“He [Michelangelo] delighted much in the sacred
scriptures, like the good Christian he was, and held in veneration the works of
Fr. Girolamo Savonarola, having heard him preach. In his manner of life he was
most abstemious, being content when young with a little bread and wine while at
his work, and until he had finished the Last
Judgment he always waited for refreshment till the evening, when he had
done his work. Though rich he lived poorly, never taking presents from any one.
He took little sleep, but often at night he would rise to work, having made
himself a paper cap, in the middle of which he could fix his candle, so that he
could have the use of his hands. Vasari, who often saw this cap, noticed that
he did not use wax candles, but candles made of goats' tallow, and so he sent
him four bundles, which would be 40 lbs. His servant took them to him in the
evening, and when Michelangelo refused to take them, he answered, ‘Sir,
carrying them here has almost broken my arms, and I will not carry them back
again; but there is some thick mud before your door in which they will stand
straight enough, and I will set light to them all.’ Upon which Michelangelo
answered, ‘Put them down here, then, for I will not have you playing tricks
before my door.’ He told me that often in his youth he had slept in his
clothes, too worn out with his labours to undress himself. Some have accused
him of being avaricious, but they are mistaken, for he freely gave away his
drawings and models and pictures, for which he might have obtained thousands of
crowns.”— Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists (1550)
Michelangelo Buonarotti—the consummate Renaissance painter, sculptor and architect—was
born on this date in Florence in 1475. In a prior post, I quoted the biographer Vasari on how Michelangelo created his
masterwork, the Sistine Chapel. But this particular quote is vivid in its own
way in detailing Michelangelo’s religious fervor and personal asceticism.
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