Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/448

This page needs to be proofread.

BUONARROTI the monastery of S. Eusebio. As a member of the academy of the Arcadi he assumed the name of Agatopisto Oromaziano, under which he published many of his works. The principal of them, DelV iitoria e delV indole di ognifilo- sofia (7 vols., Lucca, 1766-72), and Delia re- stauraiione delta filosofia ne 1 secoli XVI.- XVIII. (3 vols., Venice, 1789; German trans- lation with additions by Heidenreich, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1791), treat of the history of ancient and modern philosophy. BUONARROTI, Fllippo, a French revolutionist, a descendant of Michel Angelo, born in Pisa, Nov. 11, 1761, died in Paris, Sept. 15, 1837. He became a favorite of the grand duke of Tus- cany, but was expelled from Italy, and after- ward from Corsica, on account of his revolu- tionary publications. He then went to Sardi- nia, where, as in Corsica, he advocated annexa- tion to France, and the Sardinians made him draw up for them a liberal constitution. In 1793 he procured the annexation of the small Corsican island of St. Pierre to the French republic, and the convention conferred upon him French citizenship. On the fall of Robes- pierre, with whom he was intimate, he was ar- rested, and after his release he conspired for the reestablishment of the constitution of 1793, and became founder and president of a revolution- ary society called the Pantheon. This being dissolved by the government, he joined the conspiracy of Babeuf, and was sentenced to transportation (1797); but he was ultimately allowed to remain in France under surveil- lance. In 1806 he went to Geneva, and be- came a teacher; but in 1815 he was expelled from that city, and went to Brussels, where he published in 1828 his Histoire de la conspira- tion pour I'egalite, dite de Babeuf (new ed., 1850). After the revolution of 1830 he taught music in Paris under the name of Remond. In 1835 he was one of the defendants in the trial of the insurrectionists of April, 1834. BUONARROTI. I. Michael Angelo, an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect, born at the castle of Caprese in Tuscany, March 6, 1475, died in Rome, Feb. 17 (or, according to some authorities, Feb. 18), 1563. He was descend- ed from the family of the counts of Canossa, and was allied to the imperial blood through Count Boniface of Canossa, who married a sis- ter of Henry II. His father, Lodovico Leonar- do Buonarroti Simone, was at the time of the artist's birth governor of Caprese and Chiusi, an important fortress in the commonwealth of Florence. Michel Angelo began early to jus- tify the prediction of the astrologers that he should excel in those arts that delighted the sense, such as painting, sculpture, and archi- tecture. At school he neglected his books for the stolen delight of drawing. A pupil of Do- menico Ghirlandaio, with whom he became in- timate, procured for him studies, and intro- duced him to his master's house. In his first attempt at painting, made at this time, a copy from a print representing St. Anthony beaten by devils, he proved his love for art by color- ing his animals as nearly as possible after natu- ral objects. His father, seeing how strong was the bent of his genius, reluctantly consented to place him under the care of Ghirlandaio as a pupil for three years, beginning April 1, 1488, and the master, an unusual thing, agreed to give him 24 florins for his services. When Lo- renzo de' Medici opened a garden in Florence for the use of artists, filled with antique stat- ues and busts, Michel Angelo instantly resort- ed thither ; and Lorenzo was so much struck with his first attempt at sculpture, a copy in marble from an old mask of a laughing faun, that he took him under his own patronage, gave him rooms in his palace, and treated him like a son. There the youth studied with zeal and success until his patron's death in 1492. The son of Lorenzo invited him to continue at the palace, and he did so for a time ; but miss- ing the encouragement he had received before, and apprehending political troubles, he spent a little more than a year at Bologna. A success- ful imitation of an antique, a sleeping Cupid, which he made soon after his return to Flor- ence, and which was bought by Cardinal San Giorgio for 200 ducats, was the occasion of his first visit to Rome, where he found liberal pat- rons, and executed several works, the most dis- tinguished of which is the Pietd, now standing as an altarpiece in a chapel near the entrance of St. Peter's. The election of Pietro Soderini as gonfaloniere of Florence, through a change in the government, induced him to repair thith- er, and in 18 months he produced from an un- shapely block of marble, which another sculp- tor was supposed to have spoiled, the colossal statue of David which stands in the piazza del Gran Duca. Other works undertaken at this time are unfinished or unknown ; but a paint- ing, a holy family, believed until recently to Le authentic, and his only authentic work in oils, is still in the Florentine gallery. The gonfa- loniere also commissioned him to paint a large historical picture for the end of a hall in the ducal palace, Leonardo da Vinci being engaged to fill the other end. The subject chosen by Michel Angelo was taken from the Pisan wars: "Florentine Soldiers Surprised by the Enemy while Bathing." The sketch was great- ly admired and was eagerly studied by the most eminent artists, but the cartoon alone was finished, and that was injured and finally destroyed from neglect. The picture was nev- er commenced, the artist having left it to go to Rome by invitation of Julius II., the new pon- tiff, who wished to draw around him all the men of genius. The pope gave the artist an un- limited commission to build a mausoleum. The design was too magnificent for the church it was to adorn, and the pope, after some thought, determined to rebuild St. Peter's as a fit cover- ing for his superb monument, which was to be completed according to the original design, and Michel Angelo passed eight months at Carrara procuring the marble. A misunderstanding