isa-normaladvance-1914-00140

Description:	140THE NORMAL ADVANCEthe wildest and the most terrible is portrayed here with such power of imagination, that we cannot admire sufficiently the man who con¬ trolled his material with such serenity and forced every detail to contribute to his sublime purpose.In the lower section of the painting the dead are rising from their graves. They crawl out of the earth in strange positions, and are looking at the scene of the judgment above  many are frightened some are still in the shape of skeletons others have the natural human shape, but are in a state of stupor. The old ferry-man, Charon, is among the lower group, and is busy driving human shapes into his boat. The horrible minos is here too, to execute the sentence. Let no one object that Greek mythology is mingled with Christian teaching, for these pictures are genuinely Catholic and must not disturb the effect of the whole for us. Michael Angelo is not the only one who introduces the old gods and demi¬ gods of the Greeks many poems and legends do the same here they play the part of the devils  the idea is that the beings which the idolatrous pagans worshipped were evil, condemned spirits in disguise. They ruled until Christ broke their power now they come again to the Last Judg¬ ment. They can still be re-organized, but they appear in a different, in a dreadful shape. This shape is, however, their true one.As an allegory I have always viewed this great painting. Let no one say that the painter has selected the positions of the groups anr> the figures to exhibit his knowledge of thehuman body and the human muscles. Better, I claim, the painter makes his great throng urge and drive to express the utmost energy. Terror, fear, despair, anguish and hope, one or the other, animates everybody, every limb, every joint even the serenity of the Saints and the patriots is in a state of exertion and struggle.It is pleasant to receive the splendor of religion refreshingly from the hand of kindly Raphael, it is pleasant to see his passion in which greatness is reflected in such lovely man¬ ner —but here before Michael Angelos powerful fresco love and hope shrink back the end of time has come all the sacred history from its very beginning is only the introduc¬ tion of and the preparation for this moment. After it is passed, imagination neither invents nor discovers anything time in its struggle with death exerts every muscle in this awful fight religion pronounces the solemn irrevoc¬ able sentence.With these words I have only tried to justify the mighty Michael Angelo against some un¬ fair criticisms. Some critics have judged the supreme figures in this sublime painting by the same standards that hold good for those in any painting. If I am in the wrong, I am in the wrong with better intentions, at least, than those colder individuals, who like so much to belittle the sublime in order to justify without being molested, some favorite or other. Or it may be, that we are both in the wrong for the sam< reason, homely pardonable preference. In th.- case may God and art forgive us.Temperance is a bridle of gold he who uses it rightly is more like a god than a man.—Burton.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32596
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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