,ver4#aj_/jd_/ja99;,,end99              
,scanned and proofed by ,alfred ,j4     
,drake 7www4ajdrake4com7                
,,the ,,renaissance3 ,,studies ,,in     
,,art ,,and ,,poetry  ,,walter ,,horatio
 ,,pater    ,london3 #aiaj4 7,the       
,library ,edition47      ,,notes ,,by   
,,the ,e-,,text ,,editor3    ,notes3    
,the #aiaj ,library ,edition employs    
footnotes1 a  style inconvenient in an  
electronic edition4  ,i have therefore  
placed an asterisk immediately after    
each of ,pater's footnotes  and a  sign 
after my own notes1 and have listed each
 chapter's  notes at that chapter's end4
    ,pagination and ,paragraphing3 ,to  
avoid an unwieldy electronic copy1  ,i  
have transferred original pagination to 
brackets4  ,a bracketed  numeral such as
 #bb indicates that the material        
immediately  following the number marks 
the beginning of the relevant page4  ,i 
have preserved paragraph structure      
except for first-line indentation4      
,hyphenation3 ,i have not preserved     

original hyphenation since an  e-text   
does not require line-end or page-end   
hyphenation4    ,greek typeface3 ,for   
this full-text edition1 ,i have         
transliterated  ,pater's ,greek         
quotations4  ,if there is a need for the
 original ,greek1 it  can be viewed at  
my site1                                
http3_/_/www4ajdrake4com_/etexts1 a     
,victorianist  archive that contains the
 complete works of ,walter ,pater and   
many other  nineteenth-century texts1   
mostly in first editions4          ,,the
 ,,renaissance3 ,,studies ,,in ,,art    
,,and ,,poetry  ,,walter ,,horatio      
,,pater        ,,contents      ,preface3
 vii-xv    ,two ,early ,french ,stories3
 #a -#bi    ,pico della ,mirandola3     
#cj-di    ,sandro ,botticelli3 #ej-fb   
,luca della ,robbia3 #fc-gb    ,the     
,poetry of ,michelangelo3 #gc-ig        
,leonardo da ,vinci3 #ih-abi    ,the    
,school of ,giorgione3 #acj-aed         
,joachim du ,bellay3 #aee-agf           
,winckelmann3 #agg-bcb    ,conclusion3  

#bcc-;end        ,,dedication    ,to    
,c4,l4,s  ,february #ahgc               
,,preface    vii ,many attempts have    
been made by writers on art and poetry  
to  define beauty in the abstract1 to   
express it in the most general  terms1  
to find some universal formula for it4  
,the value of these  attempts has most  
often been in the suggestive and        
penetrating  things said by the way4    
,such discussions help us very little to
  enjoy what has been well done in art  
or poetry1 to discriminate  between what
 is more and what is less excellent in  
them1 or to use  words like beauty1     
excellence1 art1 poetry1 with a more    
precise  meaning than they would        
otherwise have4  ,beauty1 like all other
  qualities presented to human          
experience1 is relative2 and the        
definition of it becomes unmeaning and  
useless in proportion to  its           
abstractness4  ,to define beauty1 not in
 the most abstract but in  the most     
concrete terms possible1 to find not its

 universal  formula1 but the formula    
which expresses most adequately this or 
that viii special manifestation of it1  
is the aim of the true student  of      
aesthetics4    ,to see the object as in 
itself it really is1 has been justly    
said to  be the aim of all true         
criticism whatever1 and in aesthetic    
criticism the first step towards seeing 
one's object as it really is1  is to    
know one's own impression as it really  
is1 to discriminate it1  to realise it  
distinctly4  ,the objects with which    
aesthetic criticism  deals--music1      
poetry1 artistic and accomplished forms 
of human  life--are indeed receptacles  
of so many powers or forces3 they       
possess1 like the products of nature1 so
 many virtues or qualities4  ,what is   
this song or picture1 this engaging     
personality presented  in life or in a  
book1 to me8  ,what effect does it      
really produce on  me8  ,does it give me
 pleasure8  and if so1 what sort or     
degree of  pleasure8  ,how is my nature 

modified by its presence1 and under  its
 influence8  ,the answers to these      
questions are the original  facts with  
which the aesthetic critic has to do2   
and1 as in the study  of light1 of      
morals1 of number1 one must realise such
 primary data  for one's self1 or not at
 all4  ,and he who experiences these    
impressions strongly1 and drives        
directly at the discrimination  and     
analysis of them1 has no need to trouble
 himself with the  abstract question    
what beauty is in itself1 or what its   
exact  relation to truth or ix          
experience--metaphysical questions1 as  
unprofitable as metaphysical questions  
elsewhere4  ,he may pass  them all by as
 being1 answerable or not1 of no        
interest to him4    ,the aesthetic      
critic1 then1 regards all the objects   
with which he  has to do1 all works of  
art1 and the fairer forms of nature and 
human life1 as powers or forces         
producing pleasurable sensations1  each 
of a more or less peculiar or unique    

kind4  ,this influence he  feels1 and   
wishes to explain1 by analysing and     
reducing it to its  elements4  ,to him1 
the picture1 the landscape1 the engaging
  personality in life or in a book1 ,la 
,gioconda1 the hills of ,carrara1  ,pico
 of ,mirandola1 are valuable for their  
virtues1 as we say1 in  speaking of a   
herb1 a wine1 a gem2 for the property   
each has of  affecting one with a       
special1 a unique1 impression of        
pleasure4  ,our education becomes       
complete in proportion as our           
susceptibility to these impressions     
increases in depth and variety4  ,and   
the function of the aesthetic critic is 
to distinguish1 to  analyse1 and        
separate from its adjuncts1 the virtue  
by which a  picture1 a landscape1 a fair
 personality in life or in a book1      
produces this special impression of     
beauty or pleasure1 to indicate  what   
the source of that impression is1 and   
under what conditions  it is            
experienced4  ,his end is reached when  

he has disengaged that  x virtue1 and   
noted it1 as a chemist notes some       
natural element1  for himself and       
others2 and the rule for those who would
 reach  this end is stated with great   
exactness in the words of a recent      
critic of ,sainte-,beuve3--,de se borner
  connatre de prs les  belles choses1 et
  s'en nourrir en exquis amateurs1 en   
humanistes accomplis4    ,what is       
important1 then1 is not that the critic 
should possess a  correct abstract      
definition of beauty for the intellect1 
but a certain  kind of temperament1 the 
power of being deeply moved by the      
presence of beautiful objects4  ,he will
 remember always that  beauty exists in 
many forms4  ,to him all periods1 types1
 schools  of taste1 are in themselves   
equal4  ,in all ages there have been    
some excellent workmen1 and some        
excellent work done4  ,the  question he 
asks is always3--,in whom did the stir1 
the genius1 the  sentiment of the period
 find itself8  where was the receptacle 

of  its refinement1 its elevation1 its  
taste8  ,the ages are all equal1  says  
,william ,blake1 but genius is always   
above its age4    ,often it will require
 great nicety to disengage this virtue  
from the  commoner elements with which  
it may be found in combination4  ,few   
artists1 not ,goethe or ,byron even1    
work quite cleanly1  casting off all    
dbris1 and leaving us only what the heat
 of their  imagination has wholly xi    
fused and transformed4  ,take1 for      
instance1 the writings of ,wordsworth4  
,the heat of his genius1  entering into 
the substance of his work1 has          
crystallised a part1  but only a part1  
of it2 and in that great mass of verse  
there is much  which might well be      
forgotten4  ,but scattered up and down  
it1  sometimes fusing and transforming  
entire compositions1 like the  ,stanzas 
on ,resolution and ,independence1 or the
 ,ode on the  ,recollections of         
,childhood1 sometimes1 as if at random1 
depositing a fine crystal here or there1

 in a matter it does not  wholly search 
through and transmute1 we trace the     
action of his  unique1 incommunicable   
faculty1 that strange1 mystical sense of
 a  life in natural things1 and of man's
 life as a part of nature1  drawing     
strength and colour and character from  
local influences1  from the hills and   
streams1 and from natural sights and    
sounds4  ,well6  that is the virtue1 the
 active principle in ,wordsworth's      
poetry2 and then the function of the    
critic of ,wordsworth is to  follow up  
that active principle1 to disengage it1 
to mark the degree  in which it         
penetrates his verse4    ,the subjects  
of the following studies are taken from 
the history  of the ,renaissance1 and   
touch what ,i think the chief points in 
that  complex1 many-sided movement4  ,i 
have explained in the first of  them    
what ,i understand by the word1 xii     
giving it a much wider  scope than was  
intended by those who originally used it
 to denote  that revival of classical   

antiquity in the fifteenth century which
  was only one of many results of a     
general excitement and  enlightening of 
the human mind1 but of which the great  
aim and  achievements of what1 as       
,christian art1 is often falsely opposed
 to  the ,renaissance1 were another     
result4  ,this outbreak of the human    
spirit may be traced far into the middle
 age itself1 with its motives  already  
clearly pronounced1 the care for        
physical beauty1 the  worship of the    
body1 the breaking down of those limits 
which the  religious system of the      
middle age imposed on the heart and the 
imagination4  ,i have taken as an       
example of this movement1 this  earlier 
,renaissance within the middle age      
itself1 and as an  expression of its    
qualities1 two little compositions in   
early  ,french2 not because they        
constitute the best possible expression 
of them1 but because they help the unity
 of my series1 inasmuch  as the         
,renaissance ends also in ,france1 in   

,french poetry1 in a  phase of which the
 writings of ,joachim du ,bellay are in 
many  ways the most perfect             
illustration4  ,the ,renaissance1 in    
truth1 put  forth in ,france an         
aftermath1 a wonderful later growth1 the
  products of which have to the full    
that subtle and delicate  sweetness     
which belongs to a refined and comely   
xiii  decadence1 just as its earliest   
phases have the freshness which  belongs
 to all periods of growth in art1 the   
charm of ascsis1 of  the austere and    
serious girding of the loins in youth4  
,but it is in ,italy1 in the fifteenth  
century1 that the interest of the       
,renaissance mainly lies1--in that      
solemn fifteenth century which  can     
hardly be studied too much1 not merely  
for its positive results  in the things 
of the intellect and the imagination1   
its concrete  works of art1 its special 
and prominent personalities1 with their 
profound aesthetic charm1 but for its   
general spirit and character1  for the  

ethical qualities of which it is a      
consummate type4    ,the various forms  
of intellectual activity which together 
make  up the culture of an age1 move for
 the most part from different           
starting-points1 and by unconnected     
roads4  ,as products of the  same       
generation they partake indeed of a     
common character1 and  unconsciously    
illustrate each other2 but of the       
producers  themselves1 each group is    
solitary1 gaining what advantage or     
disadvantage there may be in            
intellectual isolation4  ,art and       
poetry1 philosophy and the religious    
life1 and that other life of  refined   
pleasure and action in the conspicuous  
places of the  world1 are each of them  
confined to its own circle of ideas1 and
  those who prosecute either of them are
 generally little xiv  curious of the   
thoughts of others4  ,there come1       
however1 from  time to time1 eras of    
more favourable conditions1 in which the
  thoughts of men draw nearer together  

than is their wont1 and the  many       
interests of the intellectual world     
combine in one complete  type of general
 culture4  ,the fifteenth century in    
,italy is one of  these happier eras1   
and what is sometimes said of the age of
  ,pericles is true of that of          
,lorenzo3--it is an age productive in   
personalities1 many-sided1 centralised1 
complete4  ,here1 artists  and          
philosophers and those whom the action  
of the world has  elevated and made     
keen1 do not live in isolation1 but     
breathe a  common air1 and catch light  
and heat from each other's thoughts4    
,there is a spirit of general elevation 
and enlightenment in which  all alike   
communicate4  ,the unity of this spirit 
gives unity to all  the various products
 of the ,renaissance2 and it is to this 
intimate  alliance with the mind1 this  
participation in the best thoughts      
which that age produced1 that the art of
 ,italy in the fifteenth  century owes  
much of its grave dignity and influence4

    ,i have added an essay on           
,winckelmann1 as not incongruous with   
the studies which precede it1 because   
,winckelmann1 coming in  the eighteenth 
century1 really belongs in spirit to an 
earlier age4  ,by his enthusiasm for the
 things of the intellect xv and the     
imagination for their own sake1 by his  
,hellenism1 his life-long  struggle to  
attain the ,greek spirit1 he is in      
sympathy with the  humanists of a       
previous century4  ,he is the last fruit
 of the  ,renaissance1 and explains in a
 striking way its motive and            
tendencies4    #ahgc4        ,,two      
,,early ,,french ,,stories    ,yet shall
 ye be as the wings of a dove4    #a    
,,the history of the ,renaissance ends  
in ,france1 and carries us  away from   
,italy to the beautiful cities of the   
country of the ,loire4  ,but it was in  
,france also1 in a very important sense1
 that the  ,renaissance had begun4      
,french writers1 who are fond of        
connecting the creations of ,italian    

genius with a ,french origin1  who tell 
us how ,saint ,francis of ,assisi took  
not his name only1  but all those       
notions of chivalry and romantic love   
which so  deeply penetrated his         
thoughts1 from a ,french source1 how    
,boccaccio borrowed the outlines of his 
stories from the old  ,french fabliaux1 
and how ,dante himself expressly        
connects the  origin of the art of      
miniature-painting with the city of     
,paris1 have  often dwelt on this notion
 of a ,renaissance in the end of the    
twelfth and the beginning of the        
thirteenth century1 a ,renaissance      
within the limits of the middle age     
itself--a brilliant1 but in part        
abortive effort to do for human life and
 the human mind what  was afterwards    
done in the fifteenth4  ,the word       
,renaissance1  indeed1 is now generally 
used to denote not #b merely the revival
  of classical antiquity which took     
place in the fifteenth century1  and to 
which the word was first applied1 but a 

whole complex  movement1 of which that  
revival of classical antiquity was but  
one element or symptom4  ,for us the    
,renaissance is the name of  a          
many-sided but yet united movement1 in  
which the love of the  things of the    
intellect and the imagination for their 
own sake1 the  desire for a more liberal
 and comely way of conceiving life1 make
  themselves felt1 urging those who     
experience this desire to search  out   
first one and then another means of     
intellectual or imaginative  enjoyment1 
and directing them not only to the      
discovery of old  and forgotten sources 
of this enjoyment1 but to the divination
 of  fresh sources thereof--new         
experiences1 new subjects of poetry1    
new forms of art4  ,of such feeling     
there was a great outbreak in  the end  
of the twelfth and the beginning of the 
following century4  ,here and there1    
under rare and happy conditions1 in     
,pointed  architecture1 in the doctrines
 of romantic love1 in the poetry of     

,provence1 the rude strength of the     
middle age turns to sweetness2  and the 
taste for sweetness generated there     
becomes the seed of  the classical      
revival in it1 prompting it constantly  
to seek after the  springs of perfect   
sweetness in the ,hellenic world4  ,and 
coming  after a long period in which    
this instinct had been crushed1 that    
true dark age1 in which so many sources 
of  intellectual and  imaginative       
enjoyment had #c actually disappeared1  
this  outbreak is rightly called a      
,renaissance1 a revival4    ,theories   
which bring into connexion with each    
other modes of  thought and feeling1    
periods of taste1 forms of art and      
poetry1  which the narrowness of men's  
minds constantly tends to oppose  to    
each other1 have a great stimulus for   
the intellect1 and are  almost always   
worth understanding4  ,it is so with    
this theory of a  ,renaissance within   
the middle age1 which seeks to establish
 a  continuity between the most         

characteristic work of that period1  the
 sculpture of ,chartres1 the windows of 
,le ,mans1 and the work  of the later   
,renaissance1 the work of ,jean ,cousin 
and ,germain  ,pilon1 thus healing that 
rupture between the middle age and the  
,renaissance which has so often been    
exaggerated4  ,but it is not  so much   
the ecclesiastical art of the middle    
age1 its sculpture and  painting--work  
certainly done in a great measure for   
pleasure's  sake1 in which even a       
secular1 a rebellious spirit often      
betrays  itself--but rather its profane 
poetry1 the poetry of ,provence1 and    
the magnificent after-growth of that    
poetry in ,italy and ,france1  which    
those ,french writers have in view when 
they speak of this  medieval            
,renaissance4  ,in that poetry1 earthly 
passion1 with its  intimacy1 its        
freedom1 its variety--the liberty of the
 heart--makes  itself felt2 and the name
 of ,abelard1 the great scholar and the 
great lover1 connects the expression of 

this liberty of heart with  the free #d 
play of human intelligence around all   
subjects  presented to it1 with the     
liberty of the intellect1 as that age   
understood it4    ,every one knows the  
legend of ,abelard1 a legend hardly less
  passionate1 certainly not less        
characteristic of the middle age1  than 
the legend of ,tannhuser2 how the famous
 and comely  clerk1 in whom ,wisdom     
herself1 self-possessed1 pleasant1 and  
discreet1 seemed to sit enthroned1 came 
to live in the house of a  canon of the 
church of ,notre-,dame1 where dwelt a   
girl1 ,helose1  believed to be the old  
priest's orphan niece2 how the old      
priest  had testified his love for her  
by giving her an education then         
unrivalled1 so that rumour asserted     
that1 through the knowledge  of         
languages1 enabling her to penetrate    
into the mysteries of the  older world1 
she had become a sorceress1 like the    
,celtic  druidesses2 and how as ,abelard
 and ,helose sat together at home       

there1 to refine a little further on the
 nature of abstract ideas1  ,love made  
himself of the party with them4  ,you   
conceive the  temptations of the        
scholar1 who1 in such dreamy            
tranquillity1 amid  the bright and busy 
spectacle of the ,island1 lived in a    
world of  something like shadows2 and   
that for one who knew so well how  to   
assign its exact value to every abstract
 thought1 those restraints  which lie on
 the consciences of other men had been  
relaxed4  ,it  appears that he composed 
many verses in the vulgar tongue3       
already the young men sang them on the  
quay below the house4  ,those songs1    
says ,m4 de ,rmusat1 #e were probably in
 the taste  of the ,trouvres1 of whom he
 was one of the first in date1 or1 so   
to speak1 the predecessor4  ,it is the  
same spirit which has  moulded the      
famous letters1 written in the quaint   
,latin of the  middle age4    ,at the   
foot of that early ,gothic tower1 which 
the next generation  raised to grace the

 precincts of ,abelard's school1 on the 
,mountain of ,saint ,genevive1 the      
historian ,michelet sees in  thought a  
terrible assembly2 not the hearers of   
,abelard alone1  fifty bishops1 twenty  
cardinals1 two popes1 the whole body of 
scholastic philosophy2 not only the     
learned ,helose1 the teaching  of       
languages1 and the ,renaissance2 but    
,arnold of ,brescia--that is  to say1   
the revolution4  ,and so from the rooms 
of this shadowy  house by the ,seine    
side we see that spirit going abroad1   
with its  qualities already well        
defined1 its intimacy1 its languid      
sweetness1  its rebellion1 its subtle   
skill in dividing the elements of human 
passion1 its care for physical beauty1  
its worship of the body1  which         
penetrated the early literature of      
,italy1 and finds an echo  even in      
,dante4    ,that ,abelard is not        
mentioned in the ,divine ,comedy may    
appear  a singular omission to the      
reader of ,dante1 who seems to have     

inwoven into the texture of his work    
whatever had impressed him  as either   
effective in colour or spiritually      
significant among the  recorded         
incidents of actual life4  ,nowhere in  
his great poem do  we find the name1 nor
 so much as an allusion to the story of 
#f  one who had left so deep a mark on  
the philosophy of which  ,dante was an  
eager student1 of whom in the ,latin    
,quarter1 and  from the lips of scholar 
or teacher in the ,university of ,paris1
  during his sojourn among them1 he can 
hardly have failed to hear4  ,we can    
only suppose that he had indeed         
considered the story and  the man1 and  
abstained from passing judgment as to   
his place in  the scheme of eternal     
justice4    ,in the famous legend of    
,tannhuser1 the erring knight makes his 
way to ,rome1 to seek absolution at the 
centre of ,christian  religion4  ,so    
soon1 thought and said the ,pope1 as the
 staff in  his hand should bud and      
blossom1 so soon might the soul of      

,tannhuser be saved1 and no sooner2 and 
it came to pass not  long after that the
 dry wood of a staff which the ,pope had
 carried  in his hand was covered with  
leaves and flowers4  ,so1 in the        
cloister of ,godstow1 a petrified tree  
was shown of which the nuns  told that  
the fair ,rosamond1 who had died among  
them1 had  declared that1 the tree being
 then alive and green1 it would be      
changed into stone at the hour of her   
salvation4  ,when ,abelard  died1 like  
,tannhuser1 he was on his way to ,rome4 
,what might  have happened had he       
reached his journey's end is uncertain2 
and  it is in this uncertain twilight   
that his relation to the general        
beliefs of his age has always remained4 
,in this1 as in other things1  he       
prefigures the character of the         
,renaissance1 that movement in  #g      
which1 in various ways1 the human mind  
wins for itself a new  kingdom of       
feeling and sensation and thought1 not  
opposed to but  only beyond and         

independent of the spiritual system then
 actually  realised4  ,the opposition   
into which ,abelard is thrown1 which    
gives its colour to his career1 which   
breaks his soul to pieces1 is a  no less
 subtle opposition than that between the
 merely  professional1 official1        
hireling ministers of that system1 with 
their  ignorant worship of system for   
its own sake1 and the true child of     
light1 the humanist1 with reason and    
heart and senses quick1 while  theirs   
were almost dead4  ,he reaches out      
towards1 he attains1  modes of ideal    
living1 beyond the prescribed limits of 
that  system1 though in essential germ1 
it may be1 contained within it4  ,as    
always happens1 the adherents of the    
poorer and narrower  culture had no     
sympathy with1 because no understanding 
of1 a  culture richer and more ample    
than their own4  ,after the  discovery  
of wheat they would still live upon     
acorns--aprs  l'invention du bl ils     
voulaient encore vivre du gland2 and    

would  hear of no service to the higher 
needs of humanity with  instruments not 
of their forging4    ,but the human     
spirit1 bold through those needs1 was   
too strong  for them4  ,abelard and     
,helose write their letters--letters    
with a  wonderful outpouring of soul--in
 medieval ,latin2 and ,abelard1  though 
he composes songs in the vulgar tongue1 
writes also in  ,latin those #h         
treatises in which he tries to find a   
ground of  reality below the            
abstractions of philosophy1 as one bent 
on  trying all things by their congruity
 with human experience1 who  had felt   
the hand of ,helose1 and looked into her
 eyes1 and tested  the resources of     
humanity in her great and energetic     
nature4  ,yet  it is only a little      
later1 early in the thirteenth century1 
that ,french  prose romance begins2 and 
in one of the pretty volumes of the     
,bibliothque ,elzevirienne some of the  
most striking fragments of  it may be   
found1 edited with much intelligence4   

,in one of these  thirteenth-century    
stories1 ,li ,amitiez de ,ami et ,amile1
 that free  play of human affection1 of 
the claims of which ,abelard's story is 
an assertion1 makes itself felt in the  
incidents of a great  friendship1 a     
friendship pure and generous1 pushed to 
a sort of  passionate exaltation1 and   
more than faithful unto death4  ,such   
comradeship1 though instances of it are 
to be found everywhere1  is still       
especially a classical motive2 ,chaucer 
expressing the  sentiment of it so      
strongly in an antique tale1 that one   
knows not  whether the love of both     
,palamon and ,arcite for ,emelya1 or of 
those two for each other1 is the chiefer
 subject of the ,knight's  ,tale--      
,he cast his eyen upon ,emelya1         
,and therewithal he bleynte and cried1  
ah6       ,as that he stongen were unto 
the herte4    ,what reader does not     
refer something of the #i bitterness of 
that  cry to the spoiling1 already      
foreseen1 of the fair friendship1 which 

had made the prison of the two lads     
sweet hitherto with its daily  offices8 
,the friendship of ,amis and ,amile is  
deepened by the romantic  circumstance  
of an entire personal resemblance       
between the two  heroes1 through which  
they pass for each other again and      
again1  and thereby into many strange   
adventures2 that curious interest of    
the ,doppelgnger1 which begins among the
 stars with the  ,dioscuri1 being       
entwined in and out through all the     
incidents of  the story1 like an outward
 token of the inward similitude of their
  souls4  ,with this1 again1 is         
connected1 like a second reflection of  
that inward similitude1 the conceit of  
two marvellously beautiful  cups1 also  
exactly like each other--children's     
cups1 of wood1 but  adorned with gold   
and precious stones4  ,these two cups1  
which  by their resemblance help to     
bring the friends together at critical  
moments1 were given to them by the      
,pope1 when he baptized  them at ,rome1 

whither the parents had taken them for  
that  purpose1 in gratitude for their   
birth4  ,they cross and recross very    
strangely in the narrative1 serving the 
two heroes almost like  living things1  
and with that well-known effect of a    
beautiful  object1 kept constantly      
before the eye in a story or poem1 of   
keeping sensation well awake1 and giving
 a certain air of  refinement to all the
 scenes into which it enters4  ,that    
sense of  fate1 which #aj hangs so much 
of the shaping of human life on  trivial
 objects1 like ,othello's strawberry    
handkerchief1 is thereby  heightened1   
while witness is borne to the enjoyment 
of beautiful  handiwork by primitive    
people1 their simple wonder at it1 so   
that  they give it an oddly significant 
place among the factors of a  human     
history4    ,amis and ,amile1 then1 are 
true to their comradeship through all   
trials2 and in the end it comes to pass 
that at a moment of great  need ,amis   
takes the place of ,amile in a          

tournament for life or  death4  ,after  
this it happened that a leprosy fell    
upon ,amis1 so  that his wife would not 
approach him1 and wrought to strangle   
him4  ,he departed therefore from his   
home1 and at last prayed his  servants  
to carry him to the house of ,amile2 and
 it is in what  follows that the curious
 strength of the piece shows itself3--  
,his servants1 willing to do as he      
commanded1 carried him to the  place    
where ,amile was2 and they began to     
sound their rattles  before the court of
 ,amile's house1 as lepers are          
accustomed to  do4  ,and when ,amile    
heard the noise he commanded one of his 
servants to carry meat and bread to the 
sick man1 and the cup  which was given  
to him at ,rome filled with good wine4  
,and  when the servant had done as he   
was commanded1 he returned  and said1   
,sir1 if ,i had not thy cup in my hand1 
,i should believe  that the cup which   
the sick man has was thine1 for they are
 alike1  the #aa one to the other1 in   

height and fashion4  ,and ,amile said1  
,go quickly and bring him to me4  ,and  
when ,amis stood before  his comrade    
,amile demanded of him who he was1 and  
how he  had gotten that cup4  ,i am of  
,briquain le ,chastel1 answered ,amis1  
and the cup was given to me by the      
,bishop of ,rome1 who  baptized me4     
,and when ,amile heard that1 he knew    
that it was his  comrade ,amis1 who had 
delivered him from death1 and won for   
him the daughter of the ,king of ,france
 to be his wife4  ,and  straightway he  
fell upon him1 and began weeping        
greatly1 and  kissed him4  ,and when his
 wife heard that1 she ran out with her  
hair in disarray1 weeping and distressed
 exceedingly1 for she  remembered that  
it was he who had slain the false       
,ardres4  ,and  thereupon they placed   
him in a fair bed1 and said to him1     
,abide  with us until ,god's will be    
accomplished in thee1 for all we have   
is at thy service4  ,so he and the two  
servants abode with them4    ,and it    

came to pass one night1 when ,amis and  
,amile lay in one  chamber without other
 companions1 that ,god sent ,his angel  
,raphael to ,amis1 who said to him1     
,amis1 art thou asleep8  ,and  he1      
supposing that ,amile had called him1   
answered and said1 ,i am  not asleep1   
fair comrade6  ,and the angel said to   
him1 ,thou hast  answered well1 for thou
 art the comrade of the heavenly        
citizens4-  -,i am ,raphael1 the angel  
of our ,lord1 and am come to tell thee  
how thou mayest be #ab healed2 for thy  
prayers are heard4  ,thou  shalt bid    
,amile1 thy comrade1 that he slay his   
two children and  wash thee in their    
blood1 and so thy body shall be made    
whole4  ,and ,amis said to him1 ,let not
 this thing be1 that my comrade  should 
become a murderer for my sake4  ,but the
 angel said1 ,it is  convenient that he 
do this4  ,and thereupon the angel      
departed4    ,and ,amile also1 as if in 
sleep1 heard those words2 and he awoke  
and said1 ,who is it1 my comrade1 that  

hath spoken with thee8  ,and ,amis      
answered1 ,no man2 only ,i have prayed  
to our ,lord1 as  ,i am accustomed4     
,and ,amile said1 ,not so6  but some one
 hath  spoken with thee4  ,then he arose
 and went to the door of the  chamber2  
and finding it shut he said1 ,tell me1  
my brother1 who it  was said those words
 to thee to-night4  ,and ,amis began to 
weep  greatly1 and told him that it was 
,raphael1 the angel of the ,lord1  who  
had said to him1 ,amis1 our ,lord       
commands thee that thou  bid ,amile slay
 his two children1 and wash thee in     
their blood1 and  so thou shalt be      
healed of thy leprosy4  ,and ,amile was 
greatly  disturbed at those words1 and  
said1 ,i would have given to thee my    
man-servants and my maid-servants and   
all my goods1 and thou  feignest that an
 angel hath spoken to thee that ,i      
should slay my  two children4  ,and     
immediately ,amis began to weep1 and    
said1 ,i  know that ,i have spoken to   
thee a terrible thing1 but constrained  

thereto2 ,i pray thee cast me not away  
#ac from the shelter of thy  house4     
,and ,amile answered that what he had   
covenanted with  him1 that he would     
perform1 unto the hour of his death3    
,but ,i  conjure thee1 said he1 by the  
faith which there is between me and     
thee1 and by our comradeship1 and by the
 baptism we received  together at ,rome1
 that thou tell me whether it was man or
 angel  said that to thee4  ,and ,amis  
answered again1 ,so truly as an angel   
hath spoken to me this night1 so may    
,god deliver me from my  infirmity6     
,then ,amile began to weep in secret1   
and thought within  himself3 ,if this   
man was ready to die before the king for
 me1 shall  ,i not for him slay my      
children8  ,shall ,i not keep faith with
 him  who was faithful to me even unto  
death8  ,and ,amile tarried no  longer1 
but departed to the chamber of his wife1
 and bade her go  hear the ,sacred      
,office4  ,and he took a sword1 and went
 to the bed  where the children were    

lying1 and found them asleep4  ,and he  
lay down over them and began to weep    
bitterly and said1 ,hath  any man yet   
heard of a father who of his own will   
slew his  children8  ,alas1 my children6
  ,i am no longer your father1 but  your
 cruel murderer4    ,and the children   
awoke at the tears of their father1     
which fell  upon them2 and they looked  
up into his face and began to laugh4    
,and as they were of the age of about   
three years1 he said1 ,your  laughing   
will be turned into tears1 for your     
innocent blood must  now be shed1 #ad   
and therewith he cut off their heads4   
,then he  laid them back in the bed1 and
 put the heads upon the bodies1 and     
covered them as though they slept3 and  
with the blood which he  had taken he   
washed his comrade1 and said1 ,lord     
,jesus ,christ6  who hast commanded men 
to keep faith on earth1 and didst heal  
the leper by ,thy word6  cleanse now my 
comrade1 for whose love  ,i have shed   
the blood of my children4    ,then ,amis

 was cleansed of his leprosy4  ,and     
,amile clothed his  companion in his    
best robes2 and as they went to the     
church to  give thanks1 the bells1 by   
the will of ,god1 rang of their own     
accord4  ,and when the people of the    
city heard that1 they ran  together to  
see the marvel4  ,and the wife of       
,amile1 when she saw  ,amis and ,amile  
coming1 asked which of the twain was her
  husband1 and said1 ,i know well the   
vesture of them both1 but ,i  know not  
which of them is ,amile4  ,and ,amile   
said to her1 ,i am  ,amile1 and my      
companion is ,amis1 who is healed of his
 sickness4  ,and she was full of wonder1
 and desired to know in what manner  he 
was healed4  ,give thanks to our ,lord1 
answered ,amile1 but  trouble not       
thyself as to the manner of the healing4
    ,now neither the father nor the     
mother had yet entered where the        
children were2 but the father sighed    
heavily1 because they were  dead1 and   
the mother asked for them1 that they    

might rejoice  together2 but ,amile     
said1 ,dame6  let #ae the children      
sleep4  ,and  it was already the hour of
 ,tierce4  ,and going in alone to the   
children to weep over them1 he found    
them at play in the bed2  only1 in the  
place of the sword-cuts about their     
throats was as it  were a thread of     
crimson4  ,and he took them in his arms 
and  carried them to his wife and said1 
,rejoice greatly1 for thy children  whom
 ,i had slain by the commandment of the 
angel are alive1  and by their blood is 
,amis healed4    ,there1 as ,i said1 is 
the strength of the old ,french story4  
,for the  ,renaissance has not only the 
sweetness which it derives from the     
classical world1 but also that curious  
strength of which there are  great      
resources in the true middle age4  ,and 
as ,i have illustrated  the early       
strength of the ,renaissance by the     
story of ,amis and  ,amile1 a story     
which comes from the ,north1 in which a 
certain  racy ,teutonic flavour is      

perceptible1 so ,i shall illustrate that
 other  element1 its early sweetness1 a 
languid excess of sweetness even1  by   
another story printed in the same volume
 of the ,bibliothque  ,elzevirienne1 and
 of about the same date1 a story which  
comes1  characteristically1 from the    
,south1 and connects itself with the    
literature of ,provence4    ,the central
 love-poetry of ,provence1 the poetry of
 the ,tenson and  the ,aubade1 of       
,bernard de ,ventadour and ,pierre      
,vidal1 is poetry  for the few1 for the 
elect and peculiar people of the #af    
kingdom  of sentiment4  ,but below this 
intenser poetry there was probably a    
wide range of literature1 less serious  
and elevated1 reaching1 by  lightness of
 form and comparative homeliness of     
interest1 an  audience which the        
concentrated passion of those higher    
lyrics  left untouched4  ,this          
literature has long since perished1 or  
lives  only in later ,french or ,italian
 versions4  ,one such version1 the  only

 representative of its species1 ,m4     
,fauriel thought he detected  in the    
story of ,aucassin and ,nicolette1      
written in the ,french of  the latter   
half of the thirteenth century1 and     
preserved in a unique  manuscript1 in   
the national library of ,paris2 and     
there were  reasons which made him      
divine for it a still more ancient      
ancestry1 traces in it of an ,arabian   
origin1 as in a leaf lost out of  some  
early ,arabian ,nights499  ,the little  
book loses none of its  interest through
 the criticism which finds in it only a 
traditional  subject1 handed on by one  
people to another2 for after passing    
thus from hand to hand1 its outline is  
still clear1 its surface  untarnished2  
and1 like many other stories1 books1    
literary and  artistic conceptions of   
the middle age1 it has come to #ag have 
in  this way a sort of personal history1
 almost as full of risk and  adventure  
as that of its own heroes4  ,the writer 
himself calls the  piece a cantefable1 a

 tale told in prose1 but with its       
incidents and  sentiment helped forward 
by songs1 inserted at irregular         
intervals4  ,in the junctions of the    
story itself there are signs of         
roughness and  want of skill1 which make
 one suspect that the prose was only put
  together to connect a series of       
songs--a series of songs so moving  and 
attractive that people wished to        
heighten and dignify their  effect by a 
regular framework or setting4  ,yet the 
songs  themselves are of the simplest   
kind1 not rhymed even1 but only         
imperfectly assonant1 stanzas of twenty 
or thirty lines apiece1 all  ending with
 a similar vowel sound4  ,and here1 as  
elsewhere in  that early poetry1 much of
 the interest lies in the spectacle of  
the  formation of a new artistic sense4 
,a novel art is arising1 the  music of  
rhymed poetry1 and in the songs of      
,aucassin and  ,nicolette1 which seem   
always on the point of passing into true
  rhyme1 but which halt somehow1 and can

 never quite take flight1  you see      
people just growing aware of the        
elements of a new  music in their       
possession1 and anticipating how        
pleasant such  music might become4      
,the piece was probably intended to be  
recited by a company of  trained        
performers1 many of whom1 at least for  
the lesser parts1  were probably        
children4  ,the songs are introduced by 
the rubric1  #ah ,or se cante 7ici on   
chante72 and each division of prose by  
the rubric1 ,or dient et content et     
fabloient 7ici on conte74  ,the  musical
 notes of a portion of the songs have   
been preserved2 and  some of the details
 are so descriptive that they suggested 
to ,m4  ,fauriel the notion that the    
words had been accompanied  throughout  
by dramatic action4  ,that mixture of   
simplicity and  refinement which he was 
surprised to find in a composition of   
the  thirteenth century1 is shown       
sometimes in the turn given to some     
passing expression or remark2 thus1 the 

,count de ,garins was old  and frail1   
his time was over--,li quens ,garins de 
,beaucaire  estoit vix et frales2 si    
avoit son tans trespass4  ,and then1 all
 is so  realised6  ,one sees the ancient
 forest1 with its disused roads  grown  
deep with grass1 and the place where    
seven roads meet--u  a forkeut set cemin
 qui s'en vont par le pas2 we hear the  
light-  hearted country people calling  
each other by their rustic names1  and  
putting forward1 as their spokesman1 one
 among them who is  more eloquent and   
ready than the rest--li un qui plus fu  
enparls  des autres2 for the little book
 has its burlesque element also1 so     
that one hears the faint1 far-off       
laughter still4  ,rough as it is1 the   
piece certainly possesses this high     
quality of poetry1 that it aims  at a   
purely artistic effect4  ,its subject is
 a great sorrow1 yet it  claims to be a 
thing of joy and refreshment1 to be     
entertained not  for its matter only1   
but chiefly for its manner1 it is       

cortois1 it tells  us1 et bien assis4   
#ai ,for the student of manners1 and of 
the old ,french language  and           
literature1 it has much interest of a   
purely antiquarian order4  ,to say of an
 ancient literary composition that it   
has an  antiquarian interest1 often     
means that it has no distinct aesthetic 
interest for the reader of to-day4      
,antiquarianism1 by a purely  historical
 effort1 by putting its object in       
perspective1 and setting  the reader in 
a certain point of view1 from which what
 gave  pleasure to the past is          
pleasurable for him also1 may often add 
greatly to the charm we receive from    
ancient literature4  ,but the  first    
condition of such aid must be a real1   
direct1 aesthetic charm  in the thing   
itself4  ,unless it has that charm1     
unless some purely  artistic quality    
went to its original making1 no merely  
antiquarian  effort can ever give it an 
aesthetic value1 or make it a proper    
subject of aesthetic criticism4  ,this  

quality1 wherever it exists1 it  is     
always pleasant to define1 and          
discriminate from the sort of  borrowed 
interest which an old play1 or an old   
story1 may very  likely acquire through 
a true antiquarianism4  ,the story of   
,aucassin and ,nicolette has something  
of this quality4  ,aucassin1  the only  
son of ,count ,garins of ,beaucaire1 is 
passionately in love  with ,nicolette1 a
 beautiful girl of unknown parentage1   
bought of  the ,saracens1 whom his      
father will not permit him to marry4    
,the  story turns on the adventures of  
these two lovers1 until at the end  of  
the piece their mutual fidelity is      
rewarded4  ,these #bj  adventures are of
 the simplest sort1 adventures which    
seem to be  chosen for the happy        
occasion they afford of keeping the eye 
of  the fancy1 perhaps the outward eye1 
fixed on pleasant objects1 a  garden1 a 
ruined tower1 the little hut of flowers 
which ,nicolette  constructs in the     
forest whither she escapes from her     

enemies1 as  a token to ,aucassin that  
she has passed that way4  ,all the charm
  of the piece is in its details1 in a  
turn of peculiar lightness and  grace   
given to the situations and traits of   
sentiment1 especially in  its quaint    
fragments of early ,french prose4       
,all through it one feels the influence 
of that faint air of  overwrought       
delicacy1 almost of wantonness1 which   
was so  strong a characteristic of the  
poetry of the ,troubadours4  ,the       
,troubadours themselves were often men  
of great rank2 they  wrote for an       
exclusive audience1 people of much      
leisure and great  refinement1 and they 
came to value a type of personal beauty 
which has in it but little of the       
influence of the open air and  sunshine4
  ,there is a languid ,eastern          
deliciousness in the very  scenery of   
the story1 the full-blown roses1 the    
chamber painted in  some mysterious     
manner where ,nicolette is imprisoned1  
the cool  brown marble1 the almost      

nameless colours1 the odour of plucked  
grass and flowers4  ,nicolette herself  
well becomes this scenery1  and is the  
best illustration of the quality ,i     
mean--the beautiful1  weird1 foreign    
girl1 whom the #ba shepherds take for a 
fay1 who  has the knowledge of simples1 
the healing and beautifying  qualities  
of leaves and flowers1 whose skilful    
touch heals  ,aucassin's sprained       
shoulder1 so that he suddenly leaps from
 the  ground2 the mere sight of whose   
white flesh1 as she passed the  place   
where he lay1 healed a pilgrim stricken 
with sore disease1 so  that he rose up1 
and returned to his own country4  ,with 
this girl  ,aucassin is so deeply in    
love that he forgets all knightly       
duties4  ,at last ,nicolette is shut up 
to get her out of his way1 and perhaps  
the prettiest passage in the whole piece
 is the fragment of prose  which        
describes her escape3--    ,aucassin was
 put in prison1 as you have heard1 and  
,nicolette  remained shut up in her     

chamber4  ,it was summer-time1 in the   
month of ,may1 when the days are warm   
and long and clear1 and  the nights coy 
and serene4    ,one night ,nicolette1   
lying on her bed1 saw the moon shine    
clear  through the little window1 and   
heard the nightingale sing in the       
garden1 and then came the memory of     
,aucassin1 whom she so  much loved4     
,she thought of the ,count ,garins of   
,beaucaire1 who  mortally hated her1    
and1 to be rid of her1 might at any     
moment  cause her to be burned or       
drowned4  ,she perceived that the old   
woman who kept her company was asleep2  
she rose and put on  the fairest gown   
she had2 she took the bed-clothes #bb   
and the  towels1 and knotted them       
together like a cord1 as far as they    
would go4  ,then she tied the end to a  
pillar of the window1 and let  herself  
slip down quite softly into the garden1 
and passed straight  across it1 to reach
 the town4    ,her hair was yellow in   
small curls1 her smiling eyes           

blue-green1  her face clear and feat1   
the little lips very red1 the teeth     
small and  white2 and the daisies which 
she crushed in passing1 holding her     
skirt high behind and before1 looked    
dark against her feet2 the girl  was so 
white6    ,she came to the garden-gate  
and opened it1 and walked through  the  
streets of ,beaucaire1 keeping on the   
dark side of the way to be  out of the  
light of the moon1 which shone quietly  
in the sky4  ,she  walked as fast as she
 could1 until she came to the tower     
where  ,aucassin was4  ,the tower was   
set about with pillars1 here and  there4
  ,she pressed herself against one of   
the pillars1 wrapped  herself closely in
 her mantle1 and putting her face to a  
chink of  the tower1 which was old and  
ruined1 she heard ,aucassin crying      
bitterly within1 and when she had       
listened awhile she began to  speak4    
,but scattered up and down through this 
lighter matter1 always  tinged with     
humour and often passing into burlesque1

 which  makes up the general substance  
of the piece1 there are morsels of  a   
different quality1 touches of some      
intenser sentiment1 coming it  would    
seem from #bc the profound and energetic
 spirit of the  ,provenal poetry itself1
 to which the inspiration of the book   
has  been referred4  ,let me gather up  
these morsels of deeper colour1  these  
expressions of the ideal intensity of   
love1 the motive which  really unites   
together the fragments of the little    
composition4  ,dante1 the perfect flower
 of ideal love1 has recorded how the    
tyranny of that ,lord of terrible aspect
 became actually  physical1 blinding his
 senses1 and suspending his bodily      
forces4  ,in this1 ,dante is but the    
central expression and type of          
experiences known well enough to the    
initiated1 in that passionate  age4     
,aucassin represents this ideal         
intensity of passion--                  
,aucassin1 le biax1 li blons1       ,li 
gentix1 li amorous2--    the slim1 tall1

 debonair1 dansellon1 as the singers    
call him1 with  his curled yellow hair1 
and eyes of vair1 who faints with love1 
as  ,dante fainted1 who rides all day   
through the forest in search of         
,nicolette1 while the thorns tear his   
flesh1 so that one might have  traced   
him by the blood upon the grass1 and who
 weeps at  eventide because he has not  
found her1 who has the malady of his    
love1 and neglects all knightly duties4 
,once he is induced to put  himself at  
the head of his people1 that they1      
seeing him before  them1 might have more
 heart to defend themselves2 then a song
  relates how the sweet1 grave figure   
goes forth to battle1 in dainty1        
tight-laced #bd armour4  ,it is the very
 image of the ,provenal  love-god1 no   
longer a child1 but grown to pensive    
youth1 as ,pierre  ,vidal met him1      
riding on a white horse1 fair as the    
morning1 his  vestment embroidered with 
flowers4  ,he rode on through the  gates
 into the open plain beyond4  ,but as he

 went1 that great  malady of his love   
came upon him4  ,the bridle fell from   
his  hands2 and like one who sleeps     
walking1 he was carried on into  the    
midst of his enemies1 and heard them    
talking together how  they might most   
conveniently kill him4    ,one of the   
strongest characteristics of that       
outbreak of the reason  and the         
imagination1 of that assertion of the   
liberty of the heart1 in  the middle    
age1 which ,i have termed a medieval    
,renaissance1  was its antinomianism1   
its spirit of rebellion and revolt      
against  the moral and religious ideas  
of the time4  ,in their search after the
  pleasures of the senses and the       
imagination1 in their care for  beauty1 
in their worship of the body1 people    
were impelled  beyond the bounds of the 
,christian ideal2 and their love became 
sometimes a strange idolatry1 a strange 
rival religion4  ,it was the  return of 
that ancient ,venus1 not dead1 but only 
hidden for a time  in the caves of the  

