Michael Angelo had worked in Bologna and Florence, principally in sculpture, where he formed his fine mind by study ; but his genius was not roused to its full pitch until the return of Leonardo from Milan excited the spirit of emulation. It was this circumstance which set fire to that train of genius which was destined to illuminate Italy. The government proposed a subject for their competition in the wars that had just given to Florence the final pos session of Pisa. As such a trial was particularly calculated to exhibit the distinctive features of talent in these two great artists, thus brought into parallel with each other, we shall give the result of the competition in Mr. Roscoe's words. " The cartoons, or designs for this purpose were immediately commenced. The preparations made by each of the artists, and the length of time employed, as well in intense meditation as in cautious execution, sufficiently de monstrated the importance which they attached to the re sult. From variety of talent, or by mutual agreement, they each, however, chose a different track. Leonardo undertook to represent a combat of horsemen, which he introduced as a part of the history of Nicolo Riecinino, a commander for the Duke of :Milan. In this piece he concennated all the result of his experience, and all the powers of his mind. In the varied forms and contorted attitudes of the combatants, lie has displayed his thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. In their features he has characterized, in the most expressive man ner, the sedateness of steady courage, the vindictive male volence of revenge, the mingled impressions of hope and of fear, the exultation of triumphant murder, and the de spairing gasp of inevitable death. The horses mingle in the combat with a ferocity equal to that of their riders ; and the whole was executed with such skill, that, in the essential points of conception, of composition, and of out line, this production has perhaps seldom been equalled, and certainly never excelled. Michael Angelo chose a different path. Devoted solely to the study of the human figure, he disdained to lavish any portion of his powers on the inferior representations of animal life. He there fore selected a moment, in which he supposed a body of Florentine soldiers, bathing in the Arno, to have been unexpectedly called into action by the signal of bat tle. To have chosen a subject more favourable to the dis play of his powers, consistently with the task committed to him, was perhaps impossible. The clothed, the half clothed, and the naked, are mingled in one tumultuous group. A soldier, just risen from the water, starts in alarm, and turning towards the sound of the trumpet, ex presses in his complicated action almost every variety in cident to the human frame. Another, with the most vehe ment impatience, forces his dripping feet through his ad hesive clothing. A third calls to his companion, whose arms only are seen grappling with the rocky sides of the river, which, from this circumstance, appears to flow in front, although beyond the limits of the picture. Whilst a fourth, almost prepared for action, in buckling round hint his belt, promises to stoop the next moment for his sword and shield, which lie ready at his feet. It would be as ex travagant as unjust to the talents of Michael Angelo to carry our admiration of this subject so far as to suppose, with the sculptor Cellini, that he never afterwards attained to half the degree of excellence which he there displayed; but it may be asserted with confidence, that the great works which this fortunate spirit of emulation had pro duced, marked a new mita in the art, and that upon the study of these models almost all the great painters, who shortly afterwards conferred such honour on their country, were principally formed." Neither of these works were ever completed, and the original cartoons are not now ex isting. Imperfect designs and engravings of them have however been preserved. We believe there is a picture painted by Vasari, from Michael Angelo's design of this subject, in some one of the English collections.
After passing through this ordeal, the genius of Michael Angelo was employed in Rome, by Pope Julius II. where he found ample scope for its greatest efforts in the muni ficent undertakings of this pontiff. His works were held in such high estimation by Julius, that they are alleged by Vasari and others to have given rise to the idea of the great undertaking of St. Peter's Church, as a suitable place of deposit for productions of such perfection and grandeur.
Architecture and statuary were the branches of the fine arts to which Michael Angelo had chiefly bent his atten tion ; and it was in the exercise of these that he had hith erto raised his reputation, following design only in so far as it was connected with the main pursuit of statuary.
But as Rome was now the theatre of his efforts, Raphael had by this time become his competitor in this branch of painting; and would naturally have been called upon to undertake the completion of the paintings of the Sextinc Chapel, which was at this time proposed to be accomplish ed. It is supposed, however, by some, that the pontiff was instigated by the friends of Raphael to impose the ex ecution of this difficult task on Michael Angelo ; trusting that he would show his inferiority in fresco painting, in which he was unpractised, and by that means enhance the merit of his rival. It does not, however, appear that the artists themselves were actuated by any feelings of jea lousy towards each other ; but, on the contrary, entertained reciprocal esteem and admiration for the private charac ter and transcendent talents of each other. There is every reason to conclude that it was an insiduous attempt of Angelo's enemies to stop him in the career of his glory as a statuary, by obliging him to paint in fresco, (of the process of which even he appears at that time to have been in and that too a ceiling demanding a de gree of skill in foreshortening and difficulty in execution, enough to overwhelm the boldest genius.
He found, however, that there was no escape from the fiat of this imperious pontiff, however reluctant he might be to undertake the task. Accordingly, he sent to Flor ence for the best fresco painters to assist him in the work, with whose performances he had so little reason to be satisfied, that he dismissed them in despair ; but having himself learnt the art by observing their mode of proceed ing, he destroyed all that had been done, resolving to shut himself up in the chapel, and adventure boldly on the whole undertaking, unaided by any one. Preparing his colours with his own hands, he set to work, and, as might have been expected, failed frequently, but at last comple ted the Deluge to his own satisfaction ; but it was scarcely finished, before he had the mortification to see it become mouldy and disappear, having used too much water in mixing up his colours. He was not to be daunted, how ever, but set to work again with that renewed determina tion and perseverance which is ever the presage of ulti mate success. It is next to a miracle in the history of hu man genius, thus to stop an artist in the middle of his career, make him instantly renounce that art, the practice of which had been the employment of his whole life and mind to tax him with the labours of a different art, to givehim for his first essay, a subject the most arduous and compre hensive, in a position which united every circumstance of difficulty, in competition with the greatest master of that particular art, and yet to see him issue from such an ordeal with a success so glorious as to place him in the highest rank of artists, had he never done any thing else. This is a trait in the history of art which is, and probably ever will remain, unique ; the undaunted vigour of charac ter which could contemplate such a trial, is inconceivable.
Raphael was at work at the same time on his immortal productions of the chambers of the Vatican, only a few paces distant from the Sextine Chapel. Michael Angelo completed his undertaking in twenty months, and receiv ed in payment the sum of threw thousand crowns ; the subjects were very various, a detailed account of which will be found in the third discourse of the professor of painting in the Royal Academy of London, published in There is a surprising variety of form and playful ness of attitude displayed in this laborious ceiling, and of beauty in the individual compartments as soon as the eye, bewildered with their intricacy, can succeed in detatching each particular subject from the surrounding world of fig ures. It is, moreover, quite necessary to have previously seen a good deal before any one can derive the full enjoy ment these marvellous, performances of the Sextine Cha pel arc capable of affording. It ought to be the last to be visited of the great works in Rome, when the eye has be come matured, and the mind disposed to that deliberate study which the overpowering volume of this comprehen sive subject requires ; for there are here hundreds of sep arate subjects executed with all the learning and invention of this surprising man.