, Leonardo Buonarroti, was so far influenced that he withdrew from
the world and became a Dominican monk.

Michael Angelo's diligence was great; he not only studied sculpture, but
he found time to copy some of the fine old frescoes in the Church of the
Carmine. He gave great attention to the study of anatomy, and he was known
throughout the city for his talents, and for his pride and bad temper. He
held himself aloof from his fellow-pupils, and one day, in a quarrel with
Pietro Torrigiano, the latter gave Angelo a blow and crushed his nose so
badly that he was disfigured for life. Torrigiano was banished for this
offence and went to England; he ended his life in a Spanish prison.

In the spring of 1492 Lorenzo de Medici died. Michael Angelo was deeply
grieved at the loss of his best friend; he left the Medici palace, and
opened a studio in his father's house, where he worked diligently for two
years, making a statue of Hercules and two madonnas. After two years there
came a great snow-storm, and Piero de Medici sent for the artist to make a
snow statue in his court-yard. He also invited Michael Angelo to live
again in the palace, and the invitation was accepted; but all was so
changed there that he embraced the first opportunity to leave, and during
a political disturbance fled from the city with two friends, and made his
way to Venice. There he met the noble Aldovrandi of Bologna, who invited
the sculptor to his home, where he remained about a year, and then
returned to his studio in Florence.

Soon after this he made a beautiful, sleeping Cupid, and when the young
Lorenzo de Medici saw it he advised Michael Angelo to bury it in the
ground for a season, and thus make it look like an antique marble; after
this was done, Lorenzo sent it to Rome and sold it to the Cardinal Riario,
and gave the sculptor thirty ducats. In some way the truth of the matter
reached the ears of the Cardinal, who sent his agent to Florence to find
the artist. When Michael Angelo heard that two hundred ducats had been
paid for his Cupid, he knew that he had been deceived. The Cardinal's
agent invited him to go to Rome, and he gladly went. The oldest existing
writing from the hand of Michael Angelo is the letter which he wrote to
Lorenzo to inform him of his arrival in Rome. He was then twenty-one years
old, and spoke with joy of all the beautiful things he had seen.

Not long after he reached Rome he made the statue of the "Drunken
Bacchus," no