,venusberg1 of those old pagan gods     
still going  to and fro on the earth1   
under all sorts of disguises4  ,and this
  element in the middle age1 for the    
most part ignored by those  writers who 
have treated it pre-eminently as the #be
 ,age of  ,faith--this rebellious and   
antinomian element1 the recognition of  
which has made the delineation of the   
middle age by the writers  of the       
,romantic school in ,france1 by ,victor 
,hugo for instance in  ,notre-,dame de  
,paris1 so suggestive and exciting--is  
found alike  in the history of ,abelard 
and the legend of ,tannhuser4  ,more    
and more1 as we come to mark changes and
 distinctions of temper  in what is     
often in one all-embracing confusion    
called the middle  age1 that rebellion1 
that sinister claim for liberty of heart
 and  thought1 comes to the surface4    
,the ,albigensian movement1  connected  
so strangely with the history of        
,provenal poetry1 is  deeply tinged with
 it4  ,a touch of it makes the          

,franciscan order1  with its poetry1 its
 mysticism1 its illumination1 from the  
point of  view of religious authority1  
justly suspect4  ,it influences the     
thoughts of those obscure prophetical   
writers1 like ,joachim of  ,flora1      
strange dreamers in a world of flowery  
rhetoric of that  third and final       
dispensation of a spirit of freedom1 in 
which law  shall have passed away4  ,of 
this spirit ,aucassin and ,nicolette    
contains perhaps the most famous        
expression3 it is the answer  ,aucassin 
gives when he is threatened with the    
pains of hell1 if he  makes ,nicolette  
his mistress4  ,a creature wholly of    
affection and  the senses1 he sees on   
the way to paradise only a feeble and   
worn-  out company of aged priests1     
clinging day and night to the  chapel   
altars1 barefoot or #bf in patched      
sandals4  ,with or even  without        
,nicolette1 his sweet mistress whom he  
so much loves1  he1 for his part1 is    
ready to start on the way to hell1 along

 with  the good scholars1 as he says1   
and the actors1 and the fine  horsemen  
dead in battle1 and the men of          
fashion199 and the fair  courteous      
ladies who had two or three chevaliers  
apiece beside  their own true lords1 all
 gay with music1 in their gold1 and     
silver1  and beautiful furs--the vair   
and the grey4    ,but in the ,house     
,beautiful the saints too have their    
place2 and the  student of the          
,renaissance has this advantage over the
 student of  the emancipation of the    
human mind in the ,reformation1 or the  
,french ,revolution1 that in tracing the
 footsteps of humanity to  higher       
levels1 he is not beset at every turn by
 the inflexibilities  and antagonisms of
 some well-recognised controversy1 with 
rigidly defined opposites1 exhausting   
the intelligence and limiting  one's    
sympathies4  ,the opposition of the     
professional defenders  of a mere system
 to that more sincere and generous play 
of the  forces of human mind and        

character1 which ,i have noted as the   
secret of ,abelard's struggle1 is indeed
 always powerful4  ,but the             
incompatibility with one another of     
souls really fair is not  essential2 and
 within the enchanted region of the     
,renaissance1  one needs not be for ever
 on #bg one's guard4  ,here there are no
  fixed parties1 no exclusions3 all     
breathes of that unity of culture in    
which whatsoever things are comely are  
reconciled1 for the  elevation and      
adorning of our spirits4  ,and just in  
proportion as  those who took part in   
the ,renaissance become centrally       
representative of it1 just so much the  
more is this condition  realised in     
them4  ,the wicked popes1 and the       
loveless tyrants1  who from time to time
 became its patrons1 or mere speculators
 in  its fortunes1 lend themselves      
easily to disputations1 and1 from this  
side or that1 the spirit of controversy 
lays just hold upon them4  ,but the     
painter of the ,last ,supper1 with his  

kindred1 lives in a  land where         
controversy has no breathing-place4     
,they refuse to  be classified4  ,in the
 story of ,aucassin and ,nicolette1 in  
the  literature which it represents1 the
 note of defiance1 of the  opposition of
 one system to another1 is sometimes    
harsh4  ,let me  conclude then with a   
morsel from ,amis and ,amile1 in which  
the  harmony of human interests is still
 entire4  ,for the story of the  great  
traditional friendship1 in which1 as ,i 
said1 the liberty of the  heart makes   
itself felt1 seems1 as we have it1 to   
have been written  by a monk--,la vie   
des saints martyrs ,amis et ,amile4  ,it
 was not  till the end of the           
seventeenth century that their names    
were  finally excluded from the         
martyrology2 and their story ends with  
this monkish miracle of earthly         
comradeship1 more than faithful  unto   
death3--    #bh ,for1 as ,god had united
 them in their lives in one accord1 so  
they were not divided in their death1   

falling together side by side1  with a  
host of other brave men1 in battle for  
,king ,charles at  ,mortara1 so called  
from that great slaughter4  ,and the    
bishops  gave counsel to the king and   
queen that they should bury the  dead1  
and build a church in that place2 and   
their counsel pleased  the king greatly4
  ,and there were built two churches1   
the one by  commandment of the king in  
honour of ,saint ,oseige1 and the  other
 by commandment of the queen in honour  
of ,saint ,peter4    ,and the king      
caused the two chests of stone to be    
brought in the  which the bodies of     
,amis and ,amile lay2 and ,amile was    
carried  to the church of ,saint ,peter1
 and ,amis to the church of ,saint      
,oseige2 and the other corpses were     
buried1 some in one place and  some in  
the other4  ,but lo6 next morning1 the  
body of ,amile in his  coffin was found 
lying in the church of ,saint ,oseige1  
beside the  coffin of ,amis his comrade4
  ,behold then this wondrous amity1     

which by death could not be dissevered6 
,this miracle ,god did1 who gave to ,his
 disciples power to  remove mountains4  
,and by reason of this miracle the king 
and  queen remained in that place for a 
space of thirty days1 and  performed the
 offices of the dead who were slain1 and
 honoured  the said churches with great 
#bi gifts4  ,and the bishop ordained    
many clerks to serve in the church of   
,saint ,oseige1 and  commanded them that
 they should guard duly1 with great     
devotion1 the bodies of the two         
companions1 ,amis and ,amile4    #ahgb4 
,,notes    #af4 99,recently1 ,aucassin  
and ,nicolette has been edited and      
translated into ,english1 with much     
graceful scholarship1 by ,mr4 ,f4  ,w4  
,bourdillon4  ,still more recently we   
have had a translation--a  poet's       
translation--from the ingenious and     
versatile pen of ,mr4  ,andrew ,lang4   
,the reader should consult also the     
chapter on  ,the ,out-door ,poetry1 in  
,vernon ,lee's most interesting         

,euphorion2 being ,studies of the       
,antique and ,mediaeval in the          
,renaissance1 a work abounding in       
knowledge and insight on the  subjects  
of which it treats4    #bf4 99,parage1  
peerage3--which came to signify all that
 ambitious  youth affected most on the  
outside of life1 in that old world of   
the  ,troubadours1 with whom this term  
is of frequent recurrence4  ,return4    
,,pico ,,della ,,mirandola    #cj ,,no  
account of the ,renaissance can be      
complete without  some notice of the    
attempt made by certain ,italian        
scholars of the  fifteenth century to   
reconcile ,christianity with the        
religion of  ancient ,greece4  ,to      
reconcile forms of sentiment which at   
first  sight seem incompatible1 to      
adjust the various products of the      
human mind to one another in one        
many-sided type of intellectual         
culture1 to give humanity1 for heart and
 imagination to feed upon1  as much as  
it could possibly receive1 belonged to  

the generous  instincts of that age4    
,an earlier and simpler generation had  
seen  in the gods of ,greece so many    
malignant spirits1 the defeated but     
still living centres of the religion of 
darkness1 struggling1 not  always in    
vain1 against the kingdom of light4     
,little by little1 as  the natural charm
 of pagan story reasserted itself over  
minds  emerging out of barbarism1 the   
religious significance which had  once  
belonged to it was lost sight of1 and it
 came to be regarded  as the subject of 
a purely artistic or poetical treatment4
  ,but it was  inevitable that from time
 to time minds should #ca arise1 deeply 
enough impressed by its beauty and power
 to ask themselves  whether the religion
 of ,greece was indeed a rival of the   
religion  of ,christ2 for the older gods
 had rehabilitated themselves1 and      
men's allegiance was divided4  ,and the 
fifteenth century was an  impassioned   
age1 so ardent and serious in its       
pursuit of art that it  consecrated     

everything with which art had to do as a
 religious  object4  ,the restored      
,greek literature had made it familiar1 
at  least in ,plato1 with a style of    
expression concerning the earlier  gods1
 which had about it something of the    
warmth and unction of  a ,christian     
hymn4  ,it was too familiar with such   
language to  regard mythology as a mere 
story2 and it was too serious to play   
with a religion4    ,let me briefly     
remind the reader--says ,heine1 in the  
,gods in  ,exile1 an essay full of that 
strange blending of sentiment which is  
characteristic of the traditions of the 
middle age concerning the  pagan        
religions--how the gods of the older    
world1 at the time of  the definite     
triumph of ,christianity1 that is1 in   
the third century1  fell into painful   
embarrassments1 which greatly resembled 
certain  tragical situations of their   
earlier life4  ,they now found          
themselves beset by the same troublesome
 necessities to which  they had once    

before been exposed during the primitive
 ages1 in  that revolutionary epoch when
 the ,titans broke out of the custody   
of ,orcus1 and1 piling ,pelion on ,ossa1
 scaled #cb ,olympus4  ,unfortunate     
gods6  ,they had then to take flight    
ignominiously1  and hide themselves     
among us here on earth1 under all sorts 
of  disguises4  ,the larger number      
betook themselves to ,egypt1 where  for 
greater security they assumed the forms 
of animals1 as is  generally known4     
,just in the same way1 they had to take 
flight  again1 and seek entertainment in
 remote hiding-places1 when  those      
iconoclastic zealots1 the black brood of
 monks1 broke down  all the temples1 and
 pursued the gods with fire and curses4 
,many  of these unfortunate emigrants1  
now entirely deprived of shelter  and   
ambrosia1 must needs take to vulgar     
handicrafts1 as a means  of earning     
their bread4  ,under these              
circumstances1 many whose  sacred groves
 had been confiscated1 let themselves   

out for hire as  wood-cutters in        
,germany1 and were forced to drink beer 
instead  of nectar4  ,apollo seems to   
have been content to take service  under
 graziers1 and as he had once kept the  
cows of ,admetus1 so  he lived now as a 
shepherd in ,lower ,austria4  ,here1    
however1  having become suspected on    
account of his beautiful singing1 he    
was recognised by a learned monk as one 
of the old pagan gods1  and handed over 
to the spiritual tribunal4  ,on the rack
 he  confessed that he was the god      
,apollo2 and before his execution  he   
begged that he might be suffered to play
 once more upon the  lyre1 and to sing a
 song4  ,and he played so touchingly1   
and sang  with such magic1 and was      
withal so #cc beautiful in form and     
feature1 that all the women wept1 and   
many of them were so  deeply impressed  
that they shortly afterwards fell sick4 
,some  time afterwards the people wished
 to drag him from the grave  again1 that
 a stake might be driven through his    

body1 in the belief  that he had been a 
vampire1 and that the sick women would  
by  this means recover4  ,but they found
 the grave empty4    ,the ,renaissance  
of the fifteenth century was1 in many   
things1  great rather by what it        
designed than by what it achieved4      
,much  which it aspired to do1 and did  
but imperfectly or mistakenly1 was      
accomplished in what is called the      
claircissement of the  eighteenth       
century1 or in our own generation2 and  
what really  belongs to the revival of  
the fifteenth century is but the leading
  instinct1 the curiosity1 the          
initiatory idea4  ,it is so with this   
very  question of the reconciliation of 
the religion of antiquity with the      
religion of ,christ4  ,a modern scholar 
occupied by this problem  might observe 
that all religions may be regarded as   
natural  products1 that1 at least in    
their origin1 their growth1 and decay1  
they have common laws1 and are not to be
 isolated from the other  movements of  

the human mind in the periods in which  
they  respectively prevailed2 that they 
arise spontaneously out of the  human   
mind1 as expressions of the varying     
phases of its  sentiment concerning the 
unseen world2 that every intellectual   
product must be judged from the point of
 #cd view of the age  and the people in 
which it was produced4  ,he might go on 
to  observe that each has contributed   
something to the development  of the    
religious sense1 and ranging them as so 
many stages in the  gradual education of
 the human mind1 justify the existence  
of  each4  ,the basis of the            
reconciliation of the religions of the  
world  would thus be the inexhaustible  
activity and creativeness of the  human 
mind itself1 in which all religions     
alike have their root1  and in which all
 alike are reconciled2 just as the      
fancies of  childhood and the thoughts  
of old age meet and are laid to rest1 in
  the experience of the individual4     
,far different was the method followed  

by the scholars of the  fifteenth       
century4  ,they lacked the very         
rudiments of the historic  sense1 which1
 by an imaginative act1 throws itself   
back into a  world unlike one's own1 and
 estimates every intellectual creation  
in its connexion with the age from which
 it proceeded4  ,they had  no idea of   
development1 of the differences of ages1
 of the process  by which our race has  
been educated4  ,in their attempts to   
reconcile the religions of the world1   
they were thus thrown back  upon the    
quicksand of allegorical interpretation4
  ,the religions of  the world were to  
be reconciled1 not as successive stages 
in a  regular development of the        
religious sense1 but as subsisting side 
by side1 and substantially in agreement 
with one another4  ,and  here the first 
necessity was to misrepresent the       
language1 the  conceptions1 the         
sentiments1 it was #ce proposed to      
compare and  reconcile4  ,plato and     
,homer must be made to speak agreeably  

to  ,moses4  ,set side by side1 the mere
 surfaces could never unite in  any     
harmony of design4  ,therefore one must 
go below the  surface1 and bring up the 
supposed secondary1 or still more       
remote meaning1--that diviner           
signification held in reserve1 in       
recessu divinius aliquid1 latent in some
 stray touch of ,homer1 or  figure of   
speech in the books of ,moses4    ,and  
yet as a curiosity of the human mind1 a 
madhouse-cell1 if  you will1 into which 
we may peep for a moment1 and see it at 
work weaving strange fancies1 the       
allegorical interpretation of the       
fifteenth century has its interest4     
,with its strange web of  imagery1 its  
quaint conceits1 its unexpected         
combinations and  subtle moralising1 it 
is an element in the local colour of a  
great  age4  ,it illustrates also the   
faith of that age in all oracles1 its   
desire  to hear all voices1 its generous
 belief that nothing which had ever     
interested the human mind could wholly  

lose its vitality4  ,it is the          
counterpart1 though certainly the       
feebler counterpart1 of that  practical 
truce and reconciliation of the gods of 
,greece with the  ,christian religion1  
which is seen in the art of the time4   
,and it is  for his share in this work1 
and because his own story is a sort of  
analogue or visible equivalent to the   
expression of this purpose in  his      
writings1 that something of a general   
interest still belongs to  the name of  
,pico della ,mirandola1 #cf whose life1 
written by his  nephew ,francis1 seemed 
worthy1 for some touch of sweetness in  
it1 to be translated out of the original
 ,latin by ,sir ,thomas ,more1  that    
great lover of ,italian culture1 among  
whose works the life of  ,pico1 ,earl of
 ,mirandola1 and a great lord of ,italy1
 as he calls  him1 may still be read1 in
 its quaint1 antiquated ,english4       
,marsilio ,ficino has told us how ,pico 
came to ,florence4  ,it was  the very   
day--some day probably in the year      

#adhb--on which  ,ficino had finished   
his famous translation of ,plato into   
,latin1 the  work to which he had been  
dedicated from childhood by ,cosmo  de' 
,medici1 in furtherance of his desire to
 resuscitate the  knowledge of ,plato   
among his fellow-citizens4  ,florence   
indeed1  as ,m4 ,renan has pointed out1 
had always had an affinity for the      
mystic and dreamy philosophy of ,plato1 
while the colder and  more practical    
philosophy of ,aristotle had flourished 
in ,padua1  and other cities of the     
north2 and the ,florentines1 though they
  knew perhaps very little about him1   
had had the name of  the  great idealist
 often on their lips4  ,to increase this
 knowledge1  ,cosmo had founded the     
,platonic academy1 with periodical      
discussions at the ,villa ,careggi4     
,the fall of ,constantinople in  #adec1 
and the council in #adch for the        
reconciliation of the ,greek  and ,latin
 ,churches1 had brought to ,florence    
many a needy  ,greek scholar4  ,and now 

the work was completed1 the door of the 
mystical temple lay open to all who     
could construe ,latin1 and the  #cg     
scholar rested from his labour2 when    
there was introduced  into his study1   
where a lamp burned continually before  
the bust of  ,plato1 as other men burned
 lamps before their favourite saints1 a 
young man fresh from a journey1 of      
feature and shape seemly  and beauteous1
 of stature goodly and high1 of flesh   
tender and  soft1 his visage lovely and 
fair1 his colour white1 intermingled    
with comely reds1 his eyes grey1 and    
quick of look1 his teeth  white and     
even1 his hair yellow and abundant1 and 
trimmed with  more than the usual       
artifice of the time4    ,it is thus    
that ,sir ,thomas ,more translates the  
words of the  biographer of ,pico1 who1 
even in outward form and appearance1    
seems an image of that inward harmony   
and completeness1 of  which he is so    
perfect an example4  ,the word mystic   
has been  usually derived from a ,greek 

word which signifies to shut1 as if  one
 shut one's lips brooding on what cannot
 be uttered2 but the  ,platonists       
themselves derive it rather from the act
 of shutting the  eyes1 that one may see
 the more1 inwardly4  ,perhaps the eyes 
of  the mystic ,ficino1 now long past   
the midway of life1 had come to  be thus
 half-closed2 but when a young man1 not 
unlike the  archangel ,raphael1 as the  
,florentines of that age depicted him in
  his wonderful walk with ,tobit1 or    
,mercury1 as he might have  appeared in 
a painting by ,sandro ,botticelli or    
,piero di ,cosimo1  entered his chamber1
 he seems to have thought there was     
something not wholly earthly about #ch  
him2 at least1 he ever  afterwards      
believed that it was not without the    
co-operation of the  stars that the     
stranger had arrived on that day4  ,for 
it happened  that they fell into a      
conversation1 deeper and more intimate  
than  men usually fall into at first    
sight4  ,during this conversation       

,ficino formed the design of devoting   
his remaining years to the  translation 
of ,plotinus1 that new ,plato1 in whom  
the mystical  element in the ,platonic  
philosophy had been worked out to the   
utmost limit of vision and ecstasy2 and 
it is in dedicating this  translation to
 ,lorenzo de' ,medici that ,ficino has  
recorded these  incidents4    ,it was   
after many wanderings1 wanderings of the
 intellect as well  as physical         
journeys1 that ,pico came to rest at    
,florence4  ,born in  #adfc1 he was then
 about twenty years old4  ,he was called
  ,giovanni at baptism1 ,pico1 like all 
his ancestors1 from ,picus1  nephew of  
the ,emperor ,constantine1 from whom    
they claimed to  be descended1 and      
,mirandola from the place of his birth1 
a little  town afterwards part of the   
duchy of ,modena1 of which small        
territory his family had long been the  
feudal lords4  ,pico was the  youngest  
of the family1 and his mother1          
delighting in his  wonderful memory1    

sent him at the age of fourteen to the  
famous  school of law at ,bologna4      
,from the first1 indeed1 she seems to   
have had some presentiment of his future
 fame1 for1 with a faith  in omens      
characteristic of her time1 she believed
 #ci that a  strange circumstance had   
happened at the time of ,pico's birth-- 
the appearance of a circular flame which
 suddenly vanished  away1 on the wall of
 the chamber where she lay4  ,he        
remained  two years at ,bologna2 and    
then1 with an inexhaustible1 unrivalled 
thirst for knowledge1 the strange1      
confused1 uncritical learning of  that  
age1 passed through the principal       
schools of ,italy and ,france1          
penetrating1 as he thought1 into the    
secrets of all ancient  philosophies1   
and many ,eastern languages4  ,and with 
this flood  of erudition came the       
generous hope1 so often disabused1 of   
reconciling the philosophers with one   
another1 and all alike with  the        
,church4  ,at last he came to ,rome4    

,there1 like some knight-  errant of    
philosophy1 he offered to defend nine   
hundred bold  paradoxes1 drawn from the 
most opposite sources1 against all      
comers4  ,but the pontifical court was  
led to suspect the orthodoxy  of some of
 these propositions1 and even the       
reading of the book  which contained    
them was forbidden by the ,pope4  ,it   
was not  until #adic that ,pico was     
finally absolved1 by a brief of         
,alexander  the ,sixth4  ,ten years     
before that date he had arrived at      
,florence2  an early instance of those  
who1 after following the vain hope of   
an impossible reconciliation from system
 to system1 have at last  fallen back   
unsatisfied on the simplicities of their
 childhood's  belief4    ,the oration   
which ,pico composed for the opening of 
this  philosophical tournament still #dj
 remains2 its subject is the  dignity of
 human nature1 the greatness of man4    
,in common with  nearly all medieval    
speculation1 much of ,pico's writing has

 this  for its drift2 and in common also
 with it1 ,pico's theory of that        
dignity is founded on a misconception of
 the place in nature both  of the earth 
and of man4  ,for ,pico the earth is the
 centre of the  universe3 and around it1
 as a fixed and motionless point1 the   
sun  and moon and stars revolve1 like   
diligent servants or ministers4  ,and in
 the midst of all is placed man1 nodus  
et vinculum mundi1  the bond or copula  
of the world1 and the interpreter of    
nature3  that famous expression of      
,bacon's really belongs to ,pico4       
,tritum  est in scholis1 he says1 esse  
hominem minorem mundum1 in quo  mixtum  
ex elementis corpus et spiritus         
coelestis et plantarum  anima vegetalis 
et brutorum sensus et ratio et angelica 
mens et  ,dei similitudo                
conspicitur3--,it is a commonplace of   
the schools  that man is a little world1
 in which we may discern a body  mingled
 of earthy elements1 and ethereal       
breath1 and the  vegetable life of      

plants1 and the senses of the lower     
animals1 and  reason1 and the           
intelligence of angels1 and a likeness  
to ,god4    ,a commonplace of the       
schools6  ,but perhaps it had some new  
significance and authority1 when men    
heard one like ,pico  reiterate it2 and1
 false as its basis was1 the theory had 
its use4  ,for  this high dignity of    
man1 thus bringing the dust under his   
feet into  sensible communion with the  
#da thoughts and affections of the      
angels1 was supposed to belong to him1  
not as renewed by a  religious system1  
but by his own natural right4  ,the     
proclamation  of it was a counterpoise  
to the increasing tendency of medieval  
religion to depreciate man's nature1 to 
sacrifice this or that  element in it1  
to make it ashamed of itself1 to keep   
the degrading  or painful accidents of  
it always in view4  ,it helped man      
onward  to that reassertion of himself1 
that rehabilitation of human nature1    
the body1 the senses1 the heart1 the    

intelligence1 which the  ,renaissance   
fulfils4  ,and yet to read a page of one
 of ,pico's  forgotten books is like a  
glance into one of those ancient        
sepulchres1 upon which the wanderer in  
classical lands has  sometimes stumbled1
 with the old disused ornaments and     
furniture of a world wholly unlike ours 
still fresh in them4  ,that  whole      
conception of nature is so different    
from our own4  ,for  ,pico the world is 
a limited place1 bounded by actual      
crystal walls1  and a material          
firmament2 it is like a painted toy1    
like that map or  system of the world1  
held1 as a great target or shield1 in   
the hands  of the creative ,logos1 by   
whom the ,father made all things1 in one
  of the earlier frescoes of the ,campo 
,santo at ,pisa4  ,how different  from  
this childish dream is our own          
conception of nature1 with its          
unlimited space1 its innumerable suns1  
and the earth but a mote in  the beam2  
how different the strange new awe1 or   

superstition1  with which it fills our  
minds6  ,the silence of those infinite  
spaces1 #db says ,pascal1 contemplating 
a starlight night1 the  silence of those
 infinite spaces terrifies me3-- ,le    
silence ternel de  ces espaces infinis  
m'effraie4    ,he was already almost    
wearied out when he came to ,florence4  
,he had loved much and been beloved by  
women1 wandering  over the crooked hills
 of delicious pleasure2 but their reign 
over  him was over1 and long before     
,savonarola's famous bonfire of         
vanities1 he had destroyed those        
love-songs in the vulgar tongue1  which 
would have been so great a relief to us1
 after the scholastic  prolixity of his 
,latin writings4  ,it was in another    
spirit that he  composed a ,platonic    
commentary1 the only work of his in     
,italian  which has come down to us1 on 
the ,song of ,divine ,love--  secondo la
 mente ed opinione dei                  
,platonici--according to the  mind and  
opinion of the ,platonists1 by his      

friend ,hieronymo  ,beniveni1 in which1 
with an ambitious array of every sort of
  learning1 and a profusion of imagery  
borrowed indifferently from  the        
astrologers1 the ,cabala1 and ,homer1   
and ,scripture1 and  ,dionysius the     
,areopagite1 he attempts to define the  
stages by  which the soul passes from   
the earthly to the unseen beauty4  ,a   
change indeed had passed over him1 as if
 the chilling touch of the  abstract and
 disembodied beauty ,platonists profess 
to long for  were already upon him4     
,some sense of this1 perhaps1 coupled   
with that over-brightness which in the  
popular imagination  always betokens an 
early #dc death1 made ,camilla          
,rucellai1 one  of those prophetic women
 whom the preaching of ,savonarola had  
raised up in ,florence1 declare1 seeing 
him for the first time1 that  he would  
depart in the time of                   
lilies--prematurely1 that is1 like the  
field-flowers which are withered by the 
scorching sun almost as  soon as they   

are sprung up4  ,he now wrote down those
 thoughts  on the religious life which  
,sir ,thomas ,more turned into ,english1
  and which another ,english translator 
thought worthy to be added  to the books
 of the ,imitation4  ,it is not hard to 
know ,god1  provided one will not force 
oneself to define ,him3--has been       
thought a great saying of ,joubert's4   
,love ,god1 ,pico writes to  ,angelo    
,politian1 we rather may1 than either   
know ,him1 or by  speech utter ,him4    
,and yet had men liefer by knowledge    
never  find that which they seek1 than  
by love possess that thing1 which  also 
without love were in vain found4    ,yet
 he who had this fine touch for         
spiritual things did not--and in  this  
is the enduring interest of his         
story--even after his  conversion1      
forget the old gods4  ,he is one of the 
last who  seriously and sincerely       
entertained the claim on men's faith of 
the  pagan religions2 he is anxious to  
ascertain the true significance of  the 

obscurest legend1 the lightest tradition
 concerning them4  ,with many thoughts  
and many influences which led him in    
that  direction1 #dd he did not become a
 monk2 only he became  gentle and       
patient in disputation2 retaining       
somewhat of the old  plenty1 in dainty  
viand and silver vessel1 he gave over   
the  greater part of his property to his
 friend1 the mystical poet  ,beniveni1  
to be spent by him in works of charity1 
chiefly in the  sweet charity of        
providing marriage-dowries for the      
peasant girls  of ,florence4  ,his end  
came in #adid1 when1 amid the prayers   
and  sacraments of ,savonarola1 he died 
of fever1 on the very day on  which     
,charles the ,eighth entered ,florence1 
the seventeenth of  ,november1 yet in   
the time of lilies--the lilies of the   
shield of  ,france1 as the people now   
said1 remembering ,camilla's  prophecy4 
,he was buried in the conventual church 
of ,saint  ,mark1 in the hood and white 
frock of the ,dominican order4    ,it is

 because the life of ,pico1 thus lying  
down to rest in the  ,dominican habit1  
yet amid thoughts of the older gods1    
himself  like one of those comely       
divinities1 reconciled indeed to the new
  religion1 but still with a tenderness 
for the earlier life1 and  desirous     
literally to bind the ages each to each 
by natural piety-  -it is because this  
life is so perfect a parallel to the    
attempt made  in his writings to        
reconcile ,christianity with the ideas  
of  paganism1 that ,pico1 in spite of   
the scholastic character of those       
writings1 is really interesting4  ,thus1
 in the ,heptaplus1 or  ,discourse on   
the ,seven ,days of the ,creation1 he   
endeavours to  reconcile the #de        
accounts which pagan philosophy had     
given of  the origin of the world with  
the account given in the books of       
,moses--the ,timaeus of ,plato with the 
book of ,genesis4  ,the  ,heptaplus is  
dedicated to ,lorenzo the ,magnificent1 
whose  interest1 the preface tells us1  

in the secret wisdom of ,moses is  well 
known4  ,if ,moses seems in his writings
 simple and even  popular1 rather than  
either a philosopher or a theologian1   
that is  because it was an institution  
with the ancient philosophers1 either   
not to speak of divine things at all1 or
 to speak of them  dissemblingly3 hence 
their doctrines were called mysteries4  
,taught by them1 ,pythagoras became so  
great a master of  silence1 and wrote   
almost nothing1 thus hiding the words of
 ,god  in his heart1 and speaking wisdom
 only among the perfect4  ,in           
explaining the harmony between ,plato   
and ,moses1 ,pico lays hold  on every   
sort of figure and analogy1 on the      
double meanings of  words1 the symbols  
of the ,jewish ritual1 the secondary    
meanings  of obscure stories in the     
later ,greek mythologists4  ,everywhere 
there is an unbroken system of          
correspondences4  ,every object in  the 
terrestrial world is an analogue1 a     
symbol or counterpart1 of  some higher  

reality in the starry heavens1 and this 
again of some  law of the angelic life  
in the world beyond the stars4  ,there  
is the  element of fire in the material 
world2 the sun is the fire of heaven2   
and in the super-celestial world there  
is the fire of #df the  seraphic        
intelligence4  ,but behold how they     
differ6  ,the  elementary fire burns1   
the heavenly fire vivifies1 the super-  
celestial fire loves4  ,in this way1    
every natural object1 every  combination
 of natural forces1 every accident in   
the lives of men1  is filled with higher
 meanings4  ,omens1 prophecies1         
supernatural  coincidences1 accompany   
,pico himself all through life4  ,there 
are  oracles in every tree and          
mountain-top1 and a significance in     
every accidental combination of the     
events of life4    ,this constant       
tendency to symbolism and imagery gives 
,pico's  work a figured style1 by which 
it has some real resemblance to         
,plato's1 and he differs from other     

mystical writers of his time by  a      
genuine desire to know his authorities  
at first hand4  ,he reads  ,plato in    
,greek1 ,moses in ,hebrew1 and by this  
his work really  belongs to the higher  
culture4  ,above all1 we have a constant
  sense in reading him1 that his        
thoughts1 however little their  positive
 value may be1 are connected with       
springs beneath them  of deep and       
passionate emotion2 and when he explains
 the grades  or steps by which the soul 
passes from the love of a physical      
object to the love of unseen beauty1 and
 unfolds the analogies  between this    
process and other movements upward of   
human  thought1 there is a glow and     
vehemence in his words which  remind one
 of the manner in which his own brief   
existence  flamed itself away4    ,i    
said that the ,renaissance of the       
fifteenth #dg century was1 in  many     
things1 great rather by what it designed
 or aspired to do1  than by what it     
actually achieved4  ,it remained for a  

later age to  conceive the true method  
of effecting a scientific reconciliation
  of ,christian sentiment with the      
imagery1 the legends1 the theories      
about the world1 of pagan poetry and    
philosophy4  ,for that age  the only    
possible reconciliation was an          
imaginative one1 and  resulted from the 
efforts of artists1 trained in          
,christian schools1 to  handle pagan    
subjects2 and of this artistic          
reconciliation work like  ,pico's was   
but the feebler counterpart4  ,whatever 
philosophers  had to say on one side or 
the other1 whether they  were successful
 or not in their attempts to reconcile  
the old to the  new1 and to justify the 
expenditure of so much care and thought 
on the dreams of a dead faith1 the      
imagery of the ,greek religion1  the    
direct charm of its story1 were by      
artists valued and cultivated  for their
 own sake4  ,hence a new sort of        
mythology1 with a tone  and qualities of
 its own4  ,when the ship-load of sacred

 earth from  the soil of ,jerusalem was 
mingled with the common clay in the     
,campo ,santo at ,pisa1 a new flower    
grew up from it1 unlike any  flower men 
had seen before1 the anemone with its   
concentric  rings of strangely blended  
colour1 still to be found by those who  
search long enough for it1 in the long  
grass of the ,maremma4  ,just  such a   
strange flower was that mythology of the
 ,italian  ,renaissance1 which grew up  
from the mixture of two traditions1  two
 #dh sentiments1 the sacred and the     
profane4  ,classical story  was regarded
 as so much imaginative material to be  
received and  assimilated4  ,it did not 
come into men's minds to ask curiously  
of  science1 concerning the origin of   
such story1 its primary form and        
import1 its meaning for those who       
projected it4  ,the thing sank  into    
their minds1 to issue forth again with  
all the tangle about it of  medieval    
sentiment and ideas4  ,in the ,doni     
,madonna in the  ,tribune of the        

,uffizii1 ,michelangelo actually brings 
the pagan  religion1 and with it the    
unveiled human form1 the sleepy-looking 
fauns of a ,dionysiac revel1 into the   
presence of the ,madonna1 as  simpler   
painters had introduced there other     
products of the earth1  birds or        
flowers1 while he has given to that     
,madonna herself  much of the uncouth   
energy of the older and more primitive  
,mighty ,mother4    ,this picturesque   
union of contrasts1 belonging properly  
to the art  of the close of the         
fifteenth century1 pervades1 in ,pico   
della  ,mirandola1 an actual person1 and
 that is why the figure of ,pico is  so 
attractive4  ,he will not let one go2 he
 wins one on1 in spite of  one's self1  
to turn again to the pages of his       
forgotten books1  although we know      
already that the actual solution        
proposed in  them will satisfy us as    
little as perhaps it satisfied him4  ,it
 is said  that in his eagerness for     
mysterious learning he once paid a great

  sum for a collection of cabalistic    
manuscripts1 which turned out  to be    
forgeries2 and #di the story might well 
stand as a parable of  all he ever      
seemed to gain in the way of actual     
knowledge4  ,he  had sought knowledge1  
and passed from system to system1 and   
hazarded much2 but less for the sake of 
positive knowledge than  because he     
believed there was a spirit of order and
 beauty in  knowledge1 which would come 
down and unite what men's  ignorance had
 divided1 and renew what time had made  
dim4  ,and  so1 while his actual work   
has passed away1 yet his own qualities  
are still active1 and himself remains1  
as one alive in the grave1  caesiis et  
vigilibus oculis1 as his biographer     
describes him1 and  with that sanguine1 
clear skin1 decenti rubore interspersa1 
as with  the light of morning upon it2  
and he has a true place in that group   
of great ,italians who fill the end of  
the fifteenth century with their  names1
 he is a true humanist4  ,for the       

essence of humanism is  that belief of  
which he seems never to have doubted1   
that nothing  which has ever interested 
living men and women can wholly lose    
its vitality--no language they have     
spoken1 nor oracle beside  which they   
have hushed their voices1 no dream which
 has once  been entertained by actual   
human minds1 nothing about which  they  
have ever been passionate1 or expended  
time and zeal4    #ahga4      ,,sandro  
,,botticelli    #ej ,,in ,leonardo's    
treatise on painting only one           
contemporary is  mentioned by           
name--,sandro ,botticelli4  ,this       
pre-eminence may  be due to chance only1
 but to some will rather appear a result
 of  deliberate judgment2 for people    
have begun to find out the charm  of    
,botticelli's work1 and his name1 little
 known in the last  century1 is quietly 
becoming important4  ,in the middle of  
the  fifteenth century he had already   
anticipated much of that  meditative    
subtlety1 which is sometimes supposed   

peculiar to the  great imaginative      
workmen of its close4  ,leaving the     
simple  religion which had occupied the 
followers of ,giotto for a century1  and
 the simple naturalism which had grown  
out of it1 a thing of  birds and flowers
 only1 he sought inspiration in what to 
him were  works of the modern world1 the
 writings of ,dante and ,boccaccio1  and
 in new readings of his own of classical
 stories3 or1 if he  painted religious  
incidents1 painted them with an         
under-current of  original sentiment1   
which touches you as the real matter of 
the  picture through the veil of its    
ostensible subject4  ,what #ea is the   
peculiar sensation1 what is the peculiar
 quality of pleasure1 which  his work   
has the property of exciting in us1 and 
which we cannot  get elsewhere8  ,for   
this1 especially when he has to speak of
 a  comparatively unknown artist1 is    
always the chief question which  a      
critic has to answer4    ,in an age when
 the lives of artists were full of      

adventure1 his life  is almost          
colourless4  ,criticism indeed has      
cleared away much of  the gossip which  
,vasari accumulated1 has touched the    
legend of  ,lippo and ,lucrezia1 and    
rehabilitated the character of ,andrea  
del  ,castagno4  ,but in ,botticelli's  
case there is no legend to dissipate4   
,he did not even go by his true name3   
,sandro is a nickname1 and  his true    
name is ,filipepi1 ,botticelli being    
only the name of the  goldsmith who     
first taught him art4  ,only two things 
happened to  him1 two things which he   
shared with other artists3--he was      
invited to ,rome to paint in the        
,sistine ,chapel1 and he fell in later  
life under the influence of ,savonarola1
 passing apparently almost  out of men's
 sight in a sort of religious           
melancholy1 which lasted  till his death
 in #aeae1 according to the received    
date4  ,vasari says  that he plunged    
into the study of ,dante1 and even wrote
 a  comment on the ,divine ,comedy4     

