£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ Michelangelo £ Buonarroti (1475-1564) exerted enormous influence. He, £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ too, was universally acknowledged as a supreme artist in his own lifetime, £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ but again, his followers all too often present us with only the master's £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ outward manner, his muscularity and gigantic grandeur; they miss the £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ inspiration. Sebastiano del Piombo (c.1485-1547), for example, actually £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ used a drawing (at least a sketch) made for him by Michelangelo for his £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ masterwork, The Raising of Lazarus. Masterwork it is; yet how melodramatic £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ it appears if compared with Michelangelo's own painting.
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ Michelangelo resisted the paintbrush, vowing with his characteristic £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ vehemence that his sole tool was the chisel. As a well-born Florentine, a £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ member of the minor aristocracy, he was temperamentally resistant to £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ coercion at any time. Only the power of the pope, tyranical by position £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ and by nature, forced him to the Sistine and the reluctant achievement of £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ the world's greatest single fresco. His contemporaries spoke about his £ £ terribilit¨¤, which means, of course, not so much being terrible as being awesome. There has never been £ a more literally awesome artist than Michelangelo: awesome in the scope of his imagination, awesome in £ his awareness of the significance--the spiritual significance--of beauty. Beauty was to him divine, £ £ one of the ways God communicated Himself to humanity.
£ Like Leonardo, Michelangelo too had a good Florentine teacher, the delightful Domenico Ghirlandaio £ £ (c.1448-94). Later, he was to claim that he never had a teacher, and figuratively, this is a £ £ £ £ £ meaningful enough statement. However, his handling of the claw chisel does reveal his debt to £ £ £ £ £ Ghirlandaio's early influence, and this is evident in the cross-hatching of Michelangelo's drawings--a £ technique he undoubtedly learned from his master. The gentle accomplishments of a work like The Birth £ of John the Baptist bear not the slightest resemblance to the huge intelligence of an early work of £ £ Michelangelo's like The Holy Family, also known as the Doni Tondo. This is somehow not an attractive £ picture with its chilly, remote beauty, but its stark power stays in the mind when more acessible £ £ £ paintings have been forgotten.