BUONARROTI
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BUONARROTI
great fertility of his mind. In literature he was a
devoted student and admirer of Dante. A copy of
the "Divine Comedy", ornamented by him with
marginal drawings, has unfortunately been lost.
Imitating the style of Dante and Petrarch, he wrote
verses, canzoni, and especially sonnets, which are
not without value, and excite surprise by their
warmth of feeling. Some of his poems give ex-
pression to an ideally pure affection. He never
married. A stern earnestness is characteristic of
the sculptor, but the tenderness of his heart is shown
in his touching love and solicitude for his father
and brothers. Although seemingly absorbed in his
art, and often straitened in circumstances, he was
ever ready to aid them by word and deed. "I will
send you what you demand of me", he wrote, "even
if I have to sell myself as a slave". After the death
of his father he conceived a deep affection for a
young Roman, Tommaso de' Cavalieri, and also
entered into intimate friendship with the noble-
minded poetess, Vittoria Colonna, then past her
youth. With his pupils, Vasari and Condi vi, lie
was on the most cordial terms, and a servant who
was twenty-six years in his employ experienced his
bounty. The biographies we have from the pupils
just mentioned and the letters of Michelangelo
himself testify to the gentler traits of his character.
He gave younger artists generous aid by suggestions,
sketches, and designs, among others to Sebastiano del
Piombo, Daniele da Volterra, and Jacopo da Pon-
tormo. Michelangelo had few personal wants and
was unusually self-denying in dress and diet. Sa-
vonarola's sermons, which he recalled even in his
old age, probably influenced him in some degree
to adopt this austerity of life. Moreover, the serious-
ness of his own mind caused him to realize the
vanity of earthly ideals. His spirit was always
absorbed in a struggle to attain perfection. Yet
with all this he was not haughty; many of his say-
ings that have come down to us show him to have
been unusually unassuming. The explanation of
his unwillingness to have the aid of assistants must
be sought in the peculiarity of his artistic methods.
Michelangelo's life was one of incessant trials, yet
in spite of an imperious temper and many bodily
infirmities he showed remarkable composure and
forbearance. No matter how much trouble was
caused him by his distinguished patrons he seldom
failed in loyalty to them. He was equally faith-
ful to his native city, Florence, although the po-
litical confusion which reigned there wrung from
him many complaints. It obliged him to spend
half of his life elsewhere, yet he wished to lie after
death in Florentine earth; nor could the most en-
ticing offers induce him to leave Italy. A con-
temporary bestows praise which seems merited,
when he says that Michelangelo in all the ninety
years of his life never gave any grounds for sus-
pecting the integrity of his moral virtue.
Sculptuue. — First Period. — If the years before 1505, that is, before the summons by Julius II, be taken as Michelangelo's youth, it may be said that. even when a pupil in Bertoldo's school, he attracted attention not only by his work in clay and by the head of a faun in marble after a classical model, but especially by two marble bas-reliefs of his own design. The " Madonna Seated on a Step", pressing the Child to her breast under her mantle, shows, it is true, but little individuality, grace, and tender- ness, though perhaps for this very reason all the more dignity. Michelangelo's later style is more easily recognized in the "Battle of the Centaurs", which represents a large group of figures, anatomi- cally well drawn, engaged in a passionate struggle. It is said that in after years the artist, in referring to this group, expressed regret that he had not devoted himself exclusively to sculpture. He
appears to have taken the conception for this work
from a bronze relief of Bertoldo and to have imi-
tated the style of Donatello. Michelangelo's work
certainly recalls Donatello in the drapery of the
Madonna above mentioned and in the realistic
way in which the sentiment of this composition is
expressed. After Lorenzo's death Michelangelo
produced a marble Hercules of heroic size that was
taken to Fontainebleau and has since disappeared.
Thode, however, appears to have found the Crucifix
which Michelangelo carved for the church of Santo
Spirito. The body in this is almost entirely free
from the cross; there is no intense pain expressed on
the youthful face, and the hands and hair are not
completely worked out. The "St. John in the
Wilderness", with the honeycomb, now at Berlin,
is probably the San Giovannino that Michelangelo
executed in Florence in 1495. The realistic model-
ling of the head and the beautiful lines of the body
show a study of both classic and modern models.
Shortly before this Michelangelo completed several
figures for the shrine of St. Dominic which Niccolo
dell' Area had left unfinished. A figure of a pagan
deity was the occasion of Michelangelo's first visit
to Rome, and a statue of Bacchus carved by him
on that occasion is extant at Florence. This work,
which is the result of a study of the antique, is merely
a beautiful and somewhat intoxicated youth.
Far more important is the Pieta executed in 1499 for the French chapel in St. Peter's. A calm, peaceful expression of grief rests on all the figures of the group. The face of the mother has youthful beauty; the head is bowed but slightly, yet ex- pressive of holy sorrow. Her drapery lies in magnificent folds under the body of the Saviour. The latter is not yet stiff and reveals but slight traces of the suffering endured, especially the noble countenance so full of Divine peace. Not the lips but the hand shows the intensity of the grief into which the mother's soul is plunged. When sixty years old Michelangelo desired to execute a Pieta, or, more properly, a "Lamentation of Christ" for his own tomb. The unfinished group is now in the Cathedral of Florence, and is throughout less ideally conceived than the Pieta just mentioned. The body of Christ is too linip, and Nicodemus and Mary Magdalen are somewhat hard in modelling. This Pieta was broken into pieces by the master, but was afterwards put together by other hands. Two circular reliefs of the "Virgin and Child", one now in London and one in Florence, belong to the sculptor's youthful period. In the Florentine relief, especially, intensity of feeling is combined with a graceful charm. Mother and Child are evidently pondering a passage in Scripture which fills them with sorrow; the arms and head of the Boy rest on the book. A life-sized group of about the same date in the church of Our Lady (Eglise Notre-Dame) at Bruges shows the Madonna again, full of dignity and with lofty seriousness of mien, while the Child, somewhat larger than the one just mentioned, is absorbed in intense thought. In contrast to Raphael, Michelangelo sought to express Divine greatness and exalted grief rather than human charm. He worked entirely according to his own ideals. His creations recall classical an- tiquity by a certain coldness, as well as by the strain of superhuman power that characterizes them.
Second Period. — To Michelangelo's second cre- ative period (beginning 1505) belongs the statue of Christ which he carved for the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It \\:is sent to Home in 1521 in charge of an assistant who was to add some last touches to the statue when it was put in position. The Saviour, a life-sized marble figure, holds the cross, sponge, and rod of hyssop. The face, earnest, almost hard, is turned to the left, as if saying:
