stian, the
piecemeal production which governs all large art undertakings results
here in a maimed and one-sided rendering of what theologians call the
Scheme of Salvation.

III

So much has been written about the pictorial beauty, the sublime
imagination, the dramatic energy, the profound significance, the exact
science, the shy graces, the terrible force, and finally the vivid
powers of characterisation displayed in these frescoes, that I feel it
would be impertinent to attempt a new discourse upon a theme so
time-worn. I must content myself with referring to what I have already
published, which will, I hope, be sufficient to demonstrate that I do
not avoid the task for want of enthusiasm. The study of much
rhetorical criticism makes me feel strongly that, in front of certain
masterpieces, silence is best, or, in lieu of silence, some simple
pregnant sayings, capable of rousing folk to independent observation.

These convictions need not prevent me, however, from fixing attention
upon a subordinate matter, but one which has the most important
bearing upon Michelangelo's genius. After designing the architectural
theatre which I have attempted to describe, and filling its main
spaces with the vast religious drama he unrolled symbolically in a
series of primeval scenes, statuesque figures, and countless minor
groups contributing to one intellectual conception, he proceeded to
charge the interspaces--all that is usually left for facile decorative
details--with an army of passionately felt and wonderfully executed
nudes, forms of youths and children, naked or half draped, in every
conceivable posture and with every possible variety of facial type and
expression. On pedestals, cornices, medallions, tympanums, in the
angles made by arches, wherever a vacant plane or unused curve was
found, he set these vivid transcripts from humanity in action. We need
not stop to inquire what he intended by that host of plastic shapes
evoked from his imagination. The triumphant leaders of the crew, the
twenty lads who sit upon their consoles, sustaining medallions by
ribands which they lift, have been variously and inconclusively
interpreted. In the long row of Michelangelo's creations, those young
men are perhaps the most significant--athletic adolescents, with faces
of feminine delicacy and poignant fascination. But it serves no
purpose to inquire what they symbolise. If we did so, we should have
to go further, and ask, What do the b