value sculpture less than painting, nor the sculptor in like manner painting less than sculpture. I understand by sculpture that art which works by removing the superfluous, -by painting, that which works by addition. Suffice it that, both the one and the other proceeding from the same intelligence, they may very well make a good peace between them, and leave such disputing; for more time is thus lost than it would require to create the works themselves." We may here observe, that rilievo may be considered as the middle term between painting and sculpture, uniting with the ideal depth of the one, the substantial development of the other. Roscoe, in his life of Lorenzo de' Medici, informs us, that "one of the early productions of Michael Angelo was a rilievo of the Battle of the Centaurs: it stood the test of experience, and was approved by the matured judgment of the artist, who expressed his regret, on seeing it some years afterwards, that he had not devoted himself to this branch of art." It is in design only that Michael Angelo claims a superiority over Raphael. No human intelligence was ever comparable to his in this respect, where, to use the words of Goethe, "the soul gives utterance to a portion of her inmost being; and the highest mysteries of creation are precisely those which (as far as relates to their fundamental plan) rest entirely on design and modelling; these are the language in which she reveals them." "Of Confirmatory of this view is the opinion of Roscoe, who says: the contemporary artists of Michael Angelo, such only are entitled to high commendation as accompanied his studies, or availed themselves of his example. Among these appears the divine Raffaello; second to his great model only in that grandeur of design which elevates the mind, superior to him in that grace which interests the heart; endowed, if not with vigour sufficient alone to effect a reform, with talent the best calculated to promote its progress." The enthusiasm which Michael Angelo inspired amongst his contemporaries was perhaps without a parallel. How great must have been the strength of his genius to soar so far above envy! At his death a magnificent eulogium was pronounced upon him at the Florentine academy. The praise of Varchi-a most excellent judge-is recorded at the head of this paper. Elsewhere he justly exhibits him as a proof of how much nature can accomplish, when she chooses to form a genius endowed with the most singular perfections, with the greatest profoundness of learning, and the loftiest elevation of thought, ("quanto possa la natura, quando vuole fare uno ingegno perfetto e singolare * ** cosi grande profondità di dottrina, ed altezza di concetti.") We have not left ourselves space to enter upon the subject of the intimate friendship, and the ardent but irreproachably pure love which subsisted between Michael Angelo and Vittoria Colonna, the wife of the celebrated Marquis of Pescara, whose beauty and accomplishments inspired him with the most intense adoration, and inspired his pencil and his chisel with some of his finest productions. We cannot conclude better than by extracting the following account of his character from his Life by Duppa. "In the discharge of his duty, he was at all times inflexible, and his actions were ever governed by one principle, that of accomplishing the end by the most direct means. He also established it as a principle, that to live in credit was enough, if life were virtuously and honourably employed for the good of others and the benefit of posterity; thus he laid up the most profitable treasure for his old age, and calculated upon its best resources. "The love of wealth made no part of Michael Angelo's character: he was in no instance covetous of money, nor attentive to its accumulation; that which was sufficient for his moderate wants bounded his wishes, and he was an example of his own opinion, 'Che 'l tempo è breve, e 'l necessario poco." When he was offered commissions from the rich, with large sums, he rarely accepted them, being more stimulated by friendship and benevolence than the desire of gain. For eighteen years he gave up his time to the building of St. Peter's, without emolument; and when Paul III. sent him a sum equivalent to forty pounds of our money, for one month's pay, at the commencement of his appointment, he returned it, being influenced to undertake that employment from other motives. He freely assisted literary men, as well as those of his own profession who were not in good circumstances, without any desire that they should be sensible of the obligation; rather wishing at all times to confer a benefit, than to have the reputation of it. But the most enviable instance of his liberality is a donation he made to his old and faithful servant, Urbino. Michael Angelo, talking to him one day, asked him, 'What would become of you, Urbino, if I were to die?' He replied, 'I must then serve another.' 