Buonarroti family, and forms at present an ornament of their house at
Florence.


VII

We are accustomed to think of Michelangelo as a self-withdrawn and
solitary worker, living for his art, avoiding the conflict of society,
immersed in sublime imaginings. On the whole, this is a correct
conception of the man. Many passages of his biography will show how
little he actively shared the passions and contentions of the stirring
times through which he moved. Yet his temperament exposed him to
sudden outbursts of scorn and anger, which brought him now and then
into violent collision with his neighbours. An incident of this sort
happened while he was studying under the patronage of Lorenzo de'
Medici, and its consequences marked him physically for life. The young
artists whom the Magnificent gathered round him used to practise
drawing in the Brancacci Chapel of the Carmine. There Masaccio and his
followers bequeathed to us noble examples of the grand style upon the
frescoed panels of the chapel walls. It was the custom of industrious
lads to make transcripts from those broad designs, some of which
Raphael deigned in his latest years to repeat, with altered manner,
for the Stanze of the Vatican and the Cartoons. Michelangelo went one
day into the Carmine with Piero Torrigiano and other comrades. What
ensued may best be reported in the narration which Torrigiano at a
later time made to Benvenuto Cellini.

"This Buonarroti and I used, when we were boys, to go into the Church
of the Carmine to learn drawing from the chapel of Masaccio. It was
Buonarroti's habit to banter all who were drawing there; and one day,