that sacred edifice which was 
 supposed to cover it, and where his skeleton was 
 discovered in a wonderful state of preservation. 
 The skull, though small, was of a beautiful form ; 
 and the teeth were complete and of a pearly 
 whiteness. 
 
 As respects the much debated question, in what 
 degree Raphael was indebted, as an artist, to 
 Michael Angelo, extravagant things have been said, 
 on both sides, by their respective admirers ; some 
 maintaining that his style would not have risen 
 above mediocrity had he not seen and profited by 
 
INFLUENCE OF M. ANGELO ON KAPHAEL. 329 
 
 the grand manner of Michael Angelo, while others 
 will scarcely admit that genius like Raphael’s ever 
 needed such an impulse. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, for instance, a high 
 authority, has gone so far as to say is to 
 
 Michael Angelo that we owe even the existence of 
 Raphael : it is to him that Raphael owes the gran- 
 deur of his style. He was taught by him to elevate 
 his thoughts, and to conceive his subjects with 
 dignity.” Now, who can subscribe to this statement 
 who has studied the fine designs which, as has been 
 shown, Raphael prepared for Pinturicchio so early 
 as the year 1502 ; and still more, the grand and im- 
 pressive fresco of Christ in Glory, painted by him, 
 in the chapel of San Severn at Perugia, in the year 
 1505 ; that is to say, in each instance, before he 
 had seen the Cartoon of Pisa ? 
 
 This fresco is an anticipation, in its style and 
 conception, of the finest part of his Dispute of the 
 Sacrament in the Vatican, and brings him into 
 contrast with Perugino, who painted the lower 
 part of the picture, and whom he here leaves far 
 behind. 
 
 But, although we conceive Raphael would have 
 been a painter of the highest grade even had there 
 never been a Michael Angelo, he would probably, 
 in such case, have failed to rise to the full height 
 of his acknowledged glory. Was not this the con- 
 viction of his own mind when, in a spirit of beauti- 
 ful candour, he thanked God that he had been boim 
 
330 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 in the age of Buonarroti ? Examples of direct 
 imitation are chiefly confined to his Isaiah, in the 
 church of St. Augustin, in Rome ; to his figure of 
 the Deity dividing Light from Darkness, in the 
 Loggie of the Vatican ; and to his Vision of Ezekiel, 
 in the Pitti Palace, — a subject akin to which is also 
 introduced on the ceiling of one of the halls of the 
 Vatican. The two first of these imitations must 
 be deemed failures, as compared with their re- 
 spective models in the Sistine Chapel ; but not so 
 the third, which is Michael Angelesque throughout. 
 If it be true, as is said, that he selected the Fire of 
 Borgo as a subject for one of his paintings in the 
 Vatican, in order to prove that he could enter the 
 lists with Michael Angelo in the science of the 
 nude, he cannot be said, in this instance, to have 
 succeeded ; for, although the drawing displays much 
 anatomical learning, and the subject is treated with 
 the utmost beauty and pathos, there is a w^ant of 
 freedom and ease in the muscular action and move- 
 ment of the figures very unlike the masterly preci- 
 sion and energy of those of the Sistine. 
 
 Whether Raphael beheld the Sistine ceiling be- 
 fore it was finally opened to public view in 1512, 
 is a question which has been hotly contested. 
 As to the story of his having enjoyed a furtive 
 view of it, by favour of Bramante, during a tempo- 
 rary absence of Michael Angelo from Rome, it is 
 
 ^ Condi vi, cnp. Ivii. p. 68. 
 
INFLUENCE OF M. ANGELO ON EAPHAEL. 331 
 
 now altogether exploded, and on good grounds ; 
 but both Vasari and Condivi ^ state, in the most 
 express terms, that it was opened for a short time 
 when only half finished, in consequence of the 
 impatience of Julius II. to judge of its effect ; and 
 that all Kome flocked to a sight of it, and that 
 among those who thus saw it was Raphael, and 
 that he immediately after painted in a grander 
 manner. We know not how to doubt a fact thus 
 circumstantially related by both biographers f ; 
 and we venture to conclude that this first and brief 
 view took place in one of the last months of 1510, 
 or early in 1511; therefore, before Raphael had 
 commenced the School of Athens, the first of his 
 works in which we find all traces of Perusfino’s 
 manner absorbed in the grander style which his 
 works thenceforth display. 
 
 Luigi Crespi states, that after seeing the prophets 
 of the Sistine, he obliterated altogether his fissure 
 of Isaiah in the church of St. Augustin, and re- 
 painted it, as we now see it, in the style of 
 Buonarroti. 
 
 Shortly after, he painted the sibyls and prophets 
 in the Chiesa della Pace ; but here, though the 
 subjects remind us of the Sistine, and we trace a 
 greater breadth of manner than in his former 
 works, there is no attempt to rival the style of 
 
 * Vasari, Vita di M. Angelo, p. 38. Condivi, cap. xxxvii. 
 
 f Quatremere de Quincy and Duppa, in tlieir Biographies of 
 lyiichael Angelo, coincide with the author on this point. 
 
332 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Buonarroti, but the subject is treated throughout 
 with the dignity, grace, and beauty so peculiarly 
 his own.* 
 
 The spirit in which he studied and profited by 
 Michael Angelo is ably summed up by Sir Charles 
 Eastlake. ‘‘ As a proof,’^ he says, of the reality 
 of Raphael’s admiration of Michael Angelo’s ge- 
 nius, it will be sufficient to mention that several 
 drawings exist, copied by Raphael himself from 
 the Sistine ceiling. One of these, the Expulsion of 
 Adam and Eve, was in the Lawrence Collection; 
 another is at Holkham. 
 
 “ Such imitations, even when very direct, seem 
 to have been considered as the sincerest tribute of 
 admiration. With an original genius the impulse 
 lasted only a short time, and was a sort of study of 
 the characteristic excellence of a rival ; the practice 
 was a wholesome change of ideas, and the result of 
 enlarged perception of the nature and powers of 
 Art.” 
 
