DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71557#0143
HIS POETRY. 123
blended in the pages of the original with much of
wild mythological fancy, and extravagant sentiment
and opinion. That they were familiar to the mind
of Michael Angelo, who during a great part of
his life was a devotee of Plato, and that the little
Poem upon Beauty was an emanation from them,
we think there can be no doubt.
The following sentiments from a published lec-
ture of his, upon one of Petrarch's Sonnets, fur-
ther illustrates the poetical principles, under the
influence of which he composed and executed his
works.
" The love of imitation produces in man a second
Nature which is called Art, and this divides itself
into distinct species, some of which are, according
to their end and aim, more, and others less noble.
In none is the approach to Nature so close as in
Sculpture and Painting, which seem to place the
very objects they represent before our eyes. The
proper end of painting is to purify the affections
by imitating in colour the actions and sentiments
of men, and the human figure itself, which it effects,
not by a mere literal imitation of Nature or Art,
or of whatever object may be presented to the eye,
but by giving expression to the sentiments and
feelings of the human mind. Between this art of
painting and that of poetry the greatest similarity
exists, so that the one has often been called mute
poetry, and the other speaking painting."
As Beauty, interpreted in the Platonic sense,
blended in the pages of the original with much of
wild mythological fancy, and extravagant sentiment
and opinion. That they were familiar to the mind
of Michael Angelo, who during a great part of
his life was a devotee of Plato, and that the little
Poem upon Beauty was an emanation from them,
we think there can be no doubt.
The following sentiments from a published lec-
ture of his, upon one of Petrarch's Sonnets, fur-
ther illustrates the poetical principles, under the
influence of which he composed and executed his
works.
" The love of imitation produces in man a second
Nature which is called Art, and this divides itself
into distinct species, some of which are, according
to their end and aim, more, and others less noble.
In none is the approach to Nature so close as in
Sculpture and Painting, which seem to place the
very objects they represent before our eyes. The
proper end of painting is to purify the affections
by imitating in colour the actions and sentiments
of men, and the human figure itself, which it effects,
not by a mere literal imitation of Nature or Art,
or of whatever object may be presented to the eye,
but by giving expression to the sentiments and
feelings of the human mind. Between this art of
painting and that of poetry the greatest similarity
exists, so that the one has often been called mute
poetry, and the other speaking painting."
As Beauty, interpreted in the Platonic sense,