this life remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ,' and soon after delivering this charge, he died, on the 17th of February, 1563 *." P. 207.

He was buried three days after in the church of S. Apostoli, attended by his friends, his countrymen, and a crowded populace. But at the petition of the Florentine academy, the grand Duke of Tuscany interposed his influence with the Pope for the body to be removed to Florence, that they might pay hini due honours, and agreeably to his own desire, lay his bones by those of his father.

"The remains of Michael Angelo being now laid in the sepulchre of his ancestors, three persons were deputed by the Academy to make the necessary preparations for his obsequies. In Catholic countries, to honour kings and heroes, it is usual to raise a temporary mausoleum decorated with trophies or ensigns of royalty and power; but as the celebrity of Michael Angelo was derived from a different source, the genius of Painting, of Sculpture, and Architecture, characterising his intellectual pre-eminence, were the fit objects to compose and ornament his cenotaph, and with this view the painters and sculptors employed themselves in designing and executing appropriate works.

66

Agreeably to the wishes of the Academy, the church of S. Lorenzo was appointed for this funeral celebration, to offer up the last devotional rites for his soul, and to proclaim to mankind the extent of his virtue and his talents. In the middle of the great nave was raised upon a rectangular platform, three feet from the paveinent, a monument somewhat in the form of a triple cube, in the style of the ancient mausoleum of Septimius Severus; the divisions, each above the other, were contracted so as to leave sufficient room for statues to surround their respective bases, and at the top was a pyramid surmounted with a figure of Fame in the attitude of flying. On the spaces left for sculpture, statues were arranged emblematical of the various branches of knowledge connected with his professional attainments. On the façade of each division was an historical picture, in chiar'-oscuro, recording some circumstance or event in his life, with ornaments and appropriate inscriptions, to combine and connect the whole together. This cenotaph, which by the Italians is called a Catafalco, was twenty feet by seventeen at the base, and upwards of fifty feet in height. Such is the outline of the general composition, of which I have purposely avoided the de

"The age of Michael Angelo was eighty-eight years, cleven months, and fifteen days. His father died at the advanced age ninety-two."

of

tail, lest it might be tedious. The preparations being finished †, and the church hung with black cloth and completely illuminated, persons of every rank assembled and assisted at the awful mass for the dead, where grandeur and sublimity were combined, and appropriate music gave a pathos to the solemnity. When the mass was concluded, Varchi ascended a tribunal erected on the occasion, and delivered a funeral oration to honour the memory of the deceased, to excite a just admiration for his elevated genius, and a due sense of sorrow for his loss." P. 2:0.

Thus ended the life of one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived. The building of St. Peter, which he directed for seventeen years, the famous statue of Moses on the mausoleum of Julius II. and the celebrated painting of the Last Judgment will for ever point to posterity the wonderful success which he had in each of the three sister arts. Indeed, exclaims Tirabos chi, it will be difficult to find another instance of a man, who like Michael Angelo has been so eminent in painting, sculpture, and architecture, as to render it difficult to decide in which of these three arts he excelled the most. We fear, however, that the love of so great a man has caused Tiraboschi to fall into the same error with Mr. Duppa, and his guides Vasari and Condivi. It is beyond the power of dispute that architecture was not the principal profession of Michael Angelo. Had he studied its principles, and analysed its nature, he would have avoided those errors in distributing his ornaments, into which he was led by some odd notions he had of the art, but which afterwards produced the licentiousness of the Boroninis' school. By this we do not mean to take from Michael Angelo the credit of being one of the greatest architects that ever lived. We only mean to say, that his merit in architecture, though very great, cannot be compared to that which he acquired in sculpture or in painting.

What is more astonishing is that these three arts were not the only ones in which he gave such great proofs of his genius. He excelled in military fortification, and in this capacity he was often employed by the Popes and the Florentines. He cultivated poetry also; and it is rather surprising, that of the two

* "Those who wish for a more minute detail are referred to Vasari, Vite de' Pittore, &c. tom. ii. p. 322."

+ "The day on which this solemnity took place was the 14th of July, 1564."

"This oration was published immediately afterwards consisting of 63 quarto pages, with this title, 'Orazione Funerale di M. Benedetto Varchi fatta, e recitata da Lui publicamente nell' esequie di Michelagnolo Buonarroti in Firenze, nella Chiesa di San Lorenzo.""

greatest

greatest poets of his country Dante and Petrarca, he imitated; the latter in his verses, but throughout his works in painting Dante influenced his feelings. His poems were first collectedby his nephew Leonardo Buonarroti, published by Michael Angelo the younger, in the year 1623, but they are not reckoned among the best.

With so much talent, and during an age in which literature and arts were so much encouraged, it is easy to suppose that Michael Angelo did not want protectors. The eight Popes under whom he lived, Julius II. Leo X. Clement VII. Paul III. Julius III. Paul IV. and Pius IV. with the exception of Adrian IV. who very little cared for the success of literature, all lavished on Michael Angelo protection and honours. Cosimus I, often endeavoured by large promises to have him at bis court, that he might dedicate his leisure to the embellishment of Florence, where even from his most tender years he had given great proofs of his abilities. Alphonsus I. offered twelve thousand ducats to persuade him to remain at Ferrara. The republic of Venice would have assigned him six hundred ducats per annum if he would have merely resided in their city, on the express condition that he should be paid besides, according to his own terms, for any work in which he should be employed. Francis I. in inviting him into France, ordered that he should receive three thousand ducats for his travelling expences. And the grand Turk solicited him to build a bridge to unite Pera to Constantinople, and sent him a letter of credit on a banker in Florence to receive as much money as he should want, and on the frontiers of Turkey, on whatever road he chose to take, an escort of Janissaries were to be in readiness to attend him tọ Constantinople.

