In these halcyon days at this hospitable table Michael
Angelo met such men as Massilio Ficino, the interpreter of Plato; Pico
della Mirandola, the phoenix of erudition; Luigi Pulci and Angelo
Poliziano--the latter is supposed to have incited Michael Angelo to carve
the bas-relief(66) now in the Casa Buonarroti, called by Condivi "The rape
of Deianeira and the battle of the Centaurs." This is the earliest work
that we know from the master's hand to which we can give a date; it
already shows his double love for the Hellenistic and for the Tuscan
styles. The degree of relief is alto-rilievo, like those on the Roman
sarcophagi and the pulpits of the Pisani; in shape it is almost as high as
it is long; this unusual proportion is similar to some of the divisions of
the bronze reliefs in the Donatello pulpits at San Lorenzo. The struggling
figures, Centaurs, and Lapithae, already exhibit Michael Angelo's power
over rhythm of line in a crowded composition as in the later groups of
"Moses raising the Serpent in the Wilderness," and "The Last Judgment,"
both in the Sistine Chapel. The method is extraordinarily free for so
young a sculptor; he evidently thinks out his work as it proceeds; his
delight in the beauty of the male human form is shown in every figure.
Some critics have been unable to distinguish the figure of Deianeira, as
her form has been so little differentiated or emphasised by the master.
She is towards the left of the composition; a man holds her by the hair of
her head.
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