FLORENCE UNDER LORENZO DE' MEDICI.

of design under the direction of Bertoldo, a pupil of Donatello. He applied for pupils to the most celebrated painters in Florence. Ghirlandaio sent him Michelangelo and Granacci. Here it was that Michelangelo sculptured that Mask of a Faun, about which the well-known story is told, and which gained him the patronage of Lorenzo. Florence was at this time in the fulness of her splendour. To Dante, Giotto, Orcagna, had succeeded Petrarch, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Masaccio. This second generation had just died out, leaving Florence full of masterpieces. Lorenzo de' Medici possessed all the qualities of a distinguished patron of art, and those also which were not likely to make his power over the citizens burdensome. Rich, generous, of good judgment, and affable, a passionate admirer of all works of genius, well-read in the old literature, and a patron of the new, surrounded by artists, poets, philosophers, scholars, himself a scholar, philosopher, and poet, he held the people, captivated as they were with the love of the beautiful, rather under his spell than under his sway.

They loved him, those Florentines; and on the eve of losing their liberty, aye, having already lost it, they did not feel the fetters with which they had submitted to be bound. Lorenzo had foreseen the genius of Ghirlandaio's pupil; he would have him in his palace, he admitted him to his table, made him the companion of his sons, allowing him five ducats a month, which Michelangelo spent in the support of his father.

Lorenzo did not stop there. He sent for Lodovico, told him that he would take charge of his son, and asked him what he could do for him himself. "Lorenzo," replied the old man, "I can do nothing but read and write, but as Marco's comrade Pucci, the douanier, is just dead, I would

gladly take his place, and I think I could do the work satisfactorily." "Ah!" said the Magnificent, laughing as he gave him a slap upon his shoulder, "You will always be a poor man. However, if you would like to be Marco's comrade, you may, till something better turns up." This berth brought him in eight crowns a month, more or less, adds Condivi.

Michelangelo never left Lorenzo till his patron's death. It was, however, during those three years of calm, spent in intercourse with the most learned men of the time, Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, and the Platonist, Marsilio Ficino, that his mind developed, matured and acquired its breadth and accuracy. Poliziano admitted him to special intimacy. By his advice he produced the bas-relief of the Battle of Hercules with the Centaurs, and the graceful Madonna, works, in which, according to Vasari, he tried to imitate Donatello. He spent several months in copying Masaccio's frescos in the church del Carmine. About the same time too he studied anatomy at the hospital of Santo-Spirito, and made a crucifix in wood for the prior, who had procured his admission. He continued. his studies of the Antique in the gardens of San Marco, of which Lorenzo had given him a key. So great was his progress that it often excited the jealousy of his companions. It was this that brought upon him the blow from Torriggiano's fist, which broke his nose, and helped to give that well-known. rugged and almost savage expression to his features, which even before this were strongly marked.

Lorenzo died in 1492. In him Michelangelo lost more than a patron. "So great," Condivi tells us, "was his grief at the death of his friend, that he remained for several days unable to do anything." In the long course of his life we shall see more than once what a tender and loving recollection

he retained of this name of Medici, and in what dilemmas he was placed by his gratitude and his republican feelings. Under such circumstances it is doubtless a man's part either to surrender his individuality or to take an independent course without regard to the feelings of his heart. It is not easy to keep the mean between ingratitude and servility. As regards this, never even in the midst of perils was Michelangelo found wanting; he was neither ungrateful nor servile, and this grand trait in his character is no less noteworthy than his genius.

On his return to his father's house Michelangelo made a Hercules in marble, seven feet eight inches in height, which later on was bought with other works of art by Giovanni Pattista della Palla for Francis the First, and sent to France. It is not known what became of it. Piero de' Medici, the unworthy son of Lorenzo, induced Michelangelo to come. back to his rooms in the palace; he often consulted him about the purchase of gems and antiques. Piero no doubt was in. his way alive to the merits of his guest, for he occupied him in making snow statues, and boasted of having in his house two rare men, Michelangelo and a Spanish valet, who in addition to his marvellous beauty was so swift of foot that a horse at full speed could not outstrip him.

Piero de' Medici, with all his external advantages, was wanting in the discretion, address, the affability and kindly feeling, which had established the fortunes of his father and made him actual master of Florence. His arrogance became more unbearable every day. The popular party awoke and Savonarola held out his hand to Charles the Eighth. The fall of Piero was imminent. Michelangelo, unwilling either to oppose or to support him in a struggle against personal friends, or to preserve a neutrality which his friendship with

Lorenzo and his relations with Piero would have rendered suspicious, left Florence and betook himself to Venice. Finding nothing to do there he went to Bologna, where by a lucky accident he became acquainted with Aldovrandi, one of the Council of Sixteen, who got him several commissions. Aldovrandi kept Michelangelo with him for more than a year, loading him with tokens of his friendship and esteem, and "charmed with his beautiful pronunciation, making him read Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and other Tuscan poets to him."

On his return to Florence in 1495, Michelangelo made a statuette of St. John, and also the famous Sleeping Cupid, which was the cause of his first visit to Rome. Biographers

have insisted on a somewhat childish story about this statue. If I tell it in a few words, it is because of the lasting effect that Michelangelo's stay in the Eternal City had upon the rest of his life, Lorenzo, son of Piero de' Medici, saw this figure and thought it so beautiful that he advised Michelangelo to bury it, so as to give it the appearance of age, and then to send it to Rome, where it would be sure to pass for an antique, and where he would get a much better price for it than in Florence. The Cardinal San Giorgio was taken in by the device and bought the statue.

When he learned that he was the victim of a fraud, he sent one of his gentlemen to discover the author of it, and furious at the idea of being cheated he broke off the bargain and recovered his money. Such is Vasari's tale. He does not, however, seem to think that Michelangelo was a party to the trick. He adds that, despite his anger, the Cardinal brought Michelangelo to Rome, though he left him, it is true, for a year without employment. A very curious letter, of which only a few fragments exist, written by Michel