(J.A. SYMONDS.)
It is indescribably tragic to watch Michelangelo slowly despairing of
his own genius and art, and becoming more and more dominated by the
thought of the futility of all earthly things and all earthly beauty.
The religious conception of eternity and transcendent beauty, the _forma
universale_ became his last refuge. After Vittoria's death Michelangelo
said to Condivi: "I have only one regret and that is that I never kissed
Vittoria's brow or lips when she lay dying." More and more he brooded on
sin and salvation, incarnation and crucifixion. The beloved mistress had
become the sole herald of eternal truths. Melancholy and mourning took
possession of his soul with an iron grip; he could conceive of only one
happiness, death closely following on birth. But the thought of death
again was seized and symbolised with the old artistic passion:
And cleansed by fire, I shall live for ever.
And as the flames are soaring to the sky,
I, changed and purified, shall soar to heaven.
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