'Poor fellow,' said Michael Angelo, 'I will take care that you shall not stand in need of another master,' and immediately made him a present of two thousand crowns, an act, as Vasari exclaims, only to be expected from popes and great emperors. For this servant he had a very sincere regard; and during his last illness Michael Angelo waited upon him, and sate up with him by night, though he was himself eighty-two years of age." "In addition," says Vasari, "to greatness in the arts which he professed, heaven gifted him with a love of true moral philosophy, and with the adornment of sweet poetry, to serve as a mirror to the world of the sanctity of virtue." In all the relations of life he was amiable and exemplary; and his days were closed in unwearied religious exercises, and fervent contemplation of that Divine Wisdom, which he sought through life to shadow in his works. Το AND I must leave thee-be it so! With votive offerings day by day; In lineaments distinct and clear, It may be-we no more shall meet; That soon this warm and faithful breast Oh! still believe, till hush'd in death, E. W. HANS RÜDNER; OR, THE FIGURE OF 9. In the year 1632, the Great Forest in the neighbourhood of Frankfort was infested by poachers. When game was not to be found in sufficient plenty for their wants, they waylaid the travellers on the high road which passed through a portion of the forest; and, after stripping them of all their effects, betook themselves for concealment to the recesses of the woods. Poachers and brigands were, in that age, nearly synonymous terms; indeed, at all periods, there is a great affinity between the two cha racters. A man, whose nightly occupation it is to go out in the pursuit of game, provided with arms and skilled in their use, is always ready to fire upon any one who shall be rash enough to oppose himself to his depredations. Even at this day, in the heart of enlightened England, scarcely a month passes without the newspapers supplying us with the details of desperate encounters of this description. Two centuries ago, throughout Europe, life and property were but slightly protected, compared with the arrangements of our advanced system. When the poacher failed to capture a sufficiency of game, the temptation to supply the want by obtaining the ready possession of a purse well filled with gold, was irresistible to the half-savage minds of men living in a lawless state. The latter course had this advantage, that it precluded the necessity of going to the market, and disposing of the game under suspicious circumstances, and at a reduced price; while in either case, the prize was won by the pulling of a trigger! The leader of the band of poachers which frequented this forest, was a young man of a good family, residing near a village upon the skirts of the forest. Libertinism had lured him into crime. Passionately enamoured of a young girl, who had been refused him in marriage, he decided upon her abduction. For this purpose he associated himself with some wild youths, of dubious or decidedly bad character; and to escape the vengeance of the laws which the greater number of them had outraged, they went together to pass their lives in the midst of the forest. Skilful and fearless poachers, they presently became the terror of the keepers; and when any of these opposed their depredations, a shot from an arquebuss (the fire-arm then in fashion) aimed from behind the covert of a tree, speedily silenced the game-keepers attack. Presently no one dared to penetrate within the recesses of the Great Forest; and few were hardy enough even to journey on its envi rons. Hans Rüdner, the leader of this daring band, had commenced the reckless life of an outlaw by carrying off the young girl of whom I have already spoken; but running riot in the excess of his unbridled power, he presently became sated with his conquest. Like other gallants, less alienated from society, but scarcely less mischievous, he was fond of change. He visited the neighbouring towns and villages under different disguises, and whenever he spied a beautiful woman, he was sure to watch all her movements, until a favourable moment arose, and then pouncing upon her like a vulture, he bore her away into the heart of the woods. After this, came the turn of a second and a third, until, presently, there were reckoned in Frankfort no fewer than nine beautiful girls thus carried off, eight of whom were subsequently returned to their disconsolate parents in a state little calculated to allay their sad disquietude. Hans Rüdner left to his companions his share of the plunder, reserving for himself the maidens whom he tore from their homes and kindred. The best shot for many a long German mile around, the stags, wild boars, and roebucks, which passed within two hundred paces of his arquebuss, were sure to receive a fatal ball, which usually passed through their hearts. When the keepers of the forest jointly attacked the poachers, the latter, forming an ambuscade in the pits and ravines with which the forest abounded, or amidst the branches of the tall trees, allowed the enemy to advance. At a signal given by Rüdner, their pieces were all fired at once, and seldom did one of the unfortunate keepers escape from the cruel massacre to carry the fearful intelligence to the neighbouring villages. Rüdner's companions fired at the bodies of their opponents; but Rüdner himself always lodged his ball (so at least said the peasantry) in the left eye of the man at whom he took aim. Whenever a poor wretch was found lying dead upon one of the forest-paths, or of the roads adjoining, with the mark of a ball having passed through his left eye, the customary exclamation was: ""Tis the ball of Rüdner Lincks-auge" (left