The Agony and the Ecstasy by The Agony & the Ecstasy

Author:The Agony & the Ecstasy [Agony, The & Ecstasy, the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

7.

Beppe gave him a raucous welcome. "So you own the Duccio block for free!" He grinned, scratching his bald scalp.

"Beppe, like it or not, you've got me under your wing for two full years."

The foreman groaned. "As though I don't have troubles enough keeping the cathedral from falling down. But the Board of Works say give him everything he wants: marble, chisels, pretty girls..."

Michelangelo laughed aloud, bringing the artisans running. They welcomed him to the yard.

The Duomo workyard ran the full width of the block behind the Duomo Works buildings from the Via dei Servi on the north side to the Street of the Clock on the south, bound in by an eight-foot brick wall. The front half, where the Duccio column had lain, was the quarters for the artisans maintaining the cathedral; the rear half was used for storage of lumber, brick, paving stone. Michelangelo wanted to be close to the workmen so he could hear the sound of their tools and voices, yet not be involved. In the center of the rear yard there was an oak tree, and behind it, in the wall admitting to a nameless passage, an iron gate, locked, rusted. The gate was exactly two blocks from his house. He could work nights when he wished, and holidays when the main yard would be locked.

"Beppe, is it permitted to use this gate?"

"Nobody forbids. I locked it myself, ten, twelve years ago, when tools and material were missing."

"Would it be all right if I used it?"

"What's wrong with the front entrance?"

"Nothing. But if we could build my workshop around this gate, I could come and go without bothering anybody."

Beppe chewed toothlessly on this idea to make sure Michelangelo was not repudiating him or his crew. Then he said:

"I do it. Draw me plans."

He needed thirty feet along the back wall to be paved for his forge and tools, and for keeping his wood dry; the brick wall would have to be raised another nine feet so that no one could see the column or watch him working on it when he mounted his scaffold. On each side, for a distance of about twenty feet, he wanted low plank walls, but the work area would be open to the sky for the nine dry months of the year, and at the front as well. The Giant would be bathed in the full sunlight of the southern arc as the brilliant Tuscan sun made its daily transit across the city.

He decided to keep the workshop in the piazza; it would be a place to go to when he wanted to get away from the large marble. Argiento would sleep there, and work with him here during the day.

The Duccio block was so seriously gouged in the center of its seventeen-foot length that any attempt to move it in its present state could prove fatal; a jarring motion or lurching impact would split the column in two. He bought several of the largest pieces of paper he could

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