,but it seems strange that he  should   
have lived on inactive so long2 and one 
almost wishes that  some document might 
come to light1 which1 fixing the date of
 his  death earlier1 might relieve one1 
in thinking of him1 of his  dejected old
 age4    #eb ,he is before all things a 
poetical painter1 blending the charm  of
 story and sentiment1 the medium of the 
art of poetry1 with the  charm of line  
and colour1 the medium of abstract      
painting4  ,so he  becomes the          
illustrator of ,dante4  ,in a few rare  
examples of the  edition of #adha1 the  
blank spaces1 left at the beginning of  
every  canto for the hand of the        
illuminator1 have been filled1 as far as
  the nineteenth canto of the ,inferno1 
with impressions of engraved  plates1   
seemingly by way of experiment1 for in  
the copy in the  ,bodleian ,library1 one
 of the three impressions it contains   
has  been printed upside down1 and much 
awry1 in the midst of the  luxurious    
printed page4  ,giotto1 and the         

followers of ,giotto1 with  their almost
 childish religious aim1 had not learned
 to put that  weight of meaning into    
outward things1 light1 colour1 everyday 
gesture1 which the poetry of the ,divine
 ,comedy involves1 and  before the      
fifteenth century ,dante could hardly   
have found an  illustrator4             
,botticelli's illustrations are crowded 
with incident1  blending1 with a nave   
carelessness of pictorial propriety1    
three  phases of the same scene into one
 plate4  ,the grotesques1 so often  a   
stumbling-block to painters1 who forget 
that the words of a  poet1 which only   
feebly present an image to the mind1    
must be  lowered in key when translated 
into visible form1 make one regret  that
 he has not rather chosen for           
illustration the more subdued  imagery  
of the ,purgatorio4  ,yet in the #ec    
scene of those who  go down quick into  
hell1 there is an inventive force about 
the  fire taking hold on the upturned   
soles of the feet1 which proves  that   

the design is no mere translation of    
,dante's words1 but a true  painter's   
vision2 while the scene of the ,centaurs
 wins one at  once1 for1 forgetful of   
the actual circumstances of their       
appearance1 ,botticelli has gone off    
with delight on the thought of  the     
,centaurs themselves1 bright1 small     
creatures of the woodland1  with arch   
baby faces and mignon forms1 drawing    
tiny bows4    ,botticelli lived in a    
generation of naturalists1 and he might 
have  been a mere naturalist among them4
  ,there are traces enough in  his work 
of that alert sense of outward things1  
which1 in the  pictures of that period1 
fills the lawns with delicate living    
creatures1 and the hillsides with pools 
of water1 and the pools of  water with  
flowering reeds4  ,but this was not     
enough for him2 he  is a visionary      
painter1 and in his visionariness he    
resembles  ,dante4  ,giotto1 the tried  
companion of ,dante1 ,masaccio1         
,ghirlandajo even1 do but transcribe1   

with more or less refining1  the outward
 image2 they are dramatic1 not visionary
 painters2 they  are almost impassive   
spectators of the action before them4   
,but  the genius of which ,botticelli is
 the type usurps the data before it  as 
the exponent of ideas1 moods1 visions of
 its own2 in this  interest it plays    
fast and loose with those data1         
rejecting some and  #ed isolating       
others1 and always combining them anew4 
,to him1  as to ,dante1 the scene1 the  
colour1 the outward image or gesture1   
comes with all its incisive and         
importunate reality2 but awakes in  him1
 moreover1 by some subtle law of his own
 structure1 a mood  which it awakes in  
no one else1 of which it is the double  
or  repetition1 and which it clothes1   
that all may share it1 with visible     
circumstance4    ,but he is far enough  
from accepting the conventional         
orthodoxy  of ,dante which1 referring   
all human action to the simple formula  
of purgatory1 heaven and hell1 leaves an

 insoluble element of  prose in the     
depths of ,dante's poetry4  ,one picture
 of his1 with  the portrait of the      
donor1 ,matteo ,palmieri1 below1 had the
 credit  or discredit of attracting some
 shadow of ecclesiastical censure4      
,this ,matteo ,palmieri1 7two dim       
figures move under that name in         
contemporary history17 was the reputed  
author of a poem1 still  unedited1 ,la  
,citt ,divina1 which represented the    
human race as  an incarnation of those  
angels who1 in the revolt of ,lucifer1  
were  neither for ,jehovah nor for ,his 
enemies1 a fantasy of that earlier      
,alexandrian philosophy about which the 
,florentine intellect in  that century  
was so curious4  ,botticelli's picture  
may have been  only one of those        
familiar compositions in which religious
  reverie has recorded its impressions  
of the various forms of  beatified      
existence--,glorias1 as they were       
called1 like that #ee in  which ,giotto 
painted the portrait of ,dante2 but     

somehow it was  suspected of embodying  
in a picture the wayward dream of       
,palmieri1 and the chapel where it hung 
was closed4  ,artists so  entire as     
,botticelli are usually careless about  
philosophical  theories1 even when the  
philosopher is a ,florentine of the     
fifteenth century1 and his work a poem  
in terza rima4  ,but  ,botticelli1 who  
wrote a commentary on ,dante1 and became
 the  disciple of ,savonarola1 may well 
have let such theories come and  go     
across him4  ,true or false1 the story  
interprets much of the  peculiar        
sentiment with which he infuses his     
profane and sacred  persons1 comely1 and
 in a certain sense like angels1 but    
with a  sense of displacement or loss   
about them--the wistfulness of  exiles1 
conscious of a passion and energy       
greater than any known  issue of them   
explains1 which runs through all his    
varied work  with a sentiment of        
ineffable melancholy4    ,so just what  
,dante scorns as unworthy alike of      

heaven and hell1  ,botticelli accepts1  
that middle world in which men take no  
side in  great conflicts1 and decide no 
great causes1 and make great  refusals4 
,he thus sets for himself the limits    
within which art1  undisturbed by any   
moral ambition1 does its most sincere   
and  surest work4  ,his interest is     
neither in the untempered goodness  of  
,angelico's saints1 nor the untempered  
evil of ,orcagna's  ,inferno2 but with  
men and women1 in their mixed and       
uncertain  condition1 always #ef        
attractive1 clothed sometimes by passion
  with a character of loveliness and    
energy1 but saddened  perpetually by the
 shadow upon them of the great things   
from  which they shrink4  ,his morality 
is all sympathy2 and it is this         
sympathy1 conveying into his work       
somewhat more than is usual  of the true
 complexion of humanity1 which makes    
him1 visionary  as he is1 so forcible a 
realist4    ,it is this which gives to  
his ,madonnas their unique expression   

and charm4  ,he has worked out in them a
 distinct and peculiar  type1 definite  
enough in his own mind1 for he has      
painted it over  and over again1        
sometimes one might think almost        
mechanically1  as a pastime during that 
dark period when his thoughts were so   
heavy upon him4  ,hardly any collection 
of note is without one of  these        
circular pictures1 into which the       
attendant angels depress  their heads so
 navely4  ,perhaps you have sometimes   
wondered  why those peevish-looking     
,madonnas1 conformed to no  acknowledged
 or obvious type of beauty1 attract you 
more and  more1 and often come back to  
you when the ,sistine ,madonna and  the 
,virgins of ,fra ,angelico are          
forgotten4  ,at first1 contrasting  them
 with those1 you may have thought that  
there was something  in them mean or    
abject even1 for the abstract lines of  
the face  have little nobleness1 and the
 colour is wan4  ,for with ,botticelli  
she too1 though she holds in her hands  

the ,desire of all nations1  is one of  
those who #eg are neither for ,jehovah  
nor for ,his  enemies2 and her choice is
 on her face4  ,the white light on it is
  cast up hard and cheerless from below1
 as when snow lies upon  the ground1 and
 the children look up with surprise at  
the strange  whiteness of the ceiling4  
,her trouble is in the very caress of   
the  mysterious child1 whose gaze is    
always far from her1 and who has        
already that sweet look of devotion     
which men have never been  able         
altogether to love1 and which still     
makes the born saint an  object almost  
of suspicion to his earthly brethren4   
,once1 indeed1  he guides her hand to   
transcribe in a book the words of her   
exaltation1 the ,ave1 and the           
,magnificat1 and the ,gaude ,maria1  and
 the young angels1 glad to rouse her for
 a moment from her  dejection1 are eager
 to hold the inkhorn and to support the 
book4  ,but the pen almost drops from   
her hand1 and the high cold words  have 

no meaning for her1 and her true        
children are those others1  among whom1 
in her rude home1 the intolerable honour
 came to  her1 with that look of wistful
 inquiry on their irregular faces  which
 you see in startled animals--gipsy     
children1 such as those  who1 in        
,apennine villages1 still hold out their
 long brown arms to  beg of you1 but on 
,sundays become enfants du choeur1 with 
their  thick black hair nicely combed1  
and fair white linen on their  sunburnt 
throats4    ,what is strangest is that  
he carries this sentiment into classical
  subjects1 its most complete #eh       
expression being a picture in the       
,uffizii1 of ,venus rising from the sea1
 in which the grotesque  emblems of the 
middle age1 and a landscape full of its 
peculiar  feeling1 and even its strange 
draperies1 powdered all over in  the    
,gothic manner with a quaint conceit of 
daisies1 frame a figure  that reminds   
you of the faultless nude studies of    
,ingres4  ,at first1  perhaps1 you are  

attracted only by a quaintness of       
design1 which  seems to recall all at   
once whatever you have read of ,florence
 in  the fifteenth century2 afterwards  
you may think that this  quaintness must
 be incongruous with the subject1 and   
that the  colour is cadaverous or at    
least cold4  ,and yet1 the more you     
come to understand what imaginative     
colouring really is1 that all  colour is
 no mere delightful quality of natural  
things1 but a spirit  upon them by which
 they become expressive to the spirit1  
the  better you will like this peculiar 
quality of colour2 and you will  find   
that quaint design of ,botticelli's a   
more direct inlet into the  ,greek      
temper than the works of the ,greeks    
themselves even of  the finest period4  
,of the ,greeks as they really were1 of 
their  difference from ourselves1 of the
 aspects of their outward life1 we  know
 far more than ,botticelli1 or his most 
learned  contemporaries2 but for us long
 familiarity has taken off the edge  of 

the lesson1 and we are hardly conscious 
of what we owe to the  ,hellenic spirit4
  ,but in pictures like this of         
,botticelli's you have a  record of the 
first impression made #ei by it on minds
  turned back towards it1 in almost     
painful aspiration1 from a world  in    
which it had been ignored so long2 and  
in the passion1 the  energy1 the        
industry of realisation1 with which     
,botticelli carries  out his intention1 
is the exact measure of the legitimate  
influence  over the human mind of the   
imaginative system of which this is     
perhaps the central myth4  ,the light is
 indeed cold--mere sunless  dawn2 but a 
later painter would have cloyed you with
 sunshine2  and you can see the better  
for that quietness in the morning air   
each long promontory1 as it slopes down 
to the water's edge4  ,men go forth to  
their labours until the evening2 but she
 is awake  before them1 and you might   
think that the sorrow in her face was   
at the thought of the whole long day of 

love yet to come4  ,an  emblematical    
figure of the wind blows hard across the
 grey  water1 moving forward the        
dainty-lipped shell on which she sails1 
the sea showing his teeth1 as it moves1 
in thin lines of foam1  and sucking in1 
one by one1 the falling roses1 each     
severe in  outline1 plucked off short at
 the stalk1 but embrowned a little1 as  
,botticelli's flowers always are4       
,botticelli meant all this imagery  to  
be altogether pleasurable2 and it was   
partly an incompleteness  of resources1 
inseparable from the art of that time1  
that subdued  and chilled it4  ,but this
 predilection for minor tones counts    
also2  and what is unmistakable is the  
sadness with which he has  conceived the
 goddess #fj of pleasure1 as the        
depositary of a  great power over the   
lives of men4    ,i have said that the  
peculiar character of ,botticelli is the
 result of  a blending in him of a      
sympathy for humanity in its uncertain  
condition1 its attractiveness1 its      

investiture at rarer moments in a       
character of loveliness and energy1 with
 his consciousness of the  shadow upon  
it of the great things from which it    
shrinks1 and that  this conveys into his
 work somewhat more than painting       
usually  attains of the true complexion 
of humanity4  ,he paints the story  of  
the goddess of pleasure in other        
episodes besides that of her  birth from
 the sea1 but never without some shadow 
of death in the  grey flesh and wan     
flowers4  ,he paints ,madonnas1 but they
 shrink  from the pressure of the divine
 child1 and plead in unmistakable       
undertones for a warmer1 lower humanity4
  ,the same figure--  tradition connects
 it with ,simonetta1 the ,mistress of   
,giuliano de'  ,medici--appears again as
 ,judith1 returning home across the hill
  country1 when the great deed is over1 
and the moment of  revulsion come1 when 
the olive branch in her hand is becoming
 a  burthen2 as ,justice1 sitting on a  
throne1 but with a fixed look of        

self-hatred which makes the sword in her
 hand seem that of a  suicide2 and again
 as ,veritas1 in the allegorical picture
 of  ,calumnia1 where one may note in   
passing the suggestiveness of  an       
accident which identifies the image of  
,truth with the person  of ,venus4 #fa  
,we might trace the same sentiment      
through his  engravings2 but his share  
in them is doubtful1 and the object of  
this brief study has been attained1 if  
,i have defined aright the  temper in   
which he worked4    ,but1 after all1 it 
may be asked1 is a painter like         
,botticelli--a  secondary painter1 a    
proper subject for general criticism8   
,there  are a few great painters1 like  
,michelangelo or ,leonardo1 whose  work 
has become a force in general culture1  
partly for this very  reason that they  
have absorbed into themselves all such  
workmen  as ,sandro ,botticelli2 and1   
over and above mere technical or        
antiquarian criticism1 general criticism
 may be very well  employed in that sort

 of interpretation which adjusts the    
position  of these men to general       
culture1 whereas smaller men can be the 
proper subjects only of technical or    
antiquarian treatment4  ,but1  besides  
those great men1 there is a certain     
number of artists who  have a distinct  
faculty of their own by which they      
convey to us a  peculiar quality of     
pleasure which we cannot get elsewhere2 
and  these too have their place in      
general culture1 and must be            
interpreted to it by those who have felt
 their charm strongly1 and  are often   
the object of a special diligence and a 
consideration  wholly affectionate1 just
 because there is not about them the    
stress of a great name and authority4   
,of this select number  ,botticelli is  
one4  ,he has the freshness1 the        
uncertain and diffident  promise1 #fb   
which belong to the earlier ,renaissance
 itself1 and  make it perhaps the most  
interesting period in the history of the
  mind4  ,in studying his work one      

begins to understand to how  great a    
place in human culture the art of ,italy
 had been called4    #ahgj4    ,,notes  
,none4        ,,luca ,,della ,,robbia   
#fc ,,the ,italian sculptors of the     
earlier half of the fifteenth  century  
are more than mere forerunners of the   
great masters of its  close1 and often  
reach perfection1 within the narrow     
limits which  they chose to impose on   
their work4  ,their sculpture shares    
with  the paintings of ,botticelli and  
the churches of ,brunelleschi that      
profound expressiveness1 that intimate  
impress of an indwelling  soul1 which is
 the peculiar fascination of the art of 
,italy in that  century4  ,their works  
have been much neglected1 and often     
almost hidden away amid the frippery of 
modern decoration1 and  we come with    
some surprise on the places where their 
fire still  smoulders4  ,one longs to   
penetrate into the lives of the men who 
have given expression to so much power  
and sweetness4  ,but it is  part of the 

reserve1 the austere dignity and        
simplicity of their  existence1 that    
their histories are for the most part   
lost1 or told but  briefly4  ,from their
 lives1 as from their work1 all tumult  
of sound  and colour has passed away4   
,mino1 the ,raphael of sculpture1  ,maso
 del ,rodario1 whose works add a further
 grace to #fd the  church of ,como1     
,donatello even1--one asks in vain for  
more than  a shadowy outline of their   
actual days4    ,something more remains 
of ,luca della ,robbia2 something more  
of a history1 of outward changes and    
fortunes1 is expressed  through his     
work4  ,i suppose nothing brings the    
real air of a  ,tuscan town so vividly  
to mind as those pieces of pale blue and
  white earthenware1 by which he is best
 known1 like fragments of  the milky sky
 itself1 fallen into the cool streets1  
and breaking into  the darkened         
churches4  ,and no work is less         
imitable3 like ,tuscan  wine1 it loses  
its savour when moved from its          

birthplace1 from the  crumbling walls   
where it was first placed4  ,part of the
 charm of  this work1 its grace and     
purity and finish of expression1 is     
common to all the ,tuscan sculptors of  
the fifteenth century2 for  ,luca was   
first of all a worker in marble1 and his
 works in terra  cotta only transfer to 
a different material the principles of  
his  sculpture4    ,these ,tuscan       
sculptors of the fifteenth century      
worked for the  most part in low relief1
 giving even to their monumental        
effigies  something of its depression of
 surface1 getting into them by this     
means a pathetic suggestion of the      
wasting and etherealisation of  death4  
,they are haters of all heaviness and   
emphasis1 of  strongly-opposed light and
 shade1 and seek their means of         
delineation among those last refinements
 of shadow1 which are  almost invisible 
except in a strong #fe light1 and which 
the finest  pencil can hardly follow4   
,the whole essence of their work is     

expression1 the passing of a smile over 
the face of a child1 the  ripple of the 
air on a still day over the curtain of a
 window ajar4    ,what is the precise   
value of this system of sculpture1 this 
low  relief8  ,luca della ,robbia1 and  
the other sculptors of the school  to   
which he belongs1 have before them the  
universal problem of  their art2 and    
this system of low relief is the means  
by which they  meet and overcome the    
special limitation of sculpture4        
,that limitation results from the       
material and other necessary  conditions
 of all sculptured work1 and consists in
 the tendency of  such work to a hard   
realism1 a one-sided presentment of mere
  form1 that solid material frame which 
only motion can relieve1 a  thing of    
heavy shadows1 and an individuality of  
expression  pushed to caricature4       
,against this tendency to the hard      
presentment of mere form trying vainly  
to compete with the  reality of nature  
itself1 all noble sculpture constantly  

struggles2  each great system of        
sculpture resisting it in its own way1  
etherealising1 spiritualising1 relieving
 its stiffness1 its heaviness1  and     
death4  ,the use of colour in sculpture 
is but an unskilful  contrivance to     
effect1 by borrowing from another art1  
what the  nobler sculpture effects by   
strictly appropriate means4    ,to get  
not colour1 but the equivalent of       
colour2 to secure the  expression and   
the play of life2 to #ff expand the too 
firmly  fixed individuality of pure1    
unrelieved1 uncoloured form3--this is   
the problem which the three great styles
 in sculpture have solved  in three     
different ways4                         
,allgemeinheit--breadth1 generality1    
universality1--is the word  chosen by   
,winckelmann1 and after him by ,goethe  
and many  ,german critics1 to express   
that law of the most excellent ,greek   
sculptors1 of ,pheidias and his pupils1 
which prompted them  constantly to seek 
the type in the individual1 to abstract 

and  express only what is structural and
 permanent1 to purge from the           
individual all that belongs only to him1
 all the accidents1 the  feelings and   
actions of the special moment1 all that 
7because in its  own nature it endures  
but for a moment7 is apt to look like a 
frozen thing if one arrests it4    ,in  
this way their works came to be like    
some subtle extract or  essence1 or     
almost like pure thoughts or ideas3 and 
hence the  breadth of humanity in them1 
that detachment from the conditions  of 
a particular place or people1 which has 
carried their influence  far beyond the 
age which produced them1 and insured    
them  universal acceptance4    ,that was
 the ,greek way of relieving the        
hardness and  unspirituality of pure    
form4  ,but it involved to a certain    
degree  the sacrifice of what we call   
expression2 and a system of  abstraction
 which aimed always at the broad and    
general type1 at  the purging away from 
the #fg individual of what belonged only

  to him1 and of the mere accidents of a
 particular time and place1  imposed    
upon the range of effects open to the   
,greek sculptor  limits somewhat        
narrowly defined4  ,when ,michelangelo  
came1  therefore1 with a genius         
spiritualised by the reverie of the     
middle  age1 penetrated by its spirit of
 inwardness and introspection1  living  
not a mere outward life like the ,greek1
 but a life full of  intimate           
experiences1 sorrows1 consolations1 a   
system which  sacrificed so much of what
 was inward and unseen could not        
satisfy him4  ,to him1 lover and student
 of ,greek sculpture as he  was1 work   
which did not bring what was inward to  
the surface1  which was not concerned   
with individual expression1 with        
individual character and feeling1 the   
special history of the special  soul1   
was not worth doing at all4    ,and so1 
in a way quite personal and peculiar to 
himself1 which  often is1 and always    
seems1 the effect of accident1 he       

secured for  his work individuality and 
intensity of expression1 while he       
avoided a too heavy realism1 that       
tendency to harden into  caricature     
which the representation of feeling in  
sculpture is apt  to display4  ,what    
time and accident1 its centuries of     
darkness  under the furrows of the      
little ,melian farm1 have done with     
singular felicity of touch for the      
,venus of ,melos1 fraying its  surface  
and softening its lines1 so that some   
spirit in the thing  seems always on the
 point of breaking out1 as though #fh in
 it  classical sculpture had advanced   
already one step into the  mystical     
,christian age1 its expression being in 
the whole range of  ancient work most   
like that of ,michelangelo's own3--this 
effect  ,michelangelo gains by leaving  
nearly all his sculpture in a  puzzling 
sort of incompleteness1 which suggests  
rather than  realises actual form4      
,something of the wasting of that snow- 
image which he moulded at the command of

 ,piero de' ,medici1  when the snow lay 
one night in the court of the ,pitti    
palace1  almost always lurks about it1  
as if he had determined to make the     
quality of a task1 exacted from him half
 in derision1 the pride of  all his     
work4  ,many have wondered at that      
incompleteness1  suspecting1 however1   
that ,michelangelo himself loved and was
  loath to change it1 and feeling at the
 same time that they too  would lose    
something if the half-realised form ever
 quite  emerged from the stone1 so      
rough-hewn here1 so delicately  finished
 there2 and they have wished to fathom  
the charm of this  incompleteness4      
,well6  ,that incompleteness is         
,michelangelo's  equivalent for colour  
in sculpture2 it is his way of          
etherealising  pure form1 of relieving  
its stiff realism1 and communicating to 
it  breath1 pulsation1 the effect of    
life4  ,it was a characteristic too     
which fell in with his peculiar temper  
and mode of living1 his  disappointments

 and hesitations4  ,and it was in       
reality perfect  finish4  ,in this way  
he combines the utmost amount of passion
  and intensity with #fi the sense of a 
yielding and flexible life3 he  gets not
 vitality merely1 but a wonderful force 
of expression4    ,midway between these 
two systems--the system of the ,greek   
sculptors and the system of             
,michelangelo--comes the system of      
,luca della ,robbia and the other       
,tuscan sculptors of the fifteenth      
century1 partaking both of the          
,allgemeinheit of the ,greeks1 their    
way of extracting certain select        
elements only of pure form and          
sacrificing all the rest1 and the       
studied incompleteness of               
,michelangelo1 relieving that sense of  
intensity1 passion1 energy1  which might
 otherwise have stiffened into          
caricature4  ,like  ,michelangelo1 these
 sculptors fill their works with intense
 and  individualised expression4  ,their
 noblest works are the careful          

sepulchral portraits of particular      
persons--the monument of ,conte  ,ugo in
 the ,bada of ,florence1 of the youthful
 ,medea ,colleoni1  with the wonderful1 
long throat1 in the chapel on the cool  
north  side of the ,church of ,santa    
,maria ,maggiore at ,bergamo--          
monuments such as abound in the churches
 of ,rome1  inexhaustible in suggestions
 of repose1 of a subdued ,sabbatic joy1 
a kind of sacred grace and refinement4  
,and these elements of  tranquillity1 of
 repose1 they unite to an intense and   
individual  expression by a system of   
conventionalism as skilful and subtle   
as that of the ,greeks1 repressing all  
such curves as indicate solid  form1 and
 throwing the whole into low relief4    
#gj ,the life of ,luca1 a life of labour
 and frugality1 with no  adventure and  
no excitement except what belongs to the
 trial of  new artistic processes1 the  
struggle with new artistic difficulties1
  the solution of purely artistic       
problems1 fills the first seventy  years

 of the fifteenth century4  ,after      
producing many works in  marble for the 
,duomo and the ,campanile of ,florence1 
which  place him among the foremost     
masters of the sculpture of his age1  he
 became desirous to realise the spirit  
and manner of that  sculpture1 in a     
humbler material1 to unite its science1 
its exquisite  and expressive system of 
low relief1 to the homely art of        
pottery1  to introduce those high       
qualities into common things1 to adorn  
and cultivate daily household life4  ,in
 this he is profoundly  characteristic  
of the ,florence of that century1 of    
that in it which  lay below its         
superficial vanity and caprice1 a       
certain old-world  modesty and          
seriousness and simplicity4  ,people had
 not yet  begun to think that what was  
good art for churches was not so  good1 
or less fitted1 for their own houses4   
,luca's new work was  in plain white    
earthenware at first1 a mere rough      
imitation of the costly1 laboriously    

wrought marble1 finished in a  few      
hours4  ,but on this humble path he     
found his way to a fresh  success1 to   
another artistic grace4  ,the fame of   
the oriental  pottery1 with its strange1
 bright colours--colours of art1 colours
  not to be attained in the natural     
stone--mingled with the tradition  of   
the old ,roman #ga pottery of the       
neighbourhood4  ,the little  red1       
coral-like jars of ,arezzo1 dug up in   
that district from time to  time1 are   
much prized4  ,these colours haunted    
,luca's fancy4  ,he  still continued    
seeking something more1 his biographer  
says of  him2 and instead of making his 
figures of baked earth simply  white1 he
 added the further invention of giving  
them colour1 to  the astonishment and   
delight of all who beheld them--,cosa   
singolare1 e multo utile per la         
state6--a curious thing1 and very       
useful for summer-time1 full of coolness
 and repose for hand and  eye4  ,luca   
loved the form of various fruits1 and   

wrought them  into all sorts of         
marvellous frames and garlands1 giving  
them  their natural colours1 only       
subdued a little1 a little paler than   
nature4    ,i said that the art of ,luca
 della ,robbia possessed in an unusual  
measure that special characteristic     
which belongs to all the work-  men of  
his school1 a characteristic which1 even
 in the absence of  much positive       
information about their actual history1 
seems to  bring those work-men          
themselves very near to us4  ,they bear 
the  impress of a personal quality1 a   
profound expressiveness1 what  the      
,french call intimit1 by which is meant 
some subtler sense of  originality--the 
seal on a man's work of what is most    
inward and  peculiar in his moods1 and  
manner of apprehension3 it is what we   
call expression1 carried to its highest 
intensity of degree4  ,that             
characteristic is rare in poetry1 rarer 
still #gb in art1 rarest of all in  the 
abstract art of sculpture2 yet          

essentially1 perhaps1 it is the  quality
 which alone makes work in the          
imaginative order really  worth having  
at all4  ,it is because the works of the
 artists of the  fifteenth century      
possess this quality in an unmistakable 
way that  one is anxious to know all    
that can be known about them and        
explain to one's self the secret of     
their charm4    #ahgb4      ,,notes     
#ga4 ,the ,macmillan edition's misprint 
profund is here  corrected to profound1 
the spelling of the #aija edition4      
,,the ,,poetry ,,of ,,michelangelo      
#gc ,,critics of ,michelangelo have     
sometimes spoken as if the  only        
characteristic of his genius were a     
wonderful strength1  verging1 as in the 
things of the imagination great strength
 always  does1 on what is singular or   
strange4  ,a certain strangeness1       
something of the blossoming of the aloe1
 is indeed an element in  all true works
 of art3 that they shall excite or      
surprise us is  indispensable4  ,but    

that they shall give pleasure and exert 
a  charm over us is indispensable too2  
and this strangeness must be  sweet     
also--a lovely strangeness4  ,and to the
 true admirers of  ,michelangelo this is
 the true type of the                   
,michelangelesque--  sweetness and      
strength1 pleasure with surprise1 an    
energy of  conception which seems at    
every moment about to break through  all
 the conditions of comely form1         
recovering1 touch by touch1 a           
loveliness found usually only in the    
simplest natural things--ex  forti      
dulcedo4    ,in this way he sums up for 
them the whole character of medieval    
art itself in that which distinguishes  
it most clearly from classical  work1   
the presence of a convulsive energy in  
it1 becoming #gd  in lower hands merely 
monstrous or forbidding1 and felt1 even 
in  its most graceful products1 as a    
subdued quaintness or grotesque4  ,yet  
those who feel this grace or sweetness  
in ,michelangelo might  at the first    

moment be puzzled if they were asked    
wherein  precisely such quality resided4
  ,men of inventive temperament--       
,victor ,hugo1 for instance1 in whom1 as
 in ,michelangelo1 people  have for the 
most part been attracted or repelled by 
the strength1  while few have understood
 his sweetness--have sometimes  relieved
 conceptions of merely moral or         
spiritual greatness1 but  with little   
aesthetic charm of their own1 by lovely 
accidents or  accessories1 like the     
butterfly which alights on the          
blood-stained  barricade in ,les        
,misrables1 or those sea-birds for whom 
the  monstrous ,gilliatt comes to be as 
some wild natural thing1 so that  they  
are no longer afraid of him1 in ,les    
,travailleurs de la ,mer4  ,but the     
austere genius of ,michelangelo will not
 depend for its  sweetness on any mere  
accessories like these4  ,the world of  
natural things has almost no existence  
for him2 ,when one speaks  of him1 says 
,grimm1 woods1 clouds1 seas1 and        

mountains  disappear1 and only what is  
formed by the spirit of man remains     
behind2 and he quotes a few slight words
 from a letter of his to  ,vasari as the
 single expression in all he has left of
 a feeling for  nature4  ,he has traced 
no flowers1 like those with which       
,leonardo  stars #ge over his gloomiest 
rocks2 nothing like the fret-work of    
wings and flames in which ,blake frames 
his most startling  conceptions4  ,no   
forest-scenery like ,titian's fills his 
backgrounds1 but only blank ranges of   
rock1 and dim vegetable  forms as blank 
as they1 as in a world before the       
creation of the  first five days4    ,of
 the whole story of the creation he has 
painted only the  creation of the first 
man and woman1 and1 for him at least1   
feebly1  the creation of light4  ,it    
belongs to the quality of his genius    
thus  to concern itself almost          
exclusively with the making of man4     
,for  him it is not1 as in the story    
itself1 the last and crowning act of a  

series of developments1 but the first   
and unique act1 the creation  of life   
itself in its supreme form1 off-hand and
 immediately1 in the  cold and lifeless 
stone4  ,with him the beginning of life 
has all the  characteristics of         
resurrection2 it is like the recovery of
 suspended  health or animation1 with   
its gratitude1 its effusion1 and        
eloquence4  ,fair as the young men of   
the ,elgin marbles1 the  ,adam of the   
,sistine ,chapel is unlike them in a    
total absence of  that balance and      
completeness which express so well the  
sentiment of a self-contained1          
independent life4  ,in that languid     
figure there is something rude and      
satyr-like1 something akin to  the      
rugged hillside on which it lies4  ,his 
whole form is gathered  into an         
expression of mere expectancy and       
reception2 he has  hardly strength      
enough to lift his finger #gf to touch  
the finger of  the creator2 yet a touch 
of the finger-tips will suffice4        

,this creation of life--life coming     
always as relief or recovery1  and      
always in strong contrast with the      
rough-hewn mass in which  it is         
kindled--is in various ways the motive  
of all his work1  whether its immediate 
subject be ,pagan or ,christian1 legend 
or  allegory2 and this1 although at     
least one-half of his work was  designed
 for the adornment of tombs--the tomb of
 ,julius1 the  tombs of the ,medici4    
,not the ,judgment but the ,resurrection
 is  the real subject of his last work  
in the ,sistine ,chapel2 and his        
favourite ,pagan subject is the legend  
of ,leda1 the delight of the  world     
breaking from the egg of a bird4  ,as ,i
 have already pointed  out1 he secures  
that ideality of expression which in    
,greek  sculpture depends on a delicate 
system of abstraction1 and in  early    
,italian sculpture on lowness of relief1
 by an incompleteness1  which is surely 
not always undesigned1 and which1 as ,i 
think1 no  one regrets1 and trusts to   

the spectator to complete the half-     
emergent form4  ,and as his persons have
 something of the  unwrought stone about
 them1 so1 as if to realise the         
expression by  which the old ,florentine
 records describe a sculptor--master of 
live stone--with him the very rocks seem
 to have life4  ,they have  but to cast 
away the dust and scurf that they may   
rise and stand  on their feet4  ,he     
loved the very quarries of ,carrara1    
those strange  grey peaks which even at 
mid-day #gg convey into any scene  from 
which they are visible something of the 
solemnity and  stillness of evening1    
sometimes wandering among them month    
after month1 till at last their pale    
ashen colours seem to have  passed into 
his painting2 and on the crown of the   
head of the  ,david there still remains 
a morsel of uncut stone1 as if by one   
touch to maintain its connexion with the
 place from which it was  hewn4    ,and 
it is in this penetrative suggestion of 
life that the secret of  that sweetness 

of his is to be found4  ,he gives us    
indeed no lovely  natural objects like  
,leonardo or ,titian1 but only the      
coldest1 most  elementary shadowing of  
rock or tree2 no lovely draperies and   
comely gestures of life1 but only the   
austere truths of human  nature2 simple 
persons--as he replied in his rough way 
to the  querulous criticism of ,julius  
the ,second1 that there was no gold  on 
the figures of the ,sistine             
,chapel--simple persons1 who wore  no   
gold on their garments2 but he          
penetrates us with a feeling of  that   
power which we associate with all the   
warmth and fulness of  the world1 the   
sense of which brings into one's        
thoughts a swarm  of birds and flowers  
and insects4  ,the brooding spirit of   
life itself  is there2 and the summer   
may burst out in a moment4    ,he was   
born in an interval of a rapid mid-night
 journey in ,march1  at a place in the  
neighbourhood of ,arezzo1 the thin1     
clear air of  which was then thought to 

be favourable to the #gh birth of       
children of great parts4  ,he came of a 
race of grave and dignified  men1 who1  
claiming kinship with the family of     
,canossa1 and  some colour of imperial  
blood in their veins1 had1 generation   
after  generation1 received honourable  
employment under the  government of     
,florence4  ,his mother1 a girl of      
nineteen years1 put  him out to nurse at
 a country house among the hills of     
,settignano1  where every other         
inhabitant is a worker in the marble    
quarries1  and the child early became   
familiar with that strange first stage  
in  the sculptor's art4  ,to this       
succeeded the influence of the sweetest 
and most placid master ,florence had yet
 seen1 ,domenico  ,ghirlandajo4  ,at    
fifteen he was at work among the        
curiosities of  the garden of the       
,medici1 copying and restoring antiques1
  winning the condescending notice of   
the great ,lorenzo4  ,he knew  too how  
to excite strong hatreds2 and it was at 

this time that in a  quarrel with a     
fellow-student he received a blow on the
 face  which deprived him for ever of   
the comeliness of outward form4    ,it  
was through an accident that he came to 
study those works of  the early ,italian
 sculptors which suggested much of his  
own  grandest work1 and impressed it    
with so deep a sweetness4  ,he  believed
 in dreams and omens4  ,one of his      
friends dreamed twice  that ,lorenzo1   
then lately dead1 appeared to him in    
grey and dusty  apparel4  ,to           
,michelangelo this dream seemed to      
portend the  troubles which afterwards  
really came1 and with #gi the           
suddenness which was characteristic of  
all his movements1 he left  ,florence4  
,having occasion to pass through        
,bologna1 he  neglected to procure the  
little seal of red wax which the        
stranger  entering ,bologna must carry  
on the thumb of his right hand4  ,he    
had no money to pay the fine1 and would 
have been thrown into  prison had not   

one of the magistrates interposed4  ,he 
remained in  this man's house a whole   
year1 rewarding his hospitality by      
readings from the ,italian poets whom he
 loved4  ,bologna1 with its  endless    
colonnades and fantastic leaning towers1
 can never have  been one of the        
lovelier cities of ,italy4  ,but about  
the portals of its  vast unfinished     
churches and its dark shrines1 half     
hidden by  votive flowers and candles1  
lie some of the sweetest works of the   
early ,tuscan sculptors1 ,giovanni da   
,pisa and ,jacopo della  ,quercia1      
things as winsome as flowers2 and the   
year which  ,michelangelo spent in      
copying these works was not a lost year4
  ,it was now1 on returning to          
,florence1 that he put forth that unique
  presentment of ,bacchus1 which        
expresses1 not the mirthfulness of  the 
god of wine1 but his sleepy seriousness1
 his enthusiasm1 his  capacity for      
profound dreaming4  ,no one ever        
expressed more  truly than ,michelangelo

 the notion of inspired sleep1 of faces 
charged with dreams4  ,a vast fragment  
of marble had long lain  below the      
,loggia of ,orcagna1 and many a sculptor
 had had his  thoughts of a design which
 should just fill this famous block of  
#hj stone1 cutting the diamond1 as it   
were1 without loss4  ,under             
,michelangelo's hand it became the      
,david which stood till lately  on the  
steps of the ,palazzo ,vecchio1 when it 
was replaced below  the ,loggia4        
,michelangelo was now thirty years old1 
and his  reputation was established4    
,three great works fill the remainder   
of his life--three works often          
interrupted1 carried on through a       
thousand hesitations1 a thousand        
disappointments1 quarrels with  his     
patrons1 quarrels with his family1      
quarrels perhaps most of all  with      
himself--the ,sistine ,chapel1 the      
,mausoleum of ,julius the  ,second1 and 
the ,sacristy of ,san ,lorenzo4    ,in  
the story of ,michelangelo's life the   

strength1 often turning to  bitterness1 
is not far to seek4  ,a discordant note 
sounds  throughout it which almost      
spoils the music4  ,he treats the ,pope 
as the ,king of ,france himself would   
not dare to treat him3 he  goes along   
the streets of ,rome like an            
executioner1 ,raphael  says of him4     
,once he seems to have shut himself up  
with the  intention of starving himself 
to death4  ,as we come1 in reading  his 
life1 on its harsh1 untempered          
incidents1 the thought again and  again 
arises that he is one of those who incur
 the judgment of  ,dante1 as having     
wilfully lived in sadness4  ,even his   
tenderness  and pity are embittered by  
their strength4  ,what passionate       
weeping in that mysterious figure which1
 in the ,creation of  ,adam1 crouches   
below the image of the ,almighty1 as he 
comes  with the forms of things to be1  
woman #ha and her progeny1 in  the fold 
of his garment6  ,what a sense of wrong 
in those two  captive youths1 who feel  

the chains like scalding water on their 
proud and delicate flesh6  ,the idealist
 who became a reformer  with            
,savonarola1 and a republican           
superintending the fortification  of    
,florence--the nest where he was born1  
il nido ove naqqu'io1 as  he calls it   
once1 in a sudden throb of affection--in
 its last struggle  for liberty1 yet    
believed always that he had imperial    
blood in his  veins and was of the      
kindred of the great ,matilda1 had      
within the  depths of his nature some   
secret spring of indignation or sorrow4 
,we know little of his youth1 but all   
tends to make one believe in  the       
vehemence of its passions4  ,beneath the
 ,platonic calm of the  sonnets there is
 latent a deep delight in carnal form   
and colour4  ,there1 and still more in  
the madrigals1 he often falls into the  
language of less tranquil affections2   
while some of them have the  colour of  
penitence1 as from a wanderer returning 
home4  ,he who  spoke so decisively of  

the supremacy in the imaginative world  
of  the unveiled human form had not been
 always1 we may think1 a  mere ,platonic
 lover4  ,vague and wayward his loves   
may have  been2 but they partook of the 
strength of his nature1 and  sometimes1 
it may be1 would by no means become     
music1 so that  the comely order of his 
days was quite put out3 par che amaro   
ogni mio dolce io senta4    ,but his    
genius is in harmony with itself2 and   
#hb just as in the  products of his art 
we find resources of sweetness within   
their  exceeding strength1 so in his own
 story also1 bitter as the ordinary     
sense of it may be1 there are select    
pages shut in among the rest--  pages   
one might easily turn over too lightly1 
but which yet  sweeten the whole volume4
  ,the interest of ,michelangelo's      
poems is that they make us spectators of
 this struggle2 the  struggle of a      
strong nature to adorn and attune       
itself2 the struggle  of a desolating   
passion1 which yearns to be resigned and

 sweet  and pensive1 as ,dante's was4   
,it is a consequence of the  occasional 
and informal character of his poetry1   
that it brings us  nearer to himself1   
his own mind and temper1 than any work  
done  only to support a literary        
reputation could possibly do4  ,his     
letters  tell us little that is worth   
knowing about him--a few poor quarrels  
about money and commissions4  ,but it is
 quite otherwise with  these songs and  
sonnets1 written down at odd moments1   
sometimes on the margins of his         
sketches1 themselves often  unfinished  
sketches1 arresting some salient feeling
 or  unpremeditated idea as it passed4  
,and it happens that a true  study of   
these has become within the last few    
years for the first  time possible4  ,a 
few of the sonnets circulated widely in 
manuscript1 and became almost within    
,michelangelo's own  lifetime a subject 
of academical discourses4  ,but they    
were first  collected in a volume in    
#afbc by the great-nephew of            

,michelangelo1 ,michelangelo ,buonarroti
 the younger4  ,he omitted  #hc much1   
re-wrote the sonnets in part1 and       
sometimes  compressed two or more       
compositions into one1 always losing    
something of the force and incisiveness 
of the original4  ,so the  book         
remained1 neglected even by ,italians   
themselves in the last  century1 through
 the influence of that ,french taste    
which despised  all compositions of the 
kind1 as it despised and neglected      
,dante4  ,his reputation will ever be on
 the increase1 because he is so little  
read1 says ,voltaire of ,dante4--  ,but 
in #aheh the last of the  ,buonarroti   
bequeathed to the municipality of       
,florence the  curiosities of his       
family4  ,among them was a precious     
volume  containing the autograph of the 
sonnets4  ,a learned ,italian1 ,signor  
,cesare ,guasti1 undertook to collate   
this autograph with other  manuscripts  
at the ,vatican and elsewhere1 and in   
#ahfc published  a true version of      