 What Raphael really owed, then, to Michael An- 
 gelo, was, we conceive, greater breadth of manner, 
 and a grander style of drawing and conception. 
 In mastery of design, in forms of severe beauty, 
 and in the domain of the sublime, the ideal, and 
 the terrible, the great Florentine is without a rival, 
 — like the eagle, 
 
 ‘‘ Sailing with supreme dominion 
 Through the azure deep of air.’’ 
 
 * See Letterc Pittorichej vol. ii. p. 406. &c. 
 
RAPHAEL. 
 
 333 
 
 Raphael was fully sensible of this, and therefore, 
 excepting in the rare instances alluded to, attempted 
 not to follow him thither; but he fully makes 
 up for any inferiority in these great qualities, by 
 excelling his rival in all that wins upon the sym- 
 pathies of the human heart, — exquisite beauty, re- 
 fined tenderness, and grace, united with a dignity 
 and grandeur less imposing, but more natural. 
 
 In masterly composition he has never been sur- 
 passed, whether we regard the significant concep- 
 tion of his subjects, his rich invention, and the 
 union of perfect symmetry with endless variety in 
 the arrangement of his groups. The figures, in 
 their movements, always form fine lines; and the 
 result, while it appears natural or accidental, is 
 always a consequence of deep study and science."^ 
 Expression, or, in other words, the language of 
 the soul and mind, imprinting itself on countenance 
 and gesture, is also his in an eminent degree. 
 
 Raphael’s comprehensive mind adapted itself to 
 the most varied subjects. He is greatest of ail in 
 sacred Art; but the paintings of the Farnesina 
 Palace, chiefly executed by his pupils from his de- 
 signs, prove how readily he could adopt the types 
 of heathen Mythology. They are fraught with in- 
 vention and poetic beauty ; but his deities are not 
 moulded according to the refined models of the 
 
 * I acknowledge my debt to Platner’s Dissertation on Ra- 
 phael for the spirit of some of the above observations. 
 
334 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 Greeks, and they conform too much to the sensual 
 in expression and attitude. In fact, the Raphael 
 of the Umbrian school, smitten with devout mys- 
 ticism, was a very different being from the Raphael 
 of the voluptuous and Epicurean court of Leo X., 
 pressed upon by all that could render the carnal 
 predominant over the spiritual. 
 
 Not only the grand and beautiful, but the decora- 
 tive in Art, was wholly at his command, as is proved 
 by the exquisite variety of his arabesque and other 
 graceful ornaments for the loggie of the Vatican. 
 
 Raphael appears to have been one of the most 
 amiable of men ; and Vasari takes leave of him, in 
 a passage which so forcibly represents him as such, 
 that we shall place its substance before our readers 
 as a close to this sketch. “ When this great artist,” 
 he says, closed his eyes in death, painting almost 
 seemed to die with him. It remains for us to 
 imitate the fine, the perfect models which he has 
 bequeathed us, and to cherish in our hearts his 
 memory, which has left behind it a delightful 
 fragrance. All that in Art is most attractive 
 Avas brought to a perfection by him, Avhich trans- 
 cended the brightest dreams of precursive hope. 
 Nor is this all that we owe to him. He taught 
 us, by his example, what is the fitting and proper 
 course of conduct in our relations with men of 
 the highest, the middle, and the humblest ranks 
 of life. He possessed also a quality very rare 
 among artists, and which I never think of as 
 exercised by him without adiniration, that of in- 
 
KAPHAEL, 
 
 335 
 
 troclucing a perfect concord among the numerous 
 pupils who studied under him, including men of 
 dispositions and talents the most various and 
 opposite. It seemed as if in his presence every 
 base and low quality, and every caprice of temper, 
 was so suspended as that nothing but union could 
 possibly subsist among all who were placed under 
 the eye and influence of Raphael. The extraordi- 
 nary ascendancy which he thus acquired was a 
 consequence of the power he possessed of winning 
 all hearts by his courtesy and affection, which were 
 such that not only men but even animals loved 
 him. If an artist applied to him, or even a 
 stranger, for advice or direction, or for a design, 
 he would leave the Avork he had in hand to oblige 
 him. And as to his numerous scholars, he treated 
 them rather as if they Avere his oAAm sons than as 
 artists, sparing no pains to minister to their im- 
 provement. AVhen he AA^ent to court he Avas sure 
 to be surrounded, on leaving his house, by a de- 
 voted bod3^-guard, of at least fifty painters, who 
 delighted to do him honour. In short, he lived 
 rather as a prince than as a painter. Oh ! Art of 
 Painting, hoAV high Avas thy privilege in having one 
 among thy devotees thus elevated by his virtues 
 and manners above the common rank of mortals, 
 and Avhose bright example did so much to guide 
 and animate thy folloAvers in the path Avhich leads 
 to respect and honour! It Avas in consequence of 
 his great qualities, as an artist and a man, that 
 
336 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 even the grandeur of Julius II. stooped to do him 
 honour, and the generosity of Leo X. loaded him 
 with favours.” 
 
 Discussions upon the relative merits of the two 
 great artists, to whom we have thus been alluding, 
 frequently took place in their lifetime. This was 
 natural, in consequence of the almost simultaneous 
 display of their works within the Vatican; and a 
 remarkable instance of it is recorded by Sebas- 
 tian del Piombo, in a letter addressed by him, 
 in the year 1512, to Michael Angelo. He tells 
 him of a recent interview with which he had been 
 honoured by Julius IL, and of the pope’s disposi- 
 tion to employ him in painting an apartment in the 
 Vatican; and how he had bred at the idea, and 
 assured his Holiness that, aided by Buonarroti, he 
 would engage to effect wonders. “ I don’t doubt 
 it,” replied the pope ; “ for you have all profited 
 by him. Look at the works of Raphael, who, after 
 seeing those of Michael Angelo, relinquished the 
 manner of Perugino, and approached as near as he 
 could to that of Michael Angelo. But he is terrible, 
 as you know, and nobody can get on with him.” 
 
