e
for the hand; it may be seen many times in this chapel alone. The
shortness of the feet in the figure of Day appears to be due to a
miscalculation as to the size of the block; but, perhaps, had the head and
torso been thinned down in the finishing they would have been correct in
proportion. At the same time, the feet are finished most carefully and
beautifully, and are so true that photographs of them look almost like
photographs from the finest of living models.

[Image #41]

NIGHT

THE NEW SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO, FLORENCE
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)

How much has been written about the Night and her meanings! We have good
proof that her maker intended her to have some of these many meanings in
the reply of Michael Angelo to Giovan Battista Strozzi's complimentary
verses:--

La Notte, che tu vedi in si dolci atti
Dormire, fu da un Angelo scolpita
In questo sasso, e perche dorme ha vita;
Destala, se no'l credi, e parleratti.

The Night, that thou seest, so sweetly sleeping,
Was by an angel carved in the rude stone,
Sleeping, she lives, if thou believ'st it not,
Wake her, and surely she will answer thee.

The reply of Michael Angelo is in a much higher vein, and teaches us to
look to a far different aim in his work than the mere form represented:--

Grato m'e 'l sonno e piu l'esser di sasso;
Mentre che 'l danno e la vergogna dura
Non veder, non sentir m'e gran ventura;
Pero non mi destar; deh! parla basso!

Dear is my sleep, more dear to be but stone;
Whilst deep despair and dark dishonour reign
Not to hear, not to feel is greatest gain;
Then wake me not; speak in an undertone.

No one ever before gave such tragic beauty to the worn and tired figure of
a woman who has lived through her many days of toil and suffered many
labours. It is believed by a medical authority that the master meant the
statue to represent rest after a labour, but it is rather the
nightmare-troubled sleep of a tired woman, whose beautiful firm hips and
worn breasts prove her to have bravely met and passed through many cares,
and suckled many children. A horrid mask, symbolising these memories, in
bad dreams, grimaces beside her left hand. The eyes of the mask are cut
double so that the thing alters its glance as you move about the chapel,
fascinates and is intolerable. The noble and