the continual questionings of an ungenerous impatience. Let the trust
be conferred upon them as an honour which they are to wear and enjoy,
not as a notice of their servility, but of their freedom. That trust
is less likely to be abused the more generously it is given. To fulfil
it then, becomes an ambition; and the daily habit of this higher
feeling, by making the given work the all in all of life, renders the
men more fit for it. Let the nation, expecting liberality from the
"Liberal Arts," bestow it--hold out high rewards, leave the artists in
all respects unshackled; and, the intention of a work being approved
of, let not the time it is to occupy be in the stipulation. And it
would be well to look to the promise of the young as well as actual
performances; for the power to do will grow. Of thirty-eight
competitors convened at Florence, Lorenzo Ghiberti, only twenty-three
years of age, was chosen to execute the celebrated doors; the work
occupied forty years of his life. The work is immortal, if human work
can be; and obtained this eulogium from Michael Angelo, that "they
were worthy of being the gates of Paradise." He conferred honour upon
his city, and received such as was worthy the city to bestow. "His
labours were justly appreciated, and ably rewarded by his fellow
citizens, who, besides granting him whatever he demanded, assigned him
a portion of land, and elected him Gonfaloniere, or chief magistrate
of the state. His bust was afterwards placed in the baptistery." Was
the confidence, the full trust, in the power of the young Raffaelle
misplaced? What wonders did he not perform in his too short life! Had
he lived longer, he would without question have reached the highest
honours his country had to bestow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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