,michelangelo's poems1 with             
dissertations and a  paraphrase499      
,people have often spoken of these poems
 as if they were a  mere cry of         
distress1 a lover's complaint over the  
obduracy of  ,vittoria ,colonna4  ,but  
those who speak thus forget that though 
it  is quite possible that ,michelangelo
 had seen ,vittoria1 that  somewhat     
shadowy figure1 as early as #aecg1 yet  
their closer  intimacy did not begin    
till about the year #aedb1 when         
,michelangelo was nearly seventy years  
old4  ,vittoria herself1 an  ardent     
neo-catholic1 vowed to perpetual        
widowhood since the  news #hd had       
reached her1 seventeen years before1    
that her  husband1 the youthful and     
princely ,marquess of ,pescara1 lay dead
  of the wounds he had received in the  
battle of ,pavia1 was then no  longer an
 object of great passion4  ,in a        
dialogue written by the  painter1       
,francesco d' ,ollanda1 we catch a      
glimpse of them  together in an empty   

church at ,rome1 one ,sunday afternoon1 
discussing indeed the characteristics of
 various schools of art1 but  still more
 the writings of ,saint ,paul1 already  
following the ways  and tasting the     
sunless pleasures of weary people1 whose
 care for  external things is           
slackening4  ,in a letter still extant  
he regrets that  when he visited her    
after death he had kissed her hands     
only4  ,he  made1 or set to work to     
make1 a crucifix for her use1 and two   
drawings1 perhaps in preparation for it1
 are now in ,oxford4  ,from  allusions  
in the sonnets1 we may divine that when 
they first  approached each other he had
 debated much with himself  whether this
 last passion would be the most         
unsoftening1 the most  desolating of    
all--un dolce amaro1 un s e no mi muovi4
  ,is it  carnal affection1 or1 del suo 
prestino stato 7of ,plato's ante-natal  
state7 il raggio ardente8  ,the older1  
conventional criticism1  dealing with   
the text of #afbc1 had lightly assumed  

that all or  nearly all the sonnets were
 actually addressed to ,vittoria        
herself2  but ,signor ,guasti finds only
 four1 or at most five1 which can be  so
 attributed on genuine authority4       
,still1 there are reasons which  make   
him assign the majority of them to #he  
the period between  #aedb and #aedg1 and
 we may regard the volume as a record of
 this  resting-place in ,michelangelo's 
story4  ,we know how ,goethe  escaped   
from the stress of sentiments too strong
 for him by  making a book about them2  
and for ,michelangelo1 to write down    
his passionate thoughts at all1 to      
express them in a sonnet1 was  already  
in some measure to command1 and have his
 way with  them--         ,la vita del  
mia amor non  il cor mio1       ,ch'    
amor1 di quel ch' io t' amo1  senza     
core4    ,it was just because ,vittoria 
raised no great passion that the space  
in his life where she reigns has such   
peculiar suavity2 and the  spirit of the
 sonnets is lost if we once take them   

out of that  dreamy atmosphere in which 
men have things as they will1  because  
the hold of all outward things upon them
 is faint and  uncertain4  ,their       
prevailing tone is a calm and meditative
  sweetness4  ,the cry of distress is   
indeed there1 but as a mere  residue1 a 
trace of bracing chalybeate salt1 just  
discernible in the  song which rises    
like a clear1 sweet spring from a       
charmed space  in his life4    ,this    
charmed and temperate space in          
,michelangelo's life1  without which its
 excessive strength would have been so  
imperfect1 which saves him from the     
judgment of ,dante on those  who        
wilfully lived in sadness1 is then a    
well-defined period  there1 reaching    
from the year #aedb to the year #aedg1  
the year of  ,vittoria's death4  ,in #hf
 it the lifelong effort to tranquillise 
his  vehement emotions by withdrawing   
them into the region of ideal           
sentiment1 becomes successful2 and the  
significance of ,vittoria is1  that she 

realises for him a type of affection    
which even in  disappointment may charm 
and sweeten his spirit4    ,in this     
effort to tranquillise and sweeten life 
by idealising its  vehement sentiments1 
there were two great traditional types1 
either of which an ,italian of the      
sixteenth century might have  followed4 
,there was ,dante1 whose little book of 
the ,vita ,nuova  had early become a    
pattern of imaginative love1 maintained 
somewhat feebly by the later followers  
of ,petrarch2 and1 since  ,plato had    
become something more than a name in    
,italy by the  publication of the ,latin
 translation of his works by ,marsilio  
,ficino1 there was the ,platonic        
tradition also4  ,dante's belief in the 
resurrection of the body1 through which1
 even in heaven1 ,beatrice  loses for   
him no tinge of flesh-colour1 or fold of
 raiment even2  and the ,platonic dream 
of the passage of the soul through one  
form of life after another1 with its    
passionate haste to escape from  the    

burden of bodily form altogether2 are1  
for all effects of art or  poetry1      
principles diametrically opposite4  ,now
 it is the ,platonic  tradition rather  
than ,dante's that has moulded          
,michelangelo's  verse4  ,in many ways  
no sentiment could have been less like  
,dante's love for ,beatrice than        
,michelangelo's for ,vittoria  ,colonna4
  ,dante's comes in early youth3        
,beatrice #hg is a child1  with the     
wistful1 ambiguous vision of a child1   
with a character  still unaccentuated by
 the influence of outward circumstances1
  almost expressionless4  ,vittoria1 on 
the other hand1 is a woman  already     
weary1 in advanced age1 of grave        
intellectual qualities4  ,dante's story 
is a piece of figured work1 inlaid with 
lovely  incidents4  ,in ,michelangelo's 
poems1 frost and fire are almost the    
only images--the refining fire of the   
goldsmith2 once or twice the  phoenix2  
ice melting at the fire2 fire struck    
from the rock which it  afterwards      

consumes4  ,except one doubtful allusion
 to a journey1  there are almost no     
incidents4  ,but there is much of the   
bright1  sharp1 unerring skill1 with    
which in boyhood he gave the look of    
age to the head of a faun by chipping a 
tooth from its jaw with a  single stroke
 of the hammer4  ,for ,dante1 the       
amiable and devout  materialism of the  
middle age sanctifies all that is       
presented by  hand and eye2 while       
,michelangelo is always pressing forward
  from the outward beauty--il bel del   
fuor che agli occhi piace1 to  apprehend
 the unseen beauty2 trascenda nella     
forma universale--  that abstract form  
of beauty1 about which the ,platonists  
reason4  ,and this gives the impression 
in him of something flitting and        
unfixed1 of the houseless and           
complaining spirit1 almost  clairvoyant 
through the frail and yielding flesh4   
,he accounts for  love at first sight by
 a previous state of existence--la dove 
io t'  amai prima4    ,and yet there are

 many points in which he #hh is really  
like  ,dante1 and comes very near to the
 original image1 beyond those  later and
 feebler followers in the wake of       
,petrarch4  ,he learns  from ,dante     
rather than from ,plato1 that for       
lovers1 the surfeiting  of desire--ove  
gran desir gran copia affrena1 is a     
state less happy  than poverty with     
abundance of hope--una miseria di       
speranza  piena4  ,he recalls him in the
 repetition of the words gentile and    
cortesia1 in the personification of     
,amor1 in the tendency to dwell         
minutely on the physical effects of the 
presence of a beloved  object on the    
pulses and the heart4  ,above all1 he   
resembles ,dante  in the warmth and     
intensity of his political utterances1  
for the lady  of one of his noblest     
sonnets was from the first understood to
 be  the city of ,florence2 and he avers
 that all must be asleep in  heaven1 if 
she1 who was created of angelic form1   
for a thousand  lovers1 is appropriated 

by one alone1 some ,piero1 or           
,alessandro  de' ,medici4  ,once and    
again he introduces ,love and ,death1   
who  dispute concerning him4  ,for1 like
 ,dante and all the nobler souls  of    
,italy1 he is much occupied with        
thoughts of the grave1 and his  true    
mistress is death1--death at first as   
the worst of all sorrows  and disgraces1
 with a clod of the field for its brain2
 afterwards1  death in its high         
distinction1 its detachment from vulgar 
needs1  the angry stains of life and    
action escaping fast4    ,some of those 
whom the gods love die young4  ,this    
man1  because the gods loved him1       
lingered #hi on to be of immense1       
patriarchal age1 till the sweetness it  
had taken so long to secrete  in him was
 found at last4  ,out of the strong came
 forth sweetness1  ex forti dulcedo4    
,the world had changed around him4  ,the
 new  catholicism had taken the place of
 the ,renaissance4  ,the spirit  of the 
,roman ,church had changed3 in the vast 

world's cathedral  which his skill had  
helped to raise for it1 it looked       
stronger than  ever4  ,some of the first
 members of the ,oratory were among his 
intimate associates4  ,they were of a   
spirit as unlike as possible  from that 
of ,lorenzo1 or ,savonarola even4  ,the 
opposition of the  ,reformation to art  
has been often enlarged upon2 far       
greater was  that of the ,catholic      
revival4  ,but in thus fixing itself in 
a frozen  orthodoxy1 the ,roman ,church 
had passed beyond him1 and he  was a    
stranger to it4  ,in earlier days1 when 
its beliefs had been in a  fluid state1 
he too might have been drawn into the   
controversy4  ,he might have been for   
spiritualising the papal sovereignty1   
like  ,savonarola2 or for adjusting the 
dreams of ,plato and ,homer with  the   
words of ,christ1 like ,pico of         
,mirandola4  ,but things had  moved     
onward1 and such adjustments were no    
longer possible4  ,for himself1 he had  
long since fallen back on that divine   

ideal1  which above the wear and tear of
 creeds has been forming itself  for    
ages as the possession of nobler souls4 
,and now he began to  feel the soothing 
influence which since that time the     
,roman #ij  ,church has often exerted   
over spirits too independent to be its  
subjects1 yet brought within the        
neighbourhood of its action2  consoled  
and tranquillised1 as a traveller might 
be1 resting for one  evening in a       
strange city1 by its stately aspect and 
the sentiment  of its many fortunes1    
just because with those fortunes he has 
nothing to do4  ,so he lingers on2 a    
revenant1 as the ,french say1 a  ghost  
out of another age1 in a world too      
coarse to touch his faint  sensibilities
 very closely2 dreaming1 in a worn-out  
society1  theatrical in its life1       
theatrical in its art1 theatrical even  
in its  devotion1 on the morning of the 
world's history1 on the primitive  form 
of man1 on the images under which that  
primitive world had  conceived of       

spiritual forces4    ,i have dwelt on   
the thought of ,michelangelo as thus    
lingering  beyond his time in a world   
not his own1 because1 if one is to      
distinguish the peculiar savour of his  
work1 he must be  approached1 not       
through his followers1 but through his  
predecessors2 not through the marbles of
 ,saint ,peter's1 but  through the work 
of the sculptors of the fifteenth       
century over the  tombs and altars of   
,tuscany4  ,he is the last of the       
,florentines1 of  those on whom the     
peculiar sentiment of the ,florence of  
,dante  and ,giotto descended3 he is the
 consummate representative of the  form 
that sentiment took in the fifteenth    
century with men like  ,luca ,signorelli
 and ,mino #ia da ,fiesole4  ,up to him 
the  tradition of sentiment is unbroken1
 the progress towards surer and  more   
mature methods of expressing that       
sentiment continuous4  ,but his         
professed disciples did not share this  
temper2 they are in  love with his      

strength only1 and seem not to feel his 
grave and  temperate sweetness4         
,theatricality is their chief           
characteristic2  and that is a quality  
as little attributable to ,michelangelo 
as to  ,mino or ,luca ,signorelli4      
,with him1 as with them1 all is serious1
  passionate1 impulsive4    ,this       
discipleship of ,michelangelo1 this     
dependence of his on the  tradition of  
the ,florentine schools1 is nowhere seen
 more clearly  than in his treatment of 
the ,creation4  ,the ,creation of ,man  
had  haunted the mind of the middle age 
like a dream2 and weaving it  into a    
hundred carved ornaments of capital or  
doorway1 the  ,italian sculptors had    
early impressed upon it that pregnancy  
of  expression which seems to give it   
many veiled meanings4  ,as  with other  
artistic conceptions of the middle age1 
its treatment  became almost            
conventional1 handed on from artist to  
artist1 with  slight changes1 till it   
came to have almost an independent and  

abstract existence of its own4  ,it was 
characteristic of the  medieval mind    
thus to give an independent traditional 
existence  to a special pictorial       
conception1 or to a legend1 like that of
  ,tristram or ,tannhuser1 or even to   
the very thoughts and  substance of a   
book1 like the ,imitation1 so that no   
single workman  could #ib claim it as   
his own1 and the book1 the image1 the   
legend1 had itself a legend1 and its    
fortunes1 and a personal  history2 and  
it is a sign of the medievalism of      
,michelangelo1 that  he thus receives   
from tradition his central conception1  
and does  but add the last touches1 in  
transferring it to the frescoes of the  
,sistine ,chapel4    ,but there was     
another tradition of those earlier1 more
 serious  ,florentines1 of which        
,michelangelo is the inheritor1 to which
 he  gives the final expression1 and    
which centres in the sacristy of  ,san  
,lorenzo1 as the tradition of the       
,creation centres in the  ,sistine      

,chapel4  ,it has been said that all the
 great ,florentines  were preoccupied   
with death4  ,outre-tombe6              
,outre-tombe6--is  the burden of their  
thoughts1 from ,dante to ,savonarola4   
,even the  gay and licentious ,boccaccio
 gives a keener edge to his stories by  
putting them in the mouths of a party of
 people who had taken  refuge in a      
country-house from the danger of death  
by plague4  ,it  was to this inherited  
sentiment1 this practical decision that 
to be  preoccupied with the thought of  
death was in itself dignifying1  and a  
note of high quality1 that the          
seriousness of the great  ,florentines  
of the fifteenth century was partly due2
 and it was  reinforced in them by the  
actual sorrows of their times4  ,how    
often1 and in what various ways1 had    
they seen life stricken down1  in their 
streets and houses ,la bella ,simonetta 
dies in early youth1  and is borne to   
the grave with uncovered face4  ,the #ic
 young  ,cardinal ,jacopo di ,portogallo

 dies on a visit to ,florence--insignis 
forma fui et mirabili modestia--his     
epitaph dares to say4  ,antonio         
,rossellino carves his tomb in the      
church of ,san ,miniato1 with  care for 
the shapely hands and feet1 and sacred  
attire2 ,luca della  ,robbia puts his   
skyiest works there2 and the tomb of the
 youthful  and princely prelate became  
the strangest and most beautiful  thing 
in that strange and beautiful place4    
,after the execution of  the ,pazzi     
conspirators1 ,botticelli is employed to
 paint their  portraits4  ,this         
preoccupation with serious thoughts and 
sad  images might easily have resulted1 
as it did1 for instance1 in the  gloomy 
villages of the ,rhine1 or in the       
overcrowded parts of  medieval ,paris1  
as it still does in many a village of   
the ,alps1 in  something merely morbid  
or grotesque1 in the ,danse ,macabre of 
many ,french and ,german painters1 or   
the grim inventions of  ,drer4  ,from   
such a result the ,florentine masters of

 the fifteenth  century were saved by   
the nobility of their ,italian culture1 
and  still more by their tender pity for
  the thing itself4  ,they must  often  
have leaned over the lifeless body1 when
 all was at length  quiet and smoothed  
out4  ,after death1 it is said1 the     
traces of  slighter and more superficial
 dispositions disappear2 the lines      
become more simple and dignified2 only  
the abstract lines  remain1 in a great  
indifference4  ,they came thus to see   
death in its  distinction4  ,then       
following it perhaps one #id stage      
further1  dwelling for a moment on the  
point where all this transitory  dignity
 must break up1 and discerning with no  
clearness a new  body1 they paused just 
in time1 and abstained1 with a sentiment
 of  profound pity4    ,of all this     
sentiment ,michelangelo is the          
achievement2 and1 first  of all1 of     
pity4  ,piet1 pity1 the pity of the     
,virgin ,mother over the  dead body of  
,christ1 expanded into the pity of all  

mothers over  all dead sons1 the        
entombment1 with its cruel hard         
stones3--this  is the subject of his    
predilection4  ,he has left it in many  
forms1  sketches1 half-finished designs1
 finished and unfinished groups of      
sculpture2 but always as a hopeless1    
rayless1 almost heathen  sorrow--no     
divine sorrow1 but mere pity and awe at 
the stiff limbs  and colourless lips4   
,there is a drawing of his at ,oxford1  
in which  the dead body has sunk to the 
earth between the mother's feet1  with  
the arms extended over her knees4  ,the 
tombs in the sacristy  of ,san ,lorenzo 
are memorials1 not of any of the nobler 
and  greater ,medici1 but of ,giuliano1 
and ,lorenzo the younger1  noticeable   
chiefly for their somewhat early death4 
,it is mere  human nature therefore     
which has prompted the sentiment here4  
,the titles assigned traditionally to   
the four symbolical figures1  ,night and
 ,day1 ,the ,twilight and ,the ,dawn1   
are far too definite  for them2 for     

these figures come much nearer to the   
mind and  spirit of their author1 and   
are a more direct expression #ie of his 
thoughts1 than any merely symbolical    
conceptions could possibly  have been4  
,they concentrate and express1 less by  
way of definite  conceptions than by the
 touches1 the promptings of a piece of  
music1 all those vague fancies1         
misgivings1 presentiments1 which  shift 
and mix and are defined and fade again1 
whenever the  thoughts try to fix       
themselves with sincerity on the        
conditions  and surroundings of the     
disembodied spirit4  ,i suppose no one  
would come to the sacristy of ,san      
,lorenzo for consolation2 for           
seriousness1 for solemnity1 for dignity 
of impression1 perhaps1 but  not for    
consolation4  ,it is a place neither of 
consoling nor of  terrible thoughts1 but
 of vague and wistful speculation4      
,here1  again1 ,michelangelo is the     
disciple not so much of ,dante as of    
the ,platonists4  ,dante's belief in    

immortality is formal1 precise  and     
firm1 almost as much so as that of a    
child1 who thinks the  dead will hear if
 you cry loud enough4  ,but in          
,michelangelo you  have maturity1 the   
mind of the grown man1 dealing          
cautiously and  dispassionately with    
serious things2 and what hope he has is 
based on the consciousness of           
ignorance--ignorance of man1  ignorance 
of the nature of the mind1 its origin   
and capacities4  ,michelangelo is so    
ignorant of the spiritual world1 of the 
new  body and its laws1 that he does not
 surely know whether the  consecrated   
,host may not be the body of ,christ4   
,and of all that  range of sentiment he 
is the poet1 a poet still alive1 and in 
#if  possession of our inmost           
thoughts--dumb inquiry over the relapse 
after death into the formlessness which 
preceded life1 the change1  the revolt  
from that change1 then the correcting1  
hallowing1  consoling rush of pity2 at  
last1 far off1 thin and vague1 yet not  

more vague than the most definite       
thoughts men have had  through three    
centuries on a matter that has been so  
near their  hearts1 the new body--a     
passing light1 a mere intangible1       
external  effect1 over those too rigid1 
or too formless faces2 a dream that     
lingers a moment1 retreating in the     
dawn1 incomplete1 aimless1  helpless2 a 
thing with faint hearing1 faint memory1 
faint power of  touch2 a breath1 a flame
 in the doorway1 a feather in the wind4 
,the qualities of the great masters in  
art or literature1 the  combination of  
those qualities1 the laws by which they 
moderate1  support1 relieve each other1 
are not peculiar to them2 but most      
often typical standards1 or revealing   
instances of the laws by  which certain 
aesthetic effects are produced4  ,the   
old masters  indeed are simpler2 their  
characteristics are written larger1 and 
are  easier to read1 than the analogues 
of them in all the mixed1  confused     
productions of the modern mind4  ,but   

when once we  have succeeded in defining
 for ourselves those characteristics1   
and the law of their combination1 we    
have acquired a standard or  measure    
which helps us to put in its right place
 many a vagrant  genius1 many an        
unclassified talent1 many precious      
though  imperfect #ig products of art4  
,it is so with the components of the    
true character of ,michelangelo4  ,that 
strange interfusion of  sweetness and   
strength is not to be found in those who
 claimed to  be his followers2 but it is
 found in many of those who worked      
before him1 and in many others down to  
our own time1 in ,william  ,blake1 for  
instance1 and ,victor ,hugo1 who1 though
 not of his  school1 and unaware1 are   
his true sons1 and help us to understand
  him1 as he in turn interprets and     
justifies them4  ,perhaps this is the   
chief use in studying old masters4      
#ahga4        ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci   
,,homo ,,minister ,,et ,,interpres      
,,naturae    #ih ,,in ,vasari's life of 

,leonardo da ,vinci as we now read it   
there are  some variations from the     
first edition4  ,there1 the painter who 
has  fixed the outward type of ,christ  
for succeeding centuries was a  bold    
speculator1 holding lightly by other    
men's beliefs1 setting  philosophy above
 ,christianity4  ,words of his1         
trenchant enough  to justify this       
impression1 are not recorded1 and would 
have been  out of keeping with a genius 
of which one characteristic is the      
tendency to lose itself in a refined and
 graceful mystery4  ,the  suspicion was 
but the time-honoured mode in which the 
world  stamps its appreciation of one   
who has thoughts for himself  alone1 his
 high indifference1 his intolerance of  
the common forms  of things2 and in the 
second edition the image was changed    
into  something fainter and more        
conventional4  ,but it is still by a    
certain mystery in his work1 and        
something enigmatical beyond  the usual 
measure of great men1 that he           

fascinates1 or perhaps half  repels4    
,his life is one of sudden #ii revolts1 
with intervals in  which he works not at
 all1 or apart from the main scope of   
his  work4  ,by a strange fortune the   
pictures on which his more  popular fame
 rested disappeared early from the      
world1 like the  ,battle of the         
,standard2 or are mixed obscurely with  
the product  of meaner hands1 like the  
,last ,supper4  ,his type of beauty is  
so  exotic that it fascinates a larger  
number than it delights1 and  seems more
 than that of any other artist to       
reflect ideas and views  and some scheme
 of the world within2 so that he seemed 
to his  contemporaries to be the        
possessor of some unsanctified and      
secret wisdom2 as to ,michelet and      
others to have anticipated  modern      
ideas4  ,he trifles with his genius1 and
 crowds all his chief  work into a few  
tormented years of later life2 yet he is
 so  possessed by his genius that he    
passes unmoved through the most  tragic 

events1 overwhelming his country and    
friends1 like one  who comes across them
 by chance on some secret errand4       
,his legend1 as the ,french say1 with   
the anecdotes which every  one          
remembers1 is one of the most brilliant 
chapters of ,vasari4  ,later writers    
merely copied it1 until1 in #ahjd1      
,carlo ,amoretti  applied to it a       
criticism which left hardly a date      
fixed1 and not one  of those anecdotes  
untouched4  ,the various questions thus 
raised  have since that time become1 one
 after another1 subjects of  special    
study1 and mere antiquarianism has in   
this direction little  more to do4  ,for
 others remain the editing of #ajj the  
thirteen  books of his manuscripts1 and 
the separation by technical  criticism  
of what in his reputed works is really  
his1 from what is  only half his1 or the
 work of his pupils4  ,but a lover of   
strange  souls may still analyse for    
himself the impression made on him  by  
those works1 and try to reach through it

 a definition of the  chief elements of 
,leonardo's genius4  ,the legend1 as    
corrected  and enlarged by its critics1 
may now and then intervene to support   
the results of this analysis4    ,his   
life has three divisions--thirty years  
at ,florence1 nearly  twenty years at   
,milan1 then nineteen years of          
wandering1 till he  sinks to rest under 
the protection of ,francis the ,first at
 the  ,chteau de ,clou4  ,the dishonour 
of illegitimacy hangs over his  birth4  
,piero ,antonio1 his father1 was of a   
noble ,florentine house1  of ,vinci in  
the ,val d',arno1 and ,leonardo1 brought
 up delicately  among the true children 
of that house1 was the love-child of his
  youth1 with the keen1 puissant nature 
such children often have4  ,we see him  
in his boyhood fascinating all men by   
his beauty1  improvising music and      
songs1 buying the caged birds and       
setting  them free1 as he walked the    
streets of ,florence1 fond of odd bright
  dresses and spirited horses4    ,from 

his earliest years he designed many     
objects1 and  constructed models in     
relief1 of which ,vasari mentions some  
of  women smiling4  ,his father1        
pondering over this promise in the  #aja
 child1 took him to the workshop of     
,andrea del ,verrocchio1  then the most 
famous artist in ,florence4  ,beautiful 
objects lay  about there--reliquaries1  
pyxes1 silver images for the pope's     
chapel at ,rome1 strange fancy-work of  
the middle age1 keeping  odd company    
with fragments of antiquity1 then but   
lately  discovered4  ,another student   
,leonardo may have seen there--a  lad   
into whose soul the level light and     
arial illusions of ,italian  sunsets had
 passed1 in after days famous as        
,perugino4  ,verrocchio  was an artist  
of the earlier ,florentine type1 carver1
 painter1 and  worker in metals1 in one2
 designer1 not of pictures only1 but of 
all  things for sacred or household use1
 drinking-vessels1 ambries1  instruments
 of music1 making them all fair to look 

upon1 filling  the common ways of life  
with the reflexion of some far-off      
brightness2 and years of patience had   
refined his hand till his  work was now 
sought after from distant places4    ,it
 happened that ,verrocchio was employed 
by the brethren of  ,vallombrosa to     
paint the ,baptism of ,christ1 and      
,leonardo was  allowed to finish an     
angel in the left-hand corner4  ,it was 
one of  those moments in which the      
progress of a great thing--here1 that   
of the art of ,italy--presses hard on   
the happiness of an individual1  through
 whose discouragement and decrease1     
humanity1 in more  fortunate persons1   
comes a step nearer to its final        
success4    ,for beneath the cheerful   
exterior of the mere #ajb well-paid     
craftsman1 chasing brooches for the     
copes of ,santa ,maria  ,novella1 or    
twisting metal screens for the tombs of 
the ,medici1  lay the ambitious desire  
to expand the destiny of ,italian art by
 a  larger knowledge and insight into   

things1 a purpose in art not  unlike    
,leonardo's still unconscious purpose2  
and often1 in the  modelling of drapery1
 or of a lifted arm1 or of hair cast    
back from  the face1 there came to him  
something of the freer manner and       
richer humanity of a later age4  ,but in
 this ,baptism the pupil had  surpassed 
the master2 and ,verrocchio turned away 
as one  stunned1 and as if his sweet    
earlier work must thereafter be         
distasteful to him1 from the bright     
animated angel of ,leonardo's  hand4    
,the angel may still be seen in         
,florence1 a space of sunlight in the   
cold1 laboured old picture2 but the     
legend is true only in  sentiment1 for  
painting had always been the art by     
which  ,verrocchio set least store4     
,and as in a sense he anticipates       
,leonardo1 so to the last ,leonardo     
recalls the studio of  ,verrocchio1 in  
the love of beautiful toys1 such as the 
vessel of  water for a mirror1 and      
lovely needle-work about the implicated 

hands in the ,modesty and ,vanity1 and  
of reliefs1 like those  cameos which in 
the ,virgin of the ,balances hang all   
round the  girdle of ,saint ,michael1   
and of bright variegated stones1 such as
  the agates in the ,saint ,anne1 and in
 a hieratic preciseness and  grace1 as  
of a sanctuary swept and #ajc garnished4
  ,amid all the  cunning and intricacy  
of his ,lombard manner this never left  
him4  ,much of it there must have been  
in that lost picture of ,paradise1      
which he prepared as a cartoon for      
tapestry1 to be woven in the  looms of  
,flanders4  ,it was the perfection of   
the older ,florentine  style of         
miniature-painting1 with patient putting
 of each leaf upon  the trees and each  
flower in the grass1 where the first man
 and  woman were standing4    ,and      
because it was the perfection of that   
style1 it awoke in  ,leonardo some seed 
of discontent which lay in the secret   
places  of his nature4  ,for the way to 
perfection is through a series of       

disgusts2 and this picture--all that he 
had done so far in his life at          
,florence--was after all in the old     
slight manner4  ,his art1 if it was  to 
be something in the world1 must be      
weighted with more of the  meaning of   
nature and purpose of humanity4  ,nature
 was the  true mistress of higher       
intelligences4  ,he plunged1 then1 into 
the  study of nature4  ,and in doing    
this he followed the manner of the      
older students2 he brooded over the     
hidden virtues of plants and  crystals1 
the lines traced by the stars as they   
moved in the sky1  over the             
correspondences which exist between the 
different  orders of living things1     
through which1 to eyes opened1 they     
interpret each other2 and for years he  
seemed to those about him  as one       
listening to a voice1 silent for other  
men4    #ajd ,he learned here the art of
 going deep1 of tracking the  sources of
 expression to their subtlest retreats1 
the power of an  intimate presence in   

the things he handled4  ,he did not at  
once or  entirely desert his art2 only  
he was no longer the cheerful1          
objective painter1 through whose soul1  
as through clear glass1 the  bright     
figures of ,florentine life1 only made a
 little mellower and  more pensive by   
the transit1 passed on to the white     
wall4  ,he  wasted many days in curious 
tricks of design1 seeming to lose       
himself in the spinning of intricate    
devices of line and colour4  ,he  was   
smitten with a love of the              
impossible--the perforation of          
mountains1 changing the course of       
rivers1 raising great buildings1  such  
as the church of ,san ,giovanni1 in the 
air2 all those feats for  the           
performance of which natural magic      
professed to have the  key4  ,later     
writers1 indeed1 see in these efforts an
 anticipation of  modern mechanics2 in  
him they were rather dreams1 thrown off 
by the overwrought and labouring brain4 
,two ideas were  especially confirmed in

 him1 as reflexes of things that had    
touched his brain in childhood beyond   
the depth of other  impressions--the    
smiling of women and the motion of great
  waters4    ,and in such studies some  
interfusion of the extremes of beauty   
and terror shaped itself1 as an image   
that might be seen and  touched1 in the 
mind of this gracious youth1 so fixed   
that for the  rest of his life it never 
left him4  ,as if catching #aje glimpses
 of  it in the strange eyes or hair of  
chance people1 he would follow  such    
about the streets of ,florence till the 
sun went down1 of  whom many sketches of
 his remain4  ,some of these are full of
 a  curious beauty1 that remote beauty  
which may be apprehended  only by those 
who have sought it carefully2 who1      
starting with  acknowledged types of    
beauty1 have refined as far upon these1 
as  these refine upon the world of      
common forms4  ,but mingled             
inextricably with this there is an      
element of mockery also2 so that1       

whether in sorrow or scorn1 he          
caricatures ,dante even4  ,legions  of  
grotesques sweep under his hand2 for has
 not nature too her  grotesques--the    
rent rock1 the distorting lights of     
evening on  lonely roads1 the unveiled  
structure of man in the embryo1 or the  
skeleton8    ,all these swarming fancies
 unite in the ,medusa of the ,uffizii4  
,vasari's story of an earlier ,medusa1  
painted on a wooden shield1  is perhaps 
an invention2 and yet1 properly told1   
has more of the air  of truth about it  
than anything else in the whole legend4 
,for its  real subject is not the       
serious work of a man1 but the          
experiment  of a child4  ,the lizards   
and glow-worms and other strange small  
creatures which haunt an ,italian       
vineyard bring before one the  whole    
picture of a child's life in a ,tuscan  
dwelling--half castle1  half farm--and  
are as true to nature as the pretended  
astonishment #ajf of the father for whom
 the boy has prepared  a surprise4  ,it 

was not in play that he painted that    
other ,medusa1  the one great picture   
which he left behind him in ,florence4  
,the  subject has been treated in       
various ways2 ,leonardo alone cuts to   
its centre2 he alone realises it as the 
head of a corpse1 exercising  its powers
 through all the circumstances of death4
  ,what may be  called the fascination  
of corruption penetrates in every touch 
its  exquisitely finished beauty4       
,about the dainty lines of the cheek    
the bat flits unheeded4  ,the delicate  
snakes seem literally  strangling each  
other in terrified struggle to escape   
from the  ,medusa brain4  ,the hue which
 violent death always brings with it  is
 in the features2 features singularly   
massive and grand1 as we  catch them    
inverted1 in a dexterous foreshortening1
 crown  foremost1 like a great calm     
stone against which the wave of         
serpents breaks4    ,the science of that
 age was all divination1 clairvoyance1  
unsubjected to our exact modern         

formulas1 seeking in an instant  of     
vision to concentrate a thousand        
experiences4  ,later writers1  thinking 
only of the well-ordered treatise on    
painting which a  ,frenchman1 ,raffaelle
 du ,fresne1 a hundred years afterwards1
  compiled from ,leonardo's bewildered  
manuscripts1 written  strangely1 as his 
manner was1 from right to left1 have    
imagined a  rigid order in his          
inquiries4  ,but this rigid order would 
have been  little in #ajg accordance    
with the restlessness of his character2 
and if we think of him as the mere      
reasoner who subjects design  to        
anatomy1 and composition to mathematical
 rules1 we shall  hardly have that      
impression which those around ,leonardo 
received from him4  ,poring over his    
crucibles1 making  experiments with     
colour1 trying1 by a strange variation  
of the  alchemist's dream1 to discover  
the secret1 not of an elixir to make    
man's natural life immortal1 but of     
giving immortality to the  subtlest and 

most delicate effects of painting1 he   
seemed to them  rather the sorcerer or  
the magician1 possessed of curious      
secrets  and a hidden knowledge1 living 
in a world of which he alone  possessed 
the key4  ,what his philosophy seems to 
have been most  like is that of         
,paracelsus or ,cardan2 and much of the 
spirit of the  older alchemy still hangs
 about it1 with its confidence in short 
cuts and odd byways to knowledge4  ,to  
him philosophy was to  be something     
giving strange swiftness and double     
sight1 divining  the sources of springs 
beneath the earth or of expression      
beneath  the human countenance1         
clairvoyant of occult gifts in common or
  uncommon things1 in the reed at the   
brook-side1 or the star which  draws    
near to us but once in a century4  ,how1
 in this way1 the  clear purpose was    
overclouded1 the fine chaser's hand     
perplexed1  we but dimly see2 the       
mystery which at no point quite lifts   
from  ,leonardo's life is deepest here4 

,but it is #ajh certain that at one     
period of his life he had almost ceased 
to be an artist4    ,the year #adhc--the
 year of the birth of ,raphael and the  
thirty-  first of ,leonardo's life--is  
fixed as the date of his visit to ,milan
  by the letter in which he recommends  
himself to ,ludovico  ,sforza1 and      
offers to tell him1 for a price1 strange
 secrets in the art  of war4  ,it was   
that ,sforza who murdered his young     
nephew by  slow poison1 yet was so      
susceptible of religious impressions    
that  he blended mere earthly passion   
with a sort of religious                
sentimentalism1 and who took for his    
device the mulberry-tree--  symbol1 in  
its long delay and sudden yielding of   
flowers and fruit  together1 of a wisdom
 which economises all forces for an     
opportunity of sudden and sure effect4  
,the fame of ,leonardo had  gone before 
him1 and he was to model a colossal     
statue of  ,francesco1 the first ,duke  
of ,milan4  ,as for ,leonardo himself1  

he  came not as an artist at all1 or    
careful of the fame of one2 but as a    
player on the harp1 a strange harp of   
silver of his own  construction1 shaped 
in some curious likeness to a horse's   
skull4  ,the capricious spirit of       
,ludovico was susceptible also to the   
power of music1 and ,leonardo's nature  
had a kind of spell in it4  ,fascination
 is always the word descriptive of him4 
,no portrait of  his youth remains2 but 
all tends to make us believe that up to 
this  time some charm of voice and      
aspect1 strong enough to balance  the   
disadvantage of his birth1 had #aji     
played about him4  ,his  physical       
strength was great2 it was said that he 
could bend a  horseshoe like a coil of  
lead4    ,the ,duomo1 work of artists   
from beyond the ,alps1 so fantastic to  
the eye of a ,florentine used to the    
mellow1 unbroken surfaces of  ,giotto   
and ,arnolfo1 was then in all its       
freshness2 and below1 in  the streets of
 ,milan1 moved a people as fantastic1   

changeful1 and  dreamlike4  ,to         
,leonardo least of all men could there  
be anything  poisonous in the exotic    
flowers of sentiment which grew there4  
,it  was a life of brilliant sins and   
exquisite amusements3 ,leonardo  became 
a celebrated designer of pageants2 and  
it suited the  quality of his genius1   
composed1 in almost equal parts1 of     
curiosity and the desire of beauty1 to  
take things as they came4    ,curiosity 
and the desire of beauty--these are the 
two elementary  forces in ,leonardo's   
genius2 curiosity often in conflict with
 the  desire of beauty1 but generating1 
in union with it1 a type of subtle  and 
curious grace4    ,the movement of the  
fifteenth century was twofold2 partly   
the  ,renaissance1 partly also the      
coming of what is called the  modern    
spirit1 with its realism1 its appeal to 
experience4  ,it  comprehended a return 
to antiquity1 and a return to nature4   
,raphael represents the return to       
antiquity1 and ,leonardo the  return to 

nature4  ,in this return to nature1 he  
was seeking to satisfy  a boundless     
curiosity by her perpetual surprises1   
#aaj a  microscopic sense of finish by  
her finesse1 or delicacy of  operation1 
that subtilitas naturae which ,bacon    
notices4  ,so we  find him often in     
intimate relations with men of          
science1--with  ,fra ,luca ,paccioli the
 mathematician1 and the anatomist ,marc 
,antonio della ,torre4  ,his            
observations and experiments fill       
thirteen volumes of manuscript2 and     
those who can judge  describe him as    
anticipating long before1 by rapid      
intuition1 the  later ideas of science4 
,he explained the obscure light of the  
unilluminated part of the moon1 knew    
that the sea had once  covered the      
mountains which contain shells1 and of  
the gathering  of the equatorial waters 
above the polar4    ,he who thus        
penetrated into the most secret parts of
 nature  preferred always the more to   
the less remote1 what1 seeming          

exceptional1 was an instance of law more
 refined1 the  construction about things
 of a peculiar atmosphere and mixed     
lights4  ,he paints flowers with such   
curious felicity that different  writers
 have attributed to him a fondness for  
particular flowers1  as ,clement the    
cyclamen1 and ,rio the jasmin2 while1 at
 ,venice1  there is a stray leaf from   
his portfolio dotted all over with      
studies  of violets and the wild rose4  
,in him first appears the taste for     
what is bizarre or recherch in          
landscape2 hollow places full of  the   
green shadow of bituminous rocks1 ridged
 reefs of trap-rock  which cut the water
 into quaint sheets of light1--their    
exact  antitype is in our own western   
seas2 all the #aaa solemn effects  of   
moving water4  ,you may follow it       
springing from its distant  source among
 the rocks on the heath of the ,madonna 
of the  ,balances1 passing1 as a little 
fall1 into the treacherous calm of the  
,madonna of the ,lake1 as a goodly river

 next1 below the cliffs of  the ,madonna
 of the ,rocks1 washing the white walls 
of its distant  villages1 stealing out  
in a network of divided streams in ,la  
,gioconda to the seashore of the ,saint 
,anne--that delicate place1  where the  
wind passes like the hand of some fine  
etcher over the  surface1 and the untorn
 shells are lying thick upon the sand1  
and  the tops of the rocks1 to which the
 waves never rise1 are green  with      
grass1 grown fine as hair4  ,it is the  
landscape1 not of dreams  or of fancy1  
but of places far withdrawn1 and hours  
selected from  a thousand with a miracle
 of finesse4  ,through ,leonardo's      
strange veil of sight things reach him  
so2 in no ordinary night or  day1 but as
 in faint light of eclipse1 or in some  
brief interval of  falling rain at      
daybreak1 or through deep water4    ,and
 not into nature only2 but he plunged   
also into human  personality1 and became
 above all a painter of portraits2 faces
 of a  modelling more skilful than has  

been seen before or since1  embodied    
with a reality which almost amounts to  
illusion1 on the  dark air4  ,to take a 
character as it was1 and delicately     
sound its  stops1 suited one so curious 
in observation1 curious in invention4   
,he painted thus the portraits of       
,ludovico's #aab mistresses1  ,lucretia 
,crivelli and ,cecilia ,galerani the    
poetess1 of ,ludovico  himself1 and the 
,duchess ,beatrice4  ,the portrait of   
,cecilia  ,galerani is lost1 but that of
 ,lucretia ,crivelli has been identified
  with ,la ,belle ,feronire of the      
,louvre1 and ,ludovico's pale1  anxious 
face still remains in the ,ambrosian    
library4  ,opposite is  the portrait of 
,beatrice d',este1 in whom ,leonardo    
seems to have  caught some presentiment 
of early death1 painting her precise and
  grave1 full of the refinement of the  
dead1 in sad earth-coloured  raiment1   
set with pale stones4    ,sometimes this
 curiosity came in conflict with the    
desire of  beauty2 it tended to make him

 go too far below that outside of       
things in which art really begins and   
ends4  ,this struggle between  the      
reason and its ideas1 and the senses1   
the desire of beauty1 is  the key to    
,leonardo's life at ,milan--his         
restlessness1 his endless  re-touchings1
 his odd experiments with colour4  ,how 
much must  he leave unfinished1 how much
 recommence6  ,his problem was  the     
transmutation of ideas into images4     
,what he had attained so  far had been  
the mastery of that earlier ,florentine 
style1 with its  nave and limited       
sensuousness4  ,now he was to entertain 
in this  narrow medium those divinations
 of a humanity too wide for it1  that   
larger vision of the opening world1     
which is only not too  much for the     
great1 irregular art of ,shakespeare2   
and everywhere  the effort is visible in
 the work of his hands4  ,this          
agitation1 this  #aac perpetual delay1  
give him an air of weariness and ennui4 
,to  others he seems to be aiming at an 

impossible effect1 to do  something that
 art1 that painting1 can never do4      
,often the  expression of physical      
beauty at this or that point seems      
strained  and marred in the effort1 as  
in those heavy ,german foreheads--  too 
heavy and ,german for perfect beauty4   
,for there was a touch of ,germany in   
that genius which1 as  ,goethe said1 had
 thought itself weary--mde sich gedacht4
  ,what an anticipation of modern       
,germany1 for instance1 in that  debate 
on the question whether sculpture or    
painting is the nobler  art699  ,but    
there is this difference between him and
 the ,german1  that1 with all that      
curious science1 the ,german would have 
thought nothing more was needed4  ,the  
name of ,goethe himself  reminds one how
 great for the artist may be the danger 
of  overmuch science2 how ,goethe1 who1 
in the ,elective ,affinities  and the   
first part of ,faust1 does transmute    
ideas into images1 who  wrought many    
such transmutations1 did not invariably 

find the  spell-word1 and in the second 
part of ,faust presents us with a  mass 
of science which has almost no artistic 
character at all4  ,but  ,leonardo will 
never work till the happy moment        
comes--that  moment of bien-tre1 which  
to imaginative men is a moment of       
invention4  ,on this he waits with #aad 
a perfect patience2 other  moments are  
but a preparation1 or after-taste of it4
  ,few men  distinguish between them as 
jealously as he4  ,hence so many  flaws 
even in the choicest work4  ,but for    
,leonardo the distinction  is absolute1 
and1 in the moment of bien-tre1 the     
alchemy  complete3 the idea is stricken 
into colour and imagery3 a cloudy       
mysticism is refined to a subdued and   
graceful mystery1 and  painting pleases 
the eye while it satisfies the soul4    
,this curious beauty is seen above all  
in his drawings1 and in these  chiefly  
in the abstract grace of the bounding   
lines4  ,let us take  some of these     
drawings1 and pause over them awhile2   

and1 first1  one of those at            
,florence--the heads of a woman and a   
little child1  set side by side1 but    
each in its own separate frame4  ,first 
of all1  there is much pathos in the    
reappearance1 in the fuller curves of   
the face of the child1 of the sharper1  
more chastened lines of the  worn and   
older face1 which leaves no doubt that  
the heads are  those of a little child  
and its mother4  ,a feeling for         
maternity is  indeed always             
characteristic of ,leonardo2 and this   
feeling is  further indicated here by   
the half-humorous pathos of the         
diminutive1 rounded shoulders of the    
child4  ,you may note a like  pathetic  
power in drawings of a young man1 seated
 in a stooping  posture1 his face in his
 hands1 as in sorrow2 of a slave sitting
 in an  uneasy inclined attitude1 in    
some brief interval of rest2 of a small 
,madonna and ,child1 #aae peeping       
sideways in half-reassured  terror1 as a
 mighty griffin with batlike wings1 one 

of ,leonardo's  finest inventions1      
descends suddenly from the air to snatch
 up a  great wild beast wandering near  
them4  ,but note in these1 as that      
which especially belongs to art1 the    
contour of the young man's  hair1 the   
poise of the slave's arm above his head1
 and the curves  of the head of the     
child1 following the little skull       
within1 thin and  fine as some sea-shell
 worn by the wind4    ,take again       
another head1 still more full of        
sentiment1 but of a  different kind1 a  
little drawing in red chalk which every 
one will  remember who has examined at  
all carefully the drawings by old       
masters at the ,louvre4  ,it is a face  
of doubtful sex1 set in the  shadow of  
its own hair1 the cheek-line in high    
light against it1  with something       
voluptuous and full in the eye-lids and 
the lips4  ,another drawing might pass  
for the same face in childhood1 with    
parched and feverish lips1 but much     
sweetness in the loose1 short-  waisted 

childish dress1 with necklace and bulla1
 and in the  daintily bound hair4  ,we  
might take the thread of suggestion     
which these two drawings offer1 when    
thus set side by side1 and1  following  
it through the drawings at ,florence1   
,venice1 and ,milan1  construct a sort  
of series1 illustrating better than     
anything else  ,leonardo's type of      
womanly beauty4  ,daughters of          
,herodias1  with their fantastic        
head-dresses knotted and folded so      
strangely  to leave the #aaf dainty oval
 of the face disengaged1 they are not   
of the ,christian family1 or of         
,raphael's4  ,they are the              
clairvoyants1 through whom1 as through  
delicate instruments1 one  becomes aware
 of the subtler forces of nature1 and   
the modes of  their action1 all that is 
magnetic in it1 all those finer         
conditions  wherein material things rise
 to that subtlety of operation which    
constitutes them spiritual1 where only  
the final nerve and the  keener touch   

can follow4  ,it is as if in certain    
significant examples  we actually saw   
those forces at their work on human     
flesh4  ,nervous1 electric1 faint always
 with some inexplicable faintness1      
these people seem to be subject to      
exceptional conditions1 to feel  powers 
at work in the common air unfelt by     
others1 to become1 as  it were1 the     
receptacle of them1 and pass them on to 
us in a chain  of secret influences4    
,but among the more youthful heads there
 is one at ,florence  which ,love       
chooses for its own--the head of a young
 man1 which  may well be the likeness of
 ,andrea ,salaino1 beloved of ,leonardo 
for his curled and waving hair--belli   
capelli ricci e inanellati--  and       
afterwards his favourite pupil and      
servant4  ,of all the  interests in     
living men and women which may have     
filled his life  at ,milan1 this        
attachment alone is recorded4  ,and in  
return  ,salaino identified himself so  
entirely with ,leonardo1 that the       

picture of ,saint ,anne1 in the ,louvre1
 has been attributed to him4  ,it       
illustrates ,leonardo's usual choice of 
pupils1 men #aag of  some natural charm 
of person or intercourse like ,salaino1 
or men  of birth and princely habits of 
life like ,francesco ,melzi--men  with  
just enough genius to be capable of     
initiation into his secret1  for the    
sake of which they were ready to efface 
their own  individuality4  ,among them1 
retiring often to the villa of the      
,melzi at ,canonica al ,vaprio1 he      
worked at his fugitive  manuscripts and 
sketches1 working for the present hour1 
and for a  few only1 perhaps chiefly for
 himself4  ,other artists have been as  
careless of present or future applause1 
in self-forgetfulness1 or  because they 
set moral or political ends above the   
ends of art2 but  in him this solitary  
culture of beauty seems to have hung    
upon a  kind of self-love1 and a        
carelessness in the work of art of all  
but  art itself4  ,out of the secret    

places of a unique temperament he       
brought strange blossoms and fruits     
hitherto unknown2 and for  him1 the     
novel impression conveyed1 the exquisite
 effect woven1  counted as an end in    
itself--a perfect end4    ,and these    
pupils of his acquired his manner so    
thoroughly1 that  though the number of  
,leonardo's authentic works is very     
small  indeed1 there is a multitude of  
other men's pictures through  which we  
undoubtedly see him1 and come very near 
to his genius4  ,sometimes1 as in the   
little picture of the ,madonna of the   
,balances1 in which1 from the bosom of  
,his mother1 ,christ weighs  the pebbles
 of the brook against the sins of men1  
we have a hand1  rough enough by #aah   
contrast1 working upon some fine hint or
  sketch of his4  ,sometimes1 as in the 
subjects of the ,daughter of  ,herodias 
and the ,head of ,john the ,baptist1 the
 lost originals have  been re-echoed and
 varied upon again and again by ,luini  
and  others4  ,at other times the       

original remains1 but has been a mere   
theme or motive1 a type of which the    
accessories might be  modified or       
changed2 and these variations have but  
brought out  the more the purpose1 or   
expression of the original4  ,it is so  
with  the so-called ,saint ,john the    
,baptist of the ,louvre--one of the few 
naked figures ,leonardo painted--whose  
delicate brown flesh and  woman's hair  
no one would go out into the wilderness 
to seek1  and whose treacherous smile   
would have us understand  something far 
beyond the outward gesture or           
circumstance4  ,but  the long1 reedlike 
cross in the hand1 which suggests ,saint
 ,john  the ,baptist1 becomes faint in a
 copy at the ,ambrosian ,library1  and  
disappears altogether in another        
version1 in the ,palazzo  ,rosso at     
,genoa4  ,returning from the latter to  
the original1 we are  no longer         
surprised by ,saint ,john's strange     
likeness to the  ,bacchus which hangs   
near it1 and which set ,thophile        

