e; that they are
worthy the one of the other is the highest compliment that can be paid to
either. These stories well repay prolonged study, and help to keep our
mind fresh to enjoy the idea of the advance Michael Angelo made in the art
of painting. It is very instructive to compare his work with these
frescoes of men who were almost his contemporaries. Above the altar three
of this series were destroyed to make way for the Last Judgment; they were
all three by Perugino, and represented the Assumption of the Virgin in the
centre, the Nativity on the right, and the finding of Moses on the left.
At the opposite end, over the great door, were two pictures by Domenico
del Ghirlandaio, representing the Resurrection of Christ, and Michael
contending with Satan for the Body of Moses, completing the series of the
lives of the Redeemer and of his prototype in the Old Testament: Moses,
the Deliverer. These last two works were destroyed for the ridiculous
caricatures of Arrigo Fiammingo and Mattei da Lecce. Ultimately the
Tapestry woven after the cartoons by Raphael, now at South Kensington
Museum, completed the cycle of decoration down to the ground level.

[Image #25]

THE PROPHET EZEKIEL

SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)

When Pope Julius prevented Michael Angelo from going on with his beloved
project of the Tomb and made him paint the vault, the master set to work
to produce a similar conception to the Tomb in a painted form. The vault
became a great temple of painted marble and painted sculptures raised in
mid-air above the walls of the chapel. The cornices and pilasters are of
simple Renaissance architecture, the only ornaments he allowed himself to
use being similar to those he would have used as a sculptor. Acorns, the
family device of the della Rovere, rams' skulls, and scallop shells, and
the one theme of decoration that Michael Angelo always delighted in--the
human figure. The Prophets and Sibyls took the positions occupied by the
principal figures designed for the Tomb, like the great statue of Moses.
The Athletes at the corner of the ribs of the roof were in place of the
bound captives, two of which are now in the Louvre, and the nine histories
of the Creation and the Flood fill the panels like the bronze reliefs of
the Tomb. The detail and completeness of this fresco are the best