 It was the fashion for the devotees of Raphael to 
 assert, that he left his great rival far behind in 
 grace and beauty, in colour and expression, and 
 
 * Carteggio inedito d’ artisti, dal Dott. Gaye, tom. ii. p. 489. 
 8 VO. Firenze, 1840. This letter was copied by Gaye from the 
 original in the possession of the President C. Buonarroti. It is 
 written in the Venetian dialect. 
 
RIVALRY WITH RAPHAEL. 
 
 337 
 
 that even in design he was little his inferior. These 
 were the trite sayings of artists who could much 
 more readily comprehend the enchanting and at- 
 tractive qualities of the one than the sublime con- 
 ceptions, the profound learning, and the severe 
 beauties of the other. There were, however, 
 various artists of a high order, who were no less 
 the devotees of Michael Angelo, and whom he oc- 
 casionally assisted with designs and cartoons cal- 
 culated to show that he was fully capable of com- 
 bining grace and beauty with dignity and eleva- 
 tion. The principal of these were Sebastian del 
 Piombo, originally a pupil of Giorgione, whose style 
 of colouring he felicitously adopted ; Daniele da 
 Volterra, whose finest pictures are in the Mich an- 
 gelesque manner, which, however, he carried out 
 with much of independent power ; Jacopo Carrucci, 
 called Pontormo ; and Marcello V enusti. 
 
 The rivalry which existed between the scholars 
 and admirers of these great men, extended in some 
 degree to themselves. The one felt that he was 
 unequalled in the power of design, and was there- 
 fore nettled by the undervaluing comparisons made 
 between him and Eaphael; the latter felt indig- 
 nant when he heard his power of drawing the 
 human frame declared to be in no degree com- 
 parable to that of Buonarroti. Michael Angelo 
 laboured also under an impression that Bramante 
 and Raphael had injuriously caballed against him 
 
 VOL. T. 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 with J ulius II. He has given very strong expres- 
 sion to this conviction in a letter, some passages of 
 which will be found in the Appendix.* He also 
 himself conceived that RaphaeFs artistic obligations 
 to him were greater than they really were. Hence 
 arose an unfortunate jealousy between them, and a 
 distance, which was heightened by the natural re- 
 serve and susceptibility of Michael Angelo. When 
 he wished to show that he could, if he would, rival 
 the softer graces of Raphael, there was none among 
 his followers whom he so readily employed in 
 painting from his designs as Sebastian del Piombo, 
 his object being to unite his fine Venetian colour- 
 ing with his own f grand manner. In this he^suC'- 
 ceeded in many instances. A picture of this de- 
 scription is in existence, the subject being the Sleep 
 of the Infant on the Virgin^s lap, with St. Joseph 
 and St. John reverentially regarding him : it may 
 justly be compared to the most beautiful of the 
 Holy Pamilies of Raphael. The figure and aspect 
 of the Virgin^ though highly dignified, are graceful 
 and beautiful ; the sleeping Child is a model of 
 fine drawing* the St. John, peeping over, with his 
 finger on his lip, is full of sweet sentiment ; and the 
 St. Joseph is a softened repetition of one of the 
 grandest prophetic figures of the Sistine Chapel— 
 
 * Appendix V. Appendix VI., on the places occupied by 
 the Tapestries of the Cartoons of Raphael in the Sistine 
 Chapel, is by Chevalier Bunsen. 
 
 t Vasari, vol. ii. p. 10., Vita di S. del Piombo^. 
 
PAINTINGS FROM HIS DESIGNS. 
 
 339 
 
 the Jeremiah. The contours of the figures are ex- 
 tremely graceful throughout, and the colouring is 
 in the fine style of Giorgione.^ 
 
 There is also another picture of the same class, 
 from the design of Michael Angelo, which was for- 
 merly in the Barberini Gallery at Rome, in which 
 Sebastian del Piombo is supposed to have been 
 aided in parts by the pencil of Michael Angelo him- 
 self. He originally made the design for his friend, 
 the celebrated Vittoria Colonna.f The subject is 
 a dead Christ, supported by angels on each side, 
 and behind by the Virgin Mary, seated in front of 
 the cross. Her outstretched arms and uplifted 
 eyes are expressive of sublimated grief, such as 
 seems to realise the Evangelical prophecy concern- 
 ing her, — “ A sword shall pierce through thine own 
 heart also.” (Luke ii. 35.) 
 
 The body of the Christ, whose head declines upon 
 his breast, is a grand work of Art ; and the two 
 angelic figures, exquisitely drawn, each supporting 
 an arm of the Saviour, seem to act their part with 
 sympathetic tenderness. 
 
 In the cathedral of Viterbo, the same subject is 
 treated by Sebastian del Piombo, from the design 
 of Buonarroti, in a picture of great pathos and ad- 
 mirable drawing. Here the body of the Christ is 
 
 * This picture and the next mentioned are described in Dr. 
 Waagen’s Art Treasures, vol. iii. pp. 187-8., under head “ Blaise 
 Castle.” 
 
 t Condivi describes it, cap. 63. 
 
340 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 stretched out in death, and the Virgin stands above 
 it in devout contemplation. 
 
 The fine picture of the Scourging of our Lord, 
 in the church of San Pietro Montorio, is another 
 work, painted Sebastian del Piombo, from the 
 design of Michael Angelo. In this instance, Vasari 
 tells us that he drew the outline of the figure of 
 the Christ, upon the wall, in chalk, with his own 
 hand. In expression, it is truly admirable, and its 
 meek, submissive aspect comes into striking con- 
 trast with the ferocious looks of the savage execu- 
 tioners. We can also believe it to have originally 
 been a model of fine colouring, but time has greatly 
 blackened the shadows, and dimmed the once 
 golden lights. It is painted in oil colour. 
 
 In the four pictures above referred to, the designs 
 are wholly by Michael ilngelo ; but in the grand 
 altar-piece of the Eesurrection of Lazarus, now in 
 the National Gallery of London, it is generally sup- 
 posed that Michael Angelo supplied only parts of 
 the design, and in particular, the group of Lazarus, 
 his sister, and others. To us it appears that the 
 drawing of the remainder is by no means in the 
 style of Buonarroti : in the Lazarus, who is looking 
 at Christ, the expression of returning life and of 
 inquiring astonishment, as also the quality of the 
 drawing, are worthy of him. 
 
