Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-07-14
MICHAEL ANeELos ROMANCE
Artist 81 When He Met Only Woman
He Ever Loved.

Michael Angelo was porn Marcn o,
1475, or, according to some authori-
ties, 1474. as the Florentines reckon.
When he was two years old he was
entrusted to the care Of a stonema-
sons wife on his fathers estate, three
miles from Florence, says the New
York Fress.
1t was there, amidst picturesque
surroundings that his first work was
done. The lads father was determin-
ed that his boy should not become an
artist. When a candle was denied him
the boy spent whole nights copying
drawings by moonlight.
why do you lead such solitary
life?" Angelo was asked, to which he
replied: art is jealous mistress; she
requires the whole man."
He was a tremendous toiler. He
studied anatomy even more than the
physicians Of his day. He drew his
figures and skeletons, added muscles
fat and skin successfully and then
draped them.
He had no time for social inter-
course until late in life. During his
seven years labor at the Sistine Chap
ell he refused to meet any one, even at
his own house. When three score and
ten years were passed and he had long
attained the highest triumphs Of his
art. he said: Yet am learning"
A friend once said to him:
1T is a pity that you have not mar
ried, that you might have children to
inherit the fruits of your toll" The
master replied: Il have only too much
Of a wife in my art, and she has given
me trouble enough. AS to my children,
they are the works that shall leave
1t was in the twilight of his life that
he met the only women he ever loved;
beloved by all his countrymen, sought
after by rulers of the world, the love
and friendship Of a woman gave him
greater happiness than all of his tri-
umphs. She even inspired him to
write sonnets.
This woman, who was destined to
change the morose and taciturn man
was Vittoria Colonna, the daughter of
Fabrizio Colonna and the widow of
Marchese de Pescara, the two highest
mobiles and generals Of their time.
Vittoria lost her husband in battle
soon after their marriage; the young
bride, broken hearted at her bereave-
ment, turned to literature as a means
Of distracting her mind, and was sur
prisingly successful; T. A. Trollope
tells us that "copies were as eagerly
sought for as the novel of the season
at a 18th century circulating library
Wherever she went society did her
homage; monarchs, men Of letters and
even her own sex were charmed by
her brilliancy, tact and graciousness.
She met the artist in 1886, when he
61 and she was 46; man of such ma
ture years usually falls in love with a
young woman, but Signora Colonna
had the rare charm to attract a man
who had few friends and cared moth
ing for women, and yet he loved her
with all the passion of youth of 25.
This stern man whom none could
master was as clay in the hands of the
woman he loved, although she ruled
him as every clever woman rules the
man she loves-she appeared to see
only his good qualities, and if she
thought he possessed any bad ones she
failed to mention them. The lovers
spent every Sunday together, having
around them the friends they liked
best
When political reasons made it nee
essary for Vittoria to leave Rome and
go to the convent Of st. Catherine at
Viterbo, her lover wrote her daily un-
til the time of her death in 1547. Mi
chael Angelo was with her when she
died. His pupil, Condivi, tells us:
He bore such a love to her that I
remember to have heard him say that
he grieved nothing so much as that
when he went to see her pass from
this life. After her death he frequent
ly stood trembling and as if insensi
BILE.
He wrote several sonnets to her
memory. 1t seems strange that he
did not marry the woman who meant
so much in his life, but he was past
the half century mark and may not
have cared to assume the responsible
ties of marriage.
Angelo made himself immortal in
three different occupations. His fame
rests mainly upon his dome Of St Pc
ters as an architect, upon his "Moses"
as a sculptor, and upon his Last
Judgment" as a painter.
Yet we find by his correspondence
now in the British Museum that when
he was at work on his colossal statue
of Pope julius II. he was so poor that
he could not have his younger brother
come to visit him at Bologna. because
he had but one bed in which he and
three of his assistants slept together,
so that his poverty, too, may have
kept him single.