“I dare affirm that any artist who tries to satisfy the better vulgar rather than men of his own craft will never become a superior talent. For my part, I am bound to confess that even his Holiness wearies and annoys me by begging for too much of my company. I am most anxious to serve him, . . . but I think I can do so better by studying at home than by dancing attendance on my legs in his reception room.”
Another meeting of this little group was appointed for the next Sunday in the Colonna gardens behind the convent, under the shadow of the laurel trees in the air fragrant with roses and orange blossoms, where they sat with Rome spread out like a picture at their feet. That beautiful terrace of the Colonna gardens, to which the visitor in Rome to-day always makes his pilgrimage, with the ruined statues and the broken marble flights of steps, is the scene of this meeting of Vittoria Colonna, Michael Angelo, and Francesco d’Ollanda. On this second occasion the sculptor asserted his belief that while all things are worthy the artist’s attention, the real test of his art is in the representation of the human form. He extolled the art of design. He emphasized the essential nature of nobleness in the artist, and added:—
“In order to represent in some degree the adored image of our Lord, it is not enough that a master should be great and able. I maintain that he must also be a man of good conduct and morals, if possible a saint, in order that the Holy Ghost may rain down inspiration on his understanding.”
Of the relative degree of swiftness in work Michael Angelo said:—
“We must regard it as a special gift from God to be able to do that in a few hours which other men can only perform in many days of labor. But should this rapidity cause a man to fail in his best realization it would be better to proceed slowly. No artist should allow his eagerness to hinder him from the supreme end of art—perfection.”
Mr. Longfellow, in his unfinished dramatic poem, “Michael Angelo” (to which reference has already been made), has one scene laid in the convent chapel of San Silvestre, in which these passages occur:—
VITTORIA.
“Here let us rest awhile, until the crowd
Has left the church. I have already sent
For Michael Angelo to join us here.”
MESSER CLAUDIO.
“After Fra Bernardino’s wise discourse
On the Pauline Epistles, certainly
Some words of Michael Angelo on Art
Were not amiss, to bring us back to earth.”