 In colouring, Sebastian is in general admirable ; 
 and in portrait he is truly great. We will take this 
 occasion of alluding to the three other eminent 
 
PAINTINGS FROM HIS DESIGNS. 
 
 U1 
 
 artists, who, like Sebastian del Piombo, imitated 
 the style, and often painted from the designs of 
 Michael Angelo, though at a somewhat later period 
 than the aera of Eaphael. 
 
 Daniele da Volterra had much more of native 
 and original genius than Sebastian, but was very 
 inferior to him in colour. His greatest work 
 (and Niccola Poussin was accustomed to assign 
 it the first place after the Transfiguration) is a 
 Deposition from the Cross, in a chapel of the 
 church of the Trinita de’ Monti at Rome. This 
 picture is so much injured by time, and bad resto- 
 ration, that it is only a faint shadow of its former 
 self ; but the composition is extremely fine, and 
 the drawing, where it has escaped the restorer’s 
 touch, is no less so. The plastic feeling, and ana- 
 tomical perfection of the descending body of the 
 Christ, have rarely been surpassed. It is altogether 
 in the style and manner of Michael Angelo ; and 
 that both it and the general conception are pro- 
 bably his, may be inferred from the painter’s 
 having introduced his portrait, with a mirror in 
 his hand, close to the picture, as if to intimate that 
 he beheld in it a reflection of his own design. The 
 ease and vigorous action of the figures who are 
 letting down the Saviour’s body, and the pathos of 
 the whole group, cannot be too highly extolled. 
 Another fine picture by the same great artist, the 
 subject being the Entombment of Christ is also 
 
 * In tlie collection at Blaise Castle, 
 
342 
 
 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 
 
 said to have been designed by Buonarroti, and the 
 drawing throughout seems to attest his pencil. 
 
 So promising were the early productions of Ja- 
 copo Carrucci, called Pontormo, as long as he 
 studied under Andrea del Sarto, that Michael An- 
 gelo said, If this young man’s life is spared he will 
 raise our Art to the skies.” But when he after- 
 wards painted from his own resources, he drooped 
 into caprice and mannerism. Yet the genius of 
 Michael Angelo, whenever he came into contact 
 with it, seemed to rekindle his earlier aspirations, 
 and he was fond of painting from his designs. His 
 finest work of this description is a picture of V enus 
 kissing Cupid, in which he has combined his own 
 graceful colour with the grand outline and science 
 of Buonarroti. There are two examples of this 
 subject ascribed to him, one in Kensington Palace, 
 the other in the Berlin Gallery. 
 
 Marcello Venusti was another artist, who fre- 
 quently painted from the designs, or imitated the 
 manner, of Michael Angelo. His execution is la- 
 boured, but etfective. The galleries of Rome possess 
 many of his works, which are usually on a small 
 scale. The finest of his pictures is an elaborate 
 copy of the Last Judgment, painted with a force 
 and fidelity of expression which are truly admi- 
 rable : it is now in the Royal Gallery at Naples. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 London: Printed by Spottiswoodb & Co., New-street-Square. 
 
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LIST of WOEKS in GENERAL LITEEATUEE, 
 
 FUBLISHED BY 
 
 Messrs. LONGMAN, BEOWN, GEEEN, LONGMANS, and EOBEETS, 
 
 39 , PATEEKOSTEE EOW, lONDON. 
 
 CLASSIFIED INDEX. 
 
 Agriculture and Rural 
 Affairs. Pages. 
 
 Bayldon on Valuing Rents, &c. - 4 
 
 Caird’s Letters on Agriculture - 6 
 
 Cecil’s Stud Farm ' * " ® 
 
 Loudon’s Agriculture - - - 13 
 
 Low’s Elements of Agriculture - 13 
 
 Arts, Manufactures, and 
 Architecture. 
 
 Arnott on Ventilation . - - 3 
 
 Bourne on the Screw Propeller - 4 
 
 Brande’s Dictionary of Science, &c. 4 
 
 “ Organic Chemistry- - 4 
 
 Cherreul on Colour - . . 6 
 
 Cresy’s Civil Engineering - - 6 
 
 Fairbairn’s Informa, for Engineers 8 
 Gwilt’s F.ncyclo. of Architecture - 8 
 
 Harford’s Engravings after Michael 
 Angelo - - - - - 8 
 
 Herring on Paper-Making - - 9 
 
 Humphreys’s Parablea Illuminated 10 
 Jameson’s Sacred & Legendary Art 11 
 “ Commonplace-Book - 11 
 Konig’s PictO'.ial Life of Luther - 8 
 
 Loudon’s Rural Architecture - 13 
 MacDougall’s Theory of War - 14 
 
 Malan’s Aphorisms on Drawing - 14 
 
 Moseley’s Engineering - - - 16 
 
 Piesse’s Art of Perfumery - .- 1'? 
 
 Richardson’s Art of Horsemanship 18 
 Scrivenor on the Iron Trade - - 19 
 
 Stark’s Printing - - - - 23 
 
 Steam-Engine, by the Artisan Club 4 
 Ure’s Dictionary of Arts. &c. - 22 
 
 Young on Prse-RafFaellit ism - 24 
 
 Biography. 
 
 Arago’s Autobiography - - 23 
 
 “ Lives of Scientific Men - 3 
 
 Bodenstedt and Wagner’s Schamyl 23 
 Buckingham’s (J. S.) Memoirs - 5 
 
 Bunsen’s Hippolytus - - - 5 
 
 Clinton’s (Fynes) Autobiography 6 
 Cockayne’s Marshal Turenne - 23 
 Dennistoun’s Strange & Lumisden 7 
 Forster’s De Foe and Churchill - 23 
 Fulcher’s Life of Gainsborough - 8 
 
 Harford’s Life of Michael Angelo - 8 
 
 Haydon’s Autobiography,by 'Taylor 9 
 Hayward’s ( hesterfield and Selwyn 23 
 Holcroft’s Memoirs - - - 23 
 
 Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopjcdia - 13 
 Maunder’sBio^aphical Treasury- 14 
 Memoir of the Duke of Wellington 23 
 Memoirs of James .Montgomery - 15 
 
 Merivale’s Memoirs of Cicero - 15 
 Rogers’s Life and Genius of Fuller 23 
 Russell’s Memoirs of Moore - - 16 
 
 “ Life of Lord Wm. Russell 19 
 St. John’s Audubon - - - 19 
 
 Southey’s Life of Wesley - - 20 
 
 “ Life and Correspondence 20 
 “ Select Correspondence - 20 
 Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biography 21 
 Sydney Smith’s Memoirs - - 20 
 
 Taylor’s Loyola - - - - 21 
 
 “ Wesley - - - - 21 
 
 Waterton’s Autobiography & Essays 22 
 AVheeler’s Life of Herodotus - 24 
 
 Books of General Utility. 
 
