But
this is a slight digression; let us return to our story.
VI. Possibly not less wonderful was another labour of Michael Angelo's
done at this time, perhaps as a jest. Some one lent him a drawing of a
head to copy; he returned his copy to the owner instead of the original
and the deception was not noticed, but the boy talking and laughing about
it with one of his companions it was found out. Many people compared the
two and found no difference in them, for besides the perfection of the
drawing, Michael Angelo had smoked the paper to make it appear of the same
age as the original. This brought him a great reputation.(10)
VII. Now drawing one thing and now another, the boy had no fixed plan or
method of study. It happened one day that Granacci took him to the gardens
of the Medici at San Marco. In this garden the Magnificent Lorenzo, father
of Pope Leo, a man renowned for every excellence, had disposed many
antique statues and decorative sculptures. Michael Angelo, seeing these
things and appreciating the beauty of them, never afterwards went to the
workshop of Domenico, but spent every day at the gardens, as in a better
school, always working at something or other. Amongst the rest, he studied
one day the head of a Faun, in appearance very old, with a long beard and
a laughing face, although the mouth could hardly be seen because of the
injuries of time. As if knowing what would be, or because he liked the
style of it, he determined to copy it in marble.
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