,gautier  thinking of ,heine's notion of
 decayed gods1 who1 to maintain         
themselves1 after the fall of paganism1 
took employment in the  new religion4   
,we recognise one of those symbolical   
inventions  in which the ostensible     
subject is used1 not as matter for      
definite  pictorial realisation1 but as 
the starting-point of a #aai train of   
sentiment1 subtle and vague as a piece  
of music4  ,no one ever  ruled over the 
mere subject in hand more entirely than 
,leonardo1  or bent it more dexterously 
to purely artistic ends4  ,and so it    
comes to pass that though he handles    
sacred subjects continually1  he is the 
most profane of painters2 the given     
person or subject1  ,saint ,john in the 
,desert1 or the ,virgin on the knees of 
,saint  ,anne1 is often merely the      
pretext for a kind of work which carries
  one altogether beyond the range of its
 conventional associations4    ,about   
the ,last ,supper1 its decay and        
restorations1 a whole  literature has   

risen up1 ,goethe's pensive sketch of   
its sad fortunes  being perhaps the     
best4  ,the death in childbirth of the  
,duchess  ,beatrice was followed in     
,ludovico by one of those paroxysms of  
religious feeling which in him were     
constitutional4  ,the low1  gloomy      
,dominican church of ,saint ,mary of the
 ,graces had been  the favourite oratory
 of ,beatrice4  ,she had spent her last 
days  there1 full of sinister           
presentiments2 at last it had been      
almost  necessary to remove her from it 
by force2 and now it was here  that mass
 was said a hundred times a day for her 
repose4  ,on the  damp wall of the      
refectory1 oozing with mineral salts1   
,leonardo  painted the ,last ,supper4   
,effective anecdotes were told about it1
  his retouchings and delays4  ,they    
show him refusing to work  except at the
 moment of invention1 scornful of any   
one who  supposed that art could be a   
work of mere industry and rule1  #abj   
often coming the whole length of ,milan 

to give a single  touch4  ,he painted   
it1 not in fresco1 where all must be    
impromptu1  but in oils1 the new method 
which he had been one of the first to   
welcome1 because it allowed of so many  
after-thoughts1 so  refined a working   
out of perfection4  ,it turned out that 
on a  plastered wall no process could   
have been less durable4  ,within  fifty 
years it had fallen into decay4  ,and   
now we have to turn  back to ,leonardo's
 own studies1 above all to one drawing  
of the  central head at the ,brera1     
which1 in a union of tenderness and     
severity in the face-lines1 reminds one 
of the monumental work  of ,mino da     
,fiesole1 to trace it as it was4        
,here was another effort to lift a given
 subject out of the range of  its       
traditional associations4  ,strange1    
after all the mystic  developments of   
the middle age1 was the effort to see   
the  ,eucharist1 not as the pale ,host  
of the altar1 but as one taking  leave  
of his friends4  ,five years afterwards 

the young ,raphael1 at  ,florence1      
painted it with sweet and solemn effect 
in the refectory  of ,saint ,onofrio2   
but still with all the mystical         
unreality of the  school of ,perugino4  
,vasari pretends that the central head  
was  never finished4  ,but finished or  
unfinished1 or owing part of its  effect
 to a mellowing decay1 the head of      
,jesus does but  consummate the         
sentiment of the whole company--ghosts  
through which you see the wall1 faint as
 the shadows of the #aba  leaves upon   
the wall on autumn afternoons4  ,this   
figure is but the  faintest1 the most   
spectral of them all4    ,the ,last     
,supper was finished in #adig2 in #adih 
the ,french  entered ,milan1 and whether
 or not the ,gascon bowmen used it as  a
 mark for their arrows1 the model of    
,francesco ,sforza certainly  did not   
survive4  ,what1 in that age1 such work 
was capable of  being--of what nobility1
 amid what racy truthfulness to fact--we
  may judge from the bronze statue of   

,bartolomeo ,colleoni on  horseback1    
modelled by ,leonardo's master1         
,verrocchio 7he died  of grief1 it was  
said1 because1 the mould accidentally   
failing1 he  was unable to complete it71
 still standing in the piazza of ,saint 
,john and ,saint ,paul at ,venice4      
,some traces of the thing may  remain in
 certain of ,leonardo's drawings1 and   
perhaps also1 by a  singular            
circumstance1 in a far-off town of      
,france4  ,for ,ludovico  became a      
prisoner1 and ended his days at ,loches 
in ,touraine4  ,after many years of     
captivity in the dungeons below1 where  
all  seems sick with barbarous feudal   
memories1 he was allowed at  last1 it is
 said1 to breathe fresher air for awhile
 in one of the rooms  of the great tower
 still shown1 its walls covered with    
strange  painted arabesques1 ascribed by
 tradition to his hand1 amused a        
little1 in this way1 through the tedious
 years4  ,in those vast  helmets and    
human faces and pieces of armour1 among 

which1 in  great letters1 the #abb motto
 ,infelix ,sum is woven in and out1 it  
is  perhaps not too fanciful to see the 
fruit of a wistful after-  dreaming over
 ,leonardo's sundry experiments on the  
armed  figure of the great duke1 which  
had occupied the two so much  during the
 days of their good fortune at ,milan4  
,the remaining years of ,leonardo's life
 are more or less years of  wandering4  
,from his brilliant life at court he had
 saved nothing1  and he returned to     
,florence a poor man4  ,perhaps         
necessity kept  his spirit excited3 the 
next four years are one prolonged       
rapture or  ecstasy of invention4  ,he  
painted now the pictures of the ,louvre1
  his most authentic works1 which came  
there straight from the  cabinet of     
,francis the ,first1 at ,fontainebleau4 
,one picture of his1  the ,saint        
,anne--not the ,saint ,anne of the      
,louvre1 but a simple  cartoon1 now in  
,london--revived for a moment a sort of 
appreciation more common in an earlier  

time1 when good pictures  had still     
seemed miraculous4  ,for two days a     
crowd of people of  all qualities passed
 in nave excitement through the chamber 
where it hung1 and gave ,leonardo a     
taste of the triumph of  ,cimabue4  ,but
 his work was less with the saints than 
with the  living women of ,florence4    
,for he lived still in the polished     
society that he loved1 and in the houses
 of ,florence1 left perhaps a  little   
subject to light thoughts by the death  
of ,savonarola--the  latest gossip      
7#ahfi7 is of an #abc undraped ,monna   
,lisa1 found in  some out-of-the-way    
corner of the late ,orleans             
collection--he  saw ,ginevra di ,benci1 
and ,lisa1 the young third wife of      
,francesco del ,giocondo4  ,as we have  
seen him using incidents of  sacred     
story1 not for their own sake1 or as    
mere subjects for  pictorial            
realisation1 but as a cryptic language  
for fancies all his  own1 so now he     
found a vent for his thought in taking  

one of  these languid women1 and raising
 her1 as ,leda or ,pomona1 as  ,modesty 
or ,vanity1 to the seventh heaven of    
symbolical  expression4    ,la ,gioconda
 is1 in the truest sense1 ,leonardo's   
masterpiece1 the  revealing instance of 
his mode of thought and work4  ,in      
suggestiveness1 only the ,melancholia of
 ,drer is comparable to  it2 and no     
crude symbolism disturbs the effect of  
its subdued and  graceful mystery4  ,we 
all know the face and hands of the      
figure1  set in its marble chair1 in    
that circle of fantastic rocks1 as in   
some  faint light under sea4  ,perhaps  
of all ancient pictures time has        
chilled it least499  ,as often happens  
with works in which invention  seems to 
reach its limit1 there is an element in 
it given to1 not  invented by1 the      
master4  ,in that inestimable folio of  
drawings1  once in the possession of    
,vasari1 were certain designs by        
,verrocchio1 faces of such impressive   
beauty that ,leonardo in his  boyhood   

copied them #abd many times4  ,it is    
hard not to connect  with these designs 
of the elder1 by-past master1 as with   
its  germinal principle1 the            
unfathomable smile1 always with a touch 
of something sinister in it1 which plays
 over all ,leonardo's work4  ,besides1  
the picture is a portrait4  ,from       
childhood we see this  image defining   
itself on the fabric of his dreams2 and 
but for  express historical testimony1  
we might fancy that this was but his    
ideal lady1 embodied and beheld at last4
  ,what was the  relationship of a      
living ,florentine to this creature of  
his thought8  ,by what strange          
affinities had the dream and the person 
grown up  thus apart1 and yet so closely
 together8  ,present from the first     
incorporeally in ,leonardo's brain1     
dimly traced in the designs of          
,verrocchio1 she is found present at    
last in ,il ,giocondo's house4  ,that   
there is much of mere portraiture in the
 picture is attested by  the legend that

 by artificial means1 the presence of   
mimes and  flute-players1 that subtle   
expression was protracted on the face4  
,again1 was it in four years and by     
renewed labour never really  completed1 
or in four months and as by stroke of   
magic1 that the  image was projected8   
,the presence that rose thus so         
strangely beside the waters1 is         
expressive of what in the ways of a     
thousand years men had come  to desire4 
,hers is the head upon which all the    
ends of the world  are come1 and the    
eyelids are a little #abe weary4  ,it is
 a beauty  wrought out from within upon 
the flesh1 the deposit1 little cell by  
cell1 of strange thoughts and fantastic 
reveries and exquisite  passions4  ,set 
it for a moment beside one of those     
white ,greek  goddesses or beautiful    
women of antiquity1 and how would they  
be troubled by this beauty1 into which  
the soul with all its  maladies has     
passed6  ,all the thoughts and          
experience of the  world have etched and

 moulded there1 in that which they have 
of  power to refine and make expressive 
the outward form1 the  animalism of     
,greece1 the lust of ,rome1 the         
mysticism of the  middle age with its   
spiritual ambition and imaginative      
loves1 the  return of the ,pagan world1 
the sins of the ,borgias4  ,she is older
  than the rocks among which she sits2  
like the vampire1 she has  been dead    
many times1 and learned the secrets of  
the grave2 and  has been a diver in deep
 seas1 and keeps their fallen day about 
her2 and trafficked for strange webs    
with ,eastern merchants2  and1 as ,leda1
 was the mother of ,helen of ,troy1 and1
 as ,saint  ,anne1 the mother of ,mary2 
and all this has been to her but as the 
sound of lyres and flutes1 and lives    
only in the delicacy with  which it has 
moulded the changing lineaments1 and    
tinged the  eyelids and the hands4  ,the
 fancy of a perpetual life1 sweeping    
together ten thousand experiences1 is an
 old one2 and modern  philosophy has    

conceived the idea of humanity as       
wrought upon  by1 and summing up in     
itself1 all modes of thought and life4  
,certainly #abf ,lady ,lisa might stand 
as the embodiment of the  old fancy1 the
 symbol of the modern idea4    ,during  
these years at ,florence ,leonardo's    
history is the history  of his art2 for 
himself1 he is lost in the bright cloud 
of it4  ,the  outward history begins    
again in #aejb1 with a wild journey     
through central ,italy1 which he makes  
as the chief engineer of  ,caesar       
,borgia4  ,the biographer1 putting      
together the stray jottings  of his     
manuscripts1 may follow him through     
every day of it1 up  the strange tower  
of ,siena1 elastic like a bent bow1 down
 to the  seashore at ,piombino1 each    
place appearing as fitfully as in a     
fever dream4    ,one other great work   
was left for him to do1 a work all trace
 of  which soon vanished1 ,the ,battle  
of the ,standard1 in which he had       
,michelangelo for his rival4  ,the      

citizens of ,florence1 desiring to      
decorate the walls of the great         
council-chamber1 had offered the  work  
for competition1 and any subject might  
be chosen from the  ,florentine wars of 
the fifteenth century4  ,michelangelo   
chose for  his cartoon an incident of   
the war with ,pisa1 in which the        
,florentine soldiers1 bathing in the    
,arno1 are surprised by the  sound of   
trumpets1 and run to arms4  ,his design 
has reached us  only in an old          
engraving1 which helps us less perhaps  
than our  remembrance of the background 
of his ,holy ,family in the ,uffizii  to
 imagine in what superhuman form1 #abg  
such as might have  beguiled the heart  
of an earlier world1 those figures      
ascended out  of the water4  ,leonardo  
chose an incident from the battle of    
,anghiari1 in which two parties of      
soldiers fight for a standard4  ,like   
,michelangelo's1 his cartoon is lost1   
and has come to us only  in sketches1   
and in a fragment of ,rubens4  ,through 

the accounts  given we may discern some 
lust of terrible things in it1 so that  
even the horses tore each other with    
their teeth4  ,and yet one  fragment of 
it1 in a drawing of his at ,florence1 is
 far different--a  waving field of      
lovely armour1 the chased edgings       
running like  lines of sunlight from    
side to side4  ,michelangelo was twenty-
  seven years old2 ,leonardo more than  
fifty2 and ,raphael1 then  nineteen     
years of age1 visiting ,florence for the
 first time1 came  and watched them as  
they worked4    ,we catch a glimpse of  
,leonardo again1 at ,rome in #aead1     
surrounded by his mirrors and vials and 
furnaces1 making strange  toys that     
seemed alive of wax and quicksilver4    
,the hesitation  which had haunted him  
all through life1 and made him like one 
under a spell1 was upon him now with    
double force4  ,no one had  ever carried
 political indifferentism farther2 it   
had always been  his philosophy to fly  
before the storm2 he is for the         

,sforzas1 or  against them1 as the tide 
of their fortune turns4  ,yet now1 in   
the  political society of ,rome1 he came
 #abh to be suspected of secret  ,french
 sympathies4  ,it paralysed him to find 
himself among  enemies2 and he turned   
wholly to ,france1 which had long       
courted  him4    ,france was about to   
become an ,italy more ,italian than     
,italy itself4  ,francis the ,first1    
like ,lewis the ,twelfth before him1 was
  attracted by the finesse of           
,leonardo's work2 ,la ,gioconda was     
already in his cabinet1 and he offered  
,leonardo the little ,chteau  de ,clou1 
with its vineyards and meadows1 in the  
pleasant valley  of the ,masse1 just    
outside the walls of the town of        
,amboise1  where1 especially in the     
hunting season1 the court then          
frequently  resided4  ,a ,monsieur      
,lyonard1 peinteur du ,roy pour         
,amboyse--  so the letter of ,francis   
the ,first is headed4  ,it opens a      
prospect1  one of the most interesting  

in the history of art1 where1 in a      
peculiarly blent atmosphere1 ,italian   
art dies away as a ,french  exotic4     
,two questions remain1 after much busy  
antiquarianism1  concerning ,leonardo's 
death--the question of the exact form of
  his religion1 and the question whether
 ,francis the ,first was  present at the
 time4  ,they are of about equally      
little importance in  the estimate of   
,leonardo's genius4  ,the directions in 
his will  concerning the thirty masses  
and the great candles for the church  of
 ,saint ,florentin are things of course1
 their real purpose being  immediate and
 practical2 and on no theory of religion
 could these  hurried offices be of much
 consequence4  ,we forget them in       
speculating #abi how one who had been   
always so desirous of  beauty1 but      
desired it always in such precise and   
definite forms1  as hands or flowers or 
hair1 looked forward now into the vague 
land1 and experienced the last          
curiosity4    #ahfi4      ,,notes       

#aac4 99,how princely1 how              
characteristic of ,leonardo1 the answer1
  ,quanto pi1 un' arte porta seco fatica
 di corpo1 tanto pi  vile6  ,return4    
#abc4 99,yet for ,vasari there was some 
further magic of crimson in  the lips   
and cheeks1 lost for us4    #abe4 4  4  
4 with ,eastern merchants3 is the       
punctuation used in  the #aija          
,macmillan edition4  ,macmillan's #aiaj 
,library edition  erroneously uses a    
space followed only by a period4  ,the  
,norton  ,anthology editors emend the   
text to contain a comma after  merchants
 rather than a colon1 but ,i have chosen
 to follow the  unusual1 but seemingly  
correct1 #aija punctuation4        ,,the
 ,,school ,,of ,,giorgione    #acj ,,it 
is the mistake of much popular criticism
 to regard  poetry1 music1 and          
painting--all the various products of   
art--as but  translations into different
 languages of one and the same fixed    
quantity of imaginative thought1        
supplemented by certain  technical      

qualities of colour1 in painting2 of    
sound1 in music2 of  rhythmical words1  
in poetry4  ,in this way1 the sensuous  
element in  art1 and with it almost     
everything in art that is essentially   
artistic1  is made a matter of          
indifference2 and a clear apprehension  
of the  opposite principle--that the    
sensuous material of each art brings    
with it a special phase or quality of   
beauty1 untranslatable into the  forms  
of any other1 an order of impressions   
distinct in kind--is the  beginning of  
all true aesthetic criticism4  ,for1 as 
art addresses not  pure sense1 still    
less the pure intellect1 but the        
imaginative  reason through the senses1 
there are differences of kind in        
aesthetic beauty1 corresponding to the  
differences in kind of the  gifts of    
sense themselves4 ,each art1 therefore1 
having its own  peculiar and            
untranslatable sensuous charm1 has its  
own #aca  special mode of reaching the  
imagination1 its own special            

responsibilities to its material4  ,one 
of the functions of aesthetic  criticism
 is to define these limitations2 to     
estimate the degree in  which a given   
work of art fulfils its responsibilities
 to its special  material2 to note in a 
picture that true pictorial charm1 which
 is  neither a mere poetical thought or 
sentiment1 on the one hand1 nor  a mere 
result of communicable technical skill  
in colour or design1  on the other2 to  
define in a poem that true poetical     
quality1 which  is neither descriptive  
nor meditative merely1 but comes of an  
inventive handling of rhythmical        
language1 the element of song in  the   
singing2 to note in music the musical   
charm1 that essential  music1 which     
presents no words1 no matter of         
sentiment or  thought1 separable from   
the special form in which it is conveyed
  to us4    ,to such a philosophy of the
 variations of the beautiful1 ,lessing's
  analysis of the spheres of sculpture  
and poetry1 in the ,laocoon1  was an    

important contribution4  ,but a true    
appreciation of these  things is        
possible only in the light of a whole   
system of such art-  casuistries4  ,now 
painting is the art in the criticism of 
which this  truth most needs enforcing1 
for it is in popular judgments on       
pictures that the false generalisation  
of all art into forms of poetry  is most
 prevalent4  ,to suppose that all is    
mere technical  acquirement in          
delineation or touch1 working through   
#acb and  addressing itself to the      
intelligence1 on the one side1 or a     
merely  poetical1 or what may be called 
literary interest1 addressed also to    
the pure intelligence1 on the           
other3--this is the way of most         
spectators1 and of many critics1 who    
have never caught sight all  the time of
 that true pictorial quality which lies 
between1 unique  pledge1 as it is1 of   
the possession of the pictorial gift1   
that  inventive or creative handling of 
pure line and colour1 which1 as  almost 

always in ,dutch painting1 as often also
 in the works of  ,titian or ,veronese1 
is quite independent of anything        
definitely  poetical in the subject it  
accompanies4  ,it is the drawing--the   
design projected from that peculiar     
pictorial temperament or  constitution1 
in which1 while it may possibly be      
ignorant of true  anatomical            
proportions1 all things whatever1 all   
poetry1 all ideas  however abstract or  
obscure1 float up as visible scene or   
image3 it  is the colouring--that       
weaving of light1 as of just perceptible
 gold  threads1 through the dress1 the  
flesh1 the atmosphere1 in ,titian's     
,lace-girl1 that staining of the whole  
fabric of the thing with a  new1        
delightful physical quality4  ,this     
drawing1 then--the  arabesque traced in 
the air by ,tintoret's flying figures1  
by  ,titian's forest branches2 this     
colouring--the magic conditions of      
light and hue in the atmosphere of      
,titian's ,lace-girl1 or ,rubens's      

,descent from the ,cross3--these        
essential pictorial qualities must      
first of all delight the sense1 delight 
it as #acc directly and  sensuously as a
 fragment of ,venetian glass2 and       
through this  delight alone become the  
vehicle of whatever poetry or science   
may lie beyond them in the intention of 
the composer4  ,in its  primary aspect1 
a great picture has no more definite    
message for  us than an accidental play 
of sunlight and shadow for a few        
moments on the wall or floor3 is itself1
 in truth1 a space of such  fallen      
light1 caught as the colours are in an  
,eastern carpet1 but  refined upon1 and 
dealt with more subtly and exquisitely  
than by  nature itself4  ,and this      
primary and essential condition         
fulfilled1  we may trace the coming of  
poetry into painting1 by fine           
gradations upwards2 from ,japanese      
fan-painting1 for instance1  where we   
get1 first1 only abstract colour2 then1 
just a little  interfused sense of the  

poetry of flowers2 then1 sometimes1     
perfect flower-painting2 and so1        
onwards1 until in ,titian we have1  as  
his poetry in the ,ariadne1 so actually 
a touch of true childlike  humour in the
 diminutive1 quaint figure with its silk
 gown1 which  ascends the temple stairs1
 in his picture of the ,presentation of 
the  ,virgin1 at ,venice4    ,but       
although each art has thus its own      
specific order of  impressions1 and an  
untranslatable charm1 while a just      
apprehension of the ultimate differences
 of the arts is the  beginning of       
aesthetic criticism2 yet it is          
noticeable that1 in its  special mode of
 handling its given material1 each art  
may be  observed to pass into the #acd  
condition of some other art1 by  what   
,german critics term an                 
,anders-streben--a partial alienation   
from its own limitations1 through which 
the arts are able1 not  indeed to supply
 the place of each other1 but           
reciprocally to lend  each other new    

forces4    ,thus some of the most       
delightful music seems to be always     
approaching to figure1 to pictorial     
definition4  ,architecture1 again1      
though it has its own laws--laws        
esoteric enough1 as the true  architect 
knows only too well--yet sometimes aims 
at fulfilling  the conditions of a      
picture1 as in the ,arena chapel2 or of 
sculpture1 as in the flawless unity of  
,giotto's tower at ,florence2  and often
 finds a true poetry1 as in those       
strangely twisted  staircases of the    
chteaux of the country of the ,loire1 as
 if it were  intended that among their  
odd turnings the actors in a theatrical 
mode of life might pass each other      
unseen2 there being a poetry  also of   
memory and of the mere effect of time1  
by which  architecture often profits    
greatly4  ,thus1 again1 sculpture       
aspires  out of the hard limitation of  
pure form towards colour1 or its        
equivalent2 poetry also1 in many ways1  
finding guidance from the  other arts1  

the analogy between a ,greek tragedy and
 a work of  ,greek sculpture1 between a 
sonnet and a relief1 of ,french poetry  
generally with the art of engraving1    
being more than mere figures  of speech2
 and all the arts in common aspiring    
towards the  principle of music2 music  
being the typical1 or ideally           
consummate #ace art1 the object of the  
great ,anders-streben of  all art1 of   
all that is artistic1 or partakes of    
artistic qualities4    ,all art         
constantly aspires towards the condition
 of music4  ,for  while in all other    
kinds of art it is possible to          
distinguish the  matter from the form1  
and the understanding can always make   
this distinction1 yet it is the constant
 effort of art to obliterate it4  ,that 
the mere matter of a poem1 for instance1
 its subject1 namely1  its given        
incidents or situation--that the mere   
matter of a picture1  the actual        
circumstances of an event1 the actual   
topography of a  landscape--should be   

nothing without the form1 the spirit1 of
 the  handling1 that this form1 this    
mode of handling1 should become an  end 
in itself1 should penetrate every part  
of the matter3 this is  what all art    
constantly strives after1 and achieves  
in different  degrees4    ,this abstract
 language becomes clear enough1 if we   
think of  actual examples4  ,in an      
actual landscape we see a long white    
road1 lost suddenly on the hill-verge4  
,that is the matter of one of  the      
etchings of ,m4 ,alphonse ,legros3 only1
 in this etching1 it is  informed by an 
indwelling solemnity of expression1 seen
 upon it  or half-seen1 within the      
limits of an exceptional moment1 or     
caught from his own mood perhaps1 but   
which he maintains as  the very essence 
of the thing1 throughout his work4      
,sometimes a  momentary tint of stormy  
light may invest a homely or too        
familiar scene with a character which   
might well have been #acf  drawn from   
the deep places of the imagination4     

,then we might say that this particular 
effect of light1 this sudden  inweaving 
of gold thread through the texture of   
the haystack1 and  the poplars1 and the 
grass1 gives the scene artistic         
qualities1 that it  is like a picture4  
,and such tricks of circumstance are    
commonest  in landscape which has little
 salient character of its own2 because1 
in such scenery1 all the material       
details are so easily absorbed by  that 
informing expression of passing light1  
and elevated1  throughout their whole   
extent1 to a new and delightful effect  
by  it4  ,and hence the superiority1 for
 most conditions of the  picturesque1 of
 a river-side in ,france to a ,swiss    
valley1 because1  on the ,french        
river-side1 mere topography1 the simple 
material1  counts for so little1 and1   
all being very pure1 untouched1 and     
tranquil in itself1 mere light and shade
 have such easy work in  modulating it  
to one dominant tone4  ,the ,venetian   
landscape1 on  the other hand1 has in   

its material conditions much which is   
hard1  or harshly definite2 but the     
masters of the ,venetian school have    
shown themselves little burdened by     
them4  ,of its ,alpine  background they 
retain certain abstracted elements only1
 of cool  colour and tranquillising     
line2 and they use its actual details1  
the  brown windy turrets1 the           
straw-coloured fields1 the forest       
arabesques1 but as the notes of a music 
which duly accompanies  the presence of 
their men and women1 presenting us with 
the  #acg spirit or essence only of a   
certain sort of landscape--a  country of
 the pure reason or half-imaginative    
memory4    ,poetry1 again1 works with   
words addressed in the first instance to
  the pure intelligence2 and it deals1  
most often1 with a definite  subject or 
situation4  ,sometimes it may find a    
noble and quite  legitimate function in 
the conveyance of moral or political    
aspiration1 as often in the poetry of   
,victor ,hugo4  ,in such  instances it  

is easy enough for the understanding to 
distinguish  between the matter and the 
form1 however much the matter1 the      
subject1 the element which is addressed 
to the mere intelligence1  has been     
penetrated by the informing1 artistic   
spirit4  ,but the ideal  types of poetry
 are those in which this distinction is 
reduced to its  minimum2 so that lyrical
 poetry1 precisely because in it we are 
least able to detach the matter from the
 form1 without a deduction  of something
 from that matter itself1 is1 at least  
artistically1 the  highest and most     
complete form of poetry4  ,and the very 
perfection of such poetry often appears 
to depend1 in part1 on a  certain       
suppression or vagueness of mere        
subject1 so that the  meaning reaches us
 through ways not distinctly traceable  
by the  understanding1 as in some of the
 most imaginative compositions  of      
,william ,blake1 and often in           
,shakespeare's songs1 as pre-  eminently
 in that song of ,mariana's page in     

,measure for  ,measure1 in which the    
kindling force and poetry of the whole  
#ach play seems to pass for a moment    
into an actual strain of  music4    ,and
 this principle holds good of all things
 that partake in any  degree of artistic
 qualities1 of the furniture of our     
houses1 and of  dress1 for instance1 of 
life itself1 of gesture and speech1 and 
the  details of daily intercourse2 these
 also1 for the wise1 being  susceptible 
of a suavity and charm1 caught from the 
way in which  they are done1 which gives
 them a worth in themselves4  ,herein1  
again1 lies what is valuable and justly 
attractive1 in what is called  the      
fashion of a time1 which elevates the   
trivialities of speech1  and manner1 and
 dress1 into ends in themselves1 and    
gives them  a mysterious grace and      
attractiveness in the doing of them4    
,art1 then1 is thus always striving to  
be independent of the mere              
intelligence1 to become a matter of pure
 perception1 to get rid of  its         

responsibilities to its subject or      
material2 the ideal examples of  poetry 
and painting being those in which the   
constituent elements  of the composition
 are so welded together1 that the       
material or  subject no longer strikes  
the intellect only2 nor the form1 the   
eye  or the ear only2 but form and      
matter1 in their union or identity1     
present one single effect to the        
imaginative reason1 that  complex       
faculty for which every thought and     
feeling is twin-born  with its sensible 
analogue or symbol4    ,it is the art of
 music which most completely #aci       
realises this  artistic ideal1 this     
perfect identification of matter and    
form4  ,in its  consummate moments1 the 
end is not distinct from the means1 the 
form from the matter1 the subject from  
the expression2 they  inhere in and     
completely saturate each other2 and to  
it1 therefore1  to the condition of its 
perfect moments1 all the arts may be    
supposed constantly to tend and aspire4 

,in music1 then1 rather  than in poetry1
 is to be found the true type or measure
 of  perfected art4  ,therefore1        
although each art has its               
incommunicable element1 its             
untranslatable order of impressions1    
its unique mode of reaching the         
imaginative reason1 yet the arts  may be
 represented as continually struggling  
after the law or  principle of music1 to
 a condition which music alone          
completely  realises2 and one of the    
chief functions of aesthetic criticism1 
dealing with the products of art1 new or
 old1 is to estimate the  degree in     
which each of those products approaches1
 in this sense1  to musical law4    ,by 
no school of painters have the necessary
 limitations of the art  of painting    
been so unerringly though instinctively 
apprehended1  and the essence of what is
 pictorial in a picture so justly       
conceived1 as by the school of ,venice2 
and the train of thought  suggested in  
what has been now said is1 perhaps1 a   

not unfitting  introduction to a few    
pages about ,giorgione1 who1 though much
  has been taken by recent criticism    
from #adj what was reputed  to be his   
work1 yet1 more entirely than any other 
painter1 sums up1  in what we know of   
himself and his art1 the spirit of the  
,venetian  school4    ,the beginnings of
 ,venetian painting link themselves to  
the last1  stiff1 half-barbaric         
splendours of ,byzantine decoration1 and
 are  but the introduction into the     
crust of marble and gold on the walls   
of the ,duomo of ,murano1 or of ,saint  
,mark's1 of a little more of  human     
expression4  ,and throughout the course 
of its later  development1 always       
subordinate to architectural effect1 the
 work  of the ,venetian school never    
escaped from the influence of its       
beginnings4  ,unassisted1 and therefore 
unperplexed1 by  naturalism1 religious  
mysticism1 philosophical theories1 it   
had no  ,giotto1 no ,angelico1 no       
,botticelli4  ,exempt from the stress of

  thought and sentiment1 which taxed so 
severely the resources of  the          
generations of ,florentine artists1     
those earlier ,venetian  painters1 down 
to ,carpaccio and the ,bellini1 seem    
never for a  moment to have been so much
 as tempted to lose sight of the  scope 
of their art in its strictness1 or to   
forget that painting must  be before all
 things decorative1 a thing for the eye1
 a space of  colour on the wall1 only   
more dexterously blent than the marking 
of its precious stone or the chance     
interchange of sun and shade  upon      
it3--this1 to begin and end with2       
whatever higher matter of  thought1 or  
poetry1 or religious reverie might play 
its part therein1  #ada between4  ,at   
last1 with final mastery of all the     
technical  secrets of his art1 and with 
somewhat more than a spark of the       
divine fire to his share1 comes         
,giorgione4  ,he is the inventor of     
genre1 of those easily movable pictures 
which serve neither for  uses of        

devotion1 nor of allegorical or historic
 teaching--little  groups of real men   
and women1 amid congruous furniture or  
landscape--morsels of actual life1      
conversation or music or play1  but     
refined upon or idealised1 till they    
come to seem like glimpses  of life from
 afar4  ,those spaces of more cunningly 
blent colour1  obediently filling their 
places1 hitherto1 in a mere             
architectural  scheme1 ,giorgione       
detaches from the wall4  ,he frames them
 by  the hands of some skilful carver1  
so that people may move them  readily   
and take with them where they go1 as one
 might a poem in  manuscript1 or a      
musical instrument1 to be used1 at will1
 as a  means of self-education1 stimulus
 or solace1 coming like an  animated    
presence1 into one's cabinet1 to enrich 
the air as with  some choice aroma1 and1
 like persons1 live with us1 for a day  
or a  lifetime4  ,of all art such as    
this1 art which has played so large a   
part in men's culture since that time1  

,giorgione is the initiator4  ,yet in   
him too that old ,venetian clearness or 
justice1 in the  apprehension of the    
essential limitations of the pictorial  
art1 is  still undisturbed4  ,while he  
interfuses his painted work with a      
high-strung sort of poetry1 caught      
directly from a singularly rich  and    
high-strung #adb sort of life1 yet in   
his selection of subject1  or phase of  
subject1 in the subordination of mere   
subject to  pictorial design1 to the    
main purpose of a picture1 he is typical
 of  that aspiration of all the arts    
towards music1 which ,i have            
endeavoured to explain1--towards the    
perfect identification of  matter and   
form4    ,born so near to ,titian1      
though a little before him1 that these  
two  companion pupils of the aged       
,giovanni ,bellini may almost be  called
 contemporaries1 ,giorgione stands to   
,titian in something  like the          
relationship of ,sordello to ,dante1 in 
,browning's poem4  ,titian1 when he     

leaves ,bellini1 becomes1 in turn1 the  
pupil of  ,giorgione4  ,he lives in     
constant labour more than sixty years   
after ,giorgione is in his grave2 and   
with such fruit1 that hardly  one of the
 greater towns of ,europe is without    
some fragment of  his work4  ,but the   
slightly older man1 with his so limited 
actual  product 7what remains to us of  
it seeming1 when narrowly  explained1 to
 reduce itself to almost one picture1   
like ,sordello's  one fragment of lovely
 verse71 yet expresses1 in elementary   
motive and principle1 that              
spirit--itself the final acquisition of 
all  the long endeavours of ,venetian   
art--which ,titian spreads over  his    
whole life's activity4    ,and1 as we   
might expect1 something fabulous and    
illusive has  always mingled itself in  
the brilliancy of ,giorgione's fame4    
,the  exact relationship to him of many 
works--drawings1 #adc  portraits1       
painted idylls--often fascinating       
enough1 which in  various collections   

went by his name1 was from the first    
uncertain4  ,still1 six or eight famous 
pictures at ,dresden1 ,florence  and the
 ,louvre1 were with no doubt attributed 
to him1 and in  these1 if anywhere1     
something of the splendour of the old   
,venetian humanity seemed to have been  
preserved4  ,but of those  six or eight 
famous pictures it is now known that    
only one is  certainly from ,giorgione's
 hand4  ,the accomplished science of    
the subject has come at last1 and1 as in
 other instances1 has not  made the past
 more real for us1 but assured us only  
that we  possess less of it than we     
seemed to possess4  ,much of the work   
on which ,giorgione's immediate fame    
depended1 work done for  instantaneous  
effect1 in all probability passed away  
almost within  his own age1 like the    
frescoes on the faade of the fondaco dei
  ,tedeschi at ,venice1 some crimson    
traces of which1 however1 still  give a 
strange additional touch of splendour to
 the scene of the  ,rialto4  ,and then  

there is a barrier or borderland1 a     
period about  the middle of the         
sixteenth century1 in passing through   
which the  tradition miscarries1 and the
 true outlines of ,giorgione's work  and
 person are obscured4  ,it became       
fashionable for wealthy  lovers of art1 
with no critical standard of            
authenticity1 to collect  so-called     
works of ,giorgione1 and a multitude of 
imitations came  into circulation4  ,and
 now1 in the new #add ,vasari199 the    
great  traditional reputation1 woven    
with so profuse demand on men's         
admiration1 has been scrutinised thread 
by thread2 and what  remains of the most
 vivid and stimulating of ,venetian     
masters1 a  live flame1 as it seemed1 in
 those old shadowy times1 has been      
reduced almost to a name by his most    
recent critics4    ,yet enough remains  
to explain why the legend grew up above 
the  name1 why the name attached itself1
 in many instances1 to the  bravest work
 of other men4  ,the ,concert in the    

,pitti ,palace1 in  which a monk1 with  
cowl and tonsure1 touches the keys of a 
harpsichord1 while a clerk1 placed      
behind him1 grasps the handle  of the   
viol1 and a third1 with cap and plume1  
seems to wait upon  the true interval   
for beginning to sing1 is undoubtedly   
,giorgione's4  ,the outline of the      
lifted finger1 the trace of the  plume1 
the very threads of the fine linen1     
which fasten themselves  on the memory1 
in the moment before they are lost      
altogether in  that calm unearthly glow1
 the skill which has caught the waves of
  wandering sound1 and fixed them for   
ever on the lips and hands--  these are 
indeed the master's own2 and the        
criticism which1 while  dismissing so   
much hitherto believed to be            
,giorgione's1 has  established the      
claims of this one picture1 has left it 
among the  most precious things in the  
world of art4    ,it is noticeable that 
the distinction of this #ade ,concert1  
its  sustained evenness of perfection1  

alike in design1 in execution1  and in  
choice of personal type1 becomes for the
 new ,vasari the  standard of           
,giorgione's genuine work4  ,finding    
here sufficient to  explain his         
influence1 and the true seal of mastery1
 its authors  assign to ,pellegrino da  
,san ,daniele the ,holy ,family in the  
,louvre1 in consideration of certain    
points where it comes short of  this    
standard4  ,such shortcoming1 however1  
will hardly diminish  the spectator's   
enjoyment of a singular charm of liquid 
air1 with  which the whole picture seems
 instinct1 filling the eyes and lips1   
the very garments1 of its sacred        
personages1 with some wind-  searched   
brightness and energy2 of which fine air
 the blue peak1  clearly defined in the 
distance1 is1 as it were1 the visible   
pledge4  ,similarly1 another favourite  
picture in the ,louvre1 the subject of a
  delightful sonnet by a poet99 whose   
own painted work often comes  to mind as
 one ponders over these precious        

things--the ,fte  ,champtre1 is assigned
 to an imitator of ,sebastian del       
,piombo2  and the ,tempest1 in the      
,academy at ,venice1 to ,paris ,bordone1
 or  perhaps to some advanced craftsman 
of the sixteenth century4  ,from the    
gallery at ,dresden1 the ,knight        
embracing a ,lady1 where  the knight's  
broken gauntlets seem to mark some      
well-known  pause in a story we would   
willingly hear the rest of1 is conceded 
to a ,brescian hand1 and ,jacob meeting 
,rachel to #adf a pupil  of ,palma4     
,and then1 whatever their charm1 we are 
called on to  give up the ,ordeal1 and  
the ,finding of ,moses with its         
jewel-like  pools of water1 perhaps to  
,bellini4    ,nor has the criticism1    
which thus so freely diminishes the     
number  of his authentic works1 added   
anything important to the well-  known  
outline of the life and personality of  
the man3 only1 it has  fixed one or two 
dates1 one or two circumstances1 a      
little more  exactly4  ,giorgione was   

born before the year #adgg1 and spent   
his  childhood at ,castelfranco1 where  
the last crags of the ,venetian  ,alps  
break down romantically1 with something 
of parklike grace1  to the plain4  ,a   
natural child of the family of the      
,barbarelli by a  peasant-girl of       
,vedelago1 he finds his way early into  
the circle of  notable persons--people  
of courtesy4  ,he is initiated into     
those  differences of personal type1    
manner1 and even of dress1 which  are   
best understood there--that distinction 
of the ,concert of the  ,pitti ,palace4 
,not far from his home lives ,catherine 
of ,cornara1  formerly ,queen of        
,cyprus2 and1 up in the towers which    
still  remain1 ,tuzio ,costanzo1 the    
famous condottiere--a picturesque       
remnant of medieval manners1 amid a     
civilisation rapidly  changing4         
,giorgione paints their portraits2 and  
when ,tuzio's son1  ,matteo1 dies in    
early youth1 adorns in his memory a     
chapel in the  church of ,castelfranco1 

painting on this occasion1 perhaps1 the 
altar-piece1 foremost among his         
authentic #adg works1 still to be  seen 
there1 with the figure of the           
warrior-saint1 ,liberale1 of which  the 
original little study in oil1 with the  
delicately gleaming1 silver-  grey      
armour1 is one of the greater treasures 
of the ,national  ,gallery4  ,in that   
figure1 as in some other knightly       
personages  attributed to him1 people   
have supposed the likeness of the       
painter's own presumably gracious       
presence4  ,thither1 at last1 he  is    
himself brought home from ,venice1 early
 dead1 but celebrated4  ,it happened1   
about his thirty-fourth year1 that in   
one of those  parties at which he       
entertained his friends with music1 he  
met a  certain lady of whom he became   
greatly enamoured1 and they  rejoiced   
greatly1 says ,vasari1 the one and the  
other1 in their  loves4  ,and two quite 
different legends concerning it agree in
  this1 that it was through this lady he

 came by his death2 ,ridolfi  relating  
that1 being robbed of her by one of his 
pupils1 he died of  grief at the double 
treason2 ,vasari1 that she being        
secretly  stricken of the plague1 and he
 making his visits to her as usual1     
,giorgione took the sickness from her   
mortally1 along with her  kisses1 and so
 briefly departed4    ,but1 although the
 number of ,giorgione's extant works has
 been  thus limited by recent criticism1
 all is not done when the real and  the 
traditional elements in what concerns   
him have been  discriminated2 for1 in   
what is connected with a great name1    
much  that is not real is often very    
stimulating4  ,for the aesthetic        
philosopher1 #adh therefore1 over and   
above the real ,giorgione  and his      
authentic extant works1 there remains   
the ,giorgionesque  also--an influence1 
a spirit or type in art1 active in men  
so  different as those to whom many of  
his supposed works are really           
assignable4  ,a veritable school1 in    

fact1 grew together out of all  those   
fascinating works rightly or wrongly    
attributed to him2 out  of many copies  
from1 or variations on him1 by unknown  
or  uncertain workmen1 whose drawings   
and designs were1 for  various reasons1 
prized as his2 out of the immediate     
impression he  made upon his            
contemporaries1 and with which he       
continued in  men's minds2 out of many  
traditions of subject and treatment1    
which really descend from him to our own
 time1 and by retracing  which we fill  
out the original image4  ,giorgione thus
 becomes a  sort of impersonation of    
,venice itself1 its projected reflex or 
ideal1 all that was intense or desirable
 in it crystallising about the  memory  
of this wonderful young man4    ,and    
now1 finally1 let me illustrate some of 
the characteristics of  this ,school of 
,giorgione1 as we may call it1 which1   
for most of us1  notwithstanding all    
that negative criticism of the new      
,vasari1  will still identify itself    

with those famous pictures at ,florence1
 at  ,dresden and ,paris4  ,a certain   
artistic ideal is there defined for us- 
-the conception of a peculiar aim and   
procedure in art1 which we  may         
understand as the ,giorgionesque1 #adi  
wherever we find it1  whether in        
,venetian work generally1 or in work of 
our own time4  ,of this the ,concert1   
that undoubted work of ,giorgione in the
 ,pitti  ,palace1 is the typical        
instance1 and a pledge authenticating   
the  connexion of the school1 and the   
spirit of the school1 with the  master4 
,i have spoken of a certain             
interpenetration of the matter or       
subject of a work of art with the form  
of it1 a condition realised  absolutely 
only in music1 as the condition to which
 every form of  art is perpetually      
aspiring4  ,in the art of painting1 the 
attainment  of this ideal condition1    
this perfect interpenetration of the    
subject  with the elements of colour and
 design1 depends1 of course1 in  great  

measure1 on dexterous choice of that    
subject1 or phase of  subject2 and such 
choice is one of the secrets of         
,giorgione's  school4  ,it is the school
 of genre1 and employs itself mainly    
with  painted idylls1 but1 in the       
production of this pictorial poetry1    
exercises a wonderful tact in the       
selecting of such matter as lends       
itself most readily and entirely to     
pictorial form1 to complete  expression 
by drawing and colour4  ,for although   
its productions  are painted poems1 they
 belong to a sort of poetry which tells 
itself without an articulated story4    
,the master is pre-eminent for  the     
resolution1 the ease and quickness1 with
 which he reproduces  instantaneous     
motion--the lacing-on of armour1 with   
the head  bent back so stately--the     
fainting lady--the embrace1 rapid as the
  kiss1 caught with death itself from   
dying #aej lips--some  momentary        
conjunction of mirrors and polished     
armour and still  water1 by which all   

the sides of a solid image are exhibited
 at  once1 solving that casuistical     
question whether painting can  present  
an object as completely as sculpture4   
,the sudden act1 the  rapid transition  
of thought1 the passing expression--this
 he arrests  with that vivacity which   
,vasari has attributed to him1 il fuoco 
,giorgionesco1 as he terms it4  ,now it 
is part of the ideality of the  highest 
sort of dramatic poetry1 that it        
presents us with a kind of  profoundly  
significant and animated instants1 a    
mere gesture1 a  look1 a smile1         
perhaps--some brief and wholly concrete 
moment--  into which1 however1 all the  
motives1 all the interests and effects  
of a long history1 have condensed       
themselves1 and which seem to  absorb   
past and future in an intense           
consciousness of the present4  ,such    
ideal instants the school of ,giorgione 
selects1 with its  admirable tact1 from 
that feverish1 tumultuously coloured    
world  of the old citizens of           