 Acton’s Bread-Book . . . 3 
 
 “ Cookery - - - . 3 
 
 Black’s Treatise on Brewing - - 4 
 
 Cabinet Gazetteer - - - - 5 
 
 “ Laryver - - - - 5 
 
 Cust’s Invalid's Own Book - - 7 
 
 Gilbart’s Logic for the Million - 8 
 
 Hints on Etiquette - - - 9 
 
 Howto Nurse Sick Children - - 10 
 
 Hudson’sExecutor’s Guide - - 10 
 
 “ on Makin? Wills - - 10 
 
 Kesteven's Domestic Medicine - 11 
 Gardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 
 Loudon’s Lady’s Country Compa- 
 nion 13 
 
 Maunder’s Treasury of Knowledge 15 
 “ Biographical Treasury 14 
 “ Geographical Treasury 15 
 “ Scientific Treasury - 15 
 
 Maunder’s Treasury of History - 15 
 “ Natural History - - 15 
 
 Piesse’s Art of Perfumery - - 17 
 
 Piscator’s Cookery of Fish • - 17 
 
 Pocket and the Stud . - - 9 
 
 Pycroft’s English Reading - - 18 
 
 Reece’s Medical Guide - - - 18 
 
 Rich’s Comp, to Latin Dictionary 18 
 Richardson’s Art of Horsemanship 18 
 Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 18 
 
 Roget’s English Thesauius - - 18 
 
 Rowton’s Debater - - - - 18 
 
 Short Whist 20 
 
 Thomson’s Interest Tables - - 21 
 
 Webster’s Domestic Economy - 22 
 
 West on Children’s Diseases - - 22 
 
 Willich’s Popular Tables - - 24 
 
 Wilmot’s Blackstone - - - 24 
 
 Botany and Gardening. 
 
 Hooker’s British Flora - - - 9 
 
 “ Guide to Kew Gardens - 9 
 
 “ “ “ Kew Museum - 9 
 
 Lindley’s Introduction to Botany 13 
 “ Theory of Horticulture - 12 
 
 Loudon’s Hortus Britannicus - 13 
 
 “ Amateur Gardener - 13 
 
 “ Trees and Slirubs - - 13 
 
 “ Gardening - - - 13 
 
 " Plants - - - - 13 
 
 “ Self Instruction for Gar- 
 deners, &c. - - - - 13 
 
 Pereira’s Materia Medica - - 17 
 
 Rivers’s Rose-Amateur’s Guide - 18 
 Wilson’s British Mosses - - 24 
 
 Chronology. 
 
 Blair’s Chronological Tables - 4 
 
 Brewer’s Historical Atlas - - 4 
 
 Bunsen’s Ancient Egypt - - 5 
 
 Haydn’s Beatson’s Index. - - 9 
 
 Jaquemet’s Chronology - - 11 
 
 Johns& Nicolas’sCalehdar ofVictory 11 
 Nicolas’s Chronology of History - 12 
 
 Commerce and Mercantile 
 Affairs. 
 
 Gilbart’s Treatise on Banking - 8 
 
 Lorimer’s Young Master Mariner 13 
 Macleod’s Banking - - - 14 
 
 M‘Culloch’sCommerce& Navigation 14 
 Scrivenor on Iron Trade - - 19 
 
 Thomson's Interest Table* - - 21 
 
 Tooke’s History of Pi ices - - 23 
 
 Tuson’s British Consul’s Manual - 22 
 
 Criticism, History, and 
 
 Memoirs. 
 
 Blair’s Chron. ana Histor. Tables - 4 
 
 Brewer’s Historical Atlas - - - 4 
 
 Bunsen’s Ancient Egypt - - 5 
 
 “ Hippolytus - - - 5 
 
 Burton’s History of Scotland - 5 
 
 Chapman’s Gustavus Adolphus - G 
 Conybeare and Howson’s St. Paul 6 
 Erskine’s History of India - - 7 
 
 Gleig’s Leipsic Campaign - - 23 
 
 Gurney’s Historical Sketches - 8 
 
 Haydon’s Autobiography, by Taylor 9 
 Jeffrey’s (Lord) Contributions - 11 
 Johns& Nicolas’sCalendar ofVictory 11 
 Kemble’s Anglo-Saxons - - 11 
 
 Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 
 Macaulay’s Crit. and Hist. Essays 13 
 “ History of England - 13 
 
 “ Speeches - - - 13 
 
 Mackintosh’s Miscellaneous Works 14 
 “ History of England - 14 
 M'Culloch’sGeographicalDictionary 14 
 Maunder’s Treasury of History - 15 
 Memoir of the Duke of Wellington 23 
 Merivale’s History of Rome - - 15 
 
 “ Roman Republic - - 15 
 
 Milner’s Church History - - 15 
 
 Moore’s (Thomas) Memoirs, &c. - 16 
 Mure’s Greek Literature - 16 
 
 Normanby’s Year of Revolution - 17 
 Raikes’s Journal - - - - 18 
 
 Ranke’s Ferdinand & Maximilian 23 
 Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 18 
 
 Roberts’s Southern Counties - 18 
 Rogers’s Essays from Edinb. ReviewlS 
 
 Roget’s English Thesaurus - 
 Russell’s Life of Lord W. Russell 
 Schmitz’s History of Greece 
 Smith’s Sacred Annals - - - 
 
 Southey’s Doctor - - - - 
 
 Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biography 
 “ Lectures on French History 
 Sydney Smith’s Works - - - 
 
 “ Select Works 
 
 “ Lectures 
 
 “ Memoirs 
 
 Taylor’s Loyola - - _ - 
 
 “ "Wesley . . _ _ 
 
 Thirlwall’s History of Greece 
 Thornbury’s Shakspeare’s England 
 Townsend’s State Trials 
 Turkey and Christendom 
 Turner’s Anglo-Saxons 
 
 “ Middle Ages - . _ 
 
 “ Sacred Hist, of the World 
 Vehse’s Austrian Court - 
 Wade’s England’s Greatness 
 Whitelocke’s Swedish Embassy 
 AVoods’s Crimean Campaign- 
 Young’s Christ of History - 
 
 Geography and Atlases. 
 
