standard work that I have seen excepting by Symonds.[1] Yet Copernicus came to Rome to study astronomy with a company of Roman doctors; the schools of Italy were then alive with inquiry. When he published his monumental book in 1543 he found a host of readers prepared to comprehend his theory of the world.
The interest in ancient art had its foundations in literature and archeology. Biondo's treatise on the monuments of ancient Italy was written before 1463. In 1462 Pius II. issued a bull protecting the remains of ancient Rome from further depredations. The Museum of the Vatican was founded by Julius II. (1503-13).
The appreciation of classical sculpture was quickened by the recovery of many ancient works. Many? Not many of high class. The Apollo Belvedere was set up by Pope Julius.
Michel Angelo saw the Laocoön disinterred from the ruined Baths of Titus. Leo X. (1513-21) acquired the reclining statues of the Nile and the Tiber, and the so-called Antinoüs. These and other specimens of classical art, though not representative of that art at its best, helped to educate Italian taste, already well disposed towards every form of classical culture. The Latin verse-writers of Leo 's age show the impression made by the newly found works of sculpture
It is more interesting to note the remark of an expert, the Florentine sculptor Ghiberti, who, in speaking of an ancient statue which he had seen at Rome, observes that its subtle perfection eludes the eye, and can be fully appreciated only by passing the hand over the surface of the marble.[2]Ghiberti (died 1455?) made a collection of antique marbles, which was inherited by his grandson, and on the death of the latter «old and dispersed.[3]
Donatello (died 1466?) and Brunelleschi were known as "treasureseekers "and they exhumed many fragments of cornices, capitals and bas-reliefs, coins and the like. Of these Donatello made drawings and studies, while Brunelleschi journeyed from Florence to Cortona to see a sarcophagus in the Duomo, of which Donatello had given him a glowing description.[4]
Michelangelo's introduction to Lorenzo de' Medici came about through a copy which the lad had made from the antique (the head of a Faun, now in the Uffizi) about 1489, and for three happy years Michelangelo lived and studied in the studio-garden among the examples of ancient statuary which the duke had brought together.
The one antique fragment which seems to have roused his enthusiasm. . . was the Belvedere Torso. The Laocoön does not seem to have greatly moved him.[5]
