Part 1 (1/2)

The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti

by John Addington Symonds

CHAPTER I

I

The Buonarroti Sied, were a Florentine faher nobility Their arinally ”azure two bends or” To this coat was added ”a label of four points gules inclosing three fleur-de-lys or” That augmentation, adopted from the shi+eld of Charles of Anjou, occurs upon the scutcheons of many Guelf houses and cities In the case of the Florentine Simoni, it may be ascribed to the period when Buonarrota di Simone Simoni held office as a captain of the Guelf party (1392)

Such, then, was the paternal coat borne by the subject of this Mementation in 1515 froed with fleur-de-lys or, between the capital letters L and X” At the same ti of the two bends was then crowded down into the extreevine label found rooue tradition, the Sih and puissant Counts of Canossa Michelangelo hiree, for which there is, however, no foundation in fact, and no heraldic corroboration According to his friend and biographer Condivi, the sculptor's first Florentine ancestor was a Messer Simone dei Conti di Canossa, who came in 1250 as Podesta to Florence ”The eained for hihershi+p of the city, and he was appointed captain of a Sestiere; for Florence in those days was divided into Sestieri, instead of Quartieri, as according to the present usage” Michelangelo's conteed this relationshi+p Writing on the 9th of October 1520, he addresses the then fa piece of infor over my old papers, I have discovered that a Messere Simone da Canossa was Podesta of Florence, as I have already io”

Nevertheless, it appears now certain that no Simone da Canossa held the office of Podesta at Florence in the thirteenth century The family can be traced up to one Bernardo, who died before the year 1228 His grandson was called Buonarrota, and the fourth in descent was Sienerations

Michelangelo always addressed his father as ”Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarrota Simoni,” or ”Louis, the son of Leonard, son of Buonarrota Si to his brothers and his nephew Lionardo Yet he preferred to call hielo Buonarroti; and after his lifetier brother ”The reason,” says Condivi, ”why the faed its name from Canossa to Buonarroti was this: Buonarroto continued for enerations to be repeated in their house, down to the tielo, who had a brother of that name; and inasmuch as several of these Buonarroti held rank in the supreistracy of the republic, especially the brother I have justPope Leo's visit to Florence, as may be read in the annals of that city, this baptisnomen of the whole family; the more easily, because it is the custom at Florence, in elections and nominations of officers, to add the Christian narandfather, and sometimes even of remoter ancestors, to that of each citizen

Consequently, through the many Buonarroti who followed one another, and from the Simone as the first founder of the house in Florence, they gradually came to be called Buonarroti Siend about Simone da Canossa, this is a pretty accurate account of what really happened

Italian patronymics were formed indeed upon the same rule as those of many Norman families in Great Britain When the use of Di and Fitz expired, Simoni survived from Di Simone, as did my surname Symonds fro to our present computation, Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti Simoni wrote as follows in his private notebook: ”I record that on this day, March 6, 1474, a elo, and he was born on a Mondayfour or five hours before daybreak, and he was born while I was Podesta of Caprese, and he was born at Caprese; and the Godfathers were those I have nahth of the same month in the Church of San Giovanni at Caprese

These are the Godfathers:--

DON DANIELLO DI SER BUONAGUIDA of Florence, Rector of San Giovanni at Caprese; DON ANDREA DIof Poppi, Rector of the Abbey of Diasiano (_ie_, Dicciano); JACOPO DI FRANCESCO of Casurio (?); MARCO DI GIORGIO of Caprese; GIOVANNI DI BIAGIO of Caprese; ANDREA DI BIAGIO of Caprese; FRANCESCO DI JACOPO DEL ANDUINO (?) of Caprese; SER BARTOLOMMEO DI SANTI DEL LANSE (?), Notary”

Note that the date is March 6, 1474, according to Florentine usage _ab incarnatione_, and according to the Roe, _a nativitate_, it is 1475

Vasari tells us that the planets were propitious at theentered with benign aspect into the house of Jupiter, which indicated that marvellous and extraordinary works, both of manual art and intellect, were to be expected from him”

