What is more likely than that Bertoldo should have
educated his great pupil by directing him to the glories of the last work
of his master, Donatello, and that Michael Angelo should have studied them
eagerly, particularly if Bertoldo himself was partly responsible for some
of the panels, and may have been working upon them at this time.(63)
The pulpits of San Lorenzo were the second school of Michael Angelo, and
Bertoldo was his master. No great style ever sprang complete from the
brain of its great exponent, but grew and developed from master to pupil
until its supreme exponent blazed it before the world full of the
traditional fire of his predecessors, but distinctly marked by his own
dominant personality. The root of the style of Michael Angelo may be seen
in the works of Donatello and in the pulpits of San Lorenzo. His study of
the antique,(64) modified by his love of grace, of high finish, and his
own powerful character, only had to be added to complete the perfect
flower of Florentine art, Michael Angelo, the topmost bloom of the lily.
[Image #2]
THE RAPE OF DEIANEIRA AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS
CASA BUONARROTI, FLORENCE
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari. Florence_)
By good fortune, Michael Angelo attracted the notice of Lorenzo the
Magnificent, as Condivi has related;(65) and thus at the age of fifteen
years he entered the most cultured house in Italy and there acquired that
distinction of style that he kept all through his life, both in his art
and his manner.
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