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The exclusive admiration of the Grecian architecture is becoming the cant of the day. It is impossible to agree with the dogmas of the professors in their exclusion of all the resources which the ingenuity of the moderns has furnished, and which the necessities of greater civilisation require: yet this different and less intolerant opinion may be entertained without any deficiency in admiration of the beautiful specimens of antiquity. This country is greatly indebted to the publications of Stuart and Revett, and of the Dillettanti Society, who first cultivated the true taste for Grecian antiquities, and laid accurate representations of them before the public. Stuart, whose original employment was that of painting fan mounts, but whose talents and industry enabled him to surmount all difficulties, conceived the happy idea of going to the original source of the beautiful in the arts; and from reading the Grecian history, figured to himself that there must remain at Athens a purer style than had been adopted either by the Romans or by the Revival school. He performed the journey on foot, with very slender resources, and joining company with Mr. Revett, produced the work which has redounded so much to the credit of himself and of his country. His project immediately excited the jealousy and with it the rivalry of the French, who despatched Le Roy in order to anticipate their labours, which he did by publishing his work at Paris long before the work of Stuart and Revett appeared. Le Roy however employed only twentyone days in executing that which his rivals were engaged on for three years. The result might be easily foreseen. Le Roy's book soon sold for waste paper, and the Athenian Antiquities have since their publication in England been reprinted at Paris.

In mentioning the different great artists of the English school, we should do injustice in omitting the names of several distinguished amateur architects. Amongst the foremost of these stand Lord Pembroke, Lord Burlington, Lord Leicester, Dr. Aldriche, and Dr. Clarke, whose labours have tended so much to the advancement of the science, and whose works redound so much to their credit.

In comparing the French and Engglish modern schools of architecture, Monsieur Le Grand, in his Essay, has very candidly admitted our superiority: "The English," he says, “adopted Pal

ladio, whilst we have followed the orders of Vigniola; but with this difference;-they adopted the plans of Palladio entire, and accompanied by all their elegance and simplicity, whilst we have applied the orders of Vigniola to the most complex shapes in our buildings, and which we have overloaded with whimsical ornaments of the very worst taste; and the result of a comparison between the ancient architecture and ours is, that our own is complex, whilst that of the ancients was simple; theirs exhibits grand ideas in the most trifling edifices, whilst ours, in the execution of the greatest objects, are but a collection of small parts, and those united with difficulty, which is miscalled ingenuity."

The fact is, the French were ambitious of forming a new school: they were to invent new orders which were to be exclusively French; and their buildings in the age of Louis XIV. exhibit examples, in which all kinds of incongruous ornament are collected together without principle or meaning. To this succeeded what they conceived to be the pure Grecian taste; but as it was before the Grecian monuments had been studied or understood, this second manner was in truth very little more elegant or perfect than the former. They are scarcely ever successful in their attempts to adopt the styles of antiquity: although there is no nation so prone to affect a species of classical show, and none more ambitious of giving to the productions in art a classical air. This is observable particularly in their school of design, and in their drama; and yet it is impossible to contend that they have been successful. The difference of taste and manner between the French and the English, may, perhaps, be accounted for in some degree by their different modes of study. The French both in their studies and in their pursuits adopt more of the academic system than is followed in England; they work in bodies, and under the direction of the government, whilst our most laboured productions are the works of individuals, and consequently more likely to afford specimens of originality, if not of perfection. Without entirely denying the benefit of academies for the advancement of the arts, it is only from frequent experience of their failure through mismanagement, that the argument arises against increasing their number, or extending their influence.

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revival of letters, of the fine arts, and

Introduction-Michael Angelo's Early the discovery of printing, which fol

Life.

THERE is no period in the history of the world so fertile in striking and important events, as that which embraces the

lowed in quick succession. It was towards the close of this time, that MICHAEL ANGELO BUONAROTI attained his greatest eminence.

It was mainly his genius that was

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to call into new life the arts of painting and sculpture, and it was he, united with Bruneleschi and Bramante, who was destined to raise those splendid fabrics which rival the greatest monuments of ancient architecture.

In general, the incidents relating to men whose lives were devoted to study have been but imperfectly recorded, and it is often difficult to trace out the steps by which excellence was attained. The events, of the life of Michael Angelo have, however, been carefully noticed by Condivi and Vasari, who were his scholars and friends, and from their works the facts relating to this biography have been principally collected. If it should be considered that their works partake too much of panegyric, their apology may be sought in the greatness and universality of the genius of him whom they recorded, which seems to have dazzled all his contemporaries, and which even won for him the praises of Aretin, whose satire was called the scourge of princes, and of whom it was said, that he "spoke ill of every one save God."