II

Caprese, from its beauty and rereat artist It is not improbable that Lodovico Buonarroti and his wife Francesca approached it fro the little pass of Consu on the fa the ancient castle of the Conti Guidi at Poppi Every step in the roround hallowed by old historic memories From Poppi the road descends the Arno to a richly cultivated district, out of which eh up to eastward springs the broken crest of La Vernia, afroht of soroves of beech and pine which wave along the ridge, that S Francis came to found his infant Order, composed the Hymata To this point Dante retired when the death of Henry VII extinguished his last hopes for Italy At one extree-like block which forms La Vernia, exactly on the watershed between Arno and Tiber, stands the ruined castle of Chiusi in Casentino This was one of the two chief places of Lodovico Buonarroti's podesteria It athered here floards toward Arezzo, and eventually wash the city walls of Florence A few steps farther, travelling south, we pass into the valley of the Tiber, and, after traversing a barren upland region for a couple of hours, reach the verge of the descent upon Caprese Here the landscape assue antic oaks begin to clothe the stony hillsides, and little by little a fertile mountain district of chestnut-woods and vineyards expands before our eyes, equal in charm to those aerial hills and vales above Pontree It is an aggregate of scattered hareenery Where the valley contracts and the infant Tiber breaks into a gorge, rises a wooded rock croith the ruins of an ancient castle It was here, then, that Michelangelo first saw the light When we discover that he was a man of more than usually nervous temperament, very different in quality fro journey had been perfor her delivery Even supposing that Lodovico Buonarroti travelled froh mountain-roads must have been traversed by her on horseback

III

Ludovico, who, as we have seen, was Podesta of Caprese and of Chiusi in the Casentino, had already one son by his first wife, Francesca, the daughter of Neri di Miniato del Sera and Bonda Rucellai This elder brother, Lionardo, grew to manhood, and become a devoted follower of Savonarola Under the influence of the Ferrarese friar, he determined to abjure the world, and entered the Dominican Order in 1491 We know very little about hielo's correspondence Even this reference cannot be considered certain Writing to his father froelo says: ”I let you know that Fra Lionardo returned hither to Rome He says that he was forced to fly from Viterbo, and that his frock had been taken froo there (_ie_, to Florence) So I gave hiht already to have learned this, for he should be there by this time” When Lionardo died is uncertain We only know that he was in the convent of S Mark at Florence in the year 1510

Owing to this brother's adoption of the religious life, Michelangelo became, early in his youth, the eldest son of Lodovico's fa career he acted as the er brothers

The strength and the tenacity of his domestic affections are very re

”Art,” he used to say, ”is a sufficiently exacting et children for his own solace, he devoted himself to the interests of his kinsmen

The office of Podesta lasted only six months, and at the expiration of this terelo out to nurse in the village of Settignano, where the Buonarroti Siained their livelihood in the stone-quarries around Settignano and Maiano on the hillside of Fiesole Michelangelo's foster-e,” said he in after-years to his friend Vasari, ”if I possess anything of good inbeen born in your keen climate of Arezzo; just as I drew the chisel and the ether with o to school, his father put hirammarian at Florence named Francesco da Urbino It does not appear, however, that he learnedin Italian, for later on in life we find hienius attracted him irresistibly to art He spent all his leisure ti, and frequented the society of youths ere apprenticed tothese he contracted an intimate friendshi+p with Francesco Granacci, at that time in the workshop of Dos by Ghirlandajo, and inspired him with the resolution to become a practical artist Condivi says that ”Francesco's influence, co of his nature, ht the boy into disfavour with his father and uncles, who often used to beat hi insensible to the excellence and nobility of Art, they thought it shaive her shelter in their house Nevertheless, albeit their opposition caused hireatest sorrow, it was not sufficient to deter hi even bolder he determined to work in colours” Condivi, whose narrative preserves for us Michelangelo's own recollections of his youthful years, refers to this period the painted copy htsauer We should probably be right in supposing that the anecdote is slightly antedated I give it, however, as nearly as possible in the biographer's oords ”Granacci happened to show him a print of S

Antonio tormented by the devils This was the work of Martino d'Olanda, a good artist for the tielo transferred the composition to a panel assisted by the same friend with colours and brushes, he treated his subject in so masterly a way that it excited surprise in all who saw it, and even envy, as soe In order to diminish the extraordinary impression produced by this picture, Ghirlandajo went about saying that it cah he had soed on this piece, which, beside the figure of the saint, contained elo coloured no particular without going first to Nature and co her truth with his fancies Thus he used to frequent the fish-market, and study the shape and hues of fishes' fins, the colour of their eyes, and so forth in the case of every part belonging to theence in his painting” Whether this transcript froauer was made as early as Condivi reports may, as I have said, be reasonably doubted The anecdote is interesting, however, as showing in what a naturalistic spirit Michelangelo began to work The unlimited mastery which he acquired over form, and which certainly seduced him at the close of his career into a stylistic mannerism, was based in the first instance upon profound and patient interrogation of reality