DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0419
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
399
contemptuous, bravado which we find in Michael‘Angelo,
the pleasure he evidently had in making it apparent how
easily he could excel and overpass other men, was peculiar
to himself; but the consciousness of an elevation above
their kind is common to this type of greatness, a quality
not so attaching or attractive as the brotherliness of the
sweeter nature, but perhaps more impressive to the common
imagination, which always in its soul believes more in self-
assertion than in natural humility. The great artist was
but a boy-apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghir-
landajo when he drew round one of his master’s designs,
in the hands of a fellow pupil, the correct outline of the
figure which the head of the bottega had drawn badly or
carelessly, a boyish feat which is much more important as
an evidence of character than even as a proof of the super-
lative genius which taught him more than his master could
—for the incident shows his contemptuous indifference to
the feelings of others as well as his wonderful power.
Subordination does not seem to have been one of the
virtues possible to Michael Angelo. Then and after he
brooked no control or reproof, and having no doubt of
his own right to be first, took his place, always with an
arrogance which, whether we like it or not, we are forced
to accept as an integral part of his character. The same
mixture of scorn does not appear in the more solemn
arrogance of Dante. When the poet said, “If I go who
will stay ? and if I stay who will go ?” the utter serious-
ness of the question veiled the prodigious self-estimation in
it ; but the painter’s attitude is one of proud carelessness,
like that of a being so much above all others that even
they themselves could have no doubt on the subject. So
intense a sense of personal value and importance is not
amiable, but it is as we have said, deeply impressive
to the common mind, and entirely characteristic of these
memorable men.
399
contemptuous, bravado which we find in Michael‘Angelo,
the pleasure he evidently had in making it apparent how
easily he could excel and overpass other men, was peculiar
to himself; but the consciousness of an elevation above
their kind is common to this type of greatness, a quality
not so attaching or attractive as the brotherliness of the
sweeter nature, but perhaps more impressive to the common
imagination, which always in its soul believes more in self-
assertion than in natural humility. The great artist was
but a boy-apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghir-
landajo when he drew round one of his master’s designs,
in the hands of a fellow pupil, the correct outline of the
figure which the head of the bottega had drawn badly or
carelessly, a boyish feat which is much more important as
an evidence of character than even as a proof of the super-
lative genius which taught him more than his master could
—for the incident shows his contemptuous indifference to
the feelings of others as well as his wonderful power.
Subordination does not seem to have been one of the
virtues possible to Michael Angelo. Then and after he
brooked no control or reproof, and having no doubt of
his own right to be first, took his place, always with an
arrogance which, whether we like it or not, we are forced
to accept as an integral part of his character. The same
mixture of scorn does not appear in the more solemn
arrogance of Dante. When the poet said, “If I go who
will stay ? and if I stay who will go ?” the utter serious-
ness of the question veiled the prodigious self-estimation in
it ; but the painter’s attitude is one of proud carelessness,
like that of a being so much above all others that even
they themselves could have no doubt on the subject. So
intense a sense of personal value and importance is not
amiable, but it is as we have said, deeply impressive
to the common mind, and entirely characteristic of these
memorable men.