immortal person

That night, Giovanni wrote his first poem.It was difficult to write at first, and the inspiration came late when he wrote the third line.It was as if there was a small but bright flame burning in his head, making the tip of the pen guide the torrent of emotion, leading him to the depths of his heart.At this moment, he does not have to worry about external objects, nor does he need to imitate any image, but only needs to face himself.He thought of Poliziano's teaching: "Return man to himself"—perhaps that was the point.

Grammar and declension are no longer obstacles, the torrent of thought has broken through them; meter is the only yardstick he has to follow, and this is trivial; in a trance, he feels the faces of many poets emerging in succession in his heart, Homer , Sappho, Virgil and Petrarch...

When he stopped writing, the moonlight was shining outside the window, shaping a silver-white city; and he used the pen as a medium to glimpse the city-state in words.

The next day he delivered the poem to Poliziano.After a long scrutiny, Poliziano said: "We finally turned you into a Greek."

This is a compliment from a classicist, Giovanni pursed his lips and smiled.

"Now are you willing to admit that Plato is Christ's favorite disciple?" Poliziano joked with Ficino's old words, "Look at you, it's really different. Your Highness is right, you are indeed A material that can be made."

"He really said that?" Giovanni's eyes lit up.

"Of course," Poliziano said, "now that I look at you, I see endless possibilities."

Meanwhile, Giovanni began work on his new sculpture of Hercules, the legendary demigod hero.This pagan subject would not have been appreciated by the bishops, but it might have been of interest to Lorenzo and the scholars.The gods who have achieved supreme glory after suffering are like a portrayal of the spirit of the Medici family.But this is not all about rewarding his patrons. Giovanni has completed many religious-related themes in the past. He is a devout person, but he hopes that he will not be bound by his beliefs.

His Hercules should be a unique work, different from all previous similar statues that emphasized its power.In Giovanni's vision, this deity should not only be a symbol of heroic knotted muscles. The contradiction between divinity and humanity is the most moving characteristic of Hercules. He is eager to explore the hero's heart and get closer to him. on the other side of man.Compared with the greatness of the flawless god, the human nature that embraces the humble and the noble is the more interesting part.As Mirandola says, men can ascend to angelic attainments, and they can descend into wretched things, so what prevents this god from falling, and what leads him upward?

This is not an easy question to answer.Giovanni tried to find the answer from the scrolls, allowing new revelations to overthrow previous assumptions time and time again.In the final facial drawings, Giovanni chose to draw a pair of gentle eyes for him, hoping to show the tough and soft side of the hero through them.He thought, these should be a pair of blue eyes.

It takes a long time to complete a sculpture, which Bertoldo calls a penance.Giovanni spent a lot of time looking for models. He traveled around the city with a pen and paper, going to mines and quarries to trace the powerful lines on the arms and thighs of workers.He accumulated hundreds of sketches within a month, and the sketches were roughly formed.He started trying to make wax models, and felt deeply frustrated at this stage-thin, stiff and rigid, far from satisfactory.His sculpture is a nearly perfect portrait, which will show every tiny part of the figure's body in an all-round way, but his results cannot express the "dynamic smoothness" in his mind.

Soon, he realized that this problem stemmed from the lack of knowledge. Sketching can only show the shape of people at a specific moment. Simple observation is not enough for him to grasp the details of every structure of the human body, nor can it allow him to deconstruct the movements and understand the causes .He needs to know something deeper, deeper.

The solution was not difficult to think of, but he knew it would be a dead end.

After struggling for ten days, Giovanni finally couldn't bear to reveal his thoughts to Bertoldo.Before he finished listening to his words, the master interrupted him immediately.Bertoldo was so horrified that he could barely hold the chisel in his hand: "What are you thinking! Dissection - cutting up people's bodies? Of course it's illegal! You want to be hanged from the window of the town hall up?"

Giovanni shook his head.Of course he is aware of this law, and if there is another way out, he also does not want to desecrate the corpses of believers, which makes him very tormented: "However, the human body will decay after losing the soul, so what is the use of it? I think the abbot of the monastery might be able to..."

Every day, many seriously ill poor people die in the Holy Spirit Monastery. Their bodies will stay in the church for a day, and then they will be sent to the fields for a hasty burial.Giovanni was only halfway through, and Bertoldo had interrupted him again.

"Don't talk about it," the old sculptor shook his head vigorously, "how can this work! Give up this evil idea-don't involve innocent people in it. Maybe after I die, you can secretly cut me open dead bodies—but no one else!"

Bertoldo underestimated Giovanni's stubbornness, even such a categorical denial did not completely dispel the young man's thoughts.He clearly understands that this is an unavoidable obstacle on the way to a higher realm, no matter how difficult and bloody it is, it must be overcome to move forward.Lipsis and Phidias were able to produce lifelike statues thousands of years ago, but today's artisans have to stay on the surface under the shackles of teachings, which makes their works always lack a vividness and vitality.If so, the skills of contemporary people will never be inferior to the masters of ancient times-and he will never be content with this.

He revealed his thoughts to Luigi.This is a friend he met in the studio of Ghirlandaio, and now he is also an apprentice in the Garden of San Marco.Luigi was three years older than him, and he was already a very mature young man. He dismissed Giovanni's troubles: "Too naive! Give up the dissection, don't lose your life because of it. There are many others in this world. There are ways to achieve your goals."

He lowered his voice: "For example, touch."

"……touch?"

"Yeah, touch," Luigi laughed, "I know there's a place where you can not only look closely at everything on people, but also touch them."

Giovanni was dubious.

"That's true. It's right by the Viteri Bridge," Luigi said. "Listen, there's absolutely everything you could want there. There are girls in there who will dress up as Cleopatra for a dozen silver coins." , you can be their Caesar tonight..."

The boy's face suddenly flushed red.He pushed Luigi away, but was grabbed by the man again: "What are you ashamed of! Don't tell me, you haven't even slept on a woman's thigh, have you? That would be too shameful!—"

Hanging out in brothels was a favorite pastime for boys his age.When walking by the bridge at night, occasionally a prostitute with rich makeup would grab Giovanni's sleeve.The apprentices once joked that his life was more ascetic than that of the monks. After all, the rumors of bishops keeping mistresses are no longer rare, but he is still indifferent to the plump body of women.

Luigi leaned closer to read his manuscript.Apart from the Madonna, Giovanni painted almost no women.He looked at the fit or weak male body on the drawings, and clicked his tongue: "Or, your taste is different? It doesn't matter, I know there is a place in the west of the city that can satisfy you-but you have to be more careful."

Giovanni's heart skipped a beat: "What?"

"take it easy."

Luigi squeezed his shoulder and Giovanni calmed down.Luigi chuckled: "I'm not one of those old-fashioned ones. Whether you like sweet wine or sour wine, it's up to you. As long as...you like it."

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