The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Novel of Michelangelo

Michelangelo is a teenager, but his tutor, Bertoldo, is approaching the end of his life. The master and the apprentice share a room together in the Medici palace so that Michelangelo can devote himself to his studies at all times. In the room, Bertoldo shows Michelangelo the small clay models that represent his life’s work. He encourages Michelangelo to build a “body of work” (107) of his own, just as he has done and just as Donatello did before him. Michelangelo is struck by the smallness of the models. He remains amazed by his good fortune, as he now lives in the palace, devoting all his time to sculpture. He is given new clothes and as much time as he needs for his art. Michelangelo is treated almost like “one of the family” (109) while living in the Medici palace. He develops a rich friendship with Contessina, and he dines in the big room where Lorenzo invites all visitors to his palace, introducing Michelangelo to a cosmopolitan, educated world beyond Florence.

At last, Michelangelo learns how to carve stone. Carving marble for sculpture is very different, he is told, from the cutting of stone as taught to him by the Topolinos, but Michelangelo is enamored with the artform.