The Life of Michelangelo BuonarrotiSymonds, John Addington
History
The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Symonds, John Addington
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564
The documents for 1528 are almost as meagre. We do not possess a
single letter, and the most important _Ricordi_ relate to Buonarroto's
death and the administration of his property. He died of the plague
upon the 2nd of July, to the very sincere sorrow of his brother. It is
said that Michelangelo held him in his arms while he was dying,
without counting the risk to his own life. Among the minutes of
disbursements made for Buonarroto's widow and children after his
burial, we find that their clothes had been destroyed because of the
infection. All the cares of the family now fell on Michelangelo's
shoulders. He placed his niece Francesca in a convent till the time
that she should marry, repaid her dowry to the widow Bartolommea, and
provided for the expenses of his nephew Lionardo.
For the rest, there is little to relate which has any bearing on the
way in which he passed his time before the siege of Florence began.
One glimpse, however, is afforded of his daily life and conversation
by Benvenuto Cellini, who had settled in Florence after the sack of
Rome, and was working in a shop he opened at the Mercato Nuovo. The
episode is sufficiently interesting to be quoted. A Sienese gentleman
had commissioned Cellini to make him a golden medal, to be worn in the
hat. "The subject was to be Hercules wrenching the lion's mouth. While
I was working at this piece, Michel Agnolo Buonarroti came oftentimes
to see it. I had spent infinite pains upon the design, so that the
attitude of the figure and the fierce passion of the beast were
executed in quite a different style from that of any craftsman who had
hitherto attempted such groups. This, together with the fact that the
special branch of art was totally unknown to Michel Agnolo, made the
divine master give such praises to my work that I felt incredibly
inspired for further effort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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