SCULPTURE. 



and life of his defigns, and in the charafter of nature in his 

 ilatues, which are to be feen in Florence ; he was born in 

 1403, and lived to be above 80 years old. His ftatue of 

 St. George is a youthful pedeftrian figure, Handing with his 

 legs confidcrably apart, his two hands before him leaning on 

 his (hield. Michael Angelo admired the head of this figure 

 fo much, that he copied it in the monumental ftatue of Julian, 

 duke of Namurs. Donatello defigned fome fine bas reliefs 

 from the life of St. Anthony of Padua, wliich were executed 

 by one of his pupils, and decorate the principal altar of tlic 

 cathedral of Padua. He compofed and executed the greater 

 part of thofe noble bas reliefs from the life of our Saviour, 

 in bronze, round the two pulpits of St. Lorenzo, in Flo- 

 rence ; the fentiment, paffion, and eompofition of which, in 

 parts, it feems impoflible to excel. He executed different 

 ftatues of St. John, and crucifixes in wood, the charafters 

 of which are rather vulgar, and confequently very inferior 

 to his bas reliefs. It was faid of this artift, upon the 

 Pythagorean idea of tranfmigration, that either Michael 

 Angelo's foul energized in his body, or his in Michael 

 Angelo's. There is a bronze figure in the market of Flo- 

 rence, of Judith with the head of Holofernes, which, though 

 by his hand, has nothing linking in the attitude ; and its 

 drapery is confufed. But there is another llatue of a youth 

 naked, about twelve or fourteen years old, in the ducal 

 gallery, which is worthy to be ranked with the fine ftatues 

 of antiquity. 



Brunelefchi, the friend of Donatello, was an excellent 

 fculptor, goldfmith, and architedl, and revived the true and 

 ancient way by his indefatigable care. The remains of his 

 fculpture are very few ; there is an admirable crucifix, carved 

 in wood by him, in the church of St. Mary Novella at 

 Florence. 



About the year 1450 appeared Andrea Verrochio and 

 Dominic Ghirlandaio, Iculptors and painters in Florence. 

 Verrochio was an excellent fculptor and engraver, not only 

 in brafs, but alto in marble ; he was alio a good architect. 

 He was eftcemed of the firft rank of fculptors, and preferred 

 to Donatello and to Ghiberti, in making St. Thomas feel- 

 ing our Saviour's fide, which he conltrucied of brafs for the 

 oratory of St. Michael. He was the mailer of Pietro Pe- 

 rugino and Lionardo da Vinci, and other excellent pupils. 

 His laft work was the famous figure on horfeback of Bar- 

 tholomeo Cogleone da Bergamo, which is at Venice, in the 

 fquare of St. John and St. Paul. 



Dominic Ghirlandaio was the mafter of Michael Angelo ; 

 he worked more in painting than in fculpture, particularly 

 in mofaic for pope Sixtus IV. in the Vatican. He was 

 particularly qualified as an inftrudor to that great man, from 

 the delicacy of his genius as well as his original and copious 

 invention. 



But the progrcfs of art was greatly accelerated by the 

 progrefTive difcovery of thofe miraculous produdtions of an- 

 cient Greek art, which had been buried fo many ages, and 

 were by degrees reftored from the bowels of the earth. 

 Poggius, the fecretary to Eugenius IV., in the year 1430, 

 particularly enumerated all the remains of ancient magni- 

 ficence in Rome exifting at that time, among which he 

 reckons only five ftatues ; two of them were the colollal 

 ftatues by Phidias and Praxiteles, on mount Cavallo ; the 

 third the equeftrian ftatue of Marcus Aurehus, at that time 

 beforethechurchof St. John de Lateran ; the two others, per- 

 haps, were the figure called Marforio, which is a recumbent 

 ftatue of the Ocean, now in the Capitol ; the other 3 fragment 

 of the group of Ajax fupporting the body of Patroclus, 

 called Pafquin. The Laocoon was found in the vear 1506. 



