Behold yon line of roofs and belfries painted Upon the golden background of the sky, Like a Byzantine picture, or a portrait Of Cimabue.See how hard the outline, Sharp-cut and clear, not rounded into shadow.
Yet that is nature.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
She is always right.
The picture that approaches sculpture nearest Is the best picture.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
Leonardo thinks The open air too bright.We ought to paint As if the sun were shining through a mist.
'T is easier done in oil than in distemper.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Do not revive again the old dispute;
I have an excellent memory for forgetting, But I still feel the hurt.Wounds are not healed By the unbending of the bow that made them.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
So say Petrarca and the ancient proverb.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
But that is past.Now I am angry with you, Not that you paint in oils, but that grown fat And indolent, you do not paint at all.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
Why should I paint? Why should I toil and sweat, Who now am rich enough to live at ease, And take my pleasure?
MICHAEL ANGELO.
When Pope Leo died, He who had been so lavish of the wealth His predecessors left him, who received A basket of gold-pieces every morning, Which every night was empty, left behind Hardly enough to pay his funeral.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
I care for banquets, not for funerals, As did his Holiness.I have forbidden All tapers at my burial, and procession Of priests and friars and monks; and have provided The cost thereof be given to the poor!
MICHAEL ANGELO.
You have done wisely, but of that I speak not.
Ghiberti left behind him wealth and children;But who to-day would know that he had lived, If he had never made those gates of bronze In the old Baptistery,--those gates of bronze, Worthy to be the gates of Paradise.
His wealth is scattered to the winds; his children Are long since dead; but those celestial gates Survive, and keep his name and memory green.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
But why should I fatigue myself? I think That all things it is possible to paint Have been already painted; and if not, Why, there are painters in the world at present Who can accomplish more in two short months Than I could in two years; so it is well That some one is contented to do nothing, And leave the field to others.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
O blasphemer!
Not without reason do the people call you Sebastian del Piombo, for the lead Of all the Papal bulls is heavy upon you, And wraps you like a shroud.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
Misericordia!
Sharp is the vinegar of sweet wine, and sharp The words you speak, because the heart within you Is sweet unto the core.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
How changed you are From the Sebastiano I once knew, When poor, laborious, emulous to excel, You strove in rivalry with Badassare And Raphael Sanzio.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
Raphael is dead;
He is but dust and ashes in his grave, While I am living and enjoying life, And so am victor.One live Pope is worth A dozen dead ones.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Raphael is not dead;
He doth but sleep; for how can he be dead Who lives immortal in the hearts of men?
He only drank the precious wine of youth, The outbreak of the grapes, before the vintage Was trodden to bitterness by the feet of men.
The gods have given him sleep.We never were Nor could be foes, although our followers, Who are distorted shadows of ourselves, Have striven to make us so; but each one worked Unconsciously upon the other's thought;Both giving and receiving.He perchance Caught strength from me, and I some greater sweetness And tenderness from his more gentle nature.
I have but words of praise and admiration For his great genius; and the world is fairer That he lived in it.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
We at least are friends;
So come with me.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
No, no; I am best pleased When I'm not asked to banquets.I have reached A time of life when daily walks are shortened, And even the houses of our dearest friends, That used to be so near, seem far away.
FRA SEBASTIANO.
Then we must sup without you.We shall laugh At those who toil for fame, and make their lives A tedious martyrdom, that they may live A little longer in the mouths of men!
And so, good-night.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Good-night, my Fra Bastiano.
[Returning to his work.
How will men speak of me when I am gone, When all this colorless, sad life is ended, And I am dust? They will remember only The wrinkled forehead, the marred countenance, The rudeness of my speech, and my rough manners, And never dream that underneath them all There was a woman's heart of tenderness.
They will not know the secret of my life, Locked up in silence, or but vaguely hinted In uncouth rhymes, that may perchance survive Some little space in memories of men!
Each one performs his life-work, and then leaves it;Those that come after him will estimate His influence on the age in which he lived.
V
PALAZZO BELVEDERE
TITIAN'S studio.A painting of Danae with a curtain before it.
TITIAN, MICHAEL ANGELO, and GIORGIO VASARI.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
So you have left at last your still lagoons, Your City of Silence floating in the sea, And come to us in Rome.
TITIAN.
I come to learn, But I have come too late.I should have seen Rome in my youth, when all my mind was open To new impressions.Our Vasari here Leads me about, a blind man, groping darkly Among the marvels of the past.I touch them, But do not see them.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
There are things in Rome That one might walk bare-footed here from Venice But to see once, and then to die content.
TITIAN.
I must confess that these majestic ruins Oppress me with their gloom.I feel as one Who in the twilight stumbles among tombs, And cannot read the inscriptions carved upon them.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
I felt so once; but I have grown familiar With desolation, and it has become No more a pain to me, but a delight.
TITIAN.
I could not live here.I must have the sea, And the sea-mist, with sunshine interwoven Like cloth of gold; must have beneath my windows The laughter of the waves, and at my door Their pattering footsteps, or I am not happy.
MICHAEL ANGELO.
Then tell me of your city in the sea, Paved with red basalt of the Paduan hills.