MASTERPIECES OF GREEK SCULPTURE 6n 



standard work that I have seen excepting by Symonds. 2 Yet Coper- 

 nicus came to Rcme to study astronomy with a company of Roman 

 doctors; the schools of Italy were then alive with inquiry. When he 

 published his monumental book in 1543 he found a host of readers 

 prepared to comprehend his theory of the world. 



The interest in ancient art had its foundations in literature and 

 areheolog}'. Biondo's treatise on the monuments of ancient Italy was 

 written before 1163. In 1462 Pius II. issued a bull protecting the 

 remains of ancient Rome from further depredations. The Museum of 

 the Vatican was founded by Julius II. (1503-13). 



The appreciation of classical sculpture was quickened by the re- 

 covery of many ancient works. Many ? Not many of high class. The 

 Apollo Belvedere was set up by Pope Julius. 



Michel Angelo saw the Laocoon disinterred from the ruined Baths of Titus. 

 Leo X. (1513-21) acquired the reclining statues of the Nile and the Tiber, and 

 the so-called Antinoiis. These and other specimens of classical art, though not 

 representative of that art at its best, helped to educate Italian taste, already 

 well disposed towards every form of classical culture. The Latin verse-writers 

 of Leo 's age show the impression made by the newly found works of sculpture- 

 It is more interesting to note the remark of an expert, the Florentine 

 sculptor Ghiberti, who, in speaking of an ancient statue which he had seen at 

 Rome, observes that its subtle perfection eludes the eye, and can be fully appre- 

 ciated only by passing the hand over the surface of the marble. 3 



Ghiberti (died 1455?) made a collection of antique marbles, which 

 was inherited by his grandson, and on the death of the latter sold and 

 dispersed. 4 



Donatello (died 1466?) and Brunelleschi were known as "treasure- 

 seekers " and they exhumed many fragments of cornices, capitals and 

 bas-reliefs, coins and the like. Of these Donatello made drawings and 

 studies, •while Brunelleschi journeyed from Florence to Cortona to see a 

 sarcophagus in the Duomo, of which Donatello had given him a glow- 

 ing description. 5 



Michelangelo's introduction to Lorenzo de' Medici came about 

 through a copy which the lad had made from the antique (the head of a 

 Faun, now in the Uffizi) about 1489, and for three happy years Michel- 

 angelo lived and studied in the studio-garden among the examples of 

 ancient statuary which the duke had brought together. 



The one antique fragment which seems to have roused his enthusiasm . . . 

 was the Belvedere Torso. The Laocoon does not seem to have greatly moved 

 him. 6 



2 See "The Renaissance of Science," The Popular Science Monthly, Novem- 

 ber, 1903. 



3 Sir Richard Jebb in " Camb. Mod. Hist.," Vol. I. 

 'Perkins, "Tuscan Sculptors," I., p. 136. 



5 Ibid., p. 139. 

 "Ibid.. Vol. II., p. 7. 



