Show STUDENT LIFE 33 figthree hundred and forty-thre- e ures that of this number over two hundred were of the first import- ance and most of them colossal in size and that they represent the mental and physical labor of one man the result seems tremendous the display of an energy almost There is nothing in superhuman the history of painting which rivals in audacity force and sublimity this design in its entirety It represents all the powers of Angelo at their best and side bv side with the expression of severity and force are linked qualities of a delicate graceful even tender nature The themes represented include such subjects as “The Separation of Light and Darkness’ “The Creation of the Sun and Moon” “The Creation of Man” “The Creation of Woman” “The Deluge” etc etc and possess the very spirit of the Old Testament The Prophets and Sibyls of which there are many arranged over the ceiling embody the highest ideas of meditation While resting from his labors he communed with Savonarola Dante and the Hebrew prophets Of Dante he wrote one day “Would to heaven I were such as he even at the price of such a fate ! For his bitter exile and his virtue 1 would exchange the most fortune lot in the world!” And one fe s that between these men there ev isted a close affinity that the dt signer of the scenes of “Tin Creation” and “The Last Judg ment” possessed the soul ol Dante Doth minds were occed “ m primarily with the reflections on the beginning and end of life In the frescoes which sprang from his brain Angelo reveals to us the inspired prophet the penetrating seer the true disciple of Savonarola Now and again Julius climbed the ladder to view the progress of the work Fearful lest death should overtake the artist before the completion of the task he kept crying “When will you make an end?” “When I can” the worker replied “You seem to want that I should have you thrown down from the scaffold” answered the irritable old gentleman Finally the last strokes were placed the scaffolding was removed and Rome looked upon the work which represents almost the only scheme which the artist was ever allowed to produce as he had originally conceived it In 1521 the Cardinal Guilo de Medici who shortly after became Pope Clement VII gave Angelo another great commission in the shape of a monument intended to glorify the famous house of Medici of which he was a member This work represents another tomb and contains six carved figures Two of the statues represent Guiliano and Lorenzo sons of the house They are placed on elevated positions and face each other on opposite sides of the room Just below Lorenzo recline the symbolical fig- ires of Dawn and Twilight below iiuliano the forms of Dav and sight all of them gigan'ic in size r |