,venice--exquisite pauses in time1 in   
which1  arrested thus1 we seem to be    
spectators of all the fulness of        
existence1 and which are like some      
consummate extract or  quintessence of  
life4    ,it is to the law or condition 
of music1 as ,i said1 that all art like 
this  is really aspiring2 and1 in the   
school of ,giorgione1 the perfect       
moments of music itself1 the making or  
hearing of music1 song or  its          
accompaniment1 are themselves prominent 
as subjects4  ,on  that background #aea 
of the silence of ,venice1 so impressive
 to  the modern visitor1 the world of   
,italian music was then forming4  ,in   
choice of subject1 as in all besides1   
the ,concert of the ,pitti  ,palace is  
typical of everything that ,giorgione1  
himself an  admirable musician1 touched 
with his influence4  ,in sketch or      
finished picture1 in various            
collections1 we may follow it through   
many intricate variations--men fainting 
at music2 music at the  pool-side while 

people fish1 or mingled with the sound  
of the  pitcher in the well1 or heard   
across running water1 or among the      
flocks2 the tuning of instruments2      
people with intent faces1 as if         
listening1 like those described by      
,plato in an ingenious passage of  the  
,republic1 to detect the smallest       
interval of musical sound1 the  smallest
 undulation in the air1 or feeling for  
music in thought on a  stringless       
instrument1 ear and finger refining     
themselves  infinitely1 in the appetite 
for sweet sound2 a momentary touch of   
an instrument in the twilight1 as one   
passes through some  unfamiliar room1 in
 a chance company4    ,in these then1   
the favourite incidents of ,giorgione's 
school1  music or the musical intervals 
in our existence1 life itself is        
conceived as a sort of                  
listening--listening to music1 to the   
reading  of ,bandello's novels1 to the  
sound of water1 to time as it flies4    
,often such moments are really our      

moments of play1 and we are  surprised  
at the unexpected blessedness of what   
may seem our  #aeb least important part 
of time2 not merely because play is in  
many instances that to which people     
really apply their own best  powers1 but
 also because at such times1 the stress 
of our servile1  everyday attentiveness 
being relaxed1 the happier powers in    
things without are permitted free       
passage1 and have their way  with us4   
,and so1 from music1 the school of      
,giorgione passes  often to the play    
which is like music2 to those masques in
 which  men avowedly do but play at real
 life1 like children dressing  up1      
disguised in the strange old ,italian   
dresses1 parti-coloured1 or  fantastic  
with embroidery and furs1 of which the  
master was so  curious a designer1 and  
which1 above all the spotless white     
linen  at wrist and throat1 he painted  
so dexterously4    ,but when people are 
happy in this thirsty land water will   
not be  far off2 and in the school of   

,giorgione1 the presence of water--the  
well1 or marble-rimmed pool1 the drawing
 or pouring of water1 as  the woman     
pours it from a pitcher with her        
jewelled hand in the  ,fte ,champtre1   
listening1 perhaps1 to the cool sound as
 it falls1  blent with the music of the 
pipes--is as characteristic1 and almost 
as suggestive1 as that of music itself4 
,and the landscape feels1  and is glad  
of it also--a landscape full of         
clearness1 of the effects  of water1 of 
fresh rain newly passed through the air1
 and collected  into the grassy         
channels4  ,the air1 moreover1 in the   
school of  ,giorgione1 seems as vivid as
 the people who breathe #aec it1 and    
literally empyrean1 all impurities being
 burnt out of it1 and no  taint1 no     
floating particle of anything but its   
own proper elements  allowed to subsist 
within it4    ,its scenery is such as in
 ,england we call park scenery1 with    
some elusive refinement felt about the  
rustic buildings1 the choice  grass1 the

 grouped trees1 the undulations deftly  
economised for  graceful effect4  ,only1
 in ,italy all natural things are as it 
were  woven through and through with    
gold thread1 even the cypress  revealing
 it among the folds of its blackness4   
,and it is with gold  dust1 or gold     
thread1 that these ,venetian painters   
seem to work1  spinning its fine        
filaments1 through the solemn human     
flesh1  away into the white plastered   
walls of the thatched huts4  ,the       
harsher details of the mountains recede 
to a harmonious distance1  the one peak 
of rich blue above the horizon remaining
 but as the  sensible warrant of that   
due coolness which is all we need ask   
here of the ,alps1 with their dark rains
 and streams4  ,yet what real1  airy    
space1 as the eye passes from level to  
level1 through the long-  drawn valley  
in which ,jacob embraces ,rachel among  
the flocks6  ,nowhere is there a truer  
instance of that balance1 that modulated
  unison of landscape and persons--of   

the human image and its                 
accessories--already noticed as         
characteristic of the ,venetian  school1
 so that1 in it1 neither personage nor  
scenery is ever a mere  pretext for the 
other4    #aed ,something like this     
seems to me to be the vraie vrit about  
,giorgione1 if ,i may adopt a           
serviceable expression1 by which the    
,french recognise those more liberal and
 durable impressions  which1 in respect 
of any really considerable person or    
subject1  anything that has at all      
intricately occupied men's attention1   
lie  beyond1 and must supplement1 the   
narrower range of the strictly          
ascertained facts about it4  ,in this1  
,giorgione is but an illustration  of a 
valuable general caution we may abide by
 in all criticism4  ,as regards         
,giorgione himself1 we have indeed to   
take note of all  those negations and   
exceptions1 by which1 at first sight1 a 
new  ,vasari seems merely to have       
confused our apprehension of a          

delightful object1 to have explained    
away in our inheritance from  past time 
what seemed of high value there4  ,yet  
it is not with a  full understanding    
even of those exceptions that one can   
leave off  just at this point4          
,properly qualified1 such exceptions are
 but a  salt of genuineness in our      
knowledge2 and beyond all those         
strictly ascertained facts1 we must take
 note of that indirect  influence by    
which one like ,giorgione1 for instance1
 enlarges his  permanent efficacy and   
really makes himself felt in our        
culture4  ,in a just impression of that1
 is the essential truth1 the vraie vrit1
  concerning him4    #ahgg4      ,,notes
    #add4 99,crowe and ,cavalcaselle2   
,history of ,painting in ,north ,italy4 
#ade4 99,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4      
,,joachim ,,du ,,bellay    #aee ,,in the
 middle of the sixteenth century1 when  
the spirit of  the ,renaissance was     
everywhere1 and people had begun to look
  back with distaste on the works of the

 middle age1 the old ,gothic  manner had
 still one chance more1 in borrowing    
something from  the rival which was     
about to supplant it4  ,in this way     
there was  produced1 chiefly in ,france1
 a new and peculiar phase of taste  with
 qualities and a charm of its own1      
blending the somewhat  attenuated grace 
of ,italian ornament with the general   
outlines of  ,northern design4  ,it     
created the ,chteau de ,gaillon1 as you 
may  still see it in the delicate       
engravings of ,isrel ,silvestre--a      
,gothic  donjon veiled faintly by a     
surface of dainty ,italian traceries--  
,chenonceaux1 ,blois1 ,chambord1 and the
 church of ,brou4  ,in  painting1 there 
came from ,italy workmen like ,matre    
,roux and  the masters of the school of 
,fontainebleau1 to have their later     
,italian voluptuousness attempered by   
the nave and silvery  qualities of the  
native style2 and it was characteristic 
of these  painters that they were most  
successful in painting on glass1 an  art

 so #aef essentially medieval4  ,taking 
it up where the middle  age had left it1
 they found their whole work among the  
last  subtleties of colour and line2 and
 keeping within the true limits of      
their material1 they got quite a new    
order of effects from it1 and  felt     
their way to refinements on colour never
 dreamed of by those  older workmen1 the
 glass-painters of ,chartres or ,le     
,mans4  ,what  is called the            
,renaissance in ,france is thus not so  
much the  introduction of a wholly new  
taste ready-made from ,italy1 but       
rather the finest and subtlest phase of 
the middle age itself1 its last         
fleeting splendour and temperate ,saint 
,martin's summer4  ,in  poetry1 the     
,gothic spirit in ,france had produced a
 thousand  songs2 so in the             
,renaissance1 ,french poetry too did but
 borrow  something to blend with a      
native growth1 and the poems of         
,ronsard1 with their ingenuity1 their   
delicately figured surfaces1  their     

slightness1 their fanciful combinations 
of rhyme1 are the  correlative of the   
traceries of the house of ,jacques      
,coeur at  ,bourges1 or the ,maison de  
,justice at ,rouen4    ,there was indeed
 something in the native ,french taste  
naturally  akin to that ,italian        
finesse4  ,the characteristic of ,french
 work had  always been a certain nicety1
 a remarkable daintiness of hand1  une  
nettet remarquable d'excution4  ,in the 
paintings of  ,franois ,clouet1 for     
example1 or rather of the ,clouets--for 
there  was a whole family of            
them--painters remarkable for #aeg their
  resistance to ,italian influences1    
there is a silveriness of colour and  a 
clearness of expression which           
distinguish them very definitely  from  
their ,flemish neighbours1 ,hemling or  
the ,van ,eycks4  ,and  this nicety is  
not less characteristic of old ,french  
poetry4  ,a light1  arial delicacy1 a   
simple elegance--une nettet remarquable 
d'excution3 these are essential         

characteristics alike of ,villon's      
poetry1 and of the ,hours of ,anne of   
,brittany4  ,they are  characteristic   
too of a hundred ,french ,gothic        
carvings and  traceries4  ,alike in the 
old ,gothic cathedrals1 and in their    
counterpart1 the old ,gothic chansons de
 geste1 the rough and  ponderous mass   
becomes1 as if by passing for a moment  
into  happier conditions1 or through a  
more gracious stratum of air1  graceful 
and refined1 like the carved ferneries  
on the granite  church at ,folgoat1 or  
the lines which describe the fair       
priestly  hands of ,archbishop ,turpin1 
in the song of ,roland2 although  below 
both alike there is a fund of mere      
,gothic strength1 or  heaviness499      
,now ,villon's songs and ,clouet's      
painting are like these4  ,it is the    
higher touch making itself felt here and
 there1 betraying itself1  like nobler  
blood in a lower stock1 by a fine line  
or gesture or  expression1 the turn of a
 wrist1 the tapering of a finger4  ,in  

,ronsard's time that rougher #aeh       
element seemed likely to  predominate4  
,no one can turn over the pages of      
,rabelais without  feeling how much need
 there was of softening1 of castigation4
  ,to  effect this softening is the     
object of the revolution in poetry      
which is connected with ,ronsard's name4
  ,casting about for the  means of thus 
refining upon and saving the character  
of ,french  literature1 he accepted that
 influx of ,renaissance taste1 which1   
leaving the buildings1 the language1 the
 art1 the poetry of ,france1  at bottom1
 what they were1 old ,french ,gothic    
still1 gilds their  surfaces with a     
strange1 delightful1 foreign aspect     
passing over all  that ,northern land1  
in itself neither deeper nor more       
permanent  than a chance effect of      
light4  ,he reinforces1 he doubles the  
,french daintiness by ,italian finesse4 
,thereupon1 nearly all the  force and   
all the seriousness of ,french work     
disappear2 only the  elegance1 the arial

 touch1 the perfect manner remain4  ,but
 this  elegance1 this manner1 this      
daintiness of execution are  consummate1
 and have an unmistakable aesthetic     
value4    ,so the old ,french chanson1  
which1 like the old northern ,gothic    
ornament1 though it sometimes refined   
itself into a sort of weird  elegance1  
was often1 in its essence1 something    
rude and formless1  became in the hands 
of ,ronsard a ,pindaric ode4  ,he gave  
it  structure1 a sustained system1      
strophe and antistrophe1 and taught  it 
a changefulness and variety of metre    
which keep the curiosity  always        
excited1 so that the very aspect of it1 
as it #aei lies  written on the page1   
carries the eye lightly onwards1 and of 
which  this is a good instance3--       
,avril1 le grace1 et le ris          ,de
 ,cypris1       ,le flair et la douce   
haleine2       ,avril1 le parfum des    
dieux1          ,qui1 des cieux1        
,sentent l'odeur de la plaine2          
,c'est toy1 courtois et gentil1         

,qui1 d'exil       ,retire ces          
passagres1       ,ces arondelles qui    
vont1          ,et qui sont       ,du   
printemps les messagres4    ,that is not
 by ,ronsard1 but by ,remy ,belleau1 for
 ,ronsard soon  came to have a school4  
,six other poets threw in their lot with
 him  in his literary revolution1--this 
,remy ,belleau1 ,antoine de ,baif1      
,pontus de ,tyard1 tienne ,jodelle1     
,jean ,daurat1 and lastly ,joachim  du  
,bellay2 and with that strange love of  
emblems which is  characteristic of the 
time1 which covered all the works of    
,francis  the ,first with the           
salamander1 and all the works of ,henry 
the  ,second with the double crescent1  
and all the works of ,anne of  ,brittany
 with the knotted cord1 they called     
themselves the ,pleiad2  seven in all1  
although1 as happens with the celestial 
,pleiad1 if you  scrutinise this        
constellation of poets more carefully   
you may find  there a great number of   
minor stars4    ,the first note of this 

literary revolution was #afj struck by  
,joachim du ,bellay in a little tract   
written at the early age of             
twenty-four1 which coming to us through 
three centuries seems of  yesterday1 so 
full is it of those delicate critical   
distinctions which  are sometimes       
supposed peculiar to modern writers4    
,the piece  has for its title ,la       
,deffense et ,illustration de la langue 
,franoyse2 and its problem is how to    
illustrate or ennoble the  ,french      
language1 to give it lustre4    ,we are 
accustomed to speak of the varied       
critical and creative  movement of the  
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the
  ,renaissance1 and because we have a   
single name for it we may  sometimes    
fancy that there was more unity in the  
thing itself than  there really was4    
,even the ,reformation1 that other great
  movement of the fifteenth and         
sixteenth centuries1 had far less       
unity1 far less of combined action1 than
 is at first sight supposed2  and the   

,renaissance was infinitely less united1
 less conscious of  combined action1    
than the ,reformation4  ,but if anywhere
 the  ,renaissance became conscious1 as 
a ,german philosopher might  say1 if    
ever it was understood as a systematic  
movement by those  who took part in it1 
it is in this little book of ,joachim du
 ,bellay's1  which it is impossible to  
read without feeling the excitement1 the
  animation1 of change1 of discovery4   
,it is a remarkable fact1  says ,m4     
,sainte-,beuve1 and an inversion of what
 is true of other  languages1 that1 in  
,french1 prose has always had the       
precedence  over poetry4  ,du ,bellay's 
prose #afa is perfectly transparent1    
flexible1 and chaste4  ,in many ways it 
is a more characteristic  example of the
 culture of the ,pleiad than any of its 
verse2 and  those who love the whole    
movement of which the ,pleiad is a      
part1 for a weird foreign grace in it1  
and may be looking about for  a true    
specimen of it1 cannot have a better    

than ,joachim du ,bellay  and this      
little treatise of his4    ,du ,bellay's
 object is to adjust the existing       
,french culture to the  rediscovered    
classical culture2 and in discussing    
this problem1  and developing the       
theories of the ,pleiad1 he has lighted 
upon  many principles of permanent truth
 and applicability4  ,there were  some  
who despaired of the ,french language   
altogether1 who  thought it naturally   
incapable of the fulness and elegance of
  ,greek and ,latin--cette lgance et    
copie qui est en la langue  ,greque et  
,romaine--that science could be         
adequately discussed1  and poetry nobly 
written1 only in the dead languages4    
,those  who speak thus1 says ,du        
,bellay1  make me think of the relics   
which one may only see through a little 
pane of glass1 and must  not touch with 
one's hands4  ,that is what these people
 do with all  branches of culture1 which
 they keep shut up in ,greek and ,latin 
books1 not permitting one to see them   

otherwise1 or transport  them out of    
dead words into those which are alive1  
and wing their  way daily through the   
mouths of men4  ,languages1 he says     
again1 are not born like plants and     
trees1 some naturally feeble  and       
sickly1 #afb others healthy and strong  
and apter to bear the  weight of men's  
conceptions1 but all their virtue is    
generated in  the world of choice and   
men's freewill concerning them4         
,therefore1 ,i cannot blame too strongly
 the rashness of some of  our           
countrymen1 who being anything rather   
than ,greeks or  ,latins1 depreciate and
 reject with more than stoical disdain  
everything written in ,french2 nor can  
,i express my surprise at the  odd      
opinion of some learned men who think   
that our vulgar  tongue is wholly       
incapable of erudition and good         
literature4    ,it was an age of        
translations4  ,du ,bellay himself      
translated two  books of the ,aeneid1   
and other poetry1 old and new1 and there

  were some who thought that the        
translation of the classical  literature
 was the true means of ennobling the    
,french language3--  strangers are ever 
favourites with us--nous favorisons     
toujours les  trangers4  ,du ,bellay    
moderates their expectations4  ,i do not
  believe that one can learn the right  
use of them--he is speaking  of figures 
and ornament in language--from          
translations1 because  it is impossible 
to reproduce them with the same grace   
with  which the original author used    
them4  ,for each language has ,i  know  
not what peculiarity of its own2 and if 
you force yourself to  express the      
naturalness 7le naf7 of this in another 
language1  observing the law of         
translation1--not to expatiate beyond   
the  limits of the author himself1 your 
words will be constrained1  #afc cold   
and ungraceful4  ,then he fixes the test
 of all good  translation3--,to prove   
this1 read me ,demosthenes and ,homer in
  ,latin1 ,cicero and ,virgil in        

,french1 and see whether they produce   
in you the same affections which you    
experience in reading those  authors in 
the original4    ,in this effort to     
ennoble the ,french language1 to give it
 grace1  number1 perfection1 and as     
painters do to their pictures1 that     
last1  so desirable1 touch--cette       
dernire main que nous dsirons-what  ,du 
,bellay is really pleading for is his   
mother-tongue1 the  language1 that is1  
in which one will have the utmost degree
 of  what is moving and passionate4  ,he
 recognised of what force the  music and
 dignity of languages are1 how they     
enter into the  inmost part of things2  
and in pleading for the cultivation of  
the  ,french language1 he is pleading   
for no merely scholastic interest1  but 
for freedom1 impulse1 reality1 not in   
literature only1 but in  daily communion
 of speech4  ,after all1 it was         
impossible to have  this impulse in     
,greek and ,latin1 dead languages shut  
up in books  as in reliquaries--pris et 

mises en reliquaires de livres4  ,by aid
  of this starveling stock--pauvre      
plante et vergette--of the ,french      
language1 he must speak delicately1     
movingly1 if he is ever to  speak so at 
all3 that1 or none1 must be for him the 
medium of what  he calls1 in one of his 
great phrases1 le discours fatal des    
choses  mondaines--that discourse about 
affairs which decides men's  fates4     
,and it is his patriotism #afd not to   
despair of it2 he sees it  already      
perfect in all elegance and beauty of   
words--parfait en  toute lgance et vnust
 de paroles4    ,du ,bellay was born in 
the disastrous year #aebe1 the year of  
the  battle of ,pavia1 and the captivity
 of ,francis the ,first4  ,his parents  
died early1 and to him1 as the younger  
son1 his mother's little  estate1 ce    
petit ,lir1 the beloved place of his    
birth1 descended4  ,he  was brought up  
by a brother only a little older than   
himself2 and  left to themselves1 the   
two boys passed their lives in          

day-dreams  of military glory4  ,their  
education was neglected2 ,the time of   
my youth1 says ,du ,bellay1 was lost1   
like the flower which no  shower waters1
 and no hand cultivates4  ,he was just  
twenty  years old when the elder brother
 died1 leaving ,joachim to be the       
guardian of his child4  ,it was with    
regret1 with a shrinking sense  of      
incapacity1 that he took upon him the   
burden of this  responsibility4         
,hitherto he had looked forward to the  
profession  of a soldier1 hereditary in 
his family4  ,but at this time a        
sickness  attacked him which brought him
 cruel sufferings1 and seemed  likely to
 be mortal4  ,it was then for the first 
time that he read the  ,greek and ,latin
 poets4  ,these studies came too late to
 make him  what he so much desired to   
be1 a trifler in ,greek and ,latin      
verse1  like so many others of his time 
now forgotten2 instead1 they made  him a
 lover of his own homely native tongue1 
that poor starveling  stock of the      

,french #afe language4  ,it was through 
this fortunate  short-coming in his     
education that he became national and   
modern2 and he learned afterwards to    
look back on that wild  garden of his   
youth with only a half regret4  ,a      
certain ,cardinal du  ,bellay was the   
successful member of the family1 a man  
often  employed in high official        
business4  ,to him the thoughts of      
,joachim turned when it became necessary
 to choose a profession1  and in #aeeb  
he accompanied the ,cardinal to ,rome4  
,he remained  there nearly five years1  
burdened with the weight of affairs1 and
  languishing with home-sickness4  ,yet 
it was under these  circumstances that  
his genius yielded its best fruits4     
,from ,rome1  so full of pleasurable    
sensation for men of an imaginative     
temperament such as his1 with all the   
curiosities of the  ,renaissance still  
fresh in it1 his thoughts went back     
painfully1  longingly1 to the country of
 the ,loire1 with its wide expanse of   

waving corn1 its homely pointed roofs of
 grey slate1 and its far-  off scent of 
the sea4  ,he reached home at last1 but 
only to die  there1 quite suddenly1 one 
wintry day1 at the early age of thirty- 
five4    ,much of ,du ,bellay's poetry  
illustrates rather the age and school   
to which he belonged than his own temper
 and genius4  ,as with  the writings of 
,ronsard and the other poets of the     
,pleiad1 its  interest depends not so   
much on the impress of individual genius
  upon it1 as on the #aff circumstance  
that it was once poetry  la  mode1 that 
it is part of the manner of a time--a   
time which made  much of manner1 and    
carried it to a high degree of          
perfection4  ,it  is one of the         
decorations of an age which threw a     
large part of its  energy into the work 
of decoration4  ,we feel a pensive      
pleasure in  gazing on these faded      
adornments1 and observing how a group of
  actual men and women pleased          
themselves long ago4  ,ronsard's  poems 

are a kind of epitome of his age4  ,of  
one side of that age1 it  is true1 of   
the strenuous1 the progressive1 the     
serious movement1  which was then going 
on1 there is little2 but of the catholic
 side1  the losing side1 the forlorn    
hope1 hardly a figure is absent4  ,the  
,queen of ,scots1 at whose desire       
,ronsard published his odes1  reading   
him in her northern prison1 felt that he
 was bringing back  to her the true     
flavour of her early days in the court  
of ,catherine  at the ,louvre1 with its 
exotic ,italian gaieties4  ,those who   
disliked  that poetry1 disliked it      
because they found that age itself      
distasteful4  ,the poetry of ,malherbe  
came1 with its sustained style  and     
weighty sentiment1 but with nothing that
 set people singing2  and the lovers of 
such poetry saw in the poetry of the    
,pleiad only  the latest trumpery of the
 middle age4  ,but the time arrived when
  the school of ,malherbe also had had  
its day2 and the  ,romanticists1 who in 

their eagerness for excitement1 for     
strange  music and imagery1 went back to
 the works of the middle age1  accepted 
the ,pleiad too #afg with the rest2 and 
in that new  middle age which their     
genius has evoked1 the poetry of the    
,pleiad has found its place4  ,at first1
 with ,malherbe1 you may  think it1 like
 the architecture1 the whole mode of    
life1 the very  dresses of that time1   
fantastic1 faded1 rococo4  ,but if you  
look  long enough to understand it1 to  
conceive its sentiment1 you will  find  
that those wanton lines have a spirit   
guiding their caprices4  ,for there is  
style there2 one temper has shaped the  
whole2 and  everything that has style1  
that has been done as no other man or   
age could have done it1 as it could     
never1 for all our trying1 be  done     
again1 has its true value and interest4 
,let us dwell upon it  for a moment1 and
 try to gather from it that special     
flower1 ce  fleur particulier1 which    
,ronsard himself tells us every garden  

has4    ,it is poetry not for the       
people1 but for a confined circle1 for  
courtiers1 great lords and erudite      
persons1 people who desire to be        
humoured1 to gratify a certain refined  
voluptuousness they have  in them4      
,ronsard loves1 or dreams that he loves1
 a rare and  peculiar type of beauty1 la
 petite pucelle ,angevine1 with golden  
hair and dark eyes4  ,but he has the    
ambition not only of being a  courtier  
and a lover1 but a great scholar also2  
he is anxious about  orthography1 about 
the letter  ,grecque1 the true spelling 
of ,latin  names in ,french writing1 and
 the restoration of the letter i to its 
primitive liberty--del' i voyelle en sa 
premire libert4  ,his poetry  is full of
 quaint1 #afh remote learning4  ,he is  
just a little  pedantic1 true always to 
his own express judgment1 that to be    
natural is not enough for one who in    
poetry desires to produce  work worthy  
of immortality4  ,and therewithal a     
certain number  of ,greek words1 which  

charmed ,ronsard and his circle by their
  gaiety and daintiness1 and a certain  
air of foreign elegance about  them1    
crept into the ,french language2 as     
there were other strange  words which   
the poets of the ,pleiad forged for     
themselves1 and  which had only an      
ephemeral existence4    ,with this was  
united the desire to taste a more       
exquisite and  various music than that  
of the older ,french verse1 or of the   
classical poets4  ,the music of the     
measured1 scanned verse of  ,latin and  
,greek poetry is one thing2 the music of
 the rhymed1  unscanned verse of ,villon
 and the old ,french poets1 la posie    
chante1 is another4  ,to combine these  
two kinds of music in a  new school of  
,french poetry1 to make verse which     
should scan  and rhyme as well1 to      
search out and harmonise the measure of 
every syllable1 and unite it to the     
swift1 flitting1 swallow-like  motion of
 rhyme1 to penetrate their poetry with a
 double music--  this was the ambition  

of the ,pleiad4  ,they are insatiable of
 music1  they cannot have enough of it2 
they desire a music of greater  compass 
perhaps than words can possibly yield1  
to drain out the  last drops of         
sweetness which a certain note or accent
 contains4    #afi ,it was ,goudimel1   
the serious and protestant ,goudimel1   
who  set ,ronsard's songs to music2 but 
except in this eagerness for  music the 
poets of the ,pleiad seem never quite in
 earnest4  ,the  old ,greek and ,roman  
mythology1 which the great ,italians had
  found a motive so weighty and severe1 
becomes with them a mere  toy4  ,that   
,lord of terrible aspect1 ,amor1 has    
become ,love the  boy1 or the babe4     
,they are full of fine railleries2 they 
delight in  diminutives1 ondelette1     
fontelette1 doucelette1 ,cassandrette4  
,their loves are only half real1 a vain 
effort to prolong the  imaginative loves
 of the middle age beyond their natural 
lifetime4  ,they write love-poems for   
hire4  ,like that party of people who   

tell the tales in ,boccaccio's          
,decameron1 they form a circle which  in
 an age of great troubles1 losses1      
anxieties1 can amuse itself with  art1  
poetry1 intrigue4  ,but they amuse      
themselves with wonderful  elegance4    
,and sometimes their gaiety becomes     
satiric1 for1 as  they play1 real       
passions insinuate themselves1 and at   
least the  reality of death4  ,their    
dejection at the thought of leaving this
 fair  abode of our common daylight--le 
beau sejour du commun jour--  is        
expressed by them with almost wearisome 
reiteration4  ,but  with this sentiment 
too they are able to trifle4  ,the      
imagery of  death serves for delicate   
ornament1 and they weave into the airy  
nothingness of their verses their trite 
reflections on the vanity  #agj of life4
  ,just so the grotesque details of the 
charnel-house  nest themselves1 together
 with birds and flowers and the fancies 
of the pagan mythology1 in the traceries
 of the architecture of that  time1     

which wantons in its graceful arabesques
 with the images of  old age and death4 
,ronsard became deaf at sixteen2 and it 
was this circumstance  which finally    
determined him to be a man of letters   
instead of a  diplomatist1              
significantly1 one might fancy1 of a    
certain premature  agedness1 and of the 
tranquil1 temperate sweetness           
appropriate to  that1 in the school of  
poetry which he founded4  ,its charm is 
that  of a thing not vigorous or        
original1 but full of the grace which   
comes of long study and reiterated      
refinements1 and many steps  repeated1  
and many angles worn down1 with an      
exquisite  faintness1 une fadeur        
exquise1 a certain tenuity and caducity1
 as  for those who can bear nothing     
vehement or strong2 for princes  weary  
of love1 like ,francis the ,first1 or of
 pleasure1 like ,henry  the ,third1 or  
of action1 like ,henry the ,fourth4     
,its merits are those  of the           
old1--grace and finish1 perfect in      

minute detail4  ,for these  people are a
 little jaded1 and have a constant      
desire for a subdued  and delicate      
excitement1 to warm their creeping fancy
 a little4  ,they love a constant change
 of rhyme in poetry1 and in their       
houses that strange1 fantastic          
interweaving of thin1 reed-like lines1  
which are a kind of rhetoric in         
architecture4    #aga ,but the poetry of
 the ,pleiad is true not only to the    
physiognomy of its age1 but also to its 
country--ce pays du  ,vendomois--the    
names and scenery of which so often     
recur in it3-  -the great ,loire1 with  
its long spaces of white sand2 the      
little river  ,loir2 the heathy1 upland 
country1 with its scattered pools of    
water  and waste road-sides1 and retired
 manors1 with their crazy old  feudal   
defences half fallen into decay2 ,la    
,beauce1 where the vast  rolling fields 
seem to anticipate the great western sea
 itself4  ,it is  full of the traits of 
that country4  ,we see ,du ,bellay and  

,ronsard  gardening1 or hunting with    
their dogs1 or watch the pastimes of a  
rainy day2 and with all this is         
connected a domesticity1 a  homeliness  
and simple goodness1 by which the       
,northern country  gains upon the       
,south4  ,they have the love of the aged
 for  warmth1 and understand the poetry 
of winter2 for they are not far  from   
the ,atlantic1 and the west wind which  
comes up from it1  turning the poplars  
white1 spares not this new ,italy in    
,france4  ,so  the fireside often       
appears1 with the pleasures of the      
frosty season1  about the vast          
emblazoned chimneys of the time1 and    
with a  bonhomie as of little children1 
or old people4    ,it is in ,du         
,bellay's ,olive1 a collection of       
sonnets in praise of a  half-imaginary  
lady1 ,sonnetz a la louange d',olive1   
that these  characteristics are most    
abundant4  ,here is a perfectly         
crystallised  example3--    #agb        
,d'amour1 de grace1 et de haulte valeur 

,les feux divins estoient ceinctz et les
 cieulx           ,s'estoient vestuz    
d'un manteau precieux           ,a raiz 
ardens de diverse couleur3         ,tout
 estoit plein de beaut1 de bonheur1     
,la mer tranquille1 et le vent          
gracieulx1           ,quand celle la    
nasquit en ces bas lieux           ,qui 
a pill du monde tout l'honneur4         
,ell' prist son teint des beux lyz      
blanchissans1           ,son chef de    
l'or1 ses deux levres des rozes1        
,et du soleil ses yeux resplandissans3  
,le ciel usant de libralit1             
,mist en l'esprit ses semences encloses1
           ,son nom des ,dieux prist    
l'immortalit4    ,that he is thus a     
characteristic specimen of the poetical 
taste of  that age1 is indeed ,du       
,bellay's chief interest4  ,but if his  
work is  to have the highest sort of    
interest1 if it is to do something more 
than satisfy curiosity1 if it is to have
 an aesthetic as distinct from  an      
historical value1 it is not enough for a

 poet to have been the  true child of   
his age1 to have conformed to its       
aesthetic  conditions1 and by so        
conforming to have charmed and          
stimulated  that age2 it is necessary   
that there should be perceptible in his 
work something individual1 inventive1   
unique1 the impress there  of the       
writer's own temper and personality4    
,this impress ,m4  ,sainte-,beuve       
thought he found in the ,antiquits de   
,rome1 and  the ,regrets1 which he ranks
 as what has been called posie  intime1 
that intensely modern sort of poetry in 
which the writer  has for his aim the   
portraiture of his own most intimate    
moods1  and #agc to take the reader into
 his confidence4  ,that age had  other  
instances of this intimacy of sentiment3
 ,montaigne's ,essays  are full of it1  
the carvings of the church of ,brou are 
full of it4  ,m4  ,sainte-,beuve has    
perhaps exaggerated the influence of    
this  quality in ,du ,bellay's ,regrets2
 but the very name of the book has  a   

touch of ,rousseau about it1 and reminds
 one of a whole  generation of          
self-pitying poets in modern times4  ,it
 was in the  atmosphere of ,rome1 to him
 so strange and mournful1 that these    
pale flowers grew up4  ,for that journey
 to ,italy1 which he  deplored as the   
greatest misfortune of his life1 put him
 in full  possession of his talent1 and 
brought out all its originality4  ,and  
in effect you do find intimacy1 intimit1
 here4  ,the trouble of his  life is    
analysed1 and the sentiment of it       
conveyed directly to our  minds2 not a  
great sorrow or passion1 but only the   
sense of loss in  passing days1 the     
ennui of a dreamer who must plunge into 
the  world's affairs1 the opposition    
between actual life and the ideal1 a    
longing for rest1 nostalgia1            
home-sickness--that pre-eminently       
childish1 but so suggestive sorrow1 as  
significant of the final  regret of all 
human creatures for the familiar earth  
and limited  sky4    ,the feeling for   

landscape is often described as a modern
 one2 still  more so is that for        
antiquity1 the sentiment of ruins4  ,du 
,bellay  has this sentiment4  ,the      
duration of the hard1 sharp outlines of 
things is a grief to him1 and passing   
his wearisome #agd days  among the ruins
 of ancient ,rome1 he is consoled by the
 thought  that all must one day end1 by 
the sentiment of the grandeur of        
nothingness--la grandeur du rien4  ,with
 a strange touch of far-off  mysticism1 
he thinks that the great whole--le grand
 tout--into  which all other things pass
 and lose themselves1 ought itself      
sometimes to perish and pass away4      
,nothing less can relieve his           
weariness4  ,from the stately aspects of
 ,rome his thoughts went  back          
continually to ,france1 to the smoking  
chimneys of his little  village1 the    
longer twilight of the ,north1 the soft 
climate of  ,anjou--,la douceur         
,angevine2 yet not so much to the real  
,france1  we may be sure1 with its dark 

streets and roofs of rough-hewn  slate1 
as to that other country1 with slenderer
 towers1 and more  winding rivers1 and  
trees like flowers1 and with softer     
sunshine on  more                       
gracefully-proportioned fields and ways1
 which the fancy of  the exile1 and the 
pilgrim1 and of the schoolboy far from  
home1  and of those kept at home        
unwillingly1 everywhere builds up       
before or behind them4    ,he came home 
at last1 through the ,grisons1 by slow  
journeys2  and there1 in the cooler air 
of his own country1 under its skies of  
milkier blue1 the sweetest flower of his
 genius sprang up4  ,there  have been   
poets whose whole fame has rested on one
 poem1 as  ,gray's on the ,elegy in a   
,country ,churchyard1 or ,ronsard's1 as 
many critics have thought1 on the       
eighteen lines of #age one  famous ode4 
,du ,bellay has almost been the poet of 
one poem2  and this one poem of his is  
an ,italian product transplanted into   
that green country of ,anjou2 out of the

 ,latin verses of ,andrea  ,navagero1   
into ,french4  ,but it is a composition 
in which the  matter is almost nothing1 
and the form almost everything2 and the 
form of the poem as it stands1 written  
in old ,french1 is all ,du  ,bellay's   
own4  ,it is a song which the winnowers 
are supposed to  sing as they winnow the
 corn1 and they invoke the winds to lie 
lightly on the grain4         ,d',,un   
,,vanneur ,,de ,,ble ,,aux ,,vents499   
,a vous trouppe legre          ,qui     
d'aile passagres          ,par le monde 
volez1          ,et d'un sifflant       
murmure          ,l'ombrageuse verdure  
,doulcement esbranlez4         ,j'offre 
ces violettes1          ,ces lis  ces   
fleurettes1          ,et ces roses icy1 
,ces vermeillettes roses          ,sont 
freschement closes1          ,et ces    
oelliets aussi4         ,de vostre      
doulce haleine          ,eventez ceste  
plaine          ,eventez ce sejour2     
,ce pendant que j'ahanne          ,a mon
 bl que je vanne          ,a la chaleur 

du jour4    #agf    ,that has1 in the   
highest degree1 the qualities1 the      
value1 of the  whole ,pleiad school of  
poetry1 of the whole phase of taste from
  which that school derives--a certain  
silvery grace of fancy1 nearly  all the 
pleasure of which is in the surprise at 
the happy and  dexterous way in which a 
thing slight in itself is handled4  ,the
  sweetness of it is by no means to be  
got at by crushing1 as you  crush wild  
herbs to get at their perfume4  ,one    
seems to hear the  measured motion of   
the fans1 with a child's pleasure on    
coming  across the incident for the     
first time1 in one of those great barns 
of  ,du ,bellay's own country1 ,la      
,beauce1 the granary of ,france4  ,a    
sudden light transfigures some trivial  
thing1 a weather-vane1 a  wind-mill1 a  
winnowing fan1 the dust in the barn     
door4  ,a  moment--and the thing has    
vanished1 because it was pure effect2   
but it leaves a relish behind it1 a     
longing that the accident may  happen   

again4    #ahgb4      ,,notes    #aeg4  
99,the purely artistic aspects of this  
subject have been  interpreted1 in a    
work of great taste and learning1 by    
,mrs4  ,mark  ,pattison3--,the          
,renaissance of ,art in ,france4        
#age4 99,a graceful translation of this 
and some other poems of the  ,pleiad may
 be found in ,ballads and ,lyrics of    
,old ,france1 by ,mr4  ,andrew ,lang4   
,,winckelmann    #agg ,,et ,,ego ,,in   
,,arcadia ,,fui    ,,goethe',s fragments
 of art-criticism contain a few pages of
  strange pregnancy on the character of 
,winckelmann4  ,he speaks  of the       
teacher who had made his career         
possible1 but whom he  had never seen1  
as of an abstract type of culture1      
consummate1  tranquil1 withdrawn already
 into the region of ideals1 yet         
retaining  colour from the incidents of 
a passionate intellectual life4  ,he    
classes him with certain works of art1  
possessing an  inexhaustible gift of    
suggestion1 to which criticism may      

return  again and again with renewed    
freshness4  ,hegel1 in his lectures on  
the ,philosophy of ,art1 estimating the 
work of his predecessors1  has also     
passed a remarkable judgment on         
,winckelmann's  writings3--,winckelmann1
 by contemplation of the ideal works of 
the ancients1 received a sort of        
inspiration1 through which he  opened a 
new sense for the study of art4  ,he is 
to be regarded as  one of those who1 in 
the sphere of art1 have known how to    
initiate  a new organ for the human     
spirit4  ,that it has #agh given a new  
sense1 that it has laid open a new      
organ1 is the highest that can be  said 
of any critical effort4  ,it is         
interesting then to ask what kind  of   
man it was who thus laid open a new     
organ4  ,under what  conditions was that
 effected8    ,johann ,joachim          
,winckelmann was born at ,stendal1 in   
,brandenburg1 in the year #agag4  ,the  
child of a poor tradesman1  he passed   
through many struggles in early youth1  

the memory of  which ever remained in   
him as a fitful cause of dejection4  ,in
  #agfc1 in the full emancipation of his
 spirit1 looking over the  beautiful    
,roman prospect1 he writes--,one gets   
spoiled here2 but  ,god owed me this2 in
 my youth ,i suffered too much4         
,destined  to assert and interpret the  
charm of the ,hellenic spirit1 he served
  first a painful apprenticeship in the 
tarnished intellectual world of         
,germany in the earlier half of the     
eighteenth century4  ,passing out  of   
that into the happy light of the        
antique1 he had a sense of  exhilaration
 almost physical4  ,we find him as a    
child in the dusky  precincts of a      
,german school1 hungrily feeding on a   
few  colourless books4  ,the master of  
this school grows blind2  ,winckelmann  
becomes his famulus4  ,the old man would
 have  had him study theology4          
,winckelmann1 free of the master's      
library1 chooses rather to become       
familiar with the ,greek  classics4     

