The Renaissance in Italian Art (Volume 9) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1907. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. The Last Of The Titans. In the mountain-land between Florence and Perugia, on the summit of the watershed, which on the one side, at Chiusi, forms Arno's stream that flows to Florence, on the other gathers its streamlets to wander southward to the Tiber Valley, Michelangelo Buonarroti was born--" born " (writes his father, Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, in his journal) "on this day, March 6, 1474, "while I was Podesta of Caprese, and he was born at Caprese." He came thus of good family--the old stock, it was even said, of the Counts of Canossa--though the office of Podesta was only temporary; and on his return to Florence six months later, Lodovico placed his little son with a foster-nurse at Settignano. Perhaps, as the sculptor said later, within this village of stonecutters "I drew the chisel and mallet of my statues in together with my nurse's milk "; at least his passion for art was early and imperative, and, after some resistance by his father, he is sent as a prentice (April 1, 1488) to Domenico Ghirlandajo's bottega at Florence (Pt. III. ch. i.). In the contract, which is quoted in detail by Vasari, the scholar seems to have been from the first paid by Domenico, instead of paying for his prenticeship--a proof, this, of his early capacity DEGREES but Domenico's influence is hardly apparent in his art, and Condivi tells us that "the boy happened one day to be taken by Granacci into the "garden of the Medici at S. Marco, which garden the magnificent "Lorenzo, father of Pope Leo X., had adorned with antique "statues. When Michelangelo saw these things and felt their "beauty, he no longer frequented Domenico's shop, but, judging "the Medicean gardens to be the best school, spent all his time "and faculties in working there." "Lorenzo," says Vasari, giving the same story, "percei...