Vol. XX-XIJ. 



In the year 1474 was born at Florence Michael Angelo 

 Buonarotti ; he was brought up to learning, but bufying 

 himfelf always in private about dcfigning, which his father 

 obferving, put him to Dominic Ghirlandaio. In a little 

 time Michael Angelo diftinguifhed himfelf above his other 

 difciples by the lurpnfing facility with which he defigned. 

 This great genius was very fortunately favoured by prince 

 Lorenzo de Medicis, who, with great love to art, and defire 

 to alTift men flvilled and learned f.herein, eftablifhed in the 

 gallery of his gardens an academy, which he filled with fine 

 pittures and pieces of fculpture, both ancient and modern, 

 and fought out at Florence thole young defigners who pro- 

 miled moft, to whom he allowed penfions to promote their 

 fludies. Thofe of the fchool of Ghirlandaio were chofen the 

 firft, and particularly Michael Angelo, who, having one 

 day taken up a piece of marble, fet about making a head, 

 though he had never before handled a chiflel, which fo 

 much furpiifcd prince Lorenzo, and he conceived fo great 

 an aHeftion for Micliael Angelo, that befides allowing 

 him the penfion, he made him a companion at his table, 

 and gave him a lodging at his palace. After the death 

 of this prince, his fucceii'or, Pietro de Medicis, continued 

 Michael Angelo the fame afFettion he had enjoyed from his 

 father. 



At Rome he made a marble ftatue of Bacchus, with 

 feveral other marble ftatues. At his return to Florence, he 

 applied himfelf with the lame diligence, and made a David 

 of marble, which was fet up before the palace. Peter 

 Sodenni, the Gonfaloniere, and the citizens in general, were 

 fo charmed with the ftatue, that they required of him other 

 works in bronze and in painting. The Gonfaloniere then 

 ordered him to paint one half of the council-hall, and Lio- 

 nardo da Vinci the other. 



Michael Angelo in this work gave proofs of the excellence 

 of his defigning, both with refped to the eompofition of 

 the fubjeci, which was tlie war of Pifa, and in the correft- 

 nefs of his naked figures ; and to have an opportunity to 

 fiiew it the better, he chofe the time when the foldiers were 

 bathing in the river Arno, to introduce the figures naked. 

 Raphael, and the artifts his contemporaries, improved the 

 grandeur of their defign from that cartoon. 



Julius 11. being railed to the papal chair, fent for Michael 

 Angelo to Rome, rcfolving to engage him in a maufolcum 

 in St. Peter's, which was intended to ftar.d under the 

 centre of the dome, to be the moft magnificent of the kind 

 ever raifed, and the principal objeft in the church. Thi- 

 work, however, was delayed till the pope died, and then 

 one of its faces only, and upon an inferior (cale, was eredcd 

 by his nephew in the church of St. Peter in Vincolc. 

 The figures which decorate the architcfture of this tomb 

 arc thole of the pope, Mofes, and allegorical virtues. Two 

 ftatues of marble, which were to be part of this fcpulchre, 

 are now in the caftle of Richelieu in France. 



The execution of this monument was interrupted by Mi- 

 chael Angelo being at the fame time employed by the 

 pope to paint in frefco the arched cieling of the chapel of 

 Sixtus IV., which fo much raifed his reputation, that bo- 

 fides the general applaulc that he received at Rome, the 

 pope rewarded him alio with feveral prefent.-. Julius II. 

 being dead, Leo X., his fuccclTor, honourtd Michael An- 

 gelo' no lefs than he had done, employing him on the archi- 

 tcdture of the front of St. Lorenzo at Florence. 



After this, in the popedom of Clement VII., he defigned 



the architeaure of the vcftry, in the fame church, for a 



maufolcum for the houfc of Medicis, and adorned the eaft 



and weft fides with the fepulchres of Julian, duke of Narauri, 



M »od 



