File:The library of historic characters and famous events of all nations and all ages; (1902) (14760135716).jpg

Identifier: libraryofhistori02spof (find matches)
Title: The library of historic characters and famous events of all nations and all ages;
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Spofford, Ainsworth Rand, 1825-1908 Weitenkampf, Frank, 1866-1962 Lamberton, John Porter, 1839-1917
Subjects: Biography History
Publisher: Philadelphia : W. Finley
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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omising disposition somewhat softeued, perhaps,through her influence. On February 18, 1564, he breathedhis last, and the funeral obsequies were celebrated with pompat Florence, whither his body had been secretly removed. With all the angularity of his character,—his violent andirritable temper, his sarcasm, and his almost abnormal loveof solitude,—Michael Angelo was yet a good man and a mostgenerous one, liberal towards his inferiors, while he himselfwas abstemious and frugal to the last degree. As an artist,he was unique among his fellows; absolute originality, bold-ness of drawing, daring in conception and composition, and amarvelous knowledge of anatomy mark his paintings, in whichhe broke through the traditions of ecclesiastical art, and themany nude figures which called forth much disapproval inhis time. If his work often seems bold, exaggerated even inits powerful expressiveness, it must not be forgotten that, likehis productions, the artist was likewise extraordinary in the
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. MICHAEL ANGELO. 227 loftiness of his thoughts and ideals. His unlimited masteryover form, says J. A. Symonds, ... seduced him at theclose of his career into a stvlistic mannerism, and this wasunfortunately aped by his successors. In the grand creationsof his chisel we hud not the abstract beauty of the antique,but rather the thoughts and feelings which agitated his soul.Au 1 not (infrequently were details left unfinished, when hisideas had been sufficiently expressed. 11 There was given me at my birth, said he, in one of hispoems, as an assurance of my vocation, that sense of thebeautiful, my guide and my light in two arts; but, believe me,it is this alone which raises my eyes to that height which Istrive so eagerly to reach in painting or in sculpture. Leavemore rash and grosser spirits to search only in the materialfor a beauty which raises and transports loftier souls even untoheaven. Eyes so weak cannot be lifted from mortal formsupwards towards God, or reach that point to which

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