Michelangelo Part 8

Michelangelo was one of the last Italian painters to do this, and he profited by all the work that had been done before to make the grandest series of Genesis ill.u.s.trations ever produced. It is from this series that our ill.u.s.tration is taken, representing the subject of the Creation of Man. The painter did not try to follow the text very literally. In the book of Genesis we read:[19]--

[Footnote 19: Genesis, chapter i verses 26-27; chapter ii verse 7.]

"And G.o.d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

"So G.o.d created man in his own image, in the image of G.o.d created he him.... And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Michelangelo takes these words, and expresses, in his own way, the supreme creative moment when "man became a living soul."

The man Adam lies on a jutting promontory of the newly made land.

Though his body is formed, he lacks as yet the inner force to use it; he is not yet alive. The Creator is borne along on a swirling cloud of cherubs, moving forward through s.p.a.ce like a rus.h.i.+ng mighty wind.

Perhaps the painter was thinking of the psalmist's beautiful description of G.o.d's coming:[20] "He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind."

[Footnote 20: Psalm xviii, verse 10.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CREATION OF MAN. _Sistine Chapel, Rome._]

In His fatherly face is expressed the good purpose to create a son "in his own image." The cherubic host accompanying him are full of joy and awe. We are reminded of that time of which the poet Milton wrote,[21] when

"All The mult.i.tude of angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy,--Heaven rung With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled The eternal regions."

[Footnote 21: _Paradise Lost_, book iii. lines 344-349.]

The sign of the Almighty's creative power is the outstretched arm extended towards Adam with a superb gesture of command. As if in answer to the divine summons, the lifeless figure begins to stir, rising slowly to a sitting posture. The face turns towards the source of life as the flower turns to the sun. The eyes are lifted to the Creator's with a wistful yearning. It is the look we sometimes see in the eyes of a woodland creature appealing for mercy. It is such a look as might belong to that imaginary being of the Greek mythology, the faun, half beast, half human. Thus Adam, still but half created, begins to feel the thrill of life in his members, and is aroused to action. He lifts his hand to meet the Creator's outstretched finger.

The current of life is established, the vital spark is communicated, and in another moment Adam will rise in his full dignity as a human soul.

This picture was painted long before there was any knowledge of electricity, of electric sparks, and electric currents. Yet, if we did not know otherwise, we might fancy that Michelangelo had some of these wonderful ideas of modern science in mind, as the symbols of the great thoughts he was trying to express.

The picture suggests to our latter day scientific imagination that G.o.d's currents of power move as silently, as swiftly, as invisibly and mysteriously as the currents of electricity. The painter meant to show that the work of creation was not a mechanical effort of the Almighty, but that with him a gesture, a word, even a thought, brings something into being.

The series of which this picture forms a part is painted in fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in the Pope's palace of the Vatican, Rome. To break up the monotony of the long plain surface he had to decorate, the painter divided the strip of s.p.a.ce in the centre into nine compartments. These are separated from each other by a painted architectural framework, so cunningly represented that it seems to project from the ceiling like a solid structure of beams.

Our ill.u.s.tration shows a portion of the simulated framework which incloses the picture. On what appears to be a pedestal at each corner is a seated figure representing a statue. One is a beautiful youth with a horn of plenty, and the other is a faun-like creature capering gayly. The purpose of these figures is decorative, like those in the background of the Holy Family.

IX

JEREMIAH

Michelangelo's decoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling did not stop with the series of panels running along the flat s.p.a.ce in the centre.

On either side, where the ceiling arches to meet the side walls, he painted a row of figures, which seem to be seated in sculptured niches. There are twelve of these figures in all, and seven of them are Hebrew prophets.

The prophets were holy men of old, who walked with G.o.d, and carried his messages among men. They were men of great courage and conviction, fearlessly denouncing the sins of their times. Sometimes they were great reformers, bringing about by their preaching an improved condition of things. Often their mission was to arouse hope in discouragement, to strengthen faith in a happier time to come. They looked forward to a future day, when the Prince of Peace should reign in the earth.

Jeremiah was a prophet of Judah during the corrupt and troublous times in the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. He has been compared by a recent writer[22] to "a Puritan living in the age of the Stuarts, to a Huguenot living in the age of the Medici, or a Savonarola living in the age of Pope Alexander VI." He was born in Anathoth, a little village of Judaea, and being the son of a priest was consecrated to the priesthood from birth.