Here ends the life of Michael Angelo by Mr. Duppa; but not the volume. A full half is dedicated to au Index, to an Appendix, and to some general remarks. The Appendix consists of an enumeration of the works of Michael Angelo iu sculpture and painting; yet notwithstanding all the details which Mr. Duppa has presented to the public, there are omissions at which we are a little surprised. For instance, the legs of the Ercule Farnese by Guglielmo della Porta, worked on the model made by Michael Angelo, are intirely overlooked. Yet these legs were considered so very good, that when the real ones were found Michael Angelo thought that they ought not to be substituted for those of Porta, and now, though perhaps they may be considered as superior, they are still in a Roman villa unknown to the public.

The general remarks of Mr. Duppa are certainly interesting, as they contain an original manuscript, and a fac simile of

Michael

Michael Angelo's hand writing with some of his letters, and some of his Italian verses. The letters Mr. Duppa has th» ght proper to publish in English only, and to the Italian verses he has added an English poetical translation by Southey and Wordsworth. At the head of these remarks our author has given an historical account of the arts, of sculpture and painting, of the different schools into which this latter is divided amongst the moderns, of the several methods employed of fresco, tempera, and oil, and above all, of the genius and spirit of Michael Angelo's works. But as these remarks open a very wide field for criticism, we shall in our next number, lay before our readers some account of all these interesting subjects, stating at the same time, that four prints on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, of the Last Judgment, of a part of the Cartoon of the Battle of Pisa, and of the Monument of Julius II. close the volume on the life of Michael Angelo, by Mr. Duppa.

(To be continued in our next.)

ART. V. Quinze Jours a Londres, a la Fin de 1815. pp. 214. Gand. 1816.

We take this little work to be a very fair specimen of the peculiar qualities both intellectual and moral of our French neighbours. It displays very nearly that degree and that sort of talent which we meet with in nine tenths of the literature of modern France, accompanied with a full proportion of French prejudices and French ignorance, and just so much pretension to good principle as would constitute a respectable writer amongst the countrymen of Barrere and Pillet, and a very exceptionable one on this side of the water. And for these reasons, as well as for certain others which will appear in the sequel, we intend to bestow upon its author a degree of attention, which probably our readers may think he is very far from deserving.

"Fifteen days in London" are certainly a period sufficiently scanty for enabling a foreigner to comprehend the extraord nary constitution of English society; and accordingly Monsieur pretends only to give a brief sketch of what he has himself seen and heard. Yet even in doing this he betrays a degree of igno rance which can hardly be reconciled with the knowledge of our literature to which he lays claim, and which very ill qualifies him for giving even the faint outline of English manners which he has ventured to attempt. At the same time we acknowledge that his book is by no means destitute of entertainment, and that

there

there is a liveliness in his style which amused us in spite of his numerous blunders and absurdities. An Englishman who should compose a sketch of Paris with no more knowledge of his subject than is possessed by the author of "Quinze Jours a Londres," would in all probability torment in an insupportable degree the patience of his reviewers; whereas in the present instance we cannot complain of having been forced to exercise any larger portion of that laudable virtue, than what is daily exacted at the hands of every member of our fraternity.

In the two first chapters of the little work before us the author does not get beyond Dover. We have been at the pains to cast up the amount of praise and censure which he bestows on the different objects here first presented to his notice, and must entirely acquit him of that foolish enthusiasm and childish exhilaration of spirits, which disposes some travellers, on their first entrance into a strange country, to be in good humour with every thing about them, and to err a little on the side of flattery in describing things so full of strangeness and novelty. On the contrary, his praise and blame are bestowed in the following proportions, which are observed pretty nearly throughout the book: he complains of, 1st. the Custom House; 2d. the Alien Office; 3d, of the extravagant demands of all persons in England; 4th. of the Inns, their cookery, furniture, and arrangements, specially of the Paris Hotel at Dover; 5th. of the ingratitude and ignorance of English travellers in France, and especially of Mr. John Scott's visit to Paris: he praises the fidelity with which the English execute their engagements, and seems half inclined to speak favourably of the environs of Dover, but on the last point he expresses himself somewhat doubtfully; and for the first he tries to qualify the commendation which he cannot altogether refuse. Thus, considering how many minute articles are included under the five heads of censure, and that the praise is confined to two individual things only, we have a balance of good and evil in England, which is quite startling, and which must be very consolatory to those persons who have practically expressed the same opinion, in exchanging this unfortunate country, for the comforts, beauties, and amiabilities of France.

The same strain is kept up nearly throughout the book: so that to reply to every accusation brought against our manners, buildings, &c would lead us into far too wide a field. We shall content ourselves therefore with noticing only some of the most prominent attacks which struck us in turning over the volume, and shall beg to be indulged in our turn, in a few observations upon the parallel customs of France, in those points where the author before us has most bitterly inveighed against England.

Two whole chapters, and sundry incidental remarks in other

parts