A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

Finally she essayed a bust of Count Guido Pepoli; it is now in the Sacristy of San Petronio, in Bologna. In the same place are two bas-reliefs by her hand, Solomon receiving the Queen of Sheba, and Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. In the chapel Zambeccari in San Petronio there are two large figures of angels by Properzia, which are near the Ascension of the Virgin by Il Tribolo. Her manner was much influenced by her contact with this sculptor. Properzia was employed, with other artists, to finish the sculpture of the portal of San Petronio, left unfinished by Jacopo della Quercia.

Antonio Begarelli (1499-1565), called also Antonio da Modena, from the place of his birth, was a celebrated modeller in clay. It is said that when Michael Angelo visited Modena in 1529 he saw Begarelli and his works, and exclaimed, "Alas for the statues of the ancients, if this clay were changed to marble!" Begarelli had a school for teaching design and modelling, and he greatly influenced the manner of the Lombard school of painting. Its foreshortening, its relief and grace are largely due to him and his teaching.

Begarelli and Correggio were fast friends, and resembled each other in their conception of the grand and beautiful. When Correggio was decorating the cupola of the Cathedral of Parma, Begarelli was at work in the same place, and made many models from which Correggio painted his floating figures. Some works by Begarelli may be seen in the Berlin Museum. His Descent from the Cross, in the Church of San Francesco, at Modena, is one of his best works. He was also employed in the Church of San Benedetto, in Mantua, and in San Giovanni, at Parma.

During the sixteenth century the works at the Certosa at Pavia and in various edifices in Milan were constantly carried on. Frequently the same sculptors worked in both cities, but there is no one artist of great excellence among them of whom we can give an account. The same is true of the works in Venice and in Southern Italy. The traveller sees many pieces of sculpture belonging to this period, but there are no great and interesting men whose story we can tell in connection with them, and I shall now pass to an account of the great Florentine.

Michael Angelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was born in the Castle of Caprese, where his father, Ludovico Buonarroti, was stationed at that time, holding the office of Podesta, or Governor, of the towns of Caprese and Chiusi. The Buonarroti family held good rank in Florence, and the mother of the great artist was also a woman of good position. When his father returned to Florence the child Michael was left at Settignano upon an estate of the family, and was in the care of the wife of a stone-mason. As soon as the boy could use his hands he drew pictures everywhere that it was possible, and his nurse could show many of these childish drawings with which he adorned the walls of her house.

At a proper time Michael Angelo was removed to Florence and placed in a school, where he became intimate with Francesco Granacci, who was a pupil of the artist Ghirlandajo. Michael Angelo's father and his uncles were firmly opposed to his being an artist; they wished him to follow the traditions of his family, and carry on the silk and woollen trade. But the boy was firm in his determination, and after many trials was at length, in 1488, apprenticed to the Ghirlandaji for three years.

Domenico Ghirlandajo was at this time engaged in the restoration of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, and Michael Angelo came into the midst of great artistic works. One day at the dinner hour he drew a picture of the scaffolding and all its belongings, with the men at work on it; it was a remarkable drawing for a boy, and when the master saw it he exclaimed, "He understands more than I do myself!" The master really became jealous of his pupil, more especially when Michael Angelo corrected the drawings which Ghirlandajo gave his scholars for models.

About this time Michael Angelo was brought to the notice of Lorenzo de' Medici, who was at that time at the head of the government of Florence, and from him the boy-artist obtained admission for himself and Granacci to study in the gardens of San Marco. The art treasures of the Medici were placed in these gardens; works of sculpture were there, and cartoons and pictures were hung in buildings erected for the purpose, and art-students were admitted to study there and proper instructors provided for them.

The master in sculpture was old Bertoldo, and Michael Angelo, forsaking painting, obtained some instruments and a piece of marble, and copied a mask of a faun. He changed his own work somewhat from the model, and opened the mouth so that the teeth could be seen. When Lorenzo saw this he praised the work, but said, "You have made your faun old, and yet you have left all his teeth; you should have known that at such an age there are generally some teeth wanting." When he came again he saw that a gap had been made in the teeth, and so well done that he was delighted. This work is now in the Uffizi Gallery.

Very soon Lorenzo sent for Michael Angelo's father, who had been sad enough at the thought that his son might be a painter, and was now in despair when he found that he inclined also to be a stone-mason. At first he refused to see the duke, but Granacci persuaded him to go. He went with a firm determination to yield to nothing, but once in presence of Lorenzo he yielded everything, and returned home declaring that not only Michael, but he himself, and all that he had were at the nobleman's service.