[Footnote 22: Lyman Abbott in _Hebrew Prophets and American Problems_.]

He was still very young when it was borne in upon him that to be loyal to G.o.d he must stand forth and speak the truth more boldly than other priests were doing. Shrinking from such a task, he besought G.o.d to spare him. "Ah, Lord G.o.d! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child."

And this, writes Jeremiah, is the answer he received:[23] "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."

[Footnote 23: Jeremiah, chapter i. verses 6-10.]

Thus Jeremiah became a prophet, and from that time on his life was "one long, hopeless protest against folly and crime." Earnestly he besought his people to return to G.o.d before it was too late: "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved;"[24] but prayers and threats were alike of no avail, and misfortunes began to afflict the land. Then Jeremiah shows himself a true patriot. Though his people refused to hear him, he still loves them and pleads their cause. In the horror of famine, he prays to G.o.d in their behalf.

[Footnote 24: Ibid., ch. iv. v. 14.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: JEREMIAH. _Sistine Chapel, Rome._]

There are times even in the midst of disappointment when Jeremiah has some gleam of hope for the future. He predicts the days when "a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth."[25] Such times he himself was never to enjoy. He lived to see the Babylonian invasion, Jerusalem besieged and laid waste, and his people taken captive. The reward of his faithful warnings was to be cast into prison by the ungrateful King Zedekiah. Finally he was carried by the remnant of his people into Egypt, where he died in a sad and lonely old age.

[Footnote 25: Jeremiah, chapter xxiii. verse 5.]

Once in a moment of discouragement early in life, his grief had burst forth in words which might well express the feelings of his old age: "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!"[26]

[Footnote 26: Jeremiah, chapter ix. verse 1.]

All the pathos of these words is conveyed in Michelangelo's wonderful figure of Jeremiah. The story of his life is written in his face and att.i.tude. He is an old man, with long gray beard, but he still has the splendid vigor which comes from plain and simple living. He sits with bowed head, lost in thought, his long life pa.s.sing in review before his mind's eye. His message is spoken, his race is run; he is weary of life and longs to die. There is something inexpressibly moving in his profound melancholy.

The painter has placed just behind the prophet two little figures which are like attendant spirits. They seem to sympathize with Jeremiah's sorrows. The figures ornamenting the sculptured niche remind us of those in the background of the Holy Family and have a similar decorative purpose.

Those who have studied the history of the times in which Michelangelo lived may find in this figure of Jeremiah an expression of the artist's own character. Like the old Hebrew prophet, he lived in the midst of a corruption which he was helpless to remedy, and which saddened his inmost soul. His own life was full of disappointments. In his lonely old age he wrote a sonnet, which is not unlike some of Jeremiah's utterances, and which is a clue to the meaning of the picture:--

"Borne to the utmost brink of life's dark sea, Too late thy joys I understand, O earth!

How thou dost promise peace which cannot be, And that repose which ever dies at birth.

The retrospect of life through many a day, Now to its close attained by Heaven's decree, Brings forth from memory, in sad array, Only old errors, fain forgot by me,-- Errors which e'en, if long life's erring day, To soul destruction would have led my way.

For this I know--the greatest bliss on high Belongs to him called earliest to die."

X

DANIEL

In striking contrast to the bowed and sorrowful old prophet Jeremiah is the alert and eager youth Daniel. The two men were contemporaries, though there was a difference in their ages. When, in the reign of Jehoiakim, the Jews were taken into captivity to Babylon, the youth Daniel went with them, while the old prophet Jeremiah was left behind.

Daniel was chosen, with three companions, to be educated at the court of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. They were taught the Chaldean language and the sciences, and the king was delighted with their progress.

An opportunity soon came for Daniel to be of service to his royal patron. Nebuchadnezzar had a strange dream, which none of his magicians could interpret, because, unfortunately, he had forgotten it. In his anger that no one could supply the lost memory, he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. But Daniel prayed to G.o.d that the secret might be revealed to him.

His prayers were answered, and he related to the king not only just what the dream was, but the full meaning of it:[27] "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of bra.s.s, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.... And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."

[Footnote 27: Daniel, chapter ii. verses 31-35.]