Thus it was that Michael Angelo came under the influence
of a pupil and foreman of Donatello. Bertoldo must be considered the
instructor of Michael Angelo in his beloved art of sculpture, and the most
important influence in shaping his genius. Very little is known of the man
upon whom this responsibility was placed, but he appears to have been
worthy of it. Vasari tells us that Bertoldo "was old and could not work;
that he was none the less an able and highly reputed artist, not only
because he had most diligently chased and polished the casts in bronze for
the pupils of Donatello his master, but also for the numerous casts in
bronze of battle-pieces and other little things, which he had executed of
his own; there was no one then in Florence more masterly in such work." We
have no important work entirely by Bertoldo, but he must have been a
considerable artist or he would not have been appointed to his important
post by such a wise man as Lorenzo the Magnificent. His share of the work
for the pulpits of San Lorenzo was probably much greater than we are
accustomed to think. Vasari's word _rinettato_ had a much wider meaning to
him than it has to us, the chasing of a bronze was considered no small
part of its quality by the Florentines. Lorenzo Ghiberti's supposed
superiority over his competitors for the doors of San Giovanni was more in
his superb finish than in anything else. The pulpits in San Lorenzo have
something about them that is between the art of Donatello and the art of
Michael Angelo; we may even owe a large part of the composition in some of
the stories to Bertoldo.
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