The century witnessed the career of the man often declared to have been the finest intellec tual and artistic genius who ever lived, Michel angelo Buonarotti. He is the most distin guished of sculptors since the Greeks. Some of his painting rivals that of the very greatest painters. His decoration of the Sistine Chapel made him forever famous and has been the subject of reverend study ever since. As an architect he is undoubtedly one of the world's supreme geniuses in construction. Without steel or steam or any mechanical aid except a mule and an inclined plane, he built the great dome of Saint Peter's, one of the architectural wonders of the world. Meant to be seen as the first object visible in Rome to the travelers who, in the old days, came over the mountains in carriages or on horseback 20 miles away, it looks more like a work of the Creator than of the creature. This greatest of sculptors, paint ers, architects, has written sonnets that have only been equaled by Dante and Shakespeare and have never been surpassed. In every mode of esthetic expression, he was a master in the highest sense of the word. After having worked hard all his life, he lived to be nearly 90 in the full possession of his faculties. His personal character is equal to his genius. He was a deeply religious man who all his life had been well known for his thoughtfulness for others. He left a sum of money in his will, the income of which was to be ugiven for the love of God to the modest poor' One of his sonnets is a prayer that he may not let himself become so occupied with the mere trifles of life as to forget that it is a preparation for another. Vittoria Colonna declared that those who ad mire Michelangelo's works admire but the smallest part of him. The artist is often a dis appointment after his works; Michelangelo's personality had just the opposite effect. At the end he declared that °life, which had been given us without our asking, had wonderful possibili ties of good in it, and death which came un summoned from the same Providential hand could surely not prove less full of blessing' The period is famous for its devotion to the arts and crafts. The furniture is noted for its charm of design and fine execution and was often designed by the great artists. Objects for church use were made the most beautiful works of art. A thurible or censor made by a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci sold at auction re cently for some $60,000 because it was thought to be the most beautiful piece of bronze work of its kind in the world. Candelabra for church and home use, cups, plaques and other articles were made with similar perfection. Some of Benvenuto Cellini's work of this kind is very precious. Artistry was the keynote in every department of life. When Aldus pub lished (1501) his Virgil in italics, the designer of the type was Franca, the famous painter at Bologna who had designed all Aldus' previous fonts of type. The home beautiful was the special cult of the time. The ladies of the Renaissance planned charming private apart ments, music-rooms, art galleries and reception rooms which reflected their personalities and are the most beautiful of their kind ever created. Some of them have been reproduced in modern museums in the hope of stimulat ing emulation. The apartments of Lucrezia Borgia at Ferrara were particularly famous. Landscape architects made the gardens sur rounding these houses beautiful and artists were appealed to to plan details of all kinds so as to be sure that all would be beautiful as well as useful.
Painting outside of Italy flourished wonder fully and the names of Albrecht Diirer and the Holbeins in Germany, of the Clouets, Cousin and Fouquet in France and of Navarete, of Juan Bourgona, of Louis de Vargas and Pablo de Cespedes in Spain, as well as Mabuse, Van Orley, Blondeol and Justus of Ghent in the Netherlands all live in honor among those in terested in the history of art. In sculpture there is a distinct descent from the preceding century, except for some great work of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but the sculptures of John of Bologna and Benvenuto Cellini deeply influenced succeeding generations and are greatly admired in our time. In France, Gou Jon's reliefs for the Fountain of the Innocents are among the most beautiful works of their kind ever produced. Germain Pilon's group of
the Three Graces is a monument to the refined tastes of the time, and to the genius of the sculptor, even though it may show signs of the beginning of decadence. In Germany the great group of figures for the monument of the Emperor Maximilian at Innsbruck, executed early in the 16th century, shows how high were the standards of plastic art everywhere at this time. Saint Sebald's tomb, executed by the Vischers, father and son, at Nuremburg re mains one of the unapproached marvels of a great period. There were many foci of fine artistry in southern Germany during the period.
The Elizabethan Period in English litera ture is, with the art of Italy, the twin triumph of the century. It holds all of Marlowe's writ ing and up to the very flowering of Shakes peare's genius. It has, besides, the poetic beauties of Sidney and Spenser, the marvel ous English of Chapman's translations and the best of Ben Jonson's dramatic work. It is not only the greatest period of literature in English, but one of the greatest periods of world litera ture. The English people were extending their domains beyond the sea. The peril from the Armada had deeply stirred the English mind and the reaction after the victory gave a great stimulus to thought and writing. As is so often the case when the country was growing in national importance, intellectual genius bloomed also and so 'the spacious times of great Eliza* furnished a stimulus that was well responded to. A very great period of dramatic literature de veloped quite unexpectedly, continued for a gen eration and then began to decline. By the end of the second generation the inspiration had faded and only conventional work was being done.
This century saw a wonderful outburst of European literature, culminating in the latter part. The Elizabethan period in England was rivaled in other countries. In Portugal CamOens wrote Lusiadas,> the epic story of Portuguese exploration of Africa and Asia and of the foundation of Portugal's In dian empire. Friedrich Schlegel declared it the greatest epic of modern times. In Spain came the beginnings of the careers of Lope de Vega and Cervantes; in France Rabelais, at the be ginning of the century, Montaigne, at the end, did their work; in Italy Ariosto and Tasso. Had Shakespeare visited the Continent as a young man he might have met nearly all of these. The writers of the most humanly in teresting play, (Hamlet,) of the greatest novel ever written, Quixote,) of the greatest modern epic, Lusiadas,) of the greatest letters (Saint Teresa) and the greatest essays (Montaigne) were all doing their work to gether in the last quarter of this century. Some of them were to accomplish their best work only at the beginning of the next century, but their inspiration came from this.
The cultural development of the Spanish American countries during the century is one of the surprises of recent historical research. Schools were established in Mexico and Peru during the second quarter of the century and in 1551 the universities of Mexico and Lima received royal charters. During the last quar ter of the century, medical and law departments were organized and these universities had many hundreds of students. Theprinting press was introduced into Mexico (1536) and the first book printed was Escale Espiritual) ((The Ladder of the Spirit)) the following year. Seven printers plied their craft in the centurT. Professor Bourne of Yale declared that Mexi can scholars before the end of this century ((made distinguished achievements in some branches of science, particularly medicine and surgery, but especially linguistics, history and anthropology.* In the following century there were chairs in all the sciences and °some of the professors, notwithstanding the vast dis tance, gained the applause of the litterati of Europe. In range of studies, in standard of attainments by the officers, the Mexican institu tions of learning surpassed anything that ex isted in English America until the 19th century.* (Bourne). The university was granted by the Crown an income of about $10,000, so that con sidering the value of money, apart from fees and other sources of revenue, it had the equiva lent of an income of $100,000 a year in our time.