 Arrowsmith’s Geogr. Diet, of Bible 
 Brewer’s Historical Atlas 
 Butler’s Geography and Atlases - 
 Cabinet Gazetteer - . . _ 
 
 Cornwall ; Its Mines, &c. 
 
 Durrieu’s Morocco - _ _ 
 
 Hughes’s Australian Colonies 
 Johnston’s General Gazetteer 
 Maunder’s Treasury of Geography 
 M'Culloch’s Geographical Dictionary 
 “ Russia and Turkey - 
 Milner’s Baltic Sea . . . 
 
 ‘‘ Crimea - - _ . 
 
 “ Russia - 
 
 Murray’s Encyclo. of Geography - 
 Sharp’s British Gazetteer 
 Wheeler’s Geography of Herodotus 
 
 Juvenile Books. 
 
 Amy Herbert - - - - _ 
 
 Cleve Hall . - . _ _ 
 
 Earl’s Daughter (The) - - - 
 
 Experie nce of Life - - - 
 
 Gertrude - - - . _ 
 
 Gilbart's Logic for the Young 
 Howitt’s Boy’s Country Book 
 “ (Mary) Children’s Year - 
 Ivors 
 
 Katharine Ashton - - . 
 
 I.aneton Parsonage - . . 
 
 Margaret Percival - - - - 
 
 Medicine and Surgery. 
 
 Brodie’s Psychological Inquiries - 
 Bull’s Hints to Mothers - - . 
 
 “ Management of Children - 
 Copland’s Dictionary of Medicine - 
 Cust’s Invalid’s Own Book - 
 Holland’s Mental Pliysiology 
 
 “ Medical Notes and Reflect. 
 How to Nurse Sick Children - 
 Kesteven’s Domestic Medicine 
 Pereira’s Materia Medica 
 Reece’s Medical Guide - . - 
 
 West on Diseases of Infancy - 
 AViJson’s Dissector's Manual 
 
 Miscellaneous and General 
 Literature. 
 
 Carlisle’s Lectures and Addresses 23 
 'Defence ol Eclipse of Faith - - 7 
 
 Digbj’s Lover’s Seat 
 Eclipse 
 
 lipse of Faith 
 Greg’s Political and Social Essavs 8 
 Gurney’s Evening Recreations ' - 8 
 
 Hassall on Adulteration of Fc o 1 - 9 
 
 Haydn’s Book of Dignities - - 9 
 
 Holland’s Mental Physiology - 9 
 
 Hooker’s Kew Guides - - - 9 
 
 Howitt’s Rural Life of England - 10 
 “ Visitsto RemarkablePlaces 10 
 Jameson’s Commonplace Book - 11 
 Jeffrey’s (Lord) Contributions - 11 
 Last of the Old Squires - - 17 
 
 Macaulay’s Crit. and Hist. Essays 
 “ Speeches . . . 
 
 M ackintosh’s M iscellaneous Works 
 Memoirs of a Maitre d’Armes 
 
 I 
 
 14 i 
 23 I 
 
 B 
 
Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs 14 
 Martineau’s Miscellanies - - 14 
 
 Pascal’s Works^ by Pearce - - 17 
 
 Pillans’s Contributions to Educationl? 
 Pinney on Duration of Human Life 17 
 Printing: Its Origin, &c. - - 23 
 
 Pycroft’s English Reading - - 18 
 
 Rich’s Comp, to Latin Dictionary 18 
 Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 18 
 
 Rowton’s Debater - . . ig 
 
 Seaward’s Narrative ofhis Shipwreckig 
 
 Sir Roger de Coverley 
 Smith’s (Rev. Sydney) Works 
 Southey’s Common -place Books 
 “ The Doctor &c. 
 Souvestre’s Attic Philosopher 
 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 
 . 23 
 
 Confessions of a Working Man 23 
 ■ " ■ ■ 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 21 
 22 
 24 
 
 Spencer’s Psychology 
 Stephen’s Essays - . - 
 
 Stow’s Training tSystem 
 Strachey’s Hebrew Politics - 
 Thomson’s Laws of Thought 
 Townsend’s State Trials 
 Willich’s Popular Tables 
 Yonge’s English-Greek Lexicon - 24 
 
 Latin Gradus 
 
 Zumpt’s Latin Grammar - - 24 
 
 Natural History in general. 
 
 Catlow’s Popular Conchology - 6 
 
 Ephemera and Young on the Salmon 7 
 Gosse’s Natural History of Jamaica 8 
 Kemp’s Natural History of Creation 23 
 Kirby and Spence’s Entomology - 11 
 Lee’s Elements of Natural History 12 
 Mann on Reproduction - - 14 
 
 Maunder’s Natural History - - 15 
 
 Turton’s Shells oftheBritishlslands 22 
 Yan der Hoeven’s Handbook of 
 Zoology - . - - - 22 
 
 VonTschudi’s Sketches in the Alps 23 
 Waterton’s Essays on Natural Hist. 22 
 Youatt’s The Dog - - - - 24 
 
 “ The Horse - - - 24 
 
 1-Volume Encyclopsedias 
 and Dictionaries. 
 
