ABSTRACT
when we criticize great artists we have to take into account not only their personal achievements, but also their universal influence; and this is often an evil that “lives after them”. Michelangelo is a particularly good example of this ambiguous fame—“a great fellow”, as Ruskin said, “but the ruin of art”. In Ruskin’s earlier days Michelangelo had seemed to him the most sublime of all modern artists; but the more he considered the development of art after Michelangelo’s death (which took place in 1564), the more convinced he became that Michelangelo had been responsible for its decline.
