Italian cities . tic. But what good, persists Burckhardt, could weexpect from these creations if they came to life ?and truly Correggio does seem more than half apagan or half a child in his cultus of pure joy. Thesespirits do not suffer, feel no terror; they do not knowany better than to be just simply and entirelyhappy. But does not the critic, in insisting upontheir potentiality for good, set up an ethical standardwhich it might be embarrassingly hard to looking at the face of Michelangelos Night,or his Dawn, do we know what either would doif she too began to breathe and move: she
Italian cities . tic. But what good, persists Burckhardt, could weexpect from these creations if they came to life ?and truly Correggio does seem more than half apagan or half a child in his cultus of pure joy. Thesespirits do not suffer, feel no terror; they do not knowany better than to be just simply and entirelyhappy. But does not the critic, in insisting upontheir potentiality for good, set up an ethical standardwhich it might be embarrassingly hard to looking at the face of Michelangelos Night,or his Dawn, do we know what either would doif she too began to breathe and move: she wouldbe titanic surely, but how would she use herforce ? Would she pull down Jupiter to help mortalsor for the mere pleasure of power ? Each has a giantsstrength, but might not she use it like a giant ?What evil could we find in Correggios people ? Ifbright and joyous spirits are celestial, why, so arehis; he laughs and smiles by choice, but he smiles 278 PARMA DLOMO CORREGGIO ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN (FRAGMENT). PARMA as Michelangelo frowns, sublimely; elevation is liis,and elevation is ethical, for in spite of his lack ofrestraint and his exaggeration of illusion in mockarchitecture, the outpouring of spirit, the sweep andpower, shown in his Assumption of the Virgin, makehim one of the half-dozen sublime masters of Italianpainting, and we echo Ludwig Tiecks words: Let^no one say he has seen Italy, let no one think hehas learnt the lofty secrets of art, till he has seenthee and thy cathedral, 0 Parma ! Correggio executed two other cycles of frescoes, —the very secular decorations of the Camera di SanPaolo, and in the cupola of San Giovanni Evan-gelista, an Ascension of Christ, a w^ork which ante-dated that of the Duomo. In the Ascension thisyouth of twenty-six deliberately threw aside theentire decorative paraphernalia of the fifteenthcentury, the scrolls and thrones and embroideredpatterns, the flowers and fruits and garlands, and,like a young soldier who in w^ishing to ma
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