,herodotus and ,homer win1 with their   
vowelled  ,greek1 his warmest           
enthusiasm2 whole nights of fever are   
devoted to them2 disturbing dreams of an
 #agi ,odyssey of his  own come to him4 
,he felt in himself1 says ,madame de    
,stal1  an ardent attraction towards the
 south4  ,in ,german imaginations  even 
now traces are often to be found of that
 love of the sun1 that  weariness of the
 ,north 7cette fatigue du nord71 which  
carried the  northern peoples away into 
the countries of the ,south4  ,a fine   
sky  brings to birth sentiments not     
unlike the love of one's  ,fatherland4  
,to most of us1 after all our steps     
towards it1 the antique world1 in  spite
 of its intense outlines1 its own       
perfect self-expression1 still  remains 
faint and remote4  ,to him1 closely     
limited except on the  side of the      
ideal1 building for his dark poverty a  
house not made  with hands1 it early    
came to seem more real than the present4
  ,in  the fantastic plans of foreign   

travel continually passing through  his 
mind1 to ,egypt1 for instance1 and to   
,france1 there seems  always to be      
rather a wistful sense of something lost
 to be  regained1 than the desire of    
discovering anything new4  ,goethe  has 
told us how1 in his eagerness actually  
to handle the antique1  he became       
interested in the insignificant vestiges
 of it which the  neighbourhood of      
,strasburg afforded4  ,so we hear of    
,winckelmann's boyish antiquarian       
wanderings among the ugly  ,brandenburg 
sandhills4  ,such a conformity between  
himself and  ,winckelmann1 ,goethe would
 have gladly noted4    ,at twenty-one he
 enters the ,university of ,halle1 to   
study  theology1 as his friends desire2 
#ahj instead1 he becomes the            
enthusiastic translator of ,herodotus4  
,the condition of ,greek  learning in   
,german schools and universities had    
fallen1 and there  were no professors at
 ,halle who could satisfy his sharp1    
intellectual craving4  ,of his          

professional education he always  speaks
 with scorn1 claiming to have been his  
own teacher from  first to last4  ,his  
appointed teachers did not perceive that
 a new  source of culture was within    
their hands4  ,homo vagus et            
inconstans6--one of them pedantically   
reports of the future  pilgrim to ,rome1
 unaware on which side his irony was    
whetted4  ,when professional education  
confers nothing but irritation on a     
,schiller1 no one ought to be surprised2
 for ,schiller1 and such as  he1 are    
primarily spiritual adventurers4  ,but  
that ,winckelmann1  the votary of the   
gravest of intellectual traditions1     
should get  nothing but an attempt at   
suppression from the professional       
guardians of learning1 is what may well 
surprise us4    ,in #agdc he became     
master of a school at ,seehausen4  ,this
 was the  most wearisome period of his  
life4  ,notwithstanding a success in    
dealing with children1 which seems to   
testify to something simple  and        

primeval in his nature1 he found the    
work of teaching very  depressing4      
,engaged in this work1 he writes that he
 still has  within him a longing desire 
to attain to the knowledge of beauty--  
sehnlich wnschte zur ,kenntniss des     
,schnen zu gelangen4  ,he  had to       
shorten his nights1 #aha sleeping only  
four hours1 to gain  time for reading4  
,and here ,winckelmann made a step      
forward in  culture4  ,he multiplied his
 intellectual force by detaching from it
  all flaccid interests4  ,he renounced 
mathematics and law1 in  which his      
reading had been considerable1--all but 
the literature of  the arts4  ,nothing  
was to enter into his life unpenetrated 
by its  central enthusiasm4  ,at this   
time he undergoes the charm of          
,voltaire4  ,voltaire belongs to that   
flimsier1 more artificial1  classical   
tradition1 which ,winckelmann was one   
day to supplant1  by the clear ring1 the
 eternal outline1 of the genuine        
antique4  ,but  it proves the authority 

of such a gift as ,voltaire's that it   
allures  and wins even those born to    
supplant it4  ,voltaire's impression on 
,winckelmann was never effaced2 and it  
gave him a consideration  for ,french   
literature which contrasts with his     
contempt for the  literary products of  
,germany4  ,german literature           
transformed1  siderealised1 as we see it
 in ,goethe1 reckons ,winckelmann  among
 its initiators4  ,but ,germany at that 
time presented nothing  in which he     
could have anticipated ,iphigenie1 and  
the formation  of an effective classical
 tradition in ,german literature4       
,under this purely literary influence1  
,winckelmann protests  against          
,christian ,wolff and the philosophers4 
,goethe1 in  speaking of this protest1  
alludes to his own obligations to       
,emmanuel ,kant4  ,kant's influence over
 the #ahb culture of  ,goethe1 which he 
tells us could not have been resisted by
 him  without loss1 consisted in a      
severe limitation to the concrete4  ,but

  he adds1 that in born antiquaries1    
like ,winckelmann1 a constant  handling 
of the antique1 with its eternal        
outline1 maintains that  limitation as  
effectually as a critical philosophy4   
,plato1 however1  saved so often for his
 redeeming literary manner1 is excepted 
from ,winckelmann's proscription of the 
philosophers4  ,the  modern student most
 often meets ,plato on that side which  
seems  to pass beyond ,plato into a     
world no longer pagan1 based upon  the  
conception of a spiritual life4  ,but   
the element of affinity  which he       
presents to ,winckelmann is that which  
is wholly ,greek1  and alien from the   
,christian world1 represented by that   
group of  brilliant youths in the       
,lysis1 still uninfected by any         
spiritual  sickness1 finding the end of 
all endeavour in the aspects of the     
human form1 the continual stir and      
motion of a comely human  life4    ,this
 new-found interest in ,plato's         
dialogues could not fail to  increase   

his desire to visit the countries of the
 classical tradition4  ,it is my        
misfortune1 he writes1  that ,i was not 
born to great  place1 wherein ,i might  
have had cultivation1 and the           
opportunity  of following my instinct   
and forming myself4  ,a visit to ,rome  
probably was already designed1 and he   
silently preparing for it4  ,count      
,bnau1 the author of a historical work  
then of note1 had  collected at         
,nthenitz a #ahc valuable library1 now  
part of the  library of ,dresden4  ,in  
#agdh ,winckelmann wrote to ,bnau in    
halting ,french3--,he is emboldened1 he 
says1 by ,bnau's  indulgence for needy  
men of letters4  ,he desires only to    
devote  himself to study1 having never  
allowed himself to be dazzled by        
favourable prospects in the ,church4    
,he hints at his doubtful  position in a
 metaphysical age1 by which humane      
literature is  trampled under foot4  ,at
 present1 he goes on1 little value is   
set  on ,greek literature1 to which ,i  

have devoted myself so far as ,i  could 
penetrate1 when good books are so scarce
 and expensive4  ,finally1 he desires a 
place in some corner of ,bnau's library4
  ,perhaps1 at some future time1 ,i     
shall become more useful to the  public1
 if1 drawn from obscurity in whatever   
way1 ,i can find  means to maintain     
myself in the capital4    ,soon         
afterwards we find ,winckelmann in the  
library at  ,nthenitz4  ,thence he made 
many visits to the collection of        
antiquities at ,dresden4  ,he became    
acquainted with many artists1  above all
 with ,oeser1 ,goethe's future friend   
and master1 who1  uniting a high culture
 with the practical knowledge of art1   
was  fitted to minister to              
,winckelmann's culture4  ,and now a new 
channel of communion with the ,greek    
life was opened for him4  ,hitherto he  
had handled the words only of ,greek    
poetry1 stirred  indeed and roused by   
them1 yet divining beyond the words some
  unexpressed pulsation of sensuous     

life4  ,suddenly #ahd he is in  contact 
with that life1 still fervent in the    
relics of plastic art4  ,filled as our  
culture is with the classical spirit1 we
 can hardly  imagine how deeply the     
human mind was moved1 when1 at the      
,renaissance1 in the midst of a frozen  
world1 the buried fire of  ancient art  
rose up from under the soil4            
,winckelmann here  reproduces for us the
 earlier sentiment of the ,renaissance4 
,on a  sudden the imagination feels     
itself free4  ,how facile and direct1 it
  seems to say1 is this life of the     
senses and the understanding1  when once
 we have apprehended it6  ,here1 surely1
 is that more  liberal mode of life we  
have been seeking so long1 so near to us
  all the while4  ,how mistaken and     
roundabout have been our  efforts to    
reach it by mystic passion1 and monastic
 reverie2 how  they have deflowered the 
flesh2 how little have they really      
emancipated us6  ,hermione melts from   
her stony posture1 and the  lost        

proportions of life right themselves4   
,here1 then1 in vivid  realisation we   
see the native tendency of ,winckelmann 
to escape  from abstract theory to      
intuition1 to the exercise of sight and 
touch4  ,lessing1 in the ,laocoon1 has  
theorised finely on the  relation of    
poetry to sculpture2 and philosophy may 
give us  theoretical reasons why not    
poetry but sculpture should be the  most
 sincere and exact expression of the    
,greek ideal4  ,by a  happy1 unperplexed
 dexterity1 ,winckelmann solves the     
question  in the concrete4  ,it is what 
,goethe calls his ,gewahrwerden der     
griechischen ,kunst1 his finding of     
,greek art4    #ahe ,through the        
tumultuous richness of ,goethe's        
culture1 the  influence of ,winckelmann 
is always discernible1 as the strong1   
regulative under-current of a clear1    
antique motive4  ,one learns  nothing   
from him1 he says to ,eckermann1 but one
 becomes  something4  ,if we ask what   
the secret of this influence was1       

,goethe himself will tell us--wholeness1
 unity with one's self1  intellectual   
integrity4  ,and yet these expressions1 
because they fit  ,goethe1 with his     
universal culture1 so well1 seem hardly 
to  describe the narrow1 exclusive      
interest of ,winckelmann4  ,doubtless   
,winckelmann's perfection is a narrow   
perfection3 his  feverish nursing of the
 one motive of his life is a contrast to
  ,goethe's various energy4  ,but what  
affected ,goethe1 what  instructed him  
and ministered to his culture1 was the  
integrity1 the  truth to its type1 of   
the given force4  ,the development of   
this  force was the single interest of  
,winckelmann1 unembarrassed by  anything
 else in him4  ,other interests1        
practical or intellectual1  those       
slighter talents and motives not        
supreme1 which in most  men are the     
waste part of nature1 and drain away    
their vitality1 he  plucked out and cast
 from him4  ,the protracted longing of  
his  youth is not a vague1 romantic     

longing3 he knows what he longs  for1   
what he wills4  ,within its severe      
limits his enthusiasm burns  like lava4 
,you know1 says ,lavater1 speaking of   
,winckelmann's countenance1 that ,i     
consider ardour and  indifference by no 
means incompatible in the #ahf same     
character4  ,if ever there was a        
striking instance of that union1 it is  
in the countenance before us4  ,a lowly 
childhood1 says  ,goethe1 insufficient  
instruction in youth1 broken1 distracted
  studies in early manhood1 the burden  
of school-keeping6  ,he was  thirty     
years old before he enjoyed a single    
favour of fortune3 but  so soon as he   
had attained to an adequate condition of
 freedom1  he appears before us         
consummate and entire1 complete in the  
ancient sense4    ,but his hair is      
turning grey1 and he has not yet reached
 the south4  ,the ,saxon court had      
become ,roman ,catholic1 and the way to 
favour at ,dresden was through ,roman   
ecclesiastics4  ,probably  the thought  

of a profession of the papal religion   
was not new to  ,winckelmann4  ,at one  
time he had thought of begging his way  
to  ,rome1 from cloister to cloister1   
under the pretence of a  disposition to 
change his faith4  ,in #agea1 the papal 
nuncio1  ,archinto1 was one of the      
visitors at ,nthenitz4  ,he suggested   
,rome as the fitting stage for          
,winckelmann's accomplishments1  and    
held out the hope of a place in the     
,pope's library4  ,cardinal  ,passionei1
 charmed with ,winckelmann's beautiful  
,greek writing1  was ready to play the  
part of ,maecenas1 if the indispensable 
change were made4  ,winckelmann accepted
 the bribe1 and visited  the nuncio at  
,dresden4  ,unquiet still at the word   
profession1 not  without a struggle1 he 
joined the ,roman ,church1 ,july the    
#aath1  #aged4    #ahg ,goethe boldly   
pleads that ,winckelmann was a pagan1   
that  the landmarks of ,christendom     
meant nothing to him4  ,it is clear     
that he intended to deceive no one by   

his disguise2 fears of the  inquisition 
are sometimes visible during his life in
 ,rome2 he  entered ,rome notoriously   
with the works of ,voltaire in his      
possession2 the thought of what ,count  
,bnau might be thinking  of him seems to
 have been his greatest difficulty4  ,on
 the other  hand1 he may have had a     
sense of a certain antique and as it    
were  pagan grandeur in the ,roman      
,catholic religion4  ,turning from  the 
crabbed ,protestantism1 which had been  
the ennui of his youth1  he might       
reflect that while ,rome had reconciled 
itself to the  ,renaissance1 the        
,protestant principle in art had cut off
 ,germany  from the supreme tradition of
 beauty4  ,and yet to that transparent  
nature1 with its simplicity as of the   
earlier world1 the loss of  absolute    
sincerity must have been a real loss4   
,goethe  understands that ,winckelmann  
had made this sacrifice4  ,yet at  the  
bar of the highest criticism1 perhaps1  
,winckelmann may be  absolved4  ,the    

insincerity of his religious profession 
was only  one incident of a culture in  
which the moral instinct1 like the      
religious or political1 was merged in   
the artistic4  ,but then the  artistic  
interest was that1 by desperate         
faithfulness to which  ,winckelmann was 
saved from the mediocrity1 which1       
breaking  through no bounds1 moves ever 
in a bloodless routine1 and misses  its 
one #ahh chance in the life of the      
spirit and the intellect4  ,there have  
been instances of culture developed by  
every high  motive in turn1 and yet     
intense at every point2 and the aim of  
our  culture should be to attain not    
only as intense but as complete a  life 
as possible4  ,but often the higher life
 is only possible at all1  on condition 
of the selection of that in which one's 
motive is  native and strong2 and this  
selection involves the renunciation of  
a crown reserved for others4  ,which is 
better8--to lay open a new  sense1 to   
initiate a new organ for the human      

spirit1 or to cultivate  many types of  
perfection up to a point which leaves us
 still  beyond the range of their       
transforming power8  ,savonarola is one 
type of success2 ,winckelmann is        
another2 criticism can reject  neither1 
because each is true to itself4         
,winckelmann himself  explains the      
motive of his life when he says1 ,it    
will be my  highest reward1 if posterity
 acknowledges that ,i have written      
worthily4    ,for a time he remained at 
,dresden4  ,there his first book        
appeared1 ,thoughts on the ,imitation of
 ,greek ,works of ,art in  ,painting and
 ,sculpture4  ,full of obscurities as it
 was1 obscurities  which baffled but did
 not offend ,goethe when he first turned
 to  art-criticism1 its purpose was     
direct--an appeal from the artificial   
classicism of the day to the study of   
the antique4  ,the book was  well       
received1 and a pension supplied through
 the king's  confessor4  ,in ,september 
#agee he started for ,rome1 in the      

company of a young #ahi ,jesuit4  ,he   
was introduced to ,raphael  ,mengs1 a   
painter then of note1 and found a home  
near him1 in the  artists' quarter1 in a
 place where he could overlook1 far and 
wide1 the eternal city4  ,at first he   
was perplexed with the sense  of being a
 stranger on what was to him1           
spiritually1 native soil4  ,unhappily1  
he cries in ,french1 often selected by  
him as the  vehicle of strong feeling1  
,i am one of those whom the ,greeks     
call opsimatheis4--,i have come into the
 world and into ,italy too  late4  ,more
 than thirty years afterwards1 ,goethe  
also1 after many  aspirations and severe
 preparation of mind1 visited ,italy4   
,in early  manhood1 just as he too was  
finding ,greek art1 the rumour of that  
true artist's life of ,winckelmann in   
,italy had strongly moved  him4  ,at    
,rome1 spending a whole year drawing    
from the antique1  in preparation for   
,iphigenie1 he finds the stimulus of    
,winckelmann's memory ever active4      

,winckelmann's ,roman life  was simple1 
primeval1 ,greek4  ,his delicate        
constitution permitted  him the use only
 of bread and wine4  ,condemned by many 
as a  renegade1 he had no desire for    
places of honour1 but only to see  his  
merits acknowledged1 and existence      
assured to him4  ,he was  simple without
 being niggardly2 he desired to be      
neither poor nor  rich4                 
,winckelmann's first years in ,rome     
present all the elements of an          
intellectual situation of the highest   
interest4  ,the beating of the  soul    
against its bars1 the sombre aspect1 the
 alien traditions199  #aij the still    
barbarous literature of ,germany1 are   
afar off2  before him are adequate      
conditions of culture1 the sacred soil  
itself1 the first tokens of the advent  
of the new ,german literature1  with its
 broad horizons1 its boundless          
intellectual promise4  ,dante1 passing  
from the darkness of the ,inferno1 is   
filled with a  sharp and joyful sense of

 light1 which makes him deal with it1 in
  the opening of the ,purgatorio1 in a  
wonderfully touching and  penetrative   
way4  ,hellenism1 which is the principle
 pre-eminently  of intellectual light   
7our modern culture may have more       
colour1  the medieval spirit greater    
heat and profundity1 but ,hellenism is  
pre-eminent for light71 has always been 
most effectively  conceived by those who
 have crept into it out of an           
intellectual  world in which the sombre 
elements predominate4  ,so it had been  
in the ages of the ,renaissance4  ,this 
repression1 removed at last1  gave force
 and glow to ,winckelmann's native      
affinity to the  ,hellenic spirit4      
,there had been known before him1 says  
,madame de ,stal1 learned men who might 
be consulted like  books2 but no one    
had1 if ,i may say so1 made himself a   
pagan for  the purpose of penetrating   
antiquity4  ,one is always a poor       
executant of conceptions not one's      
own4--,on excute mal ce  qu'on n'a pas  

conu soi-mme99--are true in their       
measure of  every genuine enthusiasm4   
,enthusiasm1--that1 in the broad        
,platonic sense of the ,phaedrus1 was   
the secret of #aia his  divinatory      
,power over the ,hellenic world4  ,this 
enthusiasm1  dependent as it is to a    
great degree on bodily temperament1 has 
a  power of re-enforcing the purer      
emotions of the intellect with an       
almost physical excitement4  ,that his  
affinity with ,hellenism was  not merely
 intellectual1 that the subtler threads 
of temperament  were inwoven in it1 is  
proved by his romantic1 fervent         
friendships  with young men4  ,he has   
known1 he says1 many young men more     
beautiful than ,guido's archangel4      
,these friendships1 bringing  him into  
contact with the pride of human form1   
and staining the  thoughts with its     
bloom1 perfected his reconciliation to  
the spirit  of ,greek sculpture4  ,a    
letter on taste1 addressed from ,rome to
 a  young nobleman1 ,friedrich von      

,berg1 is the record of such a          
friendship4    ,i shall excuse my delay1
 he begins1 in fulfilling my promise of 
an  essay on the taste for beauty in    
works of art1 in the words of ,pindar4  
,he says to ,agesidamus1 a youth of     
,locri--idea te kalon1 hra te           
kekramenon--whom he had kept waiting for
 an intended ode1 that a debt  paid with
 usury is the end of reproach4  ,this   
may win your good-nature  on behalf of  
my present essay1 which has turned out  
far more detailed  and circumstantial   
than ,i had at first intended4  ,it is  
from yourself  that the subject is      
taken4  ,our intercourse has been short1
 too short  both for you and me2 but the
 first time ,i saw you1 the affinity of 
our  spirits was revealed to me3 #aib   
your culture proved that my hope was    
not groundless2 and ,i found in a       
beautiful body a soul created for       
nobleness1 gifted with the sense of     
beauty4  ,my parting from you was       
therefore one of the most painful in my 

life2 and that this feeling  continues  
our common friend is witness1 for your  
separation from me  leaves me no hope of
 seeing you again4  ,let this essay be a
 memorial  of our friendship1 which1 on 
my side1 is free from every selfish     
motive1 and ever remains subject and    
dedicate to yourself alone4    ,the     
following passage is characteristic--   
,as it is confessedly the beauty of man 
which is to be conceived  under one     
general idea1 so ,i have noticed that   
those who are  observant of beauty only 
in women1 and are moved little or not at
  all by the beauty of men1 seldom have 
an impartial1 vital1 inborn  instinct   
for beauty in art4  ,to such persons the
 beauty of ,greek art  will ever seem   
wanting1 because its supreme beauty is  
rather  male than female4  ,but the     
beauty of art demands a higher          
sensibility than the beauty of nature1  
because the beauty of art1  like tears  
shed at a play1 gives no pain1 is       
without life1 and must  be awakened and 

repaired by culture4  ,now1 as the      
spirit of  culture is much more ardent  
in youth than in manhood1 the  instinct 
of which ,i am speaking must be         
exercised and directed to  what is      
beautiful1 before that age is reached1  
at which one would  be afraid to confess
 that one had no taste for it4    #aic  
,certainly1 of that beauty of living    
form which regulated  ,winckelmann's    
friendships1 it could not be said that  
it gave no  pain4  ,one notable         
friendship1 the fortune of which we may 
trace  through his letters1 begins with 
an antique1 chivalrous letter in        
,french1 and ends noisily in a burst of 
angry fire4  ,far from  reaching the    
quietism1 the bland indifference of art1
 such  attachments are nevertheless more
 susceptible than any others of  equal  
strength of a purely intellectual       
culture4  ,of passion1 of  physical     
excitement1 they contain only just so   
much as stimulates  the eye to the      
finest delicacies of colour and form4   

,these  friendships1 often the caprices 
of a moment1 make  ,winckelmann's       
letters1 with their troubled colouring1 
an  instructive but bizarre addition to 
the ,history of ,art1 that shrine of    
grave and mellow light around the mute  
,olympian family4  ,the  impression     
which ,winckelmann's literary life      
conveyed to those  about him was that of
 excitement1 intuition1 inspiration1    
rather  than the contemplative evolution
 of general principles4  ,the  quick1   
susceptible enthusiast1 betraying his   
temperament even in  appearance1 by his 
olive complexion1 his deep-seated1      
piercing  eyes1 his rapid movements1    
apprehended the subtlest principles of  
the ,hellenic manner1 not through the   
understanding1 but by  instinct or      
touch4  ,a ,german biographer of        
,winckelmann has  compared him to       
,columbus4  ,that is not the aptest of  
comparisons2  but it reminds one of     
#aid a passage in which ,edgar ,quinet  
describes the great discoverer's famous 

voyage4  ,his science was  often at     
fault2 but he had a way of estimating at
 once the slightest  indication of land1
 in a floating weed or passing bird2 he 
seemed  actually to come nearer to      
nature than other men4  ,and that world 
in which others had moved with so much  
embarrassment1 seems  to call out in    
,winckelmann new senses fitted to deal  
with it4  ,he  is in touch with it2 it  
penetrates him1 and becomes part of his 
temperament4  ,he remodels his writings 
with constant renewal of  insight2 he   
catches the thread of a whole sequence  
of laws in  some hollowing of the hand1 
or dividing of the hair2 he seems to    
realise that fancy of the reminiscence  
of a forgotten knowledge  hidden for a  
time in the mind itself2 as if the mind 
of one1 lover  and philosopher at once  
in some phase of                        
pre-existence--philosophsas  pote met'  
ertos4--fallen into a new cycle1 were   
beginning its  intellectual career over 
again1 yet with a certain power of      

anticipating its results4  ,so comes the
 truth of ,goethe's judgments  on his   
works2 they are a life1 a living thing1 
designed for those who  are alive--ein  
,lebendiges fr die ,lebendigen          
geschrieben1 ein  ,leben selbst4    ,in 
#ageh ,cardinal ,albani1 who had formed 
in his ,roman villa a  precious         
collection of antiquities1 became       
,winckelmann's patron4  ,pompeii had    
just opened its treasures2 ,winckelmann 
#aie  gathered its first-fruits4  ,but  
his plan of a visit to ,greece remained 
unfulfilled4  ,from his first arrival in
 ,rome he had kept the  ,history of     
,ancient ,art ever in view4  ,all his   
other writings were a  preparation for  
that4  ,it appeared1 finally1 in #agfd2 
but even after  its publication         
,winckelmann was still employed in      
perfecting it4  ,it is since his time   
that many of the most significant       
examples of  ,greek art have been       
submitted to criticism4  ,he had seen   
little or  nothing of what we ascribe to

 the age of ,pheidias2 and his          
conception of ,greek art tends1         
therefore1 to put the mere elegance  of 
the imperial society of ancient ,rome in
 place of the severe and  chastened     
grace of the palaestra4  ,for the most  
part he had to  penetrate to ,greek art 
through copies1 imitations1 and later   
,roman art itself2 and it is not        
surprising that this turbid medium  has 
left in ,winckelmann's actual results   
much that a more  privileged criticism  
can correct4    ,he had been twelve     
years in ,rome4  ,admiring ,germany had 
made many calls to him4  ,at last1 in   
#agfh1 he set out to revisit the        
country of his birth2 and as he left    
,rome1 a strange1 inverted              
home-sickness1 a strange reluctance to  
leave it at all1 came over  him4  ,he   
reached ,vienna4  ,there he was loaded  
with honours and  presents3 other cities
 were awaiting him4  ,goethe1 then      
nineteen  years old1 studying art at    
,leipsic1 was expecting his coming1 with

  that wistful eagerness which marked   
his youth1 when the news  #aif of       
,winckelmann's murder arrived4  ,all his
 weariness of  the ,north had revived   
with double force4  ,he left ,vienna1   
intending to hasten back to ,rome1 and  
at ,trieste a delay of a few  days      
occurred4  ,with characteristic         
openness1 ,winckelmann had  confided his
 plans to a fellow-traveller1 a man     
named ,arcangeli1  and had shown him the
 gold medals received at ,vienna4       
,arcangeli's avarice was aroused4  ,one 
morning he entered  ,winckelmann's room1
 under pretence of taking leave4        
,winckelmann was then writing memoranda 
for the future editor  of the ,history  
of ,art1 still seeking the perfection of
 his great  work4  ,arcangeli begged to 
see the medals once more4  ,as          
,winckelmann stooped down to take them  
from the chest1 a cord  was thrown round
 his neck4  ,some time afterwards1 a    
child with  whose companionship         
,winckelmann had beguiled his delay1    

knocked at the door1 and receiving no   
answer1 gave the alarm4  ,winckelmann   
was found dangerously wounded1 and died 
a few  hours later1 after receiving the 
last sacraments4  ,it seemed as if the  
gods1 in reward for his devotion to     
them1 had given him a death  which1 for 
its swiftness and its opportunity1 he   
might well have  desired4  ,he has1 says
 ,goethe1 the advantage of figuring in  
the  memory of posterity1 as one        
eternally able and strong2 for the      
image in which one leaves the world is  
that in which one moves  among the      
shadows4  ,yet1 perhaps1 it is not      
fanciful to regret that  his proposed   
#aig meeting with ,goethe never took    
place4  ,goethe1 then in all the        
pregnancy of his wonderful youth1 still 
unruffled by the press and storm of his 
earlier manhood1 was  awaiting          
,winckelmann with a curiosity of the    
worthiest kind4  ,as  it was1           
,winckelmann became to him something    
like what ,virgil  was to ,dante4  ,and 

,winckelmann1 with his fiery            
friendships1 had  reached that age and  
that period of culture at which emotions
  hitherto fitful1 sometimes concentrate
 themselves in a vital1  unchangeable   
relationship4  ,german literary history 
seems to  have lost the chance of one of
 those famous friendships1 the very     
tradition of which becomes a stimulus to
 culture1 and exercises an  imperishable
 influence4    ,in one of the frescoes  
of the ,vatican1 ,raphael has           
commemorated  the tradition of the      
,catholic religion4  ,against a space of
 tranquil  sky1 broken in upon by the   
beatific vision1 are ranged the great   
personages of ,christian history1 with  
the ,sacrament in the midst4  ,another  
fresco of ,raphael in the same apartment
 presents a very  different company1    
,dante alone appearing in both4         
,surrounded  by the muses of ,greek     
mythology1 under a thicket of laurel1   
sits  ,apollo1 with the sources of      
,castalia at his feet4  ,on either side 

are  grouped those on whom the spirit of
 ,apollo descended1 the  classical and  
,renaissance poets1 to whom the waters  
of ,castalia  #aih come down1 a river   
making glad this other city of ,god4    
,in this fresco it is the classical     
tradition1 the orthodoxy of taste1  that
 ,raphael commemorates4  ,winckelmann's 
intellectual history  authenticates the 
claims of this tradition in human       
culture4  ,in the  countries where that 
tradition arose1 where it still lurked  
about its  own artistic relics1 and     
changes of language had not broken its  
continuity1 national pride might        
sometimes light up anew an  enthusiasm  
for it4  ,aliens might imitate that     
enthusiasm1 and  classicism become from 
time to time an intellectual fashion4   
,but  ,winckelmann was not further      
removed by language1 than by  local     
aspects and associations1 from those    
vestiges of the classical  spirit2 and  
he lived at a time when1 in ,germany1   
classical studies  were out of favour4  

,yet1 remote in time and place1 he feels
 after  the ,hellenic world1 divines    
those channels of ancient art1 in  which
 its life still circulates1 and1 like   
,scyles1 the half-barbarous  yet        
,hellenising king1 in the beautiful     
story of ,herodotus1 is  irresistibly   
attracted by it4  ,this testimony to the
 authority of the  ,hellenic tradition1 
its fitness to satisfy some vital       
requirement of  the intellect1 which    
,winckelmann contributes as a solitary  
man of  genius1 is offered also by the  
general history of the mind4  ,the      
spiritual forces of the past1 which have
 prompted and informed  the culture of a
 succeeding age1 live1 indeed1 within   
that culture1  but with an absorbed1    
underground life4  ,the ,hellenic       
element  alone #aii has not been so     
absorbed1 or content with this          
underground life2 from time to time it  
has started to the surface2  culture has
 been drawn back to its sources to be   
clarified and  corrected4  ,hellenism is

 not merely an absorbed element in our  
intellectual life2 it is a conscious    
tradition in it4    ,again1 individual  
genius works ever under conditions of   
time and  place3 its products are       
coloured by the varying aspects of      
nature1  and type of human form1 and    
outward manners of life4  ,there is     
thus an element of change in art2       
criticism must never for a  moment      
forget that the artist is the child of  
his time4  ,but  besides these          
conditions of time and place1 and       
independent of  them1 there is also an  
element of permanence1 a standard of    
taste1  which genius confesses4  ,this  
standard is maintained in a purely      
intellectual tradition4  ,it acts upon  
the artist1 not as one of the           
influences of his own age1 but through  
those artistic products of  the previous
 generation which first excited1 while  
they directed  into a particular        
channel1 his sense of beauty4  ,the     
supreme  artistic products of succeeding

 generations thus form a series of      
elevated points1 taking each from each  
the reflection of a strange  light1 the 
source of which is not in the atmosphere
 around and  above them1 but in a stage 
of society remote from ours4  ,the      
standard of taste1 then1 was fixed in   
,greece1 at a definite  historical      
period4  ,a tradition for all succeeding
 generations1 it  originates in a       
spontaneous #bjj growth out of the      
influences of  ,greek society4  ,what   
were the conditions under which this    
ideal1  this standard of artistic       
orthodoxy1 was generated8  ,how was     
,greece enabled to force its thought    
upon ,europe8    ,greek art1 when we    
first catch sight of it1 is entangled   
with ,greek  religion4  ,we are         
accustomed to think of ,greek religion  
as the  religion of art and beauty1 the 
religion of which the ,olympian  ,zeus  
and the ,athena ,polias are the idols1  
the poems of ,homer the  sacred books4  
,thus ,cardinal ,newman speaks of the   

classical  polytheism which was gay and 
graceful1 as was natural in a  civilised
 age4  ,yet such a view is only a       
partial one4  ,in it the eye  is fixed  
on the sharp1 bright edge of high       
,hellenic culture1 but  loses sight of  
the sombre world across which it        
strikes4  ,greek  religion1 where we can
 observe it most distinctly1 is at once 
a  magnificent ritualistic system1 and a
 cycle of poetical  conceptions4        
,religions1 as they grow by natural laws
 out of  man's life1 are modified by    
whatever modifies his life4  ,they      
brighten under a bright sky1 they become
 liberal as the social  range widens1   
they grow intense and shrill in the     
clefts of human  life1 where the spirit 
is narrow and confined1 and the stars   
are  visible at noonday2 and a fine     
analysis of these differences is one  of
 the gravest functions of religious     
criticism4  ,still1 the broad           
foundation1 in mere human nature1 of all
 religions as they exist  for the       

greatest number1 #bja is a universal    
pagan sentiment1 a  paganism which      
existed before the ,greek religion1 and 
has  lingered far onward into the       
,christian world1 ineradicable1 like    
some persistent vegetable growth1       
because its seed is an element  of the  
very soil out of which it springs4      
,this pagan sentiment measures the      
sadness with which the  human mind is   
filled1 whenever its thoughts wander far
 from  what is here1 and now4  ,it is   
beset by notions of irresistible natural
  powers1 for the most part ranged      
against man1 but the secret also  of his
 fortune1 making the earth golden and   
the grape fiery for  him4  ,he makes    
gods in his own image1 gods smiling and 
flower-  crowned1 or bleeding by some   
sad fatality1 to console him by  their  
wounds1 never closed from generation to 
generation4  ,it is  with a rush of     
home-sickness that the thought of death 
presents  itself4  ,he would remain at  
home for ever on the earth if he could4 

,as it loses its colour and the senses  
fail1 he clings ever closer to  it2 but 
since the mouldering of bones and flesh 
must go on to the  end1 he is careful   
for charms and talismans1 which may     
chance to  have some friendly power in  
them1 when the inevitable shipwreck     
comes4  ,such sentiment is a part of the
 eternal basis of all  religions1       
modified indeed by changes of time and  
place1 but  indestructible1 because its 
root is so deep in the earth of man's   
nature4  ,the breath of religious       
initiators passes over them2 a few  rise
 up with wings as eagles1 #bjb but the  
broad level of  religious life is not   
permanently changed4  ,religious        
progress1  like all purely spiritual    
progress1 is confined to a few4  ,this  
sentiment attaches itself in the        
earliest times to certain usages of     
patriarchal life1 the kindling of fire1 
the washing of the body1 the  slaughter 
of the flock1 the gathering of harvest1 
holidays and  dances4  ,here are the    

beginnings of a ritual1 at first as     
occasional  and unfixed as the sentiment
 which it expresses1 but destined to    
become the permanent element of         
religious life4  ,the usages of         
patriarchal life change2 but this germ  
of ritual remains1 promoted  now with a 
consciously religious motive1 losing its
 domestic  character1 and therefore     
becoming more and more inexplicable     
with each generation4  ,such pagan      
worship1 in spite of local  variations1 
essentially one1 is an element in all   
religions4  ,it is the  anodyne which   
the religious principle1 like one       
administering  opiates to the incurable1
 has added to the law which makes life  
sombre for the vast majority of mankind4
    ,more definite religious conceptions
 come from other sources1 and  fix      
themselves upon this ritual in various  
ways1 changing it1 and  giving it new   
meanings4  ,in ,greece they were derived
 from  mythology1 itself not due to a   
religious source at all1 but  developing

 in the course of time into a body of   
religious  conceptions1 entirely human  
in form and character4  ,to the         
unprogressive ritual element it brought 
these conceptions1 itself-  h pterou    
dynamis1 the power of the wing--an      
element #bjc of  refinement1 of         
ascension1 with the promise of an       
endless destiny4  ,while the ritual     
remains unchanged1 the aesthetic        
element1 only  accidentally connected   
with it1 expands with the freedom and   
mobility of the things of the intellect4
  ,always1 the fixed element  is the    
religious observance2 the fluid1 unfixed
 element is the  myth1 the religious    
conception4  ,this religion is itself   
pagan1 and  has in any broad view of it 
the pagan sadness4  ,it does not at     
once1 and for the majority1 become the  
higher ,hellenic religion4  ,the country
 people1 of course1 cherish the unlovely
 idols of an  earlier time1 such as     
those which ,pausanias found still      
devoutly  preserved in ,arcadia4        

,athenaeus tells the story of one who1  
coming to a temple of ,latona1 had      
expected to find some worthy            
presentment of the mother of ,apollo1   
and laughed on seeing only  a shapeless 
wooden figure4  ,the wilder people have 
wilder gods1  which1 however1 in        
,athens1 or ,corinth1 or ,lacedaemon1   
changing  ever with the worshippers in  
whom they live and move and have  their 
being1 borrow something of the          
lordliness and distinction of  human    
nature there4  ,greek religion too has  
its mendicants1 its  purifications1 its 
antinomian mysticism1 its garments      
offered to  the gods1 its statues worn  
with kissing1 its exaggerated           
superstitions for the vulgar only1 its  
worship of sorrow1 its  addolorata1 its 
mournful mysteries4  ,scarcely a wild or
  melancholy note of the medieval church
 but was anticipated by  ,greek         
polytheism6  ,what should #bjd we have  
thought of the  vertiginous prophetess  
at the very centre of ,greek religion8  

,the  supreme ,hellenic culture is a    
sharp edge of light across this  gloom4 
,the fiery1 stupefying wine becomes in a
 happier climate  clear and             
exhilarating4  ,the ,dorian worship of  
,apollo1 rational1  chastened1 debonair1
 with his unbroken daylight1 always     
opposed  to the sad ,chthonian          
divinities1 is the aspiring element1 by 
force  and spring of which ,greek       
religion sublimes itself4  ,out of      
,greek  religion1 under happy           
conditions1 arises ,greek art1 to       
minister to  human culture4  ,it was the
 privilege of ,greek religion to be able
  to transform itself into an artistic  
ideal4    ,for the thoughts of the      
,greeks about themselves1 and their     
relation to the world generally1 were   
ever in the happiest  readiness to be   
transformed into objects for the senses4
  ,in this  lies the main distinction   
between ,greek art and the mystical art 
of  the ,christian middle age1 which is 
always struggling to express  thoughts  

beyond itself4  ,take1 for instance1 a  
characteristic work  of the middle age1 
,angelico's ,coronation of the ,virgin1 
in the  cloister of ,saint ,mark's at   
,florence4  ,in some strange halo of a  
moon ,jesus and the ,virgin ,mother are 
seated1 clad in mystical  white raiment1
 half shroud1 half priestly linen4      
,jesus1 with rosy  nimbus and the long  
pale hair--tanquam lana alba et tanquam 
nix--of the figure in the ,apocalypse1  
with slender finger-tips is  setting a  
crown of pearl on the head of ,mary1    
who1 #bje corpse-  like in her          
refinement1 is bending forward to       
receive it1 the light  lying like snow  
upon her forehead4  ,certainly1 it      
cannot be said of  ,angelico's fresco   
that it throws into a sensible form our 
highest  thoughts about man and his     
relation to the world2 but it did not do
  this adequately even for ,angelico4   
,for him1 all that is outward or        
sensible in his work--the hair like     
wool1 the rosy nimbus1 the  crown of    

pearl--is only the symbol or type of a  
really  inexpressible world1 to which he
 wishes to direct the thoughts2 he      
would have shrunk from the notion that  
what the eye  apprehended was all4      
,such forms of art1 then1 are inadequate
 to  the matter they clothe2 they remain
 ever below its level4  ,something of   
this kind is true also of oriental art4 
,as in the  middle age from an          
exaggerated inwardness1 so in the ,east 
from a  vagueness1 a want of definition1
 in thought1 the matter presented  to   
art is unmanageable1 and the forms of   
sense struggle vainly  with it4  ,the   
many-headed gods of the ,east1 the      
orientalised1  many-breasted ,diana of  
,ephesus1 like ,angelico's fresco1 are  
at  best overcharged symbols1 a means of
 hinting at an idea which art  cannot   
fitly or completely express1 which still
 remains in the  world of shadows4      
,but take a work of ,greek art1--the    
,venus of ,melos4  ,that is in no  sense
 a symbol1 a suggestion1 of anything    

beyond its own  victorious fairness4    
,the mind begins and ends with the      
finite  image1 yet loses no part of the 
spiritual motive4 #bjf ,that motive  is 
not lightly and loosely attached to the 
sensuous form1 as its  meaning to an    
allegory1 but saturates and is identical
 with it4  ,the  ,greek mind had        
advanced to a particular stage of       
self-reflexion1  but was careful not to 
pass beyond it4  ,in oriental thought   
there is  a vague conception of life    
everywhere1 but no true appreciation  of
 itself by the mind1 no knowledge of the
 distinction of man's  nature3 in its   
consciousness of itself1 humanity is    
still confused  with the fantastic1     
indeterminate life of the animal and    
vegetable  world4  ,in ,greek thought1  
on the other hand1 the lordship of the  
soul is recognised2 that lordship gives 
authority and divinity to  human eyes   
and hands and feet2 inanimate nature is 
thrown into  the background4  ,but just 
there ,greek thought finds its happy    

limit2 it has not yet become too inward2
 the mind has not yet  learned to boast 
its independence of the flesh2 the      
spirit has not  yet absorbed everything 
with its emotions1 nor reflected its own
  colour everywhere4  ,it has indeed    
committed itself to a train of          
reflexion which must end in defiance of 
form1 of all that is  outward1 in an    
exaggerated idealism4  ,but that end is 
still distant3  it has not yet plunged  
into the depths of religious mysticism4 
,this ideal art1 in which the thought   
does not outstrip or lie  beyond the    
proper range of its sensible embodiment1
 could not  have arisen out of a phase  
of life that was uncomely or poor4      
,that delicate pause in ,greek reflexion
 was joined1 by #bjg some  supreme good 
luck1 to the perfect animal nature of   
the ,greeks4  ,here are the two         
conditions of an artistic ideal4  ,the  
influences  which perfected the animal  
nature of the ,greeks are part of the   
process by which the ideal was evolved4 

,those ,mothers  who1 in the second part
 of ,faust1 mould and remould the       
typical  forms that appear in human     
history1 preside1 at the beginning of   
,greek culture1 over such a concourse of
 happy physical  conditions as ever     
generates by natural laws some rare type
 of  intellectual or spiritual life4    
,that delicate air1 nimbly and  sweetly 
recommending itself to the senses1 the  
finer aspects of  nature1 the finer lime
 and clay of the human form1 and        
modelling  of the dainty framework of   
the human countenance3--these are  the  
good luck of the ,greek when he enters  
upon life4  ,beauty  becomes a          
distinction1 like genius1 or noble      
place4    ,by no people1 says           
,winckelmann1 has beauty been so highly 
esteemed as by the ,greeks4  ,the       
priests of a youthful ,jupiter at       
,aegae1 of the ,ismenian ,apollo1 and   
the priest who at ,tanagra led  the     
procession of ,mercury1 bearing a lamb  
upon his shoulders1  were always youths 

to whom the prize of beauty had been    
awarded4  ,the citizens of ,egesta      
erected a monument to a certain         
,philip1 who was not their              
fellow-citizen1 but of ,croton1 for his 
distinguished beauty2 and the people    
made offerings at it4  ,in an  ancient  
song1 ascribed to ,simonides or         
,epicharmus1 #bjh of  four wishes1 the  
first was health1 the second beauty4    
,and as  beauty was so longed for and   
prized by the ,greeks1 every  beautiful 
person sought to become known to the    
whole people by  this distinction1 and  
above all to approve himself to the     
artists1  because they awarded the      
prize2 and this was for the artists an  
occasion for having supreme beauty ever 
before their eyes4  ,beauty even gave a 
right to fame2 and we find in ,greek    
histories  the most beautiful people    
distinguished4  ,some were famous for   
the beauty of one single part of their  
form2 as ,demetrius  ,phalereus1 for his
 beautiful eyebrows1 was called         

