Michelangelo followed the prevailing custom in using these curious symbols.  The long curling beard gives his hero the aspect of a poet.  The tables of stone show him to be a law-giver.  But of all the qualities of this many-sided man seen in the great statue, the most conspicuous are his qualities of leadership,—­the keen glance, the commanding air, the alert attitude, the determined look.  He seems ready to spring to his feet if occasion demands.  We see also something of his faults, of the impulsive anger which slew the Egyptian, and dashed in pieces the tables of stone, and of the arrogance which cost him the privilege of entering Canaan.

He was not permitted to see his labors carried to completion, but on the borders of Canaan “went up into the mountain of Nebo,... and died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.  And he buried him in a valley ... over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.”

V

THE HOLY FAMILY

The pictures we have thus far studied in this collection are reproductions of works of sculpture.  This is the art which Michelangelo loved best.  He was, however, a painter also, and in the later years of his life he was even drawn into architecture.  Painting was the first art he studied, but he soon laid it aside for sculpture, and after that returned to it from time to time throughout his life.

This picture of the Holy Family is from an oil painting.  It shows us a glimpse of the home life of the child Jesus.  We have already seen in the bas-relief of the Madonna and Child how thoughtful a mood was sometimes upon the mother and her boy.  In this picture they are making merry together.  The mother, seated on the ground, tosses the boy with her strong arms, for her husband Joseph to catch.  She is a beautiful woman, large, and full of life and vigor.  The boy is a healthy, happy child, with perfect confidence in his mother.  He rests his fat little hands on her head to steady himself.

Joseph, bald and gray, takes the play a little more seriously, as he gently lifts the boy from the mother’s arms.  He has a special care for the child.  It was he who was warned by an angel in a dream that it was dangerous to remain in Judaea.  It was he who “took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt."[13] It was he again who duly brought them back to their native country when the cruel king was dead who had threatened the child’s life.  After the return from Egypt Joseph and his family settled in the little town of Nazareth, where he followed the trade of a carpenter.

[Footnote 13:  Matthew, chapter ii. verses 13, 14.]

Now Jesus had a cousin, a boy who was not far from the same age.  His name was John, and his mission in life was closely connected with that of Jesus.  He was to grow up a great preacher, and finally to lead people to Jesus himself.  His parents knew before his birth, from an angelic visitation, that he was to be a prophet.  His mother Elizabeth, and Mary the mother of Jesus, used to talk together, before their children were born, of the strange future in store for them.  We like to think that the two boys grew up as companions and playmates.