old, his grandfather, Pisano, hoped that he would succeed him as
village stonecutter and sculptor. Delicate though the little
fellow had been from birth, at nine years of age he was laboring,
as far as his strength would permit, in Pisano's workshop. But in
the evening, after the work of the day was done, with pencil or
clay he tried to give expression to the poetic fancies he had
imbibed from the ballads and legends of his native hills, crooned
to him in infancy by his grandmother.

Under Toretto his genius developed so rapidly that the sculptor
spoke of one of his creations as "a truly marvelous production."
He was then only thirteen. Later we find him in Venice, studying
and working with ever increasing zeal. Though Signor Falieri would
have been only too glad to supply the youth's needs, he was too
proud to be dependent on others. Speaking of this time, he says:
"I labored for a mere pittance, but it was sufficient. It was the
fruit of my own resolution, and, as I then flattered myself, the
foretaste of more honorable rewards, for I never thought of
wealth."

Too poor to hire a workshop or studio, through the kindness of the
monks of St. Stefano, he was given a cell in a vacant monastery,
and here, at the age of sixteen, he started business as a sculptor
on his own account.

Before he was twenty, the youth had become a master of anatomy,
which he declared was "the secret of the art," was thoroughly
versed in literature, languages, history, poetry, mythology,--
everything that could help to make him the greatest sculptor of
his age,--and had, even then, produced works of surpassing merit.