en, for these, in truth, were as marvellous
as could have been looked for in the workmanship of a craftsman who
had laboured for many years. And this was because all the power and
knowledge of the gracious gifts of his nature were exercised by study
and by the practice of art, wherefore these gifts produced every day
fruits more divine in Michelagnolo, as began to be made clearly
manifest in the copy that he executed of a printed sheet by the German
Martino, which gave him a very great name. For there had come to
Florence at that time a scene by the above-named Martino, of the
Devils beating S. Anthony, engraved on copper, and Michelagnolo copied
it with the pen in such a manner that it could not be detected, and
then painted that same sheet in colours, going at times, in order to
counterfeit certain strange forms of devils, to buy fishes that had
scales bizarre in colouring; and in that work he showed so much
ability, that he acquired thereby credit and fame. He also
counterfeited sheets by the hands of various old masters, making them
so similar that they could not be detected, for, tinting them and
giving them the appearance of age with smoke and various other
materials, he made them so dark that they looked old, and, when
compared with the originals, one could not be distinguished from the
other. Nor did he do this with any other purpose but to obtain the
originals from the hands of their owners by giving them the copies,
for he admired them for the excellence of their art and sought to
surpass them in his own practice; on which account he acquired a very
great name.

[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS

(_After the relief by =Michelangelo=. Florence: Museo Buonarroti_)

_Alinari_]

At that time the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici kept the sculptor
Bertoldo in his garden on the Piazza di S. Marco, not so much as
custodian or guardian of the many beautiful antiques that he had
collected and gathered together at great expense in that place, as
because, desiring very earnestly to create a school of excellent
painters and sculptors, he wished that these should have as their
chief and guide the above-named Bertoldo, who was a disciple of
Donato. Bertoldo, although he was so old that he was not able to work,
was nevertheless a well-practised master and in much repute, not only
because he had polished with great diligence the pulpits cast by his
master Donato, but also on account of many castings in bronze that h