It is obvious, that the habits of mind which consist with the power of conceiving and expressing this ideal perfection and grandeur, are of a kind which unavoida bly expose those who fearlessly obey their impulse to the hazard of occasional caprice and extravagance. From a charge of this description the most partial ad mirers of Michael Angelo do not attempt to %indicate him. Habituated as he was to move in a higher region, which disowns those visible landmarks and limitations that effectually guide and restrain the inferior walks of the art, he sometimes seems hurried away by the im pulse of an inventive and fruitful mind, Y.-hich for a time has ventured to trust imagination without its accustomed curb. It is not without reluctahce that solve of his ablest defenders have been forced to own. that there arc figures of his, of which it is difficult to determine whether they are in the highest degree sublime, or in the greatest degree ridiculous. If this reflection have any just applicrtion to Michael Angelo, it is doubly applicable to many of those who have since enlisted themselves in the numerous train of his imitators. for whose follies and absurdities it has often been his fate to suffer indiscriminate and un merited censure.
The colouring which Michael Angelo adopted is the reverse of that which is peculiar to the ornamen tal style; and whether it would have been an advan tage had it possessed more of that splendour which is admired in Titian, is a point which has frequently been disputed.
From his infancy he was distinguished for unwearied diligence, and this was in gent ral continued through his whole life, till old age subdued the vigour of his gigan tic faculties. There was one considerable period. heletd,
during which these faculties \vete most shamefully ci is applied ; and that this loss to himself and to mankind ofi ginated in an express command of one whose chief ambi tion it was to be distinguished as the most magnificent and enlightened patron of the arts, is a reflection calcu lated only to aggravate that stigma which the unpardon able absurdity of such a transaction affixes to the boast ed character of Leo X. During the whole reign of that celebrated pontiff, a period of more than eight years, the chief occupation assigned to Michael Angelo, was to su perintend the quarrying of marble amongst the mountains of Pietra Santa, and the formation of a road to convey it to the sea. Nor can it be received as any apology for having ordained this criminal expenditure of divine ta lents and genius, that Leo X. was, in fact, aware of their exceilence ; and that the task which he imposed on their possessor, was only intended as introductory to more considerable works of sculpture and of architecture, of which Michael Angelo was afterwards to have the direc tion.
Michael Angelo died in 1563, at the advanced age of 90 years. He was of the middle stature, of a bony and spare make. His countenance was disfigured by a blow which he received in his youth from his cotemporary sculptor Pietro Torrigiano. (t)