A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, ArchitectureWaters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Art -- History
Soon after this he made a beautiful, sleeping Cupid, and when the young
Lorenzo de Medici saw it he advised Michael Angelo to bury it in the
ground for a season, and thus make it look like an antique marble; after
this was done, Lorenzo sent it to Rome and sold it to the Cardinal Riario,
and gave the sculptor thirty ducats. In some way the truth of the matter
reached the ears of the Cardinal, who sent his agent to Florence to find
the artist. When Michael Angelo heard that two hundred ducats had been
paid for his Cupid, he knew that he had been deceived. The Cardinal's
agent invited him to go to Rome, and he gladly went. The oldest existing
writing from the hand of Michael Angelo is the letter which he wrote to
Lorenzo to inform him of his arrival in Rome. He was then twenty-one years
old, and spoke with joy of all the beautiful things he had seen.
Not long after he reached Rome he made the statue of the "Drunken
Bacchus," now in the Uffizi Gallery, and then the Virgin Mary sitting near
the place of the cross and holding the body of the dead Christ. The
art-term for this subject is "La Pieta." From the time that Michael Angelo
made this beautiful work he was the first sculptor of the world, though he
was but twenty-four years old. The Pieta was placed in St. Peter's Church,
where it still remains. The next year he returned to Florence. He was
occupied with both painting and sculpture, and was soon employed on his
"David," one of his greatest works. This statue weighed eighteen thousand
pounds, and its removal from the studio in which it was made to the place
where it was to stand, next the gate of the Palazzo Vecchio, was a
difficult undertaking. It was at last put in place on May 18, 1504; there
it remained until a few years ago, when, on account of its crumbling from
the effect of the weather, it was removed to the Academy of Fine Arts by
means of a railroad built for the purpose.
About this time a rivalry sprang up between Michael Angelo and Leonardo da
Vinci. They were very unlike in their characters and mode of life. Michael
Angelo was bitter, ironical, and liked to be alone; Leonardo loved to be
gay and to see the world; Michael Angelo lived so that when he was old he
said, "Rich as I am, I have always lived like a poor man;" Leonardo
enjoyed luxury, and kept a fine house, with horses and servants. They had
entered into a competition which was likely to result in serious trouble,
when Pope Julius II. summoned Michael Angelo to Rome. The Pope gave him an
order to build him a splendid tomb; but the enemies of the sculptor made
trouble for him, and one morning he was refused admission to the Pope's
palace. He then left Rome, sending this letter to the Pope: "Most Holy
Father, I was this morning driven from the palace by the order of your
Holiness. If you require me in future you can seek me elsewhere than at
Rome."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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