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there is no God。  True and good Catholics and true and good

Protestants have ever been united in one thing;IN THIS BELIEF;

that there is a God who made the heaven and the earth; and that

there is a Christ who made atonement for the sins of the world。  It

is good morals; faith; and love to which both Catholics and

Protestants are exhorted by the Apostles。  When either Catholics or

Protestants accept the one faith and the one Lord which

Christianity alone reveals; then they equally belong to the grand

army of spiritual warriors under the banner of the Cross; though

they may march under different generals and in different divisions

and they will receive the same consolations in this world; and the

same rewards in the world to come。





AUTHORITIES。





Villari's Life of Savonarola; Biographie Universelle; Ranke's

History of the Popes。  There is much in 〃Romola;〃 by George Eliot。

Life of Savonarola; by the Prince of Mirandola。







MICHAEL ANGELO。



A。D。 1475…1564。



THE REVIVAL OF ART。





Michael Angelo Buonarrotione of the Great Lights of the new

civilizationmay stand as the most fitting representative of

reviving art in Europe; also as an illustrious example of those

virtues which dignify intellectual pre…eminence。  He was superior;

in all that is sterling and grand in character; to any man of his

age;certainly in Italy; exhibiting a rugged; stern greatness

which reminds us of Dante; and of other great benefactors; nurtured

in the school of sorrow and disappointment; leading a checkered

life; doomed to envy; ingratitude; and neglect; rarely understood;

and never fully appreciated even by those who employed and honored

him。  He was an isolated man; grave; abstracted; lonely; yet not

unhappy; since his world was that of glorious and exalting ideas;

even those of grace; beauty; majesty; and harmony;the world which

Plato lived in; and in which all great men live who seek to rise

above the transient; the false; and puerile in common life。  He was

also an original genius; remarkable in everything he attempted;

whether as sculptor; painter; or architect; and even as poet。  He

saw the archetypes of everything beautiful and grand; which are

invisible except to those who are almost divinely gifted; and he

had the practical skill to embody them in permanent forms; so that

all ages may study those forms; and rise through them to the realms

in which his soul lived。



Michael Angelo not only created; but he reproduced。  He reproduced

the glories of Grecian and Roman art。  He restored the old

civilization in his pictures; his statues; and his grand edifices。

He revived a taste for what is imperishable in antiquity。  As such

he is justly regarded as an immortal benefactor; for it is art

which gives to nations culture; refinement; and the enjoyment of

the beautiful。  Art diverts the mind from low and commonplace

pursuits; exalts the imagination; and makes its votary indifferent

to the evils of life。  It raises the soul into regions of peace and

bliss。



But art is most ennobling when it is inspired by lofty and

consecrated sentiments;like those of religion; patriotism; and

love。  Now ancient art was consecrated to Paganism。  Of course

there were noble exceptions; but as a general rule temples were

erected in honor of heathen deities。  Statues represented mere

physical strength and beauty and grace。  Pictures portrayed the

charms of an unsanctified humanity。  Hence ancient art did very

little to arrest human degeneracy; facilitated rather than retarded

the ruin of states and empires; since it did not stimulate the

virtues on which the strength of man is based: it did not check

those depraved tastes and habits which are based on egotism。



Now the restorers of ancient art cannot be said to have contributed

to the moral elevation of the new races; unless they avoided the

sensualism of Greece and Rome; and appealed purely to those eternal

ideas which the human mind; even under Pagan influences; sometimes

conceived; and which do not conflict with Christianity itself。



In considering the life and labors of Michael Angelo; then; we are

to examine whether; in the classical glories of antiquity which he

substituted for the Gothic and Mediaeval; he advanced civilization

in the noblest sense; and moreover; whether he carried art to a

higher degree than was ever attained by the Greeks and Romans; and

hence became a benefactor of the world。



In considering these points I shall not attempt a minute criticism

of his works。  I can only seize on the great outlines; the salient

points of those productions which have given him immortality。  No

lecture can be exhaustive。  If it only prove suggestive; it has

reached its end。



Michael Angelo stands out in history in the three aspects of

sculptor; painter; and architect; and that too in a country devoted

to art; and in an age when Italy won all her modern glories;

arising from the matchless works which that age produced。  Indeed;

those works will probably never be surpassed; since all the

energies of a great nation were concentrated upon their production;

even as our own age confines itself chiefly to mechanical

inventions and scientific research and speculation。  What railroads

and telegraphs and spindles and chemical tests and compounds are to

us; what philosophy was to the Greeks; what government and

jurisprudence were to the Romans; what cathedrals and metaphysical

subtilties were to the Middle Ages; what theological inquiries were

to the divines of the seventeenth century; what social urbanities

and refinements were to the French in the eighteenth century;the

fine arts were to the Italians in the sixteenth century: a fact too

commonplace to dwell upon; and which will be conceded when we bear

in mind that no age has been distinguished for everything; and that

nations can try satisfactorily but one experiment at a time; and

are not likely to repeat it with the same enthusiasm。  As the mind

is unbounded in its capacities; and our world affords inexhaustible

fields of enterprise; the progress of the race is to be seen in the

new developments which successively appear; but in which only a

certain limit has thus far been reached。  Not in absolute

perfection in any particular sphere is this progress seen; but

rather in the variety of the experiments。  It may be doubted

whether any Grecian edifice will ever surpass the Parthenon in

beauty of proportion or fitness of ornament; or any nude statue

show grace of form more impressive than the Venus de Milo or the

Apollo Belvedere; or any system of jurisprudence be more completely

codified than that systematized by Justinian; or any Gothic church

rival the lofty expression of Cologne cathedral; or any painting

surpass the holy serenity and ethereal love depicted in Raphael's

madonnas; or any court witness such a brilliant assemblage of wits

and beauties as met at Versailles to render homage to Louis XIV。;

or any theological discussion excite such a national interest as

when Luther confronted Doctor Eck in the great hall of the

Electoral Palace at Leipsic; or any theatrical excitement such as

was produced on cultivated intellects when Garrick and Siddons

represented the sublime conceptions of the myriad…minded

Shakspeare。  These glories may reappear; but never will they shine

as they did before。  No more Olympian games; no more Roman

triumphs; no more Dodona oracles; no more Flavian amphitheatres; no

more Mediaeval cathedrals; no more councils of Nice or Trent; no

more spectacles of kings holding the stirrups of popes; no more

Fields of the Cloth of Gold; no more reigns of court mistresses in

such palaces as Versailles and Fontainbleau;ah! I wish I could

add; no more such battlefields as Marengo and Waterloo; only

copies and imitations of these; and without the older charm。  The

world is moving on and perpetually changing; nor can we tell what

new vanity will next arise;

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