DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0057
MICHAEL ANGELO.
53
for the ruin of mankind. Mr. Bogers styles it
truly “ the most real and unreal thing that ever
came from the chisel.” And his description of the
whole chapel is as vivid as poetry, and as accurate
as truth could make it:
“ Nor then forget that chamber of the dead
Where the gigantic shades of Night and Day
Turn’d into stone, rest everlastingly.
There from age to age
Two ghosts are sitting on their sepulchres.
That is the Duke Lorenzo. Mark him well I
He meditates; his head upon his hand.
What from beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls ?
Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull ?
’Tis lost in shade—yet, like the basilisk,
It fascinates and is intolerable."
While Michael Angelo was engaged in these
works his progress was interrupted by events which
threw all Italy into commotion. Rome was taken
and sacked by the Constable de Bourbon in 1537.
The Medici were once more expelled from Flo-
rence, and Michael Angelo, in the midst of these
strange vicissitudes, was employed by the republic
to fortify his native city against his former patrons.
Great as an engineer as in every other department
of art and science, he defended Florence for nine
months. At length the city was given up by
treachery, and, fearing the vengeance of the con-
querors, Michael Angelo fled and concealed him-
self; but Clement VII. was too sensible of his
merit to allow him to remain long in disgrace and
VOL. II. D
53
for the ruin of mankind. Mr. Bogers styles it
truly “ the most real and unreal thing that ever
came from the chisel.” And his description of the
whole chapel is as vivid as poetry, and as accurate
as truth could make it:
“ Nor then forget that chamber of the dead
Where the gigantic shades of Night and Day
Turn’d into stone, rest everlastingly.
There from age to age
Two ghosts are sitting on their sepulchres.
That is the Duke Lorenzo. Mark him well I
He meditates; his head upon his hand.
What from beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls ?
Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull ?
’Tis lost in shade—yet, like the basilisk,
It fascinates and is intolerable."
While Michael Angelo was engaged in these
works his progress was interrupted by events which
threw all Italy into commotion. Rome was taken
and sacked by the Constable de Bourbon in 1537.
The Medici were once more expelled from Flo-
rence, and Michael Angelo, in the midst of these
strange vicissitudes, was employed by the republic
to fortify his native city against his former patrons.
Great as an engineer as in every other department
of art and science, he defended Florence for nine
months. At length the city was given up by
treachery, and, fearing the vengeance of the con-
querors, Michael Angelo fled and concealed him-
self; but Clement VII. was too sensible of his
merit to allow him to remain long in disgrace and
VOL. II. D