tine chronicles from the twelfth century. His
father, Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti-Simoni, was then Podesta of
Caprese and Chiusi. His mother, Francesca di Neri di Miniato del Sera,
died when he was only six years old, and some years later his father
married Lucrezia Ubaldini. Michelangelo had four brothers: Lionardo, who
was two years his senior; Buonarroto, born in 1477; Giovan Simoni, born
in 1479; and Sigismondo, born in 1481. His foster-mother was the wife of
a stone-cutter of Settignano and in later years he used to jokingly
attribute his vocation to the milk upon which he had been nourished. He
was sent to school in Florence under Francesco da Urbino, but he busied
himself only in drawing and neglected everything else. "Because of this
he greatly irritated his father and his uncles, and they often beat him
cruelly, for they hated the profession of an artist, and, in their
ignorance of the nobility of art, it seemed a disgrace to have one in
the house."[1]

The elder Buonarroti, however, was, like his son, more violent than
obstinate, and he soon allowed the boy to follow his vocation. In April,
1488, Michelangelo, by the advice of Francesco Granacci, entered the
studio of Domenico and David Ghirlandajo.

That was the most famous studio in Florence. Domenico was an
indefatigable worker who "longed to cover with stories the entire
circuit of the walls of Florence" and possessed of a calm, simple and
serene spirit, satisfied merely to exist without tormenting itself over
subtleties. This fortunate being, who died at forty-four, leaving an
immense mass of completed work in which the magnificence and the moral
force of Florence still live, was the best guide that could have been
given to the young Michelangelo. Domenico was then, from 1486 to 1490,
in the fulness of his power, and at work on his masterpiece, the
paintings in the Tornabuoni Chapel in S. Maria Novella.

It has been said that his influence on Michelangelo amounted to nothing,
and it is true that we find no direct trace of it except in two drawings
in the Louvre and the Albertina. Still, exact imitation is very rare
with Michelangelo. He was made of too stubborn stuff ever to be much
affected by masters or surroundings. He felt contempt for Raphael
because he was impressionable, "and drew his superiority not from
nature, but from study." I do not believe, however, that the time he
spent in the school of Ghirlandajo had no effect upon him. Even if it