But look at a
personality like that of Ariosto, especially as shown in his satires.
In what harmony are there expressed the pride of the man and the poet,
the irony with which he treats his own enjoyments, the most delicate
satire, and the deepest goodwill!
When this impulse to the highest individual development was combined
with a powerful and varied nature, which had mastered all the elements
of the culture of the age, then arose the 'all-sided man'--'l'uomo
universale'--who belonged to Italy alone. Men there were of
encyclopedic knowledge _, in many countries during the Middle Ages, for
this knowledge was confined within narrow limits; and even in the
twelfth century there were universal artists, but the problems of
architecture were comparatively simple and uniform, and in sculpture
and painting the matter was of more importance than the form. But in
Italy at the time of the Renaissance, we find artists who in every
branch created new and perfect works, and who also made the greatest
impression as men. Others, outside the arts they practiced, were
masters of a vast circle of spiritual interests.
Dante, who, even in his lifetime, was called by some a poet, by others
a philosopher, by others a theologian, pours forth in all his writings
a stream of personal force by which the reader, apart from the interest
of the subject, feels himself carried away.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166