MINOR WORKS
movement of the female form are beautiful in them-
selves, but the neck of the figure is too thick and
the body excessively short. When, ten or fifteen
years later (1525), the craftsman with a deepened
sense of the mystery and sorrow of the world
returned to this theme, he read a new meaning
into that favourite motto of his, “ Think on life
not death,” and he also remedied in great part the
faults of his earlier effort. The figure, indeed,
remains still too short in comparison with its
breadth, but it is far slimmer than the other ; the
work is much more delicate, the lines less accen-
tuated. The artist is now a wiser, sadder, more
spiritual man. With his feeling and his knowledge
of the world, his power also and his freedom have
increased and his mastery of modelling. The
influence of his brother’s journey to Rome and
of the lessons he had brought home with him, is
evident everywhere, and not least in the striving
after simplicity which has induced him to leave
the base plain and not richly ornamented as was
the former one.
The theme itself can indeed hardly be called a
development but rather the counterpart of the
other. It is the answer of the spiritual side of
man to the earthly promptings of his nature.
Think not on this life nor on this death—but on
the other life. In obedience to this point of view
the skull has been placed in a more prominent
position. Itis no longer trampled on in the ecstasy
of earthly enjoyment but recognized rather, and
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