Part 12 (1/2)

I, (or even old) British Artist, for his next appeal to public sensation at the Acade British artist is wiser and more civilized than Lippi's scholar, because his only idea of a patriarch is of abeard; of a doctor, the MD with the brass plate over the way; and of a virgin, Miss ---- of the ---- theater?

Not that even Sandro was able, according to Vasari's report, to conduct the entire design himself The proposer of the subject assisted hiy, which brought thein, into which subjects our gossiping friend waives unnecessary inquiry, as follows

”But although this picture is exceedingly beautiful, and ought to have put envy to shame, yet there were found certainable to affix any other blaravely in that rievous heresy

”Nohether this be true or not, let none expect the judgment of that question froures executed by Sandro in that work are entirely worthy of praise; and that the pains he took in depicting those circles of the heavens led with the other figures, or of the various foreshortenings, all which are designed in a very good manner

”About this time Sandro received a coures three parts of a braccio high,--the subject an Adoration of the Magi

”It is indeed a n, and the coloring are so beautiful that every artist who exareat a name in Florence, and other places, for theerected the chapel built by hi to have it adorned with paintings, commanded that Sandro Botticelli should be appointed Superintendent of the work”

192 Vasari's words, ”about this ti It must have been many and many a day after he painted Matteo's picture that he took such high standing in Florence as to receive the mastershi+p of the works in the Pope's chapel at Ros there, I will tell you presently; meantime, let us complete the story of his life

”By these works Botticelli obtained great honor and reputation a with him, whether Florentines or natives of other cities, and received from the Pope a considerable sum ofhis residence in Rome, where he lived without due care, as was his habit”

193 Well, but one would have liked to hear _how_ he squandered his s than money

It is just possible, Master Vasari, that Botticelli her interest than you know of;less and less coot rid, somehow, of the money he received from the Pope; and finished the work he had to do, and uncovered it,--free in conscience, and e a sophistical person, he made a comment on a part of Dante, and drew the Inferno, and put it in engraving, in which he consuht infinite disorder into his affairs”

194 Unpaid work, this engraving of Dante, you perceive,--consu to Vasari to be work at all It is but a short sentence, gentlemen,--this, in the old edition of Vasari, and obscurely worded,--a very foolish person's conte to hi itself is out-and-out the ious art of Italy I can show you its significance in not many more words than have served to record it

Botticelli had been painting in Ro Master of Works, in the presence of the Defender of the Faith,--the foundation of the Mosaic law; to his elicals sing perpetually their own original psalm, ”Oh, how hate I Thy law! it isto Florence, he reads Dante's vision of the hell created by its violation He knows that the pictures he has painted in Rome cannot be understood by the people; they are exclusively for the best trained scholars in the Church Dante, on the other hand, can only be read in manuscript; but the people could and would understand _his_ lessons, if they were pictured in accessible and enduring form He throws all his own lauded work aside,--all for which he is nificent skill is as easy to hi to a perfect musician And he sets hi hi into his affairs--of this world

195 Never such another thing happened in Italy any ress for her, putting himself in prison to do it She would not read it when done Raphael and Marc Antonio were the theologians for her money Pretty Madonnas, and satyrs with abundance of tail,--let our pilgriress be in _these_ directions, if you please

Botticelli's own pilgrie, however, was now to be accos as Heaven rant to him

In spite of his friends and his disordered affairs, he went his own obstinate way; and found anotheras well as Dante's; not without perpetuating, also, what he deemed worthy of his own

196 What would that be, think you? His chosen works before the Pope in Roels and thickets of flowers? Some few of these yes, as you shall presently see; but ”the best attempt of this kind from his hand is the Triumph of Faith, by Fra Girolamo Savonarola, of Ferrara, of whose sect our artist was so zealous a partisan that he totally abandoned painting, and not having any other reat difficulties

But his attachment to the party he had adopted increased; he becanone, or Mourner, and abandoned all labor; inso also very poor, he er had he not been supported by Lorenzo de' Medici, for whom he had worked at the small hospital of Volterra and other places, who assisted him while he lived, as did other friends and adnity and independence--having employed his talents not wholly at the orders of the dealer--died, a poor bedesh acadeino, Ghirlandajo, Angelico, and Signorelli; and whose students, Michael Angelo and Raphael

'A worthless, ill-conducted fellow on the whole,' thinks Vasari, 'with a crazy fancy for scratching on copper'

Well, here are some of the scratches for you to see; only, first, I must ask you seriously for a few moments to consider what the tere, which, with this iron pen of his, he has set hined over the entire civilized world, confessedly, and by nan over it still, and h at present very far froly denied

The first power is that of the Teacher, or true Father; the Father 'in God' It may be--happy the children to whom it is--the actual father also; and whose parents have been their tutors But, for the most part, it will be some one else who teaches the, when true, being frohts, ho, is properly that of the holy Catholic '[Greek: ekklesia],'

council, church, or papacy, of many fathers in God, not of one

Eternally powerful and divine; reverenced of all humble and lowly scholars, in Jewry, in Greece, in Roland, and beyond sea, from Arctic zone to zone

The second authority is the power of National Law, enforcing justice in conduct by due reward and punishistrates capable of ad it with ain divine, as proceeding frohout civilized Christendom, as the power of the Holy Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, because first throned in Roed, namelessly, or by name, by all loyal, obedient, just, and huainst them, the eternal equities and dooms of Heaven should be pronounced and executed; and as the wisdoht, so the will of their Father should be done, on earth, as it is in heaven

199 You all here knohat contention, first, and then what corruption and dishonor, had paralyzed these ters before the days of whichspeak Reproof, and either reform or rebellion, became necessary everywhere The northern Reformers, Holbein, and Luther, and Henry, and Croht seeh The southern Reformers, Dante, and Savonarola, and Botticelli, set hand to their task reverently, and, it seeh But the end is not yet

200 Now I shall endeavor to-day to set before you the art of Botticelli, especially as exhibiting the ination trained in reverence, which characterized the southern Reforination, trained in self-trust, which characterized the northern Reforination_;' that is to say, of the pohich conceives all things in true relation, and not only as they affect ourselves I can show you thisone example of theit beside Botticelli's treat of war, and the refor on of war