PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
their teeth, and Michelangelo promptly acting upon the suggestion. Whatever may be the truth of this story, it is certain that Michelangelo early attracted the notice of the magnificent Lorenzo, who saw in him so much promise that he proposed to his father that he should become an inmate of the Medici Palace, offering to charge himself with his education and to make him an allowance of five ducats a month. The offer was too good to be refused, and Michelangelo passed four happy years in the service, or rather we may say in the society, of Lorenzo, perfecting himself in his art and gaining a valuable education by his association with some of the great men whom Lorenzo gathered around him. Agnolo Poliziano was one of these, who took especial notice of the young artist, and it was by his advice and instruction, according to Vasari, that Michelangelo executed his relief in marble of 'Hercules and the Centaurs,' an early work still preserved in the Casa Buonarroti. It was at this time also that he had his nose broken by his fellow-student Pietro Torregiani, an injury which marked him for life.
In 1492 this pleasant period of instruction under the Medici was brought to an end by the death of his munificent patron Lorenzo, and Michelangelo, then seventeen, returned to his father's house and set up a studio for himself, his first work being a statue of 'Hercules,' bought by one of the Strozzi family, and afterwards sent into France, but since lost to knowledge.
Piero de' Medici, who succeeded his father Lorenzo, was, as history records, a man of totally different powers. He extended his friendship to Michelangelo, it is true, but he employed him only on unworthy commissions, on one occasion even directing him, it is said, to make a statue of snow. Piero, however, by his vices and misgovernment soon disgusted Florence, and Michelangelo, perceiving his downfall was at hand, wisely left his protection and took his way to Bologna, there to work on the shrine of San Domenico and wait till the Florentine storm which he, or perhaps his father, noted as coming, was over.
When peace was restored Michelangelo returned to Florence, where he executed a figure of a ' Sleeping Cupid,' to which he gave an appearance of antiquity, so that it was sold by a dealer in Rome to the Cardinal San Giorgio as a genuine antique. This deceit, innocently undertaken on the part of Michelangelo, being afterwards discovered by the Cardinal, led to his inviting the young artist to Rome and assuring him of his protection. Michelangelo entered Rome on the 25th of June, 1496. Here he carved the 'Bacchus,' now in the National Museum in the Bargello, and soon after the noble 'Pieti' of St. Peter's, executed between the years 1499 and 1500. These works raised him to the position of the greatest sculptor in Italy, and when in 1501 he returned to Florence, he received a commission for a great national work, namely, the colossal statue of David. In this grand statue, typical of the deliverance of Florence from her enemies, Michelangelo, now arrived at his full strength, put forth all his powers. The moment chosen for representation is that in which the youthful deliverer replies to the taunts of the Philistine in the words, "I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts," and the whole bearing of David is expressive of unshrinking resolution and patriotic desire. Well may Florentines be proud of such a possession. It stood grandly before their Palazzo Vecchio, where it was first erected, for more than three centuries and a half, until in 1873 it was deemed necessary to remove it under cover for protection from weather and decay. It now stands in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Other works of about this time are the beautiful round relief in marble in the possession of the Royal Academy, an unfinished relief of the same subject.
Soon after the triumphant erection of the 'David' in 1504, Michelangelo received the commission for another national work — the painting of one wall of the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo da Vinci was employed for the other wall and had already begun his cartoon. The subject chose'i by Michelangelo was an incident in the Pisan war, and represented Florentine soldiers surprised by the enemy while bathing, but he never completely finished even the cartoon for this great work, for before he could do so he was summoned back to Rome in great haste by Julius II., who, learning that Michelangelo was the greatest sculptor living, forthwith conceived a desire to secure his services, and especially to employ him on a great tomb which he contemplated having built for himself. The commands of the Pope obliged Michelangelo to abandon the commission given him by his friend Soderini, then Gonfaloniere of Florence, for the painting in the great Hall of Council in the Palazzo Vecchio of his beloved Florence. Early in 1505, throwing up all his work in Florence, he returned to Rome and began his work for "his Medusa," as he called him, Julius II. That imperious potentate decided to employ him first on his monument, and the design for it being completed to his satisfaction, he sent the sculptor to Carrara to arrange for the necessary blocks of marble. Here he was occupied for eight months, and for some time after- wards in Rome, whither he brought huge masses of marble for the work. Before anything could be achieved, however, the ardour of Julius for this undertaking had greatly abated, and it was with difficulty that Michelangelo obtained the money from him to pay the marble-cutters.
In terrible anger at this, and also at not being able to obtain access to his Holiness, who had previously been most gracious and friendly, Michelangelo suddenly took flight from Rome, being alarmed, it is said, by threats from his enemies of personal danger. The Pope [sent five couriers after him commanding him to return, but he rode on without stopping until he was safe on Florentine territory. "If you require me in future," wrote the haughty artist to the haughty Pope, "you may seek me elsewhere than in Rome." Julius II. was not a man to submit to be thus braved by a refractory artist, and at last, finding his requests and commands unavailing, he wrote to the Signory of Florence requesting that he should be sent back to Rome, promising at the same time that he should go "free and untouched," for "we entertain no anger against him, knowing the habit and humour of men of this sort." Even then Michelangelo, who seems to have had some fear of assassination, refused to trust the Pope's fair promises, and it was not until the Gonfaloniere Soderini told him plainly that the State would not risk going to war on his account that he at last returned to his allegiance to the Pope.
It was at Bologna, which town Julius II. had entered in triumph in November 1506, that the interesting interview between the Pope and the
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