e
(1499-1504) a new spirit, of daemonic power, had come to fascinate the
Florentines, and give them a new conception of the art of the human
form; and, in fact, hardly had our master reached Florence and secured
his lodging than he was invited to give his verdict as to the best
site for Michelangelo's gigantic marble "David." Feeling ran high in
the city both as to the site and the work itself. As to the former,
the Loggia de' Signori was suggested, but Michelangelo himself
preferred the left-hand side of the doorway of the Palazzo Vecchio,
and his wish was respected. Yet the feeling against this figure among
some of the citizens was such that, when it was exposed, it became a
mark for missiles, and the watchmen set to guard it were assaulted. We
may imagine that there were frequent gatherings and many heated
discussions among the artistic confraternity, who were wont to meet in
the shop of Baccio d'Agnolo; and it may have been in one of these
discussions that "Michelangelo declared to Perugino that his art was
absurd and antiquated." "_Goffo nell' arte_"--a bungler in his
art--that is the precise phrase quoted by Vasari, and which so rankled
in the breast of the elder man that, "Pietro being unable to support
such an insult, they both carried their plaint before the magistracy
of the Eight; in the which affair Pietro remained with but little
credit."

It would have been better, we feel, and more dignified, to have passed
over the slighting word with the contempt which it deserved. The
master of the Sistine fresco which we have described, of the Albani
altar-piece and its younger sister of the Certosa, of the altar-piece
of the Magistrates' Chapel at Perugia, and the superb frescoes of the
Cambio, stood far above such criticism in his own or any later age;
and this appreciation of the Perugian's work in art does not imply
any depreciation of Buonarroti's genius, of which, in its own sublime
and individual path, the present writer is an enthusiastic admirer.

But Pietro was a strong-tempered and revengeful man, as is shown by
the earlier records of Florentine justice, when he had appeared (in
July of 1487) before the Eight--the "_Otto di Custodia_"--for having,
with a notorious ruffian, one Aulista di Angelo of Perugia, waylaid a
private enemy more than once with the intention of beating
him--"_pluries et pluries nocturno tempore accesserunt armati
quibusdam bastonibus._" On that occasion he had escaped with a fine of