eye.) Enormities like these could not fail to lead to a decisive catastrophe. The senators of Frankfort assembled to deliberate upon the most effectual means of breaking up and utterly exterminating this atrocious band. Troops were hastily enrolled for the service. All the hardy youths of the neighbouring villages, including the brothers and those who had been affianced to the injured maidens, panting for revenge, joined the expedition with an ardour which was nursed by the sense of personal wrong, armed themselves to the teeth, proclaimed a sacred crusade, and swore never to return without the body of Hans Rüdner, living or dead! The forest was surrounded, and the circle contracted by degrees, as in the grand hunting expeditions of the East, until the poacher-brigands were at length discovered, hunted to their lair, and urged to extremity, these lawless men defended themselves with great bravery; but, overpowered by numbers, they were taken almost all alive, with the exception of their chief, the dreaded "Left-eye," and led in triumph to Frankfort to be judged and hung. As might well be expected, short work was made of such notorious criminals. The inhabitants of all the surrounding districts rushed to Frankfort to witness their execution, as to a most delightful spectacle. Silence!" said the tall man, in a deep, but concentrated and ferocious tone, while at the same time he displayed a long woodman's knife: Silence, or that infant is an orphan!" She uttered not a word; but that wild cry of terror, and the faint murmur of the stranger's muttered words were heard by one of the municipal officers. He eyed the mysterious man before him, and remembered that the woman had passed some months in the brigand-poachers' cave. Comparing his face with that of the child, he perceived a striking resemblance. He made a sign to two of his brother-officers; and the three precipitating themselves upon the stranger, made him a prisoner, in spite of the most violent resistance, and led him before the senators. "The poachers have been executed," said the man who had been principally instrumental in effecting the capture. "Worshipful senators, you wanted the arch-villain that led them—there he stands !" Spare him! Spare him!" shrieked the woman, whose involuntary cry had led to his arrest, "for Heaven's sake, spare the father of my child!” "Well, be it so!" said the prisoner; "let there be no farce about it! This woman has betrayed me, but I pardon her I AM RUDNER-Rüdner Lincks-auge," he added, fearlessly and proudly. Go, tell the hangman," said a senator, "that his day's work is not yet accomplished." "That paltry wretch who, with the assistance of two others, has made me a prisoner," quoth Rüdner, “I played with him yesterday at two Aye, ten-one after the other. They shall enter through the same hole!" "Pooh, impossible!" said the arquebusiers of the city, who assisted at the execution, with the banner of their craft displayed. "Because you are all bunglers," said the poacher, with an ill-suppressed sneer, "you imagine that I am no better; good! if you desire to be amused, I am ready, before I die, to show how to handle an aryou quebuss." "Agreed! agreed!" shouted several of the by-standers, eagerly closing with the proposal. The senators did not oppose the wishes of the people, and the chief of the arquebusiers said : "Let a bottle be placed at two hundred paces' distance. If the ball enter through the neck without breaking it, I would most humbly suggest, right worshipful senators, that a free pardon be accorded to this do what is required of me, I shall have my pardon ?" "Yes, yes," cried the arquebusiers ; "we shall demand it! " The senators consulted together for some time; and, as the majesty of the law boasted no great supremacy in those days, they informed Rüdner that the condition was accepted. 'Let me have an arquebuss, powder, and nine balls," said Rüdner. "Place him beneath the gibbet," said the burgomaster; "put the rope round his neck, and if he be not as good as his word, pull until death ensues!" Hans Rüdner examined the arquebuss without seeming to pay the smallest attention to the pains-taking and revolting laboriousness with which the executioner disposed the fatal knot, so that, at the slightest signal, he might execute the burgomaster's order. Rüdner charged the piece with powder and ball, and rammed the wadding tightly down. After finishing these preparations with the minutest attention, he fired, and the weathercock, turning on its pivot, showed itself pierced through and through. Oh, that's nothing at all!" said one of the arquebusiers. "Any one might do as much," said another. "I'm waiting for the remaining balls," said a third. "I'll wager a brace of florins," said a fourth, "that he is hung before the third ball." My business now is with the second, and not with the third ball," said Rüdner. "Hold for a moment look sharp-there it is. Is it well placed?" The arquebusier assented. "Now for a third," said Rüdner; and he fired. "Does that describe the curve-line accurately?" "To admiration!" was the reply. "And the fourth-and the fifth?" quoth Rüdner: "there, the O's made; I've only to put the tail to it now. "Better and better!" cried out the astonished arquebusiers; forgetting their hatred of the man in their admiration of his skill. |