MICHELANGELO, Life of. Herman Life of Michelangelo, apart from its .nine as the record of a notable life, is one of masterpieces of German prose. Written at time when photographic illustrations were unknown (it was published in 1860) and when expense of travel barred Italy to most young artists, its purpose was to give them a vivid and realizable word-picture of the sculptures, paintings and architectural creations of the most universal of all artists, and at the same lime to show how constructive a part art can play in the spiritual life of a nation when artists arc large enough for leadership.
It is not only a it is a history of the Italian Renaissance with Michelangelo as the central figure. During the 80 years of his life Italian art knew Donatello, Ghirlandajo, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian and Raphael; Savanarola lived and died praying for the soul of Florence; the Popes — Borgias, Farneses, Medicis— exerted their power for good and ill in the world of the sword as well as the world of the spirit; the Medicis fought for the temporal mastery of Florence and conquered, fought and lost again. In every part of this
seething political, religious and artistic life Michelangelo had his share. His life and that of Florence ran parallel lines. The star of Florence had barely risen when Michelangelo sculptured his first marbles in the garden of the Medicis; it had set, never to rise again, before his body was brought back for burial from the Rome which had been his refuge when Florence deserted her tradition of freedom.
It is the achievement of Herman Grimm that which places this biography with Boswell's Life of Johnson and the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini — that he has known how to make the city and the times live equally with the man whom he portrays, and how to give form and color to the figures of the lesser men and women in his picture. Fine illustrations heighten the value and the interest of new edi 74. both in the original and in the translation _lfics Thinnett.