brain of its great exponent, but grew and developed from master to pupil
until its supreme exponent blazed it before the world full of the
traditional fire of his predecessors, but distinctly marked by his own
dominant personality. The root of the style of Michael Angelo may be seen
in the works of Donatello and in the pulpits of San Lorenzo. His study of
the antique,(64) modified by his love of grace, of high finish, and his
own powerful character, only had to be added to complete the perfect
flower of Florentine art, Michael Angelo, the topmost bloom of the lily.

[Image #2]

THE RAPE OF DEIANEIRA AND THE BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS

CASA BUONARROTI, FLORENCE
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari. Florence_)

By good fortune, Michael Angelo attracted the notice of Lorenzo the
Magnificent, as Condivi has related;(65) and thus at the age of fifteen
years he entered the most cultured house in Italy and there acquired that
distinction of style that he kept all through his life, both in his art
and his manner. In these halcyon days at this hospitable table Michael
Angelo met such men as Massilio Ficino, the interpreter of Plato; Pico
della Mirandola, the phoenix of erudition; Luigi Pulci and Angelo
Poliziano--the latter is supposed to have incited Michael Angelo to carve
the bas-relief(66) now in the Casa Buonarroti, called by Condivi "The rape
of Deianeira and the battle of the Centaurs." This is the earliest work
that we know from the master's hand to which we can give a date; it
already shows his double love for the Hellenistic and for the Tuscan
styles. The degree of relief is alto-rilievo, like those on the Roman
sarcophagi and the pulpits of the Pisani; in shape it is almost as high as
it is long; this unusual proportion is similar to some of the divisions of
the bronze reliefs in the Donatello pulpits at San Lorenzo. The struggling
figures, Centaurs, and Lapithae, already exhibit Michael Angelo's power
over rhythm of line in a crowded composition as in the later groups of
"Moses raising the Serpent in the Wilderness," and "The Last Judgment,"
both in the Sistine Chapel. The method is extraordinarily free for so
young a sculptor; he evidently thinks out his work as it proceeds; his
delight in the beauty of the male human form is shown in every figure.
Some critics have been unable to distinguish the figure of Deianeira, as
her form has be