Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/246

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He sent for Lodovico, therefore, requesting the latter to entrust the youth to his care, and saying that he would treat him as a son of his own, to which Lodovico consented gladly; when Lorenzo gave orders that a room in his own house should be prepared for Michelagnolo, and caused him to eat at his own table with his sons and other persons of worth and quality. This was in the second year of Michelagnolo’s engagement with Domenico, and when the youth was fifteen or sixteen years old; he remained in the house of Lorenzo the Magnificent four years, to the death of Lorenzo namely, which took place in 1492. During all this time Michelagnolo received from the Magnifico an allowance of five ducats per month, and was furthermore presented for his gratification with a violet-coloured mantle; his father, likewise, had an office in the Customs conferred on him. But indeed all the young men who studied in the garden received stipends of greater or less amount from the liberality of that magnificent and most noble citizen, being constantly encouraged and rewarded by him while he lived.

At this time and by the advice of Politiano, Michelagnolo executed a Battle of Hercules with the Centaurs in a piece of marble given to him by Lorenzo, and which proved to be so beautiful, that whosoever regards this work can scarcely believe it to have been that of a youth, but would rather suppose it the production of an experienced master. It is now in the house of his family, and is preserved by Michelagnolo’s nephew Lionardo, as a memorial of him, and as an admirable production, which it certainly is. Not many years since, this same Lionardo had a basso-rilievo of Our Lady, also by Michelagnolo, and which he kept as a memorial of his uncle; this is of marble and somewhat more than a braccia liigh; our artist was still but a youth when it was done, and designing to copy the manner of Donatello therein, he has succeeded to such an extent that it might be taken for a work by that master, but exhibits more grace and higher powers of design than he possessed. That basso-rilievo was afterwards given by Lionardo to Duke Cosimo, by whom it