Fra Bartolommeo | Page 8

old sculptor, who
boasted of having been the scholar of Donatello, and also heir to his art
possessions. He could also point to the bronze pulpits of San Lorenzo,
which he finished, as proof of his having inherited a portion of his
master's spirit. Bertoldo, having doubtless rendered to Duke Cosimo's
keeping his designs by Donatello, which were preserved in the garden,
obtained the post of instructor there; but his age may have prevented
his keeping perfect order, and the younger spirits overpowered him.
There were Michelangelo, with all the youthful power of passion and
force which he afterwards imparted to his works, and the audacious
Torrigiano, with his fierce voice, huge bulk, and knitted brows, who
was himself a discord like the serpent in Eden. Easily offended, he was
prompt in offering outrage. Did any other young man show talent or
surpass him, revenge deep and mean as that of Bandinelli to
Michelangelo was sure to follow, the envied work being spoiled in his
rage. Then there were the fun-loving Francesco Granacci, and the witty
Rustici, as full of boyish pranks as they were of genius--what could one
old man do among so many?--and now comes the impetuous Mariotto
to add one more unruly member to his class.
How well one can imagine the young men--in loose blouses confined at
the waist, or in buff jerkins and close-fitting hose, with jaunty cloaks or
doublets, and little red or black caps, set on flowing locks cut square in
front--passing beneath the shadows of the arches among the dim statues,
or crossing the garden in the sunshine amid the orange-trees, under the
splendid blue Italian skies.
We can see them painting, modelling, or drawing large cartoons in
charcoal, while old Bertoldo passes from easel to easel, criticising and
fault-finding, detailing for the hundredth time Donatello's maxims, and
moving on, heedless or deaf to the irreverent jokes of his ungrateful
pupils.
Then, like a vision of power and grandeur, Lorenzo il Magnifico enters

with a group of his classic friends. Politian and the brothers Pulci
admire again the ancient sculptures which are to them as illustrations of
their readings, and Lorenzo notes the works of all the students who
were destined to contribute to the glory of the many Medicean palaces.
How the burly Torrigiano's heart burns within him when the Duke
praises his compeer's works!
Sometimes Madonna Alfonsina, the mother of Lorenzo, and widow of
Piero, walked here, and she also took an interest in the studies of the
youths. Mariotto especially attracted her by his talent and zeal. She
commissioned him to paint some pictures for her to send as a present to
her own family, the Orsini of Rome. These works, of which the
subjects are not known, passed afterwards into the possession of Cæsar
Borgia. She also sat to Mariotto for her own portrait. It is easily
imagined how elated the excitable youth became at this notice from the
mother of the magnificent Lorenzo. He had dreams of making a greater
name than even his master, Cosimo, whose handiwork was in the
Sistine; of excelling Michelangelo, of whose genius the world was
beginning to talk; and, as adhering to a party was the only way to
success in those days, he became a strong Pallesco, [Footnote: The
Palleschi were the partizans of the Medici, so called because they took
as their standard the Palle, or Balls, the arms of that family.] trusting
wholly in the favour of Madonna Alfonsina.
He even absented himself almost constantly from the studio, which
Baccio shared with him, and worked at the Medici palace, [Footnote:
This break is signified by Baldinucci, _Opere_, vol. iv. p. 84, and by
Vasari, who says that after the exile of Piero he returned to Baccio.] but,
alas! in 1494 this brilliant aspect of his fortunes changed.
Lorenzo being dead, Piero de' Medici was banished, the great palace
fell into the hands of the republican Signoria, and all the painters were
left without patronage.
Mariotto, very much cast down, bethought himself of a friend who
never failed him, and whose love was not affected by party; and,
returning to the house of Baccio, he set to work, most likely in a
renewed spirit of confidence in the comrade who stood by him when
the princes in whom he trusted failed him. Whatever his frame of mind,
he began now to study earnestly the works of Baccio, who, while he
was seeking patronage in the palace, had been purifying his genius in

the Church. Mariotto imbibed more and more of Baccio's style, till their
works so much resembled one another that indifferent judges could
scarcely distinguish them apart. It would be interesting if we could see
those early pictures done for Madonna Alfonsina, and compare them
with the style formed after