e, turning their backs, their eyes proudly closed,
looking only within themselves. "La bellezza," says Tomazzo, "e lontana
dala materia" (Beauty is far from matter).[144] The symbol of the period
which was to follow is that very Lomazzo,[145] painter,
aesthetician--blind.

Blind, more or less, were all who lived around Michelangelo. Their too
feeble eyes were dazzled by this sun which shone alone in that twilight
of art, the night which was falling on Italy of the Renaissance. A long
time after that sun had disappeared below the horizon the radiant glow
still remained in the sky. Michelangelo enthralled Italian art.

There is no comparison between the influence which he exerted and that
of the other masters of the sixteenth century, Corregio and Raphael.
However superior they may have been to their century, Corregio and
Raphael only reflected its thoughts with more charm and grandeur.
Michelangelo is outside of his time, alone, apart and colossal. He is
like a great mountain which inspires in those who dwell at the foot an
invincible desire to reach the top; and what men have ever existed who
were less capable of climbing those austere and sublime heights? All
those effeminate artists of the decadence, intoxicated by his
inspiration, attempted to express heroic ideas in their insipid works.
They lost the sense of proportion which alone could have saved them.
Instead of confining themselves to the little world of their own fancy
which, though cold, could have been redeemed by sincerity, they
attempted great subjects. A mass of forms, heroic figures and furious
gestures that they had learned, were whirled about in their mind,
uncontrolled either by greatness of intelligence or of heart.

We must remember that Michelangelo lived through more than fifty years
of the Golden Age of Italian art and, as happened in our own day to
Victor Hugo, admiration for his works increased in proportion as they
deserved it less. Even the factions that had been longest hostile to
him--the school of Raphael, for instance--recognised his triumph. Perino
del Vaga admits that all the painters worshipped him as their master,
their leader and the god of drawing.[146]

The independents, or those who boasted that they were, said as Cellini
did in his sonnets:

"Just a leaf from thy crown, O divine Michelangelo, who alone art rich,
who alone art immortal. That will suffice me and I shall have no desire
for anything else, since for me that only i