ivi, "because it has been said to me that
Domenico's son was in the habit of attributing the divine excellence of
Michelangelo to the training given by his father, who really did not
help him in any way. It is true that Michelangelo never complained of
him, but on the contrary praised him as much for his art as for his
conduct."

It is very difficult to say how much is true in this story. I am
reluctant to ascribe so contemptible a jealousy to Ghirlandajo, and
repeat it only because of the last line where Condivi is constrained to
remark on the esteem which Michelangelo, when he was an old man,
expressed for his former master. Such admiration for other artists is
too rare with him not to have especial weight in this case.

There is no doubt that a disagreement did arise between the master and
the scholar, for though Michelangelo had in 1488 signed a contract of
apprenticeship which stipulated that he should remain three years with
Ghirlandajo,[5] the very next year he went with his friend Granacci into
the school of Bertoldo.

Bertoldo, a pupil of Donatello, was director of the School of Sculpture
and of the Museum of Antiquities maintained by Lorenzo de' Medici in the
gardens of S. Marco. I think that the real reason why Michelangelo
separated himself from Ghirlandajo was that after a year of feeling his
way he had just discovered the essence of his genius and was drawn
toward sculpture with irresistible force. It was really from painting
that he was separating himself and never afterward did he consider it as
his art. We might almost say that if painting has immortalised him it is
in spite of himself. He never wished to be considered as anything but a
sculptor.[6]

Two things drew him to Bertoldo: the hope of finding the tradition of
Donatello and the fascination of the antique. He found something even
more valuable there in the friendship of the prince and of the elite of
the Florentine thinkers. Lorenzo took an interest in him, lodged him in
the palace and admitted him to his son's table, and in this way
Michelangelo found himself at the very heart of the Renaissance, in the
midst of the humanists and the poets and in intimate relation with all
whom Italy counted most noble; with Pico della Mirandola, with Pulci,
Benevieni and especially with Poliziano, "who loved him greatly and
urged him to study, although that was hardly necessary."[7]

Surrounded by this atmosphere of lofty paganism he became intoxicated
w