MARY. But surely, Angelico will always retain his power over
everybody?
L. Yes, I should think, always; as the gentle words of a child
will: but you would be much surprised, Mary, if you thoroughly
took the pains to analyze, and had the perfect means of analyzing,
that power of Angelico,--to discover its real sources. Of course
it is natural, at first, to attribute it to the pure religious
fervor by which he was inspired; but do you suppose Angelico was
really the only monk, in all the Christian world of the middle
ages, who labored, in art, with a sincere religious enthusiasm?
MARY. No, certainly not.
L. Anything more frightful, more destructive of all religious
faith whatever, than such a supposition, could not be. And yet,
what other monk ever produced such work? I have myself examined
carefully upwards of two thousand illuminated missals, with
especial view to the discovery of any evidence of a similar result
upon the art, from the monkish devotion; and utterly in vain.
MARY. But then, was not Fra Angelico a man of entirely separate
and exalted genius?
L. Unquestionably; and granting him to be that, the peculiar
phenomenon in his art is, to me, not its loveliness, but its
weakness. The effect of "inspiration," had it been real, on a man
of consummate genius, should have been, one would have thought, to
make everything that he did faultless and strong, no less than
lovely.
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