[The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]@TWC D-Link book
The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

PART SECOND
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Among the myriads Of men that live, or have lived, or shall live What is a single life, or thine or mime, That we should think all nature would stand still If we were gone?
We must make room for others.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
And now, Maestro, pray unveil your picture Of Danae, of which I hear such praise.
TITIAN, drawing hack the curtain.
What think you?
MICHAEL ANGELO.
That Acrisius did well To lock such beauty in a brazen tower And hide it from all eyes.
TITIAN.
The model truly Was beautiful.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
And more, that you were present, And saw the showery Jove from high Olympus Descend in all his splendor.
TITIAN.
From your lips Such words are full of sweetness.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
You have caught These golden hues from your Venetian sunsets.
TITIAN.
Possibly.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Or from sunshine through a shower On the lagoons, or the broad Adriatic.
Nature reveals herself in all our arts.
The pavements and the palaces of cities Hint at the nature of the neighboring hills.
Red lavas from the Euganean quarries Of Padua pave your streets; your palaces Are the white stones of Istria, and gleam Reflected in your waters and your pictures.
And thus the works of every artist show Something of his surroundings and his habits.
The uttermost that can be reached by color Is here accomplished.

Warmth and light and softness Mingle together.

Never yet was flesh Painted by hand of artist, dead or living, With such divine perfection.
TITIAN.
I am grateful For so much praise from you, who are a master; While mostly those who praise and those who blame Know nothing of the matter, so that mainly Their censure sounds like praise, their praise like censure.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Wonderful! wonderful! The charm of color Fascinates me the more that in myself The gift is wanting.

I am not a painter.
GIORGIO.
Messer Michele, all the arts are yours, Not one alone; and therefore I may venture To put a question to you.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Well, speak on.
GIORGIO.
Two nephews of the Cardinal Farnese Have made me umpire in dispute between them Which is the greater of the sister arts, Painting or sculpture.

Solve for me the doubt.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Sculpture and painting have a common goal, And whosoever would attain to it, Whichever path he take, will find that goal Equally hard to reach.
GIORGIO.
No doubt, no doubt; But you evade the question.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
When I stand In presence of this picture, I concede That painting has attained its uttermost; But in the presence of my sculptured figures I feel that my conception soars beyond All limit I have reached.
GIORGIO.
You still evade me.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Giorgio Vasari, I have often said That I account that painting as the best Which most resembles sculpture.


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