its irresistible power. I came from the Lorenzo, the library of the Medici, and found myself, I know not how, in the chapel where that most magnificent of the races of Italy has built itself a sleeping-place of gems, and rests in peace. A full hour I remained absorbed in gazing at the marble image of a woman whose powerful frame attests the bold skill of Michael Angelo, while the whole form is inspired with an ethereal sweetness such as we are not accustomed to expect in that master. All the realm of dreams, with all its silent blisses, is enchanted into this marble; a tender repose dwells in the beautiful limbs, a soothing moonlight courses through its veins: it is the Night of Michael Angelo Buonarotti. Oh! how gladly would I sleep in the arms of this Night![1]
- ↑ A strange book might be written on this subject of men who have literally loved statues, and Bonifacius has in his Historia Ludicra, or Strange Stories, collected a number of instances from antiquity of men thus inspired. There is a story current in Florence of an Englishman who was enamoured of the Venus di Medicis. Most remarkable of all the literature on this subject, which Heine seems to have studied thoroughly, is a chapter on Gli Amori Sacrilegi, in a book entitled Delle Bizzarerie Academicke di Gio, Francesco Loredano, Venice, 1667. This monograph, which certainly inspired Heine in these passages, is supposed to be a speech by Amicles of Athens, defending, or rather vindicating, himself from the accusation of having made love to a statue of Venus. It is a masterpiece of aesthetic cynicism. There are indications in other works by Heine that be had read this book. A reductio ad absurdum of this freak of
