ear, Michelangelo went on to study at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens and shortly thereafter was invited into the household of Lorenzo de' Medici *http://www.thais.it/scultura/sch00073.htm*, the Magnificent. There he had an opportunity to converse with the younger Medici, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII). He also became acquainted with such humanists as Marsilo Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, frequent visitors to the Medici court. Michelangelo produced at least two relief sculptures by the time he was 16 years old, the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs (both 1489-92, Casa Buonarroti, Florence), which show that he had achieved a personal style at a precocious age. In Michelangelo's personal diary he recounts his first two works: "My first work was a small bas-relief, The Madonna of the Stairs. Mary, Mother of God, sits on the rock of the church. The child curls back into her body. She foresees his death, and his return on the stairway to heaven. "My second work, another small relief. My tutor read me the myth of the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs. The wild forces of Life, locked in heroic combat. "Already at 16, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms...one spiritual, the other earthly, I've kept these carvings on the walls of my studio to this very day."His patron Lorenzo died in 1492; two years later Michelangelo fled Florence, when the Medici were temporarily expelled. His Studies of AnatomyDuring the years he spent in the Garden of San Marco, Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study corpses, the prior of the church of Santo Spirito, Niccol Bichiellini, received a wooden Crucifix from Michelangelo. But his contact with the dead bodies caused problems with his health, obliging him to interrupt his activities periodically.The Bolognese Period...