The life of Michael Angelo is intimately connected with the history of the whole art of design; indeed the great excellence which he attained both as a painter, a sculptor, and an architect, cannot be sufficiently estimated except by considering the state of these arts at the time he commenced his career. In the notice of the life of Sir Christopher Wren, which has been already published, some few observations respecting the origin and progress of architecture were inserted, in order that the reader might be enabled the better to appreciate the merits of that great artist. In the present memoir, with a similar object, some few general remarks will be given respecting the origin and progress of painting and sculpture.

At

Michael Angelo Buonaroti was born in the year 1474; his family was ancient and illustrious; many of his ancestors had at different periods filled the highest offices in the Florentine republic. the time of his birth, his father was governor of the castle of Chiusi and Caprèse, but he soon after retired to his patrimonial property near Florence, in the neighbourhood of which were some quarries. Michael Angelo was put to nurse with a wife of one of the masons, and used jestingly to attribute his excellence as a sculptor, to having imbibed with his milk a love for the chisels and mallet of his foster-father. His father.

though of illustrious descent, being poor, the brothers of Michael Angelo devoted themselves to rural affairs, and the management of the family estate. He was placed at a grammar school in the neighbourhood: his progress, however, was not great, his bent for the fine arts, which early discovered itself, leading him to employ every moment he could snatch unobserved, in drawing whatever objects were at hand. The profession of an artist being at this period in little estimation, the pride of the father and uncle was shocked at the notion of the son's following the arts as a trade, and they therefore sought, not only by persuasion, but by chastisement, to check his dawning taste; he had however formed a friendship with a young artist, the pupil of Ghirlandaio, (then the most eminent painter in Italy,) who encouraged his taste by furnishing him with the drawings of his master as studies. The father finding it impossible to stem his son's inclinations, at last consented to his becoming a painter, and he was accordingly placed under Ghirlandaio. And it is noticed as a proof of the progress which he must have made, even at this period, that by the agreement which was entered into between the father and the painter, (which has been printed by Vasari,) the father was to receive a monthly remuneration for the services of his son.

Under this painter he early displayed great talent; one by one his fellow pupils were surpassed, and it was not long before he ventured even on criticising the designs of Ghirlandaio. One of these drawings, round which he had traced a bolder outline than that designed by his master, came into the possession of Michael Angelo's friend, Vasari, who in after life showed it to him: on seeing it, he is said to have lamented that there was so little difference between the first efforts of the boy, and the productions of his maturer age. A somewhat similar anecdote is told of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

gave proof of his rapid progress, by drawMichael Angelo on another occasion ing, in the absence of his master, the scaffolding, and the pupils at work: when Ghirlandaio returned, he was so astonished at a performance which was at once indicative of great proficiency in drawing, and of a boldness of manner then unknown, that he proclaimed it the work of a master to be imitated, rather than the mere essay of a pupil. He continued to labour unceasingly

at his profession, studying the best works which came within his reach; and a print of St. Anthony and the devil, supposed to be by Martin Schoen, (one of the earliest engravers,) is mentioned as having been copied by him with great care, he having painted the different objects in the composition (such as fish, animals, &c.) with singular accuracy, and, wherever he could procure the subjects represented, painted them from nature. He also at this time made several imitations of the drawings of the older masters, which were so well executed that the connoisseurs of the day being deceived, purchased them as the productions of those whose works they professed to be.

After the darkness and ignorance of the middle ages, Dante, followed by Petrarch and Boccaccio, (each choosing a new and untried field,) had, during a rapid and brilliant career, succeeded in effecting the perfection and refinement of the Italian language, and the introduction of the study of the ancient classics; yet their disciples were few, and none sustained the reputation of their masters. Petrarch died in 1374, Boccaccio in the year following; and a full century elapsed without producing any literary work that can be ranked with their compositions. For a time, a general degradation of letters, and a debasement of the Italian language took place. About the middle of the fifteenth century the study of literature was again revived, and the fine arts began to be cultivated, principally under Cosmo de Medici, who, after having established his authority in Florence, devoted the latter part of his life to the encouragement of philosophy and literature. He was succeeded by his son Piero, who was prevented by disease from making any great progress in the path pointed out by his father;-it was principally to Lorenzo de Medici, (the eldest son of Piero,) a man possessed of an original and versatile genius, that the praise of having restored to literature and the fine arts their ancient honours, is due. " And whilst the study of polite literature was thus emerging from its state of torpor, the other sciences felt the effects of the same invigorating beam, and the city of Florence, like a sheltered garden in the opening spring, re-echoed with the earliest sounds of returning animation."*

Though, as will be seen in the sequel, it was the fate of Michael Angelo in

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after life to receive little help from the patronage of the great; yet in his youth he was eminently fortunate in having Lorenzo de Medici (the great patron of literature and the fine arts) for his friend and adviser.

