The eternal destiny of man, fate, sin, the
futility of all earthly things, the relationship of the world to God,
love surpassing all human limits and aspiring to the eternal--these are
the common objects over which they brooded. But while it was given to
Dante to create his picture of the world in harmony with his own soul,
and account it a true representation of the world-system; while his
world was a definite place with a beginning and an end, and his
life-work remained in harmony with his own soul, and the universe,
Michelangelo's lacerated soul could find peace only in the ultimate
truth, which filled his heart, and to which he yearned to give plastic
life, only to be unsatisfied after achieving it. George Simmel, in a
profound work, draws our attention to the infinite melancholy which
overshadows all Michelangelo's figures, because his genius aspired to
express the inexpressible. Even the supremest plastic representation of
the passion and longing for the transcendental which thrilled his soul
did not satisfy him.
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