, the boy had no fixed plan or
method of study. It happened one day that Granacci took him to the gardens
of the Medici at San Marco. In this garden the Magnificent Lorenzo, father
of Pope Leo, a man renowned for every excellence, had disposed many
antique statues and decorative sculptures. Michael Angelo, seeing these
things and appreciating the beauty of them, never afterwards went to the
workshop of Domenico, but spent every day at the gardens, as in a better
school, always working at something or other. Amongst the rest, he studied
one day the head of a Faun, in appearance very old, with a long beard and
a laughing face, although the mouth could hardly be seen because of the
injuries of time. As if knowing what would be, or because he liked the
style of it, he determined to copy it in marble. The Magnificent Lorenzo
was having some marble worked and dressed in that place to ornament the
most noble library that he and his ancestors had gathered together from
all parts of the world. (These works, suspended on account of the death of
Lorenzo and other accidents, were, after many years, carried on by Pope
Clement, but even then they were left unfinished, so that the books are
still packed in chests.) Now these marbles being worked, as I said,
Michael Angelo begged a piece from the masons and borrowed a chisel from
them: with so much diligence and intelligence did he copy that Faun that
in a few days it was carried to perfection, his imagination supplying all
that was missing in the antique, such as the lips, open, as in a man who
is laughing, so that the hollow of the mouth was seen with all the teeth.
At this moment passed the Magnificent to see how his works progressed; he
found the child, who was busy polishing the head. He spoke to him at once,
noticing in the first place the beauty of the work, and having regard to
the lad's youth he marvelled exceedingly, and although he praised the
workmanship he none the less joked with him as with a child, saying: "_Oh!
you have made this Faun very old, and yet have left him all his teeth: do
you not know that old men of that age always lack some of them?_" It
seemed a thousand years to Michael Angelo before the Magnificent went away
and he remained alone to correct his error. He cut away a tooth from the
upper jaw, drilling a hole in the gums as though it had come out by the
roots.(11) He awaited the return of the Magnificent upon another day with
great longing. At last he came.