orenzo the Magnificent had
collected many statues and works of art. Here was a new field for
Michelangelo. Without needing a lesson he began to copy the statues in
terra-cotta, and so clever was his work that Lorenzo was delighted with
it.

'See, now, what thou canst do with marble,' he said. 'Terra-cotta is
but poor stuff to work in.'

Michelangelo had never handled a chisel before, but he chipped and cut
away the marble so marvellously that life seemed to spring out of the
stone. There was a marble head of an old faun in the garden, and this
Michelangelo set himself to copy. Such a wonderful copy did he make
that Lorenzo was amazed. It was even better than the original, for the
boy had introduced ideas of his own and had made the laughing mouth a
little open to show the teeth and the tongue of the faun. Lorenzo
noticed this, and turned with a smile to the young artist.

'Thou shouldst have remembered that old folks never keep all their
teeth, but that some of them are always wanting,' he said.

Of course Lorenzo meant this as a joke, but Michelangelo immediately
took his hammer and struck out several of the teeth, and this too
pleased Lorenzo greatly.

There was nothing that the Magnificent ruler loved so much as genius,
so Michelangelo was received into the palace and made the companion of
Lorenzo's sons. Not only did good fortune thus smile upon the young
artist, but to his great astonishment Lodovico too found that benefits
were showered upon him, all for the sake of his famous young son.

These years of peace, and calm, steady work had the greatest effect on
Michelangelo's work, and he learned much from the clever, brilliant men
who thronged Lorenzo's court. Then, too, he first listened to that
ringing voice which strove to raise Florence to a sense of her sins,
when Savonarola preached his great sermons in the Duomo. That teaching
sank deep into the heart of Michelangelo, and years afterwards he left
on the walls of the Sistine Chapel a living echo of those thundering
words.

Like all the other artists, he would often go to study Masaccio's
frescoes in the little chapel of the Carmine. There was quite a band of
young artists working there, and very soon they began to look with
envious feelings at Michelangelo's drawings, and their jealousy grew as
his fame increased. At last, one day, a youth called Torriggiano could
bear it no longer, and began to make scornful remarks, and worked
himself up into such a