Lawgiver rests one arm on the Tables, and with the other restrains the flowing beard, that, descending softly, is so treated as to exhibit the hair (which presents so great a ditflculty in sculpture) soft, downy, and separated, hair from hair, in such sort, as might appear to be impossible, unless the chisel had become a pencil. The countenance is of the most sublime beauty, and may be described as that of a truly sacred and most mighty prince; but to say nothing of this, while you look at it, you would almost believe the figure to be on the point of demanding a veil wherewith to conceal that face, the beaming splendour of which is so dazzling to mortal gaze. So well, at a word, has the artist rendered the divinity which the Almighty had imparted to the most holy countenance of that great Lawgiver. The draperies also are most effectively raised from the marble ground, and are finished with beautiful foldings of the edges: the muscles of the arms, with the anatomical development and nerves of the hands, are exhibited to the utmost perfection; and the same may be said of the lower limbs, which, with the knees and feet, are clothed in admirably appropriate vestments. At a word, the sculptor has completed his work in such sort that Moses may be truly affirmed more than ever now to merit his name of the friend of God.[1] Nay, the Jews are to be seen every Saturday, or on their Sabbath, hurrying like a flight of swallows, men and women, to visit and worship this figure, not as a work of the human hand, but as something divine.[2]
Having at length made all his preparations, and approached the conclusion of the same, Michelagnolo erected one portion of the Tomb, the shorter sides namely, at San Pietro in Vincola. It is said that while he was employed on that
- ↑ For the much that has been written in reprehension or defence of Vasari’s exaggerated admiration for his master, Michael Angelo, and respecting that great artist himself, our readers are referred to the severe Milizia, Dell'Arte di Vedere, on the one hand; and to Moreni, Memorie sul risorgimento delle Arti in Toscana, on the other. The Abate Cancellieri, Lettere sopra la Statua di Mosè, and Freart, in his Idee de la Perfection de la Peinture, may also be consulted on the different sides of the same question; and among the defenders of Michael Angelo our own Reynolds may be read with advantage. See more particularly his Lectures delivered before the Academy.
- ↑ Neither Cancellieri nor Bottari will admit the truth of this assertion, both remarking that it cannot be correct, since Jews do not enter the Roman churches.
