Chapter 24 Two Confidence - 4

Therefore, he has only an inevitable handover, or intellectual relationship, with society.He does not allow anyone to see his intimate life; popes, dignitaries, men of letters, artists occupy a very small place in his life.But he has real affection with a small part of them, but his friendship is rare and long-lasting.He loves his friends and is magnanimous to them; but his strength, his arrogance, and his suspicions often turn his most loyal friends into his fiercest enemies.He wrote this beautiful, mournful letter one day: "The nature of the poor heartless man is such that if you help him in his distress, he says that what you give him he has given you before. If you Give him work to show your concern for him, and he says you have to entrust him with the work, because you can't do it yourself. The kindness he has received, he says, is what the benefactor has to do. And if the kindness he has received When a favor is so obvious that he cannot deny it, he will wait until the benefactor has done an obvious wrong; then the wrongdoer has an excuse to speak ill of him, and relieves him of all obligations of gratitude. .—People have always been like this to me; but no artist comes to ask me and I don't do him some favors; Crazy, wrong; so they slandered me, slandered me;—this is the reward of all good men." Letter to Piero Conti, January 26, 1524.

In his own family he had fairly loyal assistants, but mostly mediocre ones.One suspects that he chooses the mediocre ones on purpose, so long as they become submissive instruments rather than collaborative artists—and that is justified.But according to Condivi: "Many people say that he does not want to coach his assistants, which is not true: on the contrary, he is eager to teach them. Unfortunately his assistants are either imbecile or inconstant, the latter in the After several months of training, Yelang is often arrogant and thinks he is a master." Undoubtedly, the first quality he requires of his assistants is absolute obedience.For those who are generally rebellious and rebellious, he has no scruples; for those who are humble and faithful, he shows 120% tolerance and generosity.Lazy Urbano, "unwilling to work," Vasari wrote of Michelangelo's assistant: "Pietro Urbano te Pistoie was wise, but never willing Work hard. Antonio Mini worked hard, but not smart. Ascanio della Ripa Transoni worked hard, but he never achieved anything.”—and his reluctance to work was fully because, when he worked, he was often so clumsy that he damaged the work irreparably, as in the "Christ" of the Minerva Temple--in an illness, Michelangelo benevolent caretaker; he called Michelangelo "dear as the best father."Michelangelo worried about his slightest pain.Once he saw that his finger was cut, he monitored him and asked him to make a religious confession.Piero di Giannotto was "loved as a son by him." Silvio di Giovanni Ceparello passed from him to Andrea Doria When serving, sadly asked him to re-hospitalize him.Antonio Mini's touching history is an example of Michelangelo's generosity towards his assistants.According to Vasari, Meany was one of his apprentices who was strong-willed but not very bright.He loved Fei Lengcui, the daughter of a poor widow.Michelangelo obeyed his parents' wishes and asked him to leave Fei Lengcui.Antonio would like to go to France.After the fall of Emerald in 1529, Michelangelo thought of going to France with Antonio Mini.Michelangelo sent him a large number of works: "all sketches, all drafts, "Leda Playing Goose" painting". The painting "Leda Playing Goose" was done by him for the Duke Ferrare during the siege of Feilencui, but he did not give it to him because the ambassador of the Duke Ferrare disrespected him.He took these riches and set off.1531.But the bad luck that struck Michelangelo struck his humble friend more severely.He went to Paris and wanted to present the painting "Leda Playing with a Goose" to the King of France.Francis I was not in Beijing; Antonio deposited "Leda Playing a Goose" with a friend of his, the Italian Giuliano Bonacorsi, and he returned to Lyon to stay.A few months later, when he returned to Paris, "Leda Playing Goose" was gone, and Bonacorcy sold it to Francis I, who took the money.Antonio was angry and anxious, his source of income was cut off, and he was exiled in this huge capital, and finally died of anxiety and anger in 1533.

But of all his assistants, Michelangelo's favorite and immortalized by his love was Francesco te Amadore, nicknamed Urbino.He served in Michelangelo's studio from 1530, and under his direction he made the tomb of Julius II.Michelangelo was concerned about his future. "He said to him: 'What will you do if I die?'" Urbino replied: "I will serve another. '"'Oh, poor fellow!' said Michelangelo, 'I will save you from your misfortune.' And he gave him two thousand ducats at once: a gift not so generous even by popes and emperors. . ’” Vasari recorded.

However, Urbino died before him.On December 3, 1555, a few days after the death of Michelangelo's last brother, Sigismundo.The day after his death, Michelangelo wrote to his nephew: "Urbino is dead, yesterday at four o'clock in the afternoon. He makes me so sad, so disturbed, that if I die with him, instead comfortable; it is because I love him dearly; and he is indeed worthy of my love; this is a dignified, bright, faithful man. His death made me feel as if I were no longer alive, and I My peace cannot be found again." His suffering was so deep that he wrote to Vasari three months later: "Mr. Write a few random words. You know that Urbino is dead,—a cruel pain for me, but a great grace bestowed on me by God. That is to say, while he was alive, he encouraged I also live and die. He taught me to know how to die, not to be unhappy but willing to die. He has been by my side for twenty-six years, and I always feel that he is reliable and faithful. I earned for him and now I would have him as a support for old age, but he is gone; and I have no other hope but to see him again in heaven, where God gave him the happiness of a sweet death, and must be Keep him by his side. To him it was more torment than to die To keep me alive in this deceitful world, in this endless trouble. The purest part of me went with him, Only endless disasters remain." February 23, 1556.

In great grief, he invited his nephew to visit him in Rome.Leonardo and Cassandra, worried, came and saw him very weak.Urbino's sons, one of his adopted sons, bear his name.He wrote enthusiastically to Cornelia, the widow of Urbino, promising her to take Michelangelo into his care, "to show him a love even more tender than that of his nephew. , and taught him everything Urbino wanted him to learn". (March 28, 1557) - Cornelia remarried in 1559, and Michelangelo never forgave her.