 Arrowsmith’s Geogr. Diet, of Bible 3 
 Blaine’s Rural Sports - - . 4 
 
 Brande’s Science, Literature, and Art 4 
 Copland’s Dictionary of Medicine - 6 
 
 Cresy’s Civil Engineering - . g 
 
 Gwilt’s Architecture - _ . g 
 
 Johnston’s Geographical Dictionary 11 
 Loudon’s Agriculture - - - 13 
 
 “ Rural Architecture - 13 
 “ Gardening - - - 13 
 
 “ Plants - - - - 13 
 
 “ Trees and Shrubs - - 13 
 
 McCulloch’s Geographical Dictionary 14 
 “ DictionarvofCommerce 14 
 Murray’s Encyclo. of Geography - 16 
 Sharp’s British Gazetteer - - 19 
 
 lire’s Dictionary of Arts, &c. - - 22 
 
 Webster’s Domestic Economy - 22 
 
 Religious & Moral Works. 
 
 Amy Herbert - . - - 19 
 
 Arrowsmith’s Geogr. Diet, of Bible 3 
 Bloomfield’s Greek Testament - 4 
 
 Calvert’s Wife’s Manual - . 6 
 
 Cleve Hall 19 
 
 Conybeare’s Essays - - . 6 
 
 Conybeare and Howson’s St. Paul 6 
 Cotton’s Instructions in Christianity 7 
 Dale’s Domestic Liturgy - . 7 
 
 Defence of Eclipse o/ErtiTA - - 7 
 
 Discipline - - ... 7 
 
 Earl’s Daughter (The) - - - 19 
 
 Eclipse of I'aith - - _ , 7 
 
 Englishman’s Greek Concordance 7 
 “ Heb.&Chald. Concord. 7 
 Etherid.;e’s Jerusalem - . . 7 
 
 Experience (The) of Life - - 19 
 
 Gertrude - - « « - 29 
 
 Harrison’s Light of the Forge - 8 
 
 Hook's Lectures on Passion Week 9 
 Horne’s Introduction to Scriptures 10 
 A.bridgment of ditto - 10 
 Humphreys’s Parables Illuminated 10 
 I^’ors 
 
 Jame.son’s Sacred Legends - - 11 
 
 Monastic Legends - - 11 
 
 „ Legends of the Madonna 11 
 Lectures on Female Em- 
 ployment - . . 
 
 Jeremy Taylor’s Works - I 
 
 Kahsch’s Commentary on Exochis- 
 Kathanne Ashton - . 
 
 Konig’s Pictorial Life of Luther - 
 Laneton Parsonage 
 Letters to my Unknown Friends - 
 “ on Happiness - - - 
 
 Lynch’s Rivulet . - - . 
 
 Lyra Germanica - - - _ 
 
 Macnaught on Inspiration - - 
 
 Maitland’s Church in Catacombs - 14 
 
 Martineau’s Christian Life - - 14 
 
 “ Hymns - • - 14 
 
 Milner’s Church of Christ - - 15 
 
 Montgomery’s Original Hymns - 15 
 
 Moore on the Use of the Body - 16 
 
 “ “ Soul and Body - 16 
 
 “ ’s Man and his Motives - 16 
 
 Mormonism - - - - - 23 
 
 Neale’s Closing Scene - - - 16 
 
 Newman’s (J. H.) Discourses - 17 
 
 “ on Universities - - 16 
 
 Ranke’s Ferdinand & Maximilian 23 
 Readings for Lent - - - 19 
 
 “ Confirmation - - 19 
 
 Robinson’s Lexicon to the Greek 
 Testament ----- 18 
 Saints out Example - - - 19 
 
 Sermon in the Mount - - 19 
 
 Sinclair’s Journey of Life - - 20 
 
 Smith’s (Sydney) Moral Philosophy 20 
 “ (G.) Sacred Annals - - 20 
 
 “ Harmony of Divine Dis- 
 pensations - - - - - 
 
 “ (J.) Voyage and Shipwreck 
 
 of St. Paul - - - - 
 
 Southey’s Life of Wesley 
 Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biography 
 Tayler’s (J. J.) Discourses - 
 Taylor’s Loyola - _ - - 
 
 “ Wesley - - - - 
 
 Theologia Germanica - - - 
 
 Thomson on the Atonement - 
 Thumb Bible (The) 
 
 Tomline’s Introduction to the Bible 
 Turner’s Sacred History - 
 Twining’s Bible Types - - - 
 
 AVheeler’s Popular Bible Harmony 
 Young’s Christ of History 
 
 “ Mystery - - - - 
 
 Poetry and tke Drama. 
 
 Aikin’s (Dr.l British Poets - 
 Arnold’s Poems - - - - 
 
 Baillie’s (Joanna) Poetical Works 
 Bode’s Ballads from Herodotus 
 Calvert’s Wife’s Manual 
 
 “ Pneuma - - - - 
 
 Flowers and their Kindred Thoughts 
 Goldsmith’s Poems, illustrated - 
 L. E. L.’s Poetical Works 
 Idnwood’s Anthologia Oxoniensis- 
 Lynch’s Rivulet - - - - 
 
 Lyra Germanica - - - - 
 
 Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome 
 Mac Donald’s Within and AVithout 
 Montgomery’s Poetical Works 
 “ Original Hymns 
 
 Moore’s Poetical Works 
 
 “ Epicurean- - - - 
 
 “ Lalla Rookh - - - 
 
 “ Irish Melodies - - - 
 
 “ Songs and Ballads - 
 Reade’s Man in Paradise 
 Shakspeare.by Bowdler 
 Southey’s Poetical AVorks 
 
 “ British Poets - - - 
 
 Thomson’s Seasons, illustrated 
 
 and 
 
 Political Economy 
 Statistics. 
 
 Caird’s Letters on Agriculture - 6 
 
 Dodd’s Food of London - - 7 
 
 Greg’s Political and Social Essays 8 
 Jennings’s Social Delusions - - ll 
 
 Laing’s Notes of a Traveller- - 23 
 
 M'Culloch’s Geog. Statist. &c. Diet. 14 
 “ Dictionary of Commerce 14 
 “ London - - - 23 
 
 Tegoborski’s Russian Statistics - 21 
 Willich’s Popular Tables - - 24 
 
 The Sciences in general 
 and Mathematics. 
 