,charito-  blepharos4  ,it seems even to
 have been thought that the  procreation
 of beautiful children might be promoted
 by prizes4  ,this is shown by the      
existence of contests for beauty1 which 
in  ancient times were established by   
,cypselus1 ,king of ,arcadia1 by  the   
river ,alpheus2 and1 at the feast of    
,apollo of ,philae1 a prize  was offered
 to the youths for the deftest kiss4    
,this was decided  by an umpire2 as also
 at ,megara1 by the grave of ,diocles4  
,at  ,sparta1 and at ,lesbos1 in the    
temple of ,juno1 and among the          
,parrhasii1 there were contests for     
beauty among women4  ,the  general      
esteem for beauty went so far1 that the 
,spartan women set  up in their         
bedchambers a ,nireus1 a ,narcissus1 or 
a ,hyacinth1 that  they might bear      
beautiful children4    ,so1 from a few  
stray antiquarianisms1 a few #bji faces 
cast up  sharply from the waves1        
,winckelmann1 as his manner was1        
divines the temperament of the antique  

world1 and that in which it  had        
delight4  ,it has passed away with that 
distant age1 and we may  venture to     
dwell upon it4  ,what sharpness and     
reality it has is the  sharpness and    
reality of suddenly arrested life4  ,the
 ,greek system  of gymnastics originated
 as part of a religious ritual4  ,the   
worshipper was to recommend himself to  
the gods by becoming  fleet and fair1   
white and red1 like them4  ,the beauty  
of the  palaestra1 and the beauty of the
 artist's workshop1 reacted on one      
another4  ,the youth tried to rival his 
gods2 and his increased  beauty passed  
back into them4--,i take the gods to    
witness1 ,i had  rather have a fair body
 than a king's crown--,omnymi pantas    
theous  m helesthai an tn basiles archn 
anti tou kalos einai--that  is the form 
in which one age of the world chose the 
higher life4--  ,a perfect world1 if the
 gods could have seemed for ever only   
fleet  and fair1 white and red6  ,let us
 not regret that this unperplexed  youth

 of humanity1 satisfied with the vision 
of itself1 passed1 at  the due moment1  
into a mournful maturity2 for already   
the deep joy  was in store for the      
spirit1 of finding the ideal of that    
youth still  red with life in the grave4
    ,it followed that the ,greek ideal  
expressed itself pre-eminently in       
sculpture4  ,all art has a sensuous     
element1 colour1 form1 sound--in  poetry
 a dexterous recalling of these1        
together with the profound1  joyful     
sensuousness of motion1 and each #baj of
 them may be a  medium for the ideal3 it
 is partly accident which in any        
individual  case makes the born artist1 
poet1 or painter rather than sculptor4  
,but as the mind itself has had an      
historical development1 one  form of    
art1 by the very limitations of its     
material1 may be more  adequate than    
another for the expression of any one   
phase of that  development4  ,different 
attitudes of the imagination have a     
native  affinity with different types of

 sensuous form1 so that they  combine   
together1 with completeness and ease4   
,the arts may  thus be ranged in a      
series1 which corresponds to a series of
  developments in the human mind itself4
  ,architecture1 which  begins in a     
practical need1 can only express by     
vague hint or  symbol the spirit or mind
 of the artist4  ,he closes his sadness 
over  him1 or wanders in the perplexed  
intricacies of things1 or projects  his 
purpose from him clean-cut and sincere1 
or bares himself to  the sunlight4  ,but
 these spiritualities1 felt rather than 
seen1 can but  lurk about architectural 
form as volatile effects1 to be gathered
  from it by reflexion4  ,their         
expression is1 indeed1 not really       
sensuous at all4  ,as human form is not 
the subject with which it  deals1       
architecture is the mode in which the   
artistic effort centres1  when the      
thoughts of man concerning himself are  
still indistinct1  when he is still     
little preoccupied with those harmonies1

 storms1  victories1 of the unseen and  
intellectual world1 which1 wrought  out 
into the bodily form1 give it an        
interest and significance  #baa         
communicable to it alone4  ,the art of  
,egypt1 with its  supreme architectural 
effects1 is1 according to ,hegel's      
beautiful  comparison1 a ,memnon waiting
 for the day1 the day of the ,greek     
spirit1 the humanistic spirit1 with its 
power of speech4    ,again1 painting1   
music1 and poetry1 with their endless   
power of  complexity1 are the special   
arts of the romantic and modern ages4   
,into these1 with the utmost attenuation
 of detail1 may be  translated every    
delicacy of thought and feeling1        
incidental to a  consciousness brooding 
with delight over itself4  ,through     
their  gradations of shade1 their       
exquisite intervals1 they project in an 
external form that which is most inward 
in passion or sentiment4  ,between      
architecture and those romantic arts of 
painting1 music1  and poetry1 comes     

sculpture1 which1 unlike architecture1  
deals  immediately with man1 while it   
contrasts with the romantic arts1       
because it is not self-analytical4  ,it 
has to do more exclusively  than any    
other art with the human form1 itself   
one entire medium  of spiritual         
expression1 trembling1 blushing1 melting
 into dew1  with inward excitement4     
,that spirituality which only lurks     
about  architecture as a volatile       
effect1 in sculpture takes up the whole 
given material1 and penetrates it with  
an imaginative motive2 and  at first    
sight sculpture1 with its solidity of   
form1 seems a thing  more real and full 
than the faint1 abstract world of poetry
 or  painting4  ,still the fact is the  
reverse4  ,discourse and action show    
man as he is1 more directly than the    
play of #bab the muscles and  the       
moulding of the flesh2 and over these   
poetry has command4  ,painting1 by the  
flushing of colour in the face and      
dilatation of  light in the eye--music1 

by its subtle range of tones--can refine
  most delicately upon a single moment  
of passion1 unravelling its  subtlest   
threads4    ,but why should sculpture   
thus limit itself to pure form8         
,because1  by this limitation1 it       
becomes a perfect medium of expression  
for  one peculiar motive of the         
imaginative intellect4  ,it therefore   
renounces all those attributes of its   
material which do not forward  that     
motive4  ,it has had1 indeed1 from the  
beginning an unfixed  claim to colour2  
but this element of colour in it has    
always been  more or less conventional1 
with no melting or modulation of  tones1
 never permitting more than a very      
limited realism4  ,it was  maintained   
chiefly as a religious tradition4  ,in  
proportion as the  art of sculpture     
ceased to be merely decorative1 and     
subordinate  to architecture1 it threw  
itself upon pure form4  ,it renounces   
the  power of expression by lower or    
heightened tones4  ,in it1 no  member of

 the human form is more significant than
 the rest2 the  eye is wide1 and without
 pupil2 the lips and brow are hardly    
less  significant than hands1 and       
breasts1 and feet4  ,but the limitation 
of  its resources is part of its pride3 
it has no backgrounds1 no sky or        
atmosphere1 to suggest and interpret a  
train of feeling2 a little of  suggested
 motion1 and much of pure light on its  
gleaming  surfaces1 with pure form--only
 these4    #bac ,and it gains more than 
it loses by this limitation to its own  
distinguishing motives2 it unveils man  
in the repose of his  unchanging        
characteristics4  ,that white light1    
purged from the  angry1 blood-like      
stains of action and passion1 reveals1  
not what is  accidental in man1 but the 
tranquil godship in him1 as opposed to  
the restless accidents of life4  ,the   
art of sculpture records the first      
nave1 unperplexed recognition of man by 
himself2 and it is a  proof of the high 
artistic capacity of the ,greeks1 that  

they  apprehended and remained true to  
these exquisite limitations1 yet1  in   
spite of them1 gave to their creations a
 mobile1 a vital1  individuality4       
,heiterkeit--blitheness or repose1 and  
,allgemeinheit--generality or  breadth1 
are1 then1 the supreme characteristics  
of the ,hellenic  ideal4  ,but that     
generality or breadth has nothing in    
common with  the lax observation1 the   
unlearned thought1 the flaccid          
execution1  which have sometimes claimed
 superiority in art1 on the plea of     
being broad or general4  ,hellenic      
breadth and generality  come of a       
culture minute1 severe1 constantly      
renewed1 rectifying  and concentrating  
its impressions into certain pregnant   
types4    ,the basis of all artistic    
genius lies in the power of conceiving  
humanity in a new and striking way1 of  
putting a happy world of  its own       
creation in place of the meaner world of
 our common  days1 generating around    
itself an atmosphere with a novel power 

of refraction1 selecting1 transforming1 
recombining the images it  transmits1   
according to #bad the choice of the     
imaginative  intellect4  ,in exercising 
this power1 painting and poetry have a  
variety of subject almost unlimited4    
,the range of characters or  persons    
open to them is as various as life      
itself2 no character1  however trivial1 
misshapen1 or unlovely1 can resist their
 magic4  ,that is because those arts can
 accomplish their function in the       
choice and development of some special  
situation1 which lifts or  glorifies a  
character1 in itself not poetical4  ,to 
realise this  situation1 to define1 in a
 chill and empty atmosphere1 the focus  
where rays1 in themselves pale and      
impotent1 unite and begin to  burn1 the 
artist may have1 indeed1 to employ the  
most cunning  detail1 to complicate and 
refine upon thought and passion a       
thousand-fold4  ,let us take a brilliant
 example from the poems of  ,robert     
,browning4  ,his poetry is pre-eminently

 the poetry of  situations4  ,the       
characters themselves are always of     
secondary  importance2 often they are   
characters in themselves of little      
interest2 they seem to come to him by   
strange accidents from the  ends of the 
world4  ,his gift is shown by the way in
 which he  accepts such a character1    
throws it into some situation1 or       
apprehends it in some delicate pause of 
life1 in which for a  moment it becomes 
ideal4  ,in the poem entitled ,le ,byron
 de nos  ,jours1 in his ,dramatis       
,personae1 we have a single moment of   
passion thrown into relief after this   
exquisite fashion4  ,those two  jaded   
,parisians are not intrinsically        
interesting3 they begin to  interest us 
only #bae when thrown into a choice     
situation4  ,but to  discriminate that  
moment1 to make it appreciable by us1   
that we  may find it1 what a cobweb of  
allusions1 what double and treble       
reflexions of the mind upon itself1 what
 an artificial light is  constructed and

 broken over the chosen situation2 on   
how fine a  needle's point that little  
world of passion is balanced6  ,yet1 in 
spite of this intricacy1 the poem has   
the clear ring of a central  motive4    
,we receive from it the impression of   
one imaginative  tone1 of a single      
creative act4    ,to produce such       
effects at all requires all the         
resources of  painting1 with its power  
of indirect expression1 of subordinate  
but  significant detail1 its atmosphere1
 its foregrounds and  backgrounds4 ,to  
produce them in a pre-eminent degree    
requires  all the resources of poetry1  
language in its most purged form1 its   
remote associations and suggestions1 its
 double and treble lights4  ,these      
appliances sculpture cannot command4    
,in it1 therefore1 not  the special     
situation1 but the type1 the general    
character of the  subject to be         
delineated1 is all-important4  ,in      
poetry and painting1  the situation     
predominates over the character2 in     

sculpture1 the  character over the      
situation4  ,excluded by the proper     
limitation of  its material from the    
development of exquisite situations1 it 
has to  choose from a select number of  
types intrinsically interesting--       
interesting1 that is1 independently of  
any special situation into  which they  
may be thrown4  ,sculpture #baf finds   
the secret of its  power in presenting  
these types1 in their broad1 central1   
incisive  lines4  ,this it effects not  
by accumulation of detail1 but by       
abstracting from it4  ,all that is      
accidental1 all that distracts the      
simple effect upon us of the supreme    
types of humanity1 all traces  in them  
of the commonness of the world1 it      
gradually purges  away4    ,works of art
 produced under this law1 and only      
these1 are really  characterised by     
,hellenic generality or breadth4  ,in   
every  direction it is a law of         
restraint4  ,it keeps passion always    
below  that degree of intensity at which

 it must necessarily be transitory1     
never winding up the features to one    
note of anger1 or desire1 or  surprise4 
,in some of the feebler allegorical     
designs of the middle  age1 we find     
isolated qualities portrayed as by so   
many masks2 its  religious art has      
familiarised us with faces fixed        
immovably into  blank types of placid   
reverie4  ,men and women1 again1 in the 
hurry of life1 often wear the sharp     
impress of one absorbing  motive1 from  
which it is said death sets their       
features free4  ,all  such instances may
 be ranged under the grotesque2 and the 
,hellenic ideal has nothing in common   
with the grotesque4  ,it  allows passion
 to play lightly over the surface of the
 individual  form1 losing thereby       
nothing of its central impassivity1 its 
depth  and repose4  ,to all but the     
highest culture1 the reserved faces of  
the gods will ever have something of    
insipidity4    #bag ,again1 in the best 
,greek sculpture1 the archaic immobility

  has been stirred1 its forms are in    
motion2 but it is a motion ever  kept in
 reserve1 and very seldom committed to  
any definite  action4  ,endless as are  
the attitudes of ,greek sculpture1      
exquisite  as is the invention of the   
,greeks in this direction1 the actions  
or  situations it permits are simple and
 few4  ,there is no ,greek  ,madonna2   
the goddesses are always childless4     
,the actions  selected are those which  
would be without significance1 except in
  a divine person--binding on a sandal  
or preparing for the bath4  ,when a more
 complex and significant action is      
permitted1 it is  most often represented
 as just finished1 so that eager        
expectancy  is excluded1 as in the image
 of ,apollo just after the slaughter of 
the ,python1 or of ,venus with the apple
 of ,paris already in her  hand4  ,the  
,laocoon1 with all that patient science 
through which it  has triumphed over an 
almost unmanageable subject1 marks a    
period in which sculpture has begun to  

aim at effects legitimate1  because     
delightful1 only in painting4    ,the   
hair1 so rich a source of expression in 
painting1 because1  relatively to the   
eye or the lip1 it is mere drapery1 is  
withdrawn  from attention2 its texture1 
as well as its colour1 is lost1 its     
arrangement but faintly and severely    
indicated1 with no broken or  enmeshed  
light4  ,the eyes are wide and          
directionless1 not fixing  anything with
 their gaze1 nor riveting the brain to  
any special  #bah external object1 the  
brows without hair4  ,again1 ,greek     
sculpture deals almost exclusively with 
youth1 where the  moulding of the bodily
 organs is still as if suspended between
  growth and completion1 indicated but  
not emphasised2 where the  transition   
from curve to curve is so delicate and  
elusive1 that  ,winckelmann compares it 
to a quiet sea1 which1 although we      
understand it to be in motion1 we       
nevertheless regard as an image  of     
repose2 where1 therefore1 the exact     

degree of development is so  hard to    
apprehend4  ,if a single product only of
 ,hellenic art were  to be saved in the 
wreck of all beside1 one might choose   
perhaps  from the beautiful multitude of
 the ,panathenaic frieze1 that line  of 
youths on horseback1 with their level   
glances1 their proud1  patient lips1    
their chastened reins1 their whole      
bodies in exquisite  service4  ,this    
colourless1 unclassified purity of life1
 with its  blending and interpenetration
 of intellectual1 spiritual1 and        
physical elements1 still folded         
together1 pregnant with the             
possibilities of a whole world closed   
within it1 is the highest  expression of
 the indifference which lies beyond all 
that is  relative or partial4           
,everywhere there is the effect of an   
awaking1  of a child's sleep just       
disturbed4  ,all these effects are      
united in a  single instance--the       
adorante of the museum of ,berlin1 a    
youth  who has gained the wrestler's    

prize1 with hands lifted and open1  in  
praise for the victory4  ,fresh1        
unperplexed1 it is the image of a  man  
as he springs first from the sleep of   
nature1 his white light  #bai taking no 
colour from any one-sided experience4   
,he is  characterless1 so far as        
character involves subjection to the    
accidental influences of life4    ,this 
sense1 says ,hegel1 for the consummate  
modelling of  divine and human forms was
 pre-eminently at home in ,greece4  ,in 
its poets and orators1 its historians   
and philosophers1 ,greece  cannot be    
conceived from a central point1 unless  
one brings1 as a  key to the            
understanding of it1 an insight into the
 ideal forms of  sculpture1 and regards 
the images of statesmen and             
philosophers1  as well as epic and      
dramatic heroes1 from the artistic point
 of  view4  ,for those who act1 as well 
as those who create and think1  have1 in
 those beautiful days of ,greece1 this  
plastic character4  ,they are great and 

free1 and have grown up on the soil of  
their  own individuality1 creating      
themselves out of themselves1 and       
moulding themselves to what they were1  
and willed to be4  ,the  age of         
,pericles was rich in such characters2  
,pericles himself1  ,pheidias1 ,plato1  
above all ,sophocles1 ,thucydides also1 
,xenophon  and ,socrates1 each in his   
own order1 the perfection of one        
remaining undiminished by that of the   
others4  ,they are ideal  artists of    
themselves1 cast each in one flawless   
mould1 works of  art1 which stand before
 us as an immortal presentment of the   
gods4  ,of this modelling also are those
 bodily works of art1 the  victors in   
the ,olympic games2 yes6 and even       
,phryne1 who1 as the  most beautiful of 
women1 #bbj ascended naked out of the   
water1  in the presence of assembled    
,greece4    ,this key to the            
understanding of the ,greek spirit1     
,winckelmann  possessed in his own      
nature1 itself like a relic of classical

  antiquity1 laid open by accident to   
our alien1 modern atmosphere4  ,to the  
criticism of that consummate ,greek     
modelling he brought  not only his      
culture but his temperament4  ,we have  
seen how  definite was the leading      
motive of that culture2 how1 like some  
central root-fibre1 it maintained the   
well-rounded unity of his life  through 
a thousand distractions4  ,interests not
 his1 nor meant for  him1 never         
disturbed him4  ,in morals1 as in       
criticism1 he followed  the clue of     
instinct1 of an unerring instinct4      
,penetrating into the  antique world by 
his passion1 his temperament1 he        
enunciated no  formal principles1 always
 hard and one-sided4  ,minute and       
anxious as his culture was1 he never    
became one-sidedly self-  analytical4   
,occupied ever with himself1 perfecting 
himself and  developing his genius1 he  
was not content1 as so often happens    
with such natures1 that the atmosphere  
between him and other  minds should be  

thick and clouded2 he was ever jealously
  refining his meaning into a form1     
express1 clear1 objective4  ,this       
temperament he nurtured and invigorated 
by friendships which  kept him always in
 direct contact with the spirit of      
youth4  ,the  beauty of the ,greek      
statues was a sexless beauty3 the       
statues of  the gods had the least      
traces of sex4 #bba ,here there is a    
moral  sexlessness1 a kind of           
ineffectual wholeness of nature1 yet    
with a  true beauty and significance of 
its own4    ,one result of this         
temperament is a                        
serenity--,heiterkeit--which            
characterises ,winckelmann's handling of
 the sensuous side of  ,greek art4      
,this serenity is1 perhaps1 in great    
measure1 a negative  quality3 it is the 
absence of any sense of want1 or        
corruption1 or  shame4  ,with the       
sensuous element in ,greek art he deals 
in the  pagan manner2 and what is       
implied in that8  ,it has been          

sometimes said that art is a means of   
escape from the tyranny of  the senses4 
,it may be so for the spectator3 he may 
find that the  spectacle of supreme     
works of art takes from the life of the 
senses  something of its turbid fever4  
,but this is possible for the  spectator
 only because the artist1 in producing  
those works1 has  gradually sunk his    
intellectual and spiritual ideas in     
sensuous  form4  ,he may live1 as ,keats
 lived1 a pure life2 but his soul1 like 
that of ,plato's false astronomer1      
becomes more and more  immersed in      
sense1 until nothing which lacks the    
appeal to sense  has interest for him4  
,how could such an one ever again endure
  the greyness of the ideal or spiritual
 world8  ,the spiritualist is  satisfied
 as he watches the escape of the        
sensuous elements from  his conceptions2
 his interest grows1 as the dyed garment
 bleaches  in the keener air4  ,but the 
artist steeps his thought again and     
again  into the fire of colour4  ,to the

 ,greek this immersion in #bbb the      
sensuous was1 religiously1 at least1    
indifferent4  ,greek  sensuousness1     
therefore1 does not fever the           
conscience3 it is  shameless and        
childlike4  ,christian asceticism1 on   
the other hand1  discrediting the       
slightest touch of sense1 has from time 
to time  provoked into strong emphasis  
the contrast or antagonism to  itself1  
of the artistic life1 with its          
inevitable sensuousness4--,i did  but   
taste a little honey with the end of the
 rod that was in mine  hand1 and lo6 ,i 
must die4--,it has sometimes seemed hard
 to  pursue that life without something 
of conscious disavowal of a  spiritual  
world2 and this imparts to genuine      
artistic interests a  kind of           
intoxication4  ,from this intoxication  
,winckelmann is free3  he fingers those 
pagan marbles with unsinged hands1 with 
no  sense of shame or loss4  ,that is to
 deal with the sensuous side of  art in 
the pagan manner4    ,the longer we     

contemplate that ,hellenic ideal1 in    
which man is at  unity with himself1    
with his physical nature1 with the      
outward  world1 the more we may be      
inclined to regret that he should ever  
have passed beyond it1 to contend for a 
perfection that makes the  blood turbid1
 and frets the flesh1 and discredits the
 actual world  about us4  ,but if he was
 to be saved from the ennui which ever  
attaches itself to realisation1 even the
 realisation of the perfect  life1 it   
was necessary that a conflict should    
come1 that some  sharper note should    
grieve the existing harmony1 and the    
spirit  chafed by it beat out at last   
only a larger and profounder music4     
#bbc ,in ,greek tragedy this conflict   
has begun3 man finds himself  face to   
face with rival claims4  ,greek tragedy 
shows how such a  conflict may be       
treated with serenity1 how the evolution
 of it may  be a spectacle of the       
dignity1 not of the impotence1 of the   
human  spirit4  ,but it is not only in  

tragedy that the ,greek spirit showed   
itself capable of thus bringing joy out 
of matter in itself full of             
discouragements4  ,theocritus too       
strikes often a note of romantic        
sadness4  ,but what a blithe and steady 
poise1 above these  discouragements1 in 
a clear and sunny stratum of the air6   
,into this stage of ,greek achievement  
,winckelmann did not enter4  ,supreme as
 he is where his true interest lay1 his 
insight into the  typical unity and     
repose of the highest sort of sculpture 
seems to  have involved limitation in   
another direction4  ,his conception of  
art excludes that bolder type of it     
which deals confidently and  serenely   
with life1 conflict1 evil4  ,living in a
 world of exquisite  but abstract and   
colourless form1 he could hardly have   
conceived  of the subtle and            
penetrative1 yet somewhat grotesque art 
of the  modern world4  ,what would he   
have thought of ,gilliatt1 in ,victor   
,hugo's ,travailleurs de la ,mer1 or of 

the bleeding mouth of  ,fantine in the  
first part of ,les ,misrables1          
penetrated as those  books are with a   
sense of beauty1 as lively and          
transparent as that  of a ,greek8  ,nay1
 a sort of preparation for the romantic 
temper is  noticeable even within the   
limits of the ,greek ideal itself1 #bbd 
which for his part ,winckelmann failed  
to see4  ,for ,greek religion  has not  
merely its mournful mysteries of        
,adonis1 of ,hyacinthus1  of ,demeter1  
but it is conscious also of the fall of 
earlier divine  dynasties4  ,hyperion   
gives way to ,apollo1 ,oceanus to       
,poseidon4  ,around the feet of that    
tranquil ,olympian family still crowd   
the  weary shadows of an earlier1 more  
formless1 divine world4  ,the  placid   
minds even of ,olympian gods are        
troubled with thoughts  of a limit to   
duration1 of inevitable decay1 of       
dispossession4  ,again1 the supreme and 
colourless abstraction of those divine  
forms1 which is the secret of their     

repose1 is also a premonition of  the   
fleshless1 consumptive refinements of   
the pale1 medieval  artists4  ,that high
 indifference to the outward1 that      
impassivity1  has already a touch of the
 corpse in it3 we see already ,angelico 
and the ,master of the ,passion in the  
artistic future4  ,the  suppression of  
the sensuous1 the shutting of the door  
upon it1 the  ascetic interest1 may be  
even now foreseen4  ,those abstracted   
gods1 ready to melt out their essence   
fine into the winds1 who  can fold up   
their flesh as a garment1 and still     
remain themselves1  seem already to feel
 that bleak air1 in which like ,helen of
 ,troy1  they wander as the spectres of 
the middle age4    ,gradually1 as the   
world came into the church1 an artistic 
interest1  native in the human soul1    
reasserted its claims4  ,but ,christian 
art  was still dependent on pagan       
examples1 building the #bbe shafts  of  
pagan temples into its churches1        
perpetuating the form of the  basilica1 

in later times working the disused      
amphitheatres as  stone quarries4  ,the 
sensuous expression of ideas which      
unreservedly discredit the world of     
sense1 was the delicate  problem which  
,christian art had before it4  ,if we   
think of  medieval painting1 as it      
ranges from the early ,german schools1  
still with something of the air of the  
charnel-house about them1 to  the clear 
loveliness of ,perugino1 we shall see   
how that problem  was solved4  ,in the  
very worship of sorrow the native       
blitheness  of art asserted itself4     
,the religious spirit1 as ,hegel says1  
smiled  through its tears4  ,so         
perfectly did the young ,raphael infuse 
that  ,heiterkeit1 that pagan           
blitheness1 into religious works1 that  
his  picture of ,saint ,agatha at       
,bologna became to ,goethe a step in    
the evolution of ,iphigenie499  ,but in 
proportion as the gift of  smiling was  
found once more1 there came also an     
aspiration  towards that lost antique   

art1 some relics of which ,christian art
  had buried in itself1 ready to work   
wonders when their day came4    ,the    
history of art has suffered as much as  
any history by  trenchant and absolute  
divisions4  ,pagan and ,christian art   
are  sometimes harshly opposed1 and the 
,renaissance is represented  as a       
fashion which set in at a definite      
period4  ,that is the  superficial view3
 the deeper view is that which preserves
 the  identity of ,european culture4    
#bbf ,the two are really continuous2    
and there is a sense in which it may be 
said that the ,renaissance  was an      
uninterrupted effort of the middle age1 
that it was ever  taking place4  ,when  
the actual relics of the antique were   
restored  to the world1 in the view of  
the ,christian ascetic it was as if an  
ancient plague-pit had been opened4     
,all the world took the  contagion of   
the life of nature and of the senses4   
,and now it was  seen that the medieval 
spirit too had done something for the   

new  fortunes of the antique4  ,by      
hastening the decline of art1 by        
withdrawing interest from it and yet    
keeping unbroken the thread  of its     
traditions1 it had suffered the human   
mind to repose itself1  that when day   
came it might awake1 with eyes          
refreshed1 to those  ancient1 ideal     
forms4    ,the aim of a right criticism 
is to place ,winckelmann in an          
intellectual perspective1 of which      
,goethe is the foreground4  ,for1  after
 all1 he is infinitely less than        
,goethe2 and it is chiefly because  at  
certain points he comes in contact with 
,goethe1 that criticism  entertains     
consideration of him4  ,his relation to 
modern culture is  a peculiar one4  ,he 
is not of the modern world2 nor is he   
wholly  of the eighteenth century1      
although so much of his outer life is   
characteristic of it4  ,but that note of
 revolt against the eighteenth  century1
 which we detect in ,goethe1 was struck 
by ,winckelmann4  ,goethe illustrates a 

union of the ,romantic spirit1 in its   
adventure1  its variety1 its profound   
subjectivity of soul1 with ,hellenism1  
#bbg in its transparency1 its           
rationality1 its desire of beauty--that 
marriage of ,faust and ,helena1 of which
 the art of the nineteenth  century is  
the child1 the beautiful lad ,euphorion1
 as ,goethe  conceives him1 on the      
crags1 in the splendour of battle and in
  harness as for victory1 his brows     
bound with light499  ,goethe            
illustrates1 too1 the preponderance in  
this marriage of the ,hellenic  element2
 and that element1 in its true essence1 
was made known to  him by ,winckelmann4 
,breadth1 centrality1 with blitheness   
and repose1 are the marks of  ,hellenic 
culture4  ,is such culture a lost art8  
,the local1 accidental  colouring of its
 own age has passed from it2 and the    
greatness that  is dead looks greater   
when every link with what is slight and 
vulgar has been severed4  ,we can only  
see it at all in the  reflected1 refined

 light which a great education creates  
for us4  ,can we bring down that ideal  
into the gaudy1 perplexed light of      
modern life8    ,certainly1 for us of   
the modern world1 with its conflicting  
claims1  its entangled interests1       
distracted by so many sorrows1 with many
  preoccupations1 so bewildering an     
experience1 the problem of  unity with  
ourselves1 in blitheness and repose1 is 
far harder than it  was for the ,greek  
within the simple terms of antique life4
  ,yet1  not less than ever1 the        
intellect demands completeness1         
centrality4  ,it is this which          
,winckelmann imprints on the imagination
 of  #bbh ,goethe1 at the beginning of  
life1 in its original and simplest      
form1 as in a fragment of ,greek art    
itself1 stranded on that  littered1     
indeterminate shore of ,germany in the  
eighteenth  century4  ,in ,winckelmann1 
this type comes to him1 not as in a     
book or a theory1 but more              
importunately1 because in a passionate  

life1 in a personality4  ,for ,goethe1  
possessing all modern  interests1 ready 
to be lost in the perplexed currents of 
modern  thought1 he defines1 in clearest
 outline1 the eternal problem of        
culture--balance1 unity with one's self1
 consummate ,greek  modelling4     ,it  
could no longer be solved1 as in ,phryne
 ascending naked out of  the water1 by  
perfection of bodily form1 or any joyful
 union with  the external world3 the    
shadows had grown too long1 the light   
too  solemn1 for that4  ,it could hardly
 be solved1 as in ,pericles or          
,pheidias1 by the direct exercise of any
 single talent3 amid the  manifold      
claims of our modern intellectual life1 
that could only  have ended in a thin1  
one-sided growth4  ,goethe's ,hellenism 
was  of another order1 the              
,allgemeinheit and ,heiterkeit1 the     
completeness and serenity1 of a         
watchful1 exigent intellectualism4  ,im 
,ganzen1 ,guten1 ,wahren1 resolut zu    
leben3--is ,goethe's  description of his

 own higher life2 and what is meant by  
life in  the whole--im ,ganzen8  ,it    
means the life of one for whom1 over    
and over again1 what was once precious  
has become indifferent4  ,every one who 
aims at the life of culture is met by   
many forms of  it1 arising out #bbi of  
the intense1 laborious1 one-sided       
development of some special talent4     
,they are the brightest  enthusiasms the
 world has to show3 and it is not their 
part to  weigh the claims which this or 
that alien form of genius makes  upon   
them4  ,but the proper instinct of      
self-culture cares not so  much to reap 
all that those various forms of genius  
can give1 as to  find in them its own   
strength4  ,the demand of the intellect 
is to  feel itself alive4  ,it must see 
into the laws1 the operation1 the       
intellectual reward of every divided    
form of culture2 but only that  it may  
measure the relation between itself and 
them4  ,it struggles  with those forms  
till its secret is won from each1 and   

then lets  each fall back into its      
place1 in the supreme1 artistic view of 
life4  ,with a kind of passionate       
coldness1 such natures rejoice to be    
away from and past their former selves1 
and above all1 they are  jealous of that
 abandonment to one special gift which  
really  limits their capabilities4  ,it 
would have been easy for ,goethe1  with 
the gift of a sensuous nature1 to let it
 overgrow him4  ,it  comes easily and   
naturally1 perhaps1 to certain          
other-worldly  natures to be even as the
 ,schne ,seele1 that ideal of gentle    
pietism1 in ,wilhelm ,meister3 but to   
the large vision of ,goethe1  this      
seemed to be a phase of life that a man 
might feel all round1  and leave behind 
him4  ,again1 it is easy to indulge the 
commonplace metaphysical instinct4  ,but
 a taste for metaphysics  may be one of 
those things which we must renounce1 if 
we #bcj  mean to mould our lives to     
artistic perfection4  ,philosophy serves
  culture1 not by the fancied gift of   

absolute or transcendental  knowledge1  
but by suggesting questions which help  
one to detect  the passion1 and         
strangeness1 and dramatic contrasts of  
life4    ,but ,goethe's culture did not 
remain behind the veil3 it ever  emerged
 in the practical functions of art1 in  
actual production4  ,for him the problem
 came to be3--,can the blitheness and   
universality of the antique ideal be    
communicated to artistic  productions1  
which shall contain the fulness of the  
experience of  the modern world8  ,we   
have seen that the development of the   
various forms of art has corresponded to
 the development of the  thoughts of man
 concerning humanity1 to the growing    
revelation  of the mind to itself4      
,sculpture corresponds to the           
unperplexed1  emphatic outlines of      
,hellenic humanism2 painting to the     
mystic  depth and intricacy of the      
middle age2 music and poetry have  their
 fortune in the modern world4    ,let us
 understand by poetry all literary      

production which attains  the power of  
giving pleasure by its form1 as distinct
 from its  matter4  ,only in this varied
 literary form can art command that     
width1 variety1 delicacy of resources1  
which will enable it to deal  with the  
conditions of modern life4  ,what modern
 art has to do in  the service of       
culture is so to rearrange the details  
of modern life1  so to reflect it1 that 
it may satisfy the spirit4 #bca ,and    
what does  the spirit need in the face  
of modern life8  ,the sense of freedom4 
,that nave1 rough sense of freedom1     
which supposes man's will  to be        
limited1 if at all1 only by a will      
stronger than his1 he can  never have   
again4  ,the attempt to represent it in 
art would have  so little verisimilitude
 that it would be flat and              
uninteresting4  ,the  chief factor in   
the thoughts of the modern mind         
concerning itself  is the intricacy1 the
 universality of natural law1 even in   
the moral  order4  ,for us1 necessity is

 not1 as of old1 a sort of mythological 
personage without us1 with whom we can  
do warfare4  ,it is rather  a magic web 
woven through and through us1 like that 
magnetic  system of which modern science
 speaks1 penetrating us with a  network1
 subtler than our subtlest nerves1 yet  
bearing in it the  central forces of the
 world4  ,can art represent men and     
women in  these bewildering toils so as 
to give the spirit at least an          
equivalent for the sense of freedom8    
,certainly1 in ,goethe's  romances1 and 
even more in the romances of ,victor    
,hugo1 we  have high examples of modern 
art dealing thus with modern life1      
regarding that life as the modern mind  
must regard it1 yet  reflecting upon it 
blitheness and repose4  ,natural laws we
 shall  never modify1 embarrass us as   
they may2 but there is still  something 
in the nobler or less noble attitude    
with which we  watch their fatal        
combinations4  ,in those romances of    
,goethe and  ,victor ,hugo1 in some     

excellent work done after them1 this    
#bcb  entanglement1 this network of law1
 becomes the tragic situation1  in which
 certain groups of noble men and women  
work out for  themselves a supreme      
,dnouement4  ,who1 if he saw through    
all1  would fret against the chain of   
circumstance which endows one at  the   
end with those great experiences8       
#ahfg4      ,,notes    #ahi4 ,liddell   
and ,scott definition3 late in learning1
 late to learn4    #aij4 99,words of    
,charlotte ,corday before the           
,convention4    #aia4 ,pindar1 ,odes    
,book ,o41 poem #aj1 line #ii4  ,e-text 
editor's  translation3 beautiful in     
appearance1 and blended with the fresh  
spring of youth444    #aid4             
,transliteration3 philosophsas pote met'
 ertos4  ,translation3  ,seeking        
knowledge alongside love4    #bji4      
,symposium1 ,chapter #d1 section #aa1   
line #c4  ,e4,c4 ,marchant1             
,xenophontis opera omnia1 vol4 #b1 #bnd 
ed4 ,oxford3 ,clarendon  ,press1 #aiba  

7repr4 #aiga74    #bbe4 99,italinische  
,reise4  ,bologna1 #ai ,oct4  #aggf4    
#bbg4 99,faust1 ,th4 ii4 ,act4 #c4      
,,conclusion99    ,legei pou ,hrakleitos
 hoti panta chorei kai ouden menei4     
#bcc ,,to regard all things and         
principles of things as inconstant      
modes or fashions has more and more     
become the tendency of modern  thought4 
,let us begin with that which is        
without--our physical  life4  ,fix upon 
it in one of its more exquisite         
intervals1 the  moment1 for instance1 of
 delicious recoil from the flood of     
water  in summer heat4  ,what is the    
whole physical life in that moment  but 
a combination of natural elements to    
which science gives  their names8  ,but 
those elements1 phosphorus and lime and 
delicate fibres1 are present not in the 
human body alone3 we  detect them in    
places most remote from it4  ,our       
physical life is a  perpetual motion of 
them--the passage of the blood1 the     
waste  and repairing of the lenses of   

the eye1 #bcd the modification of  the  
tissues of the brain under every ray of 
light and sound--  processes which      
science reduces to simpler and more     
elementary  forces4  ,like the elements 
of which we are composed1 the action  of
 these forces extends beyond us3 it     
rusts iron and ripens corn4  ,far out on
 every side of us those elements are    
broadcast1 driven  in many currents2 and
 birth and gesture and death and the    
springing of violets from the grave are 
but a few out of ten  thousand resultant
 combinations4  ,that clear1 perpetual  
outline of  face and limb is but an     
image of ours1 under which we group     
them--a design in a web1 the actual     
threads of which pass out  beyond it4   
,this at least of flamelike our life    
has1 that it is but the  concurrence1   
renewed from moment to moment1 of forces
 parting  sooner or later on their ways4
    ,or if we begin with the inward     
world of thought and feeling1 the       
whirlpool is still more rapid1 the flame

 more eager and devouring4  ,there it is
 no longer the gradual darkening of the 
eye1 the gradual  fading of colour from 
the wall--movements of the shore-side1  
where the water flows down indeed1      
though in apparent rest--but  the race  
of the mid-stream1 a drift of momentary 
acts of sight and  passion and thought4 
,at first sight experience seems to bury
 us  under a flood of external objects1 
pressing upon us with a sharp  and      
importunate reality1 calling us out of  
ourselves in a thousand  forms of       
action4  ,but when #bce reflexion begins
 to play upon  these objects they are   
dissipated under its influence2 the     
cohesive  force seems suspended like    
some trick of magic2 each object is     
loosed into a group of                  
impressions--colour1 odour1 texture--in 
the  mind of the observer4  ,and if we  
continue to dwell in thought on  this   
world1 not of objects in the solidity   
with which language  invests them1 but  
of impressions1 unstable1 flickering1   

inconsistent1 which burn and are        
extinguished with our  consciousness of 
them1 it contracts still further3 the   
whole scope  of observation is dwarfed  
into the narrow chamber of the          
individual mind4  ,experience1 already  
reduced to a group of  impressions1 is  
ringed round for each one of us by that 
thick wall  of personality through which
 no real voice has ever pierced on its  
way to us1 or from us to that which we  
can only conjecture to be  without4     
,every one of those impressions is the  
impression of the  individual in his    
isolation1 each mind keeping as a       
solitary  prisoner its own dream of a   
world4  ,analysis goes a step farther   
still1 and assures us that those        
impressions of the individual mind  to  
which1 for each one of us1 experience   
dwindles down1 are in  perpetual flight2
 that each of them is limited by time1  
and that as  time is infinitely         
divisible1 each of them is infinitely   
divisible  also2 all that is actual in  

it being a single moment1 gone while we 
try to apprehend it1 of which it may    
ever be more truly said that it  has    
ceased to be than that it is4  #bcf ,to 
such a tremulous wisp  constantly       
re-forming itself on the stream1 to a   
single sharp  impression1 with a sense  
in it1 a relic more or less fleeting1 of
  such moments gone by1 what is real in 
our life fines itself down4  ,it is with
 this movement1 with the passage and    
dissolution of  impressions1 images1    
sensations1 that analysis leaves        
off--that  continual vanishing away1    
that strange1 perpetual weaving and     
unweaving of ourselves4                 
,philosophiren1 says ,novalis1 ist      
dephlegmatisiren1 vivificiren4  ,the    
service of philosophy1 of speculative   
culture1 towards the  human spirit1 is  
to rouse1 to startle it to a life of    
constant and  eager observation4  ,every
 moment some form grows perfect in  hand
 or face2 some tone on the hills or the 
sea is choicer than the  rest2 some mood

 of passion or insight or intellectual  
excitement is  irresistibly real and    
attractive to us1--for that moment only4
  ,not  the fruit of experience1 but    
experience itself1 is the end4  ,a      
counted number of pulses only is given  
to us of a variegated1  dramatic life4  
,how may we see in them all that is to  
seen in them  by the finest senses8     
,how shall we pass most swiftly from    
point  to point1 and be present always  
at the focus where the greatest  number 
of vital forces unite in their purest   
energy8    ,to burn always with this    
hard1 gemlike flame1 to maintain this   
ecstasy1 is success in life4  ,in a     
sense it might even be said that  our   
failure is to form habits3 for1 after   
all1 habit is relative to a  #bcg       
stereotyped world1 and meantime it is   
only the roughness of  the eye that     
makes any two persons1 things1          
situations1 seem  alike4  ,while all    
melts under our feet1 we may well grasp 
at any  exquisite passion1 or any       

contribution to knowledge that seems by 
a lifted horizon to set the spirit free 
for a moment1 or any stirring  of the   
senses1 strange dyes1 strange colours1  
and curious odours1  or work of the     
artist's hands1 or the face of one's    
friend4  ,not to  discriminate every    
moment some passionate attitude in those
  about us1 and in the very brilliancy  
of their gifts some tragic  dividing of 
forces on their ways1 is1 on this short 
day of frost and  sun1 to sleep before  
evening4  ,with this sense of the       
splendour of  our experience and of its 
awful brevity1 gathering all we are into
  one desperate effort to see and touch1
 we shall hardly have time  to make     
theories about the things we see and    
touch4  ,what we  have to do is to be   
for ever curiously testing new opinions 
and  courting new impressions1 never    
acquiescing in a facile  orthodoxy of   
,comte1 or of ,hegel1 or of our own4    
,philosophical  theories or ideas1 as   
points of view1 instruments of          

criticism1 may  help us to gather up    
what might otherwise pass unregarded by 
us4  ,philosophy is the microscope of   
thought4  ,the theory or idea or  system
 which requires of us the sacrifice of  
any part of this  experience1 in        
consideration of some interest into     
which we  cannot enter1 or some abstract
 theory we have not identified with     
ourselves1 #bch or of what is only      
conventional1 has no real  claim upon   
us4    ,one of the most beautiful       
passages of ,rousseau is that in the    
sixth book of the ,confessions1 where he
 describes the awakening  in him of the 
literary sense4  ,an undefinable taint  
of death had  clung always about him1   
and now in early manhood he believed    
himself smitten by mortal disease4  ,he 
asked himself how he  might make as much
 as possible of the interval that       
remained2  and he was not biassed by    
anything in his previous life when he   
decided that it must be by intellectual 
excitement1 which he found  just then in

 the clear1 fresh writings of ,voltaire4
  ,well6  we are all  condamns1 as      
,victor ,hugo says3 we are all under    
sentence of  death but with a sort of   
indefinite reprieve--les hommes sont    
tous  condamns  mort avec des sursis    
indfinis3 we have an interval1  and then
 our place knows us no more4  ,some     
spend this interval  in listlessness1   
some in high passions1 the wisest1 at   
least among  the children of this world1
 in art and song4  ,for our one chance  
lies in expanding that interval1 in     
getting as many pulsations as  possible 
into the given time4  ,great passions   
may give us this  quickened sense of    
life1 ecstasy and sorrow of love1 the   
various  forms of enthusiastic activity1
 disinterested or otherwise1 which  come
 naturally to many of us4  ,only be sure
 it is passion--that it  does yield you 
this fruit of a quickened1 multiplied   
consciousness4 #bci ,of such wisdom1 the
 poetic passion1 the  desire of beauty1 
the love of art for its own sake1 has   

most4  ,for  art comes to you proposing 
frankly to give nothing but the  highest
 quality to your moments as they pass1  
and simply for  those moments' sake4    
#ahfh4      ,,notes    #bcc4 99,this    
brief ,conclusion was omitted in the    
second edition  of this book1 as ,i     
conceived it might possibly mislead some
 of  those young men into whose hands it
 might fall4  ,on the whole1 ,i  have   
thought it best to reprint it here1 with
 some slight changes  which bring it    
closer to my original meaning4  ,i have 
dealt more  fully in ,marius the        
,epicurean with the thoughts suggested  
by it4    #bcc4 ,pater's translation3   
,herakleitos says somewhere that ,all   
things  give way2 nothing remains4      
,plato1 ,cratylus #djb ,a1 as noted in  
,the ,oxford ,anthology of ,english     
,literature1 eds4 ,lionel ,trilling  and
 ,harold ,bloom4  ,oxford3 ,oxford ,,up1
 #aigc4    #bcf4 ,following ,william    
,buckler's emendation in ,walter ,pater3
  ,three ,major ,texts 7,new ,york3 ,new

 ,york ,,up1 #aihf71 ,i have  corrected 
dephlegmatisiren vivificiren to         
dephlegmatisiren1  vivificiren4    ,,the
 ,,end