"
The first art school of Michael Angelo was the beautiful Church of Santa
Maria Novella, called by him affectionately "_Mia Sposa_." Here, day by
day, he beheld the "Last Judgment" of Orcagna, the enthroned figures in
the Spanish Chapel, and the solemn blue Madonna, now in the Capella
Rucellai, with its little figures of prophets on the frame that are
already almost Michael Angelesque. Here he transferred cartoons for
Domenico and painted draperies and ornaments; here he mixed colours for
fresco painting after the Florentine fashion; and here possibly he first
painted on a vault. No certain trace of his handiwork can be identified
upon the walls, but there is a nude figure seated upon the steps resting
his chin upon his hand in the fresco of the Blessed Virgin going to the
Temple, that has a sinister expression and a force of modelling that
Domenico does not usually command.
Now Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, desired to encourage the art of
sculpture in Florence; he therefore established a museum of antiquities in
his garden near San Marco, and made Bertoldo, the pupil of Donatello and
the foreman of his workshop, keeper of the collection, with a special
commission to aid and instruct the young men who studied there. Lorenzo
requested Domenico Ghirlandaio to select from his pupils those he
considered the most promising, and send them to work in the garden.
Domenico sent Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Francesco Granacci; possibly
he was rather glad to get these talented elements of insubordination out
of his workshop.
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