The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-05-27
Michael Angelo.


Canossa the great artist, Michael An
gelo. You have all heard of him, but
/ want to tell you how he became great.
His father had but small income, and
as his large family became more and
more burdensome to support, and the
boy Michael, then fourteen years of age,
had already developed taste for draw
ing, he was placed under the care of |
Ghirlandajo, a painter and master who
had attained good deal of celebrity in
Florence.
The boy neglected everything to in
dulge this taste for drawing, and soon
outstripped his companions who were
at work in the same studio with him.
AT length he was chosen by his master
to work at the palace of Lorenzo de |
Medici, in copying some of the best |
models of Grecian art: but at eighteen
Angeles patron died and was succeeded |
by Pierro de Medici, who, although he
would not part with the young sculptor,
did not know his value. have in
my service,' he once said, =" two re-
markable persons-Michael Angelo,
and Spanish footman who can outrun
horse" One night, after an unusual
fall of snow for the warm climate of
Italy, with party of young friends
who had Just been dismissed from the
hospitable table of g Lorenzo the Mag
niicent,' as he was often called, Pierro
de Medici stepped out into the gardens
of the Medici Palace, summoning at
the same time the first of those @ re-
markable persons" The snow lay be-
fore them on the ground in that soft,
tempting wilderness that all boys love
so well. 1t covered the fountains and
statues, and made grotesque figures of
the shrubs, which were cut in all sorts
of curious forms.
" Make me statue from that snow"
Pierro de Medici demanded. Michael
Angelo, obeying, plunged into the snow
without thought of his costume. which
was Of velvet and lace-carrying and
piling it up in masses ready for his
work, and then shaping it at first into
some rude resemblance of the human
form, not different, very likely, from
the "snow man " boys make in the
present day.
AS the young artist worked his COM
panions gathered around him, looking
on as gradually the head began to APP
pear, and grew under his touch into a
dazzling white figure of marvellous
beauty, with a real face and good fea-
lures.
Then, suddenly standing off and sur
veying his work, Michael exclaimed:
"Now, he must taught" and, stepping
forward, gave an upward turn with his
finger to the corner of the mouth
"There, that is not bad," again sur
veying it at distance, at the same time
running against some one, who proved
to be the great noble himself, who, ap-
preaching the figure, said: "This surely
is not the work of a novice, but rather
the work of one entering upon the
career of master. But, Michael, my
lad, you have described the statue of
an old faun beautifully as it is, but the
old do not have all their teeth, and YOU
have given them, every one"
1t was but the work of an instant for
the boy to knock out tooth and make
the hollow in the gum to define its loss.
The lookers-on were astonished at such
genius and applauded him with great
enthusiasm, showering praises as well
as prophecies of future fame on the
young sculptor.
Among the noble guests was an uncle
of Angeles, who had sternly discour-
aged all the boys attempts at art,
deeming it very unworthy thing that
any one of the princely house of Can
ossa should handle the sculptor's chisel,
even in sport. But now that Lorenzo.
the great patron of art, could look on
with appreciation, he, too, looked sml-
ingly on, and as he rode home that
night resolved that he would not put
straw in the way, that the glory of his
boyhoOd dreams should be the glory of
his life if he chose.
Who can imagine the impetus the
boy received from Lorenzo's flattering
notice? And yet neither he nor the
boy sculptor himself could for one mo-
ment imagine the wonderful creations
that one day would make world stand
in silent admiration and awe.
Could he have dreamed that under
the dome of st. Peters, at Rome, the
most magnificent Christian temple on
the earth, people of all nations would
come to do him homage? Andyet when
that work was given him to do it was
supposed and hoped by Pope Julius
that he would make failure of it and
thereby bring disgrace upon himself, as
1t was of style which he had previously
scarcely tried.
But his career was to be onward and
upward. AT nineteen he made beau
tiful group in marble of the dead Christ
in his mothers lap, at the same time
carving the statue of the young David
for the ducal palace of Florence. He
designed, and in part completed, the
grand mausoleum for Julius H., the
central figure of which is Moses, at
which he worked over forty years, and
the reclining figures of Day and Nj ght,
Morning and Evening, are so much adj
mired that they have been or are to be
reproduced on monument, erected to
Michael Angelo, at the scene of his
labors.
Very few paintings of his are on can
vas, for he is said to have had a su-
preme contempt for all easel pictures.
He was sent for by the Pope of Rome
to come and decorate the walls of his
chapel at the Vatican. The architects
not knowing how to construct scat
folding which would enable him to
reach to the ceiling, he invented one
and also a curious paper cap, which
would hold candle in front and thus
leave his hands free to work at night.
He covered the ceiling with beautiful
paintings of scenes taken from the Old