At the time Michael Angelo began to study, Lorenzo was in the plenitude of his power, and he devoted a portion of that time (the whole of which was occupied in the advancement of the greatness of his country) to the revival of the arts of design. Having collected, for this purpose, in his garden some of the finest specimens of ancient sculpture, and the best paintings of the time; he inquired of Ghirlandaio the names of the most promising of his pupils, in order that they might be allowed to study the various objects in his collection, so as to form their taste from these fine examples. Michael Angelo was one of those who were recommended, and it seems that some rising jealousy on the part of the master the more inclined him to this, as he was glad to rid himself of one who, he felt, was early destined to become his rival in the art of painting.

It was not long before his talents were noticed by Lorenzo, whom know ledge as well as inclination fitted to become a judicious patron. It is said by Vasari, that Michael Angelo having begged a piece of marble, from some men employed in the garden, carved out of it a mask of a satyr, the design o which was borrowed from an antique fragment. It was seen, and admired by his patron, who, however, jokingly remarked, that he had committed an error, in putting a complete set of teeth in the mouth of an old man. By the next day, however, he found this fault repaired, for the artist had dexterously broken away one of the front teeth, and drilled a hole in its place, to represent the cavity which would have been made by its falling out. Lorenzo, struck with his rising talents, his eagerness and docility, sent for his father, and desired that he might be permitted to take him entirely under his protection, to which the father reluctantly consented. After this he took up his residence in the palace, and a competent salary was allowed him; and Lorenzo, not content with patronizing the son, bestowed an office of profit on the father, whose circumstances were declining.

Michael Angelo was received on terms of intimacy and freedom by his patron,

briefly considering the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of the arts of sculpture and painting among the ancients, and the history of their revival among the moderns. Without entering somewhat on these points, the mere detail of the events of the life of Michael Angelo would excite little interest. The chief pleasure or information to be afforded by it, must in fact arise from a knowledge of the principles relating to the fine arts,-from considering the estimation in which they have been held by all polished nations,

at whose table he formed an acquaint- off the narrative, for the purpose of ance with the learned men of the time, by whom Lorenzo was surrounded. During this period he obtained the friendship of Politian, the most accomplished scholar of his age, by whose advice he executed the celebrated small bas relief of the battle of Hercules and the Centaurs, which at once established his fame as a great artist. During the time of his studying in the garden of Lorenzo, Torrigiano, one of his fellow students, who afterwards exe. cuted in England the tomb of Henry VII) in a fit of envy at his rising greatness, or on some quarrel, struck him so violent a blow on the nose with a maket, that he bore the mark through life. The laws of those times not being very favourable to the liberty of the subjeer, Torrigiano was banished the state for this attack on his rival's person.

the assistance they afforded to the gradual civilization of mankind,—and the various difficulties opposed to the attainment of excellence by those who professed them.

CHAPTER II.

Sculpture and Painting.

On the death of Lorenz, Michael of the Origin and Progress of Ancient Angelo contaded for some short time under the patronage of bis degenerate successor, Fero de Medici, who was incapable of appreciating his tuents. and there ore what to be the patron of Que so eurient During the winter, he was employed by his unworthy and CAPPICIOUS... master, to fund up a tie enzyad a NS "Lace, a large stat de VOXW and was also competed to keep Qong any wet fine quakes, acogere videt:

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L ANCIENT SCULPTURE. Tas art of sculpture appears to have been cultivated in the early ages of most nations. It was, however, chiefly emploved by them in the service of religion, or in the symbolical representations of hine atmbutes; this is abundantly testied by the remains of art in Egypt, Encom, India, Persia, and ancient Greece.

The origin of sculpture in all nations may be traced to the desire to perpeAede. Es are WOW CAge 20eu si tale the memory of extraordinary events

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or persons, or to do honour to gods or beries; but though the art of design may have owed it's beginning to necessvet its cultivation and improvement wil inn ai cases be traced to civilization and rednement.

Wah regard to the specimens of sculpture by the Egyptians, amongst

When are the most ancient monuarchs now remaining, Mr. Flax nan deserves, that the forms of the hands are muss, mi have no anatomical deSu Ji parts, and are totally dedcient in the ce of motion: but that, notNang their defees, we shall find then some excellent examples of the act, that the principal forms of the Mads are expressed with a ky zruminess, and that in the female KURS ZUS AEt possess considerable CARRY MI Peaty. The forms of the sot have much the same outang diha Thutan te same progression

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