 Arago’s Meteorological Essays - 3 
 
 “ Popular Astronomy - - 3 
 
 Bourne on the Screw Propeller - 4 
 
 “ ’s Catechism of the Steam- 
 Engine ----- 4 
 
 Brande’s Dictionary of Science, &c. 4 
 
 “ Lectures on Organic Chemistry 4 
 Brougham and Routh’s Principia 4 
 Butler’s Rolls Sermons - - - 5 
 
 Cresy’s Civil Engineering - - 6 
 
 DelaBeche’sGeologyofCornwalI,&c. 7 
 De la Rive’s Electricity - - 7 
 
 Faraday’s Non -Metallic Elements 8 
 Grove’s Correia, of Physical Forces 8 
 HerscheTs Outlines of Astronomy 9 
 Holland’s Mental Physiology - 9 
 
 Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature - 10 
 “ Cosmos - - - 10 
 
 Hunt on Light - - - . ]o 
 
 Kemp’s Phasis of Matter - - 11 
 
 Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 
 Mann on Reproduction - - - 14 
 
 Marcet’s (Mrs.) Conversations - 15 
 MorelTs Elements of Psychology - 16 
 
 Moseley’sEngineering&Architecture 17 
 
 Nomos 17 
 
 Our Coal-Fields and our Coal-Pits 23 
 Owen’s Lectures on Comp Anatomy 17 
 Pereira on Polarised Light - - 17 
 
 Peschel’s Elements of Physics - 17 
 
 Phillips’s Fossils of Cornwall, &c. 17 
 
 “ Mineralogy - - - 17 
 
 “ Guide to Geology - - 18 
 
 Portlock’s Geology of Londonderry 18 
 Powell’s Unity of Worlds - - 18 
 
 Smee’s Electro-Metallurgy - 
 Steam-Engine (The) - - - 
 
 Wilson’s Electric Telrgraph - 
 
 Rural Sports. 
 
 Baker’s Rifle and Hound in Ceylon 3 
 Blaine’s Dictionary of Sports - ^ 
 
 D .i* . ^ C 
 
 Cecil’s Stable Practice - 
 
 “ Stud Farm - - - . 
 
 The Cricket- Field - - - - 
 
 Davy’s Piscatorial Colloquies 
 Ephemera on Angling - 
 
 “ Book of the Salmon 
 Hawker’s Young Sportsman - 
 The Hunting-Field - - - 
 
 Idle’s Hints on Shooting 
 Pocket and the Stud - - - 
 
 Practical Horsemanship 
 Richardson’s Horsemanship - 
 Ronalds’s Fly-Fisher’s Entomo- 
 logy ------ 
 
 Stable Talk and Table Talk - 
 Stainton’s June - . - _ 
 
 Stonehenge on the Greyhound 
 Thacker’s Courser’s Guide 
 The Stud, for Practical Purposes 
 
 Veterinary Medicine, &c. 
 
 Cecil’s Stable Practice 
 
 “ Stud Farm - _ . 
 
 Hunting Field (The) - - - 
 
 Miles’s Horse-Shoeing - - - 1 
 
 “ on the Horse’s Foot - - 1 
 
 Pocket and the Stud - - - 
 
 Practical Horsemanship 
 Richardson’s Horsemanship - 1 
 Stable Talk and Table Talk - 
 Stud (The) - - - - 
 
 Youatt’s The Dog - - - - 5 
 
 “ The Horse - - - 1 
 
 Voyages and Travels. 
 
 Auldjo's .Ascent of Mont Blanc - 2 
 Baines’s Vaudois of Piedmont - 2 
 Baker’s Wanderin.gs in Ceylon 
 Barrow’s Continental Tour - 
 Barth’s African Travels 
 Burton’s East Africa 
 
 “ Medina and Mecca - 
 Carlisle’s Turkey and Greece 
 De Custine’s Russia 
 Eothen - - - - - 
 
 Ferguson’s Swiss Travels - 
 Flemish Interiors - - - - 8 
 
 Forester’s Rambles in Norway - 23 
 “ Sardinia and Corsica - 8 
 
 Gironiere’s Philippines - - - 23 
 
 Gregorovius’s Corsica - - - 23 
 
 Halloran’s Japan - - - . 8 
 
 Hill’s Travels in Siberia - - 9 
 
 Hope’s Brittany and the Bible - 23 
 “ Chase in Brittany - - 23 
 
 Howitt’s Art-Student in Munich - 10 
 
 “ (W.) Victoria - - - 10 
 
 Hue’s Chinese Empire - - - 10 
 
 Hue and Gabet’s Tartary & Thibet 23 
 Hudson and Kennedy’s Mont 
 Blanc ------ 10 
 
 Hughes’s Australian Colonies - 23 
 Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature - 10 
 Hurlbut’s Pictures from Cuba - 23 
 Hutchinson’s African Exploration 23 
 Jameson’s Canada - - - - 23 
 
 Jerrmann’s St. Petersburg - - 23 
 
 Kennard’s Eastern Tour - - 11 
 
 Laing’s Norway - - - - 23 
 
 “ Notes of a Traveller - 23 
 M’Clure’s In orth- West Passage - 14 
 Mason’s Zulus of Natal - - 23 
 
 Mayne’s Arctic Discoveries - - 23 
 
 Miles’s Rambles in Iceland - - 23 
 
 Pfeiffer’s A'oyage round the AVorld 23 
 “ Second ditto - - - 17 
 
 Scott’s Danes and Swedes - - 19 
 
 Seaward’s Narrative - - - 19 
 
 Weld’s United States and Canada- 22 
 Werne's African Wanderings - 23 
 Wheeler’s Travels of Herodotus - 24 
 Wilberforce’s Brazil & Slave-Trade 23 
 
 Works of Fiction. 
 
 Arnold’s Oak fie Id - - - 3 
 
 Macdonald’s Villa Verocchio - 14 
 Sir Roger de Coverley - - - 20 
 
 Southey’s The Doctor &c. - - 20 
 
 Trollope’s AVarden - - - 22 
 
 
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