Poliziano,
the poet, and of hearing the conversation of Pico della Mirandola,
who was usually with Lorenzo; and to these early fastidious and
intellectual surroundings the artist owed much.

That he read much, we know, the Bible and Dante being constant
companions; and we know also that in addition to modelling and copying
under Bertoldo, he was assiduous in studying Masaccio's frescoes at
the church of the Carmine across the river, which had become a school
of painting. It was there that his fellow-pupil, Pietro Torrigiano,
who was always his enemy and a bully, broke his nose with one blow
and flew to Rome from the rage of Lorenzo.

It was when Michelangelo was seventeen that Lorenzo died, at the early
age of forty-two, and although the garden still existed and the Medici
palace was still open to the youth, the spirit had passed. Piero, who
succeeded his father, had none of his ability or sagacity, and in two
years was a refugee from the city, while the treasures of the garden
were disposed by auction, and Michelangelo, too conspicuous as a Medici
protege to be safe, hurried away to Bologna. He was now nineteen.

Of his travels I say nothing here, for we must keep to Florence,
whither he thought it safe to return in 1495. The city was now governed
by the Great Council and the Medici banished. Michelangelo remained
only a brief time and then went to Rome, where he made his first Pieta,
at which he was working during the trial and execution of Savonarola,
whom he admired and reverenced, and where he remained until 1501,
when, aged twenty-six, he returned to Florence to do some of his most
famous work. The Medici were still in exile.

It was in August, 1501, that the authorities of the cathedral asked
Michelangelo to do what he could with a great block of marble on
their hands, from which he carved that statue of David of which I
tell the story in chapter XVI. This established his pre-eminence as
a sculptor. Other commissions for statues poured in, and in 1504 he
was invited to design a cartoon for the Palazzo Vecchio, to accompany
one by Leonardo, and a studio was given him in the Via Guelfa for
the purpose. This cartoon, when finished, so far established him
also as the greatest of painters that the Masaccios in the Carmine
were deserted by young artists in order that this might be studied
instead. The cartoon, as I relate in the chapter on the Palazzo
Vecchio, no longer exists.

The next year, 1505, Michelangelo,