immortal person

500 years later, you find the letter in an ancient archive, bound in front of an old book and tucked away in the most inconspicuous corner of the building.The stationery is real parchment, and the outside of the envelope is signed by an art historian whose name you've heard in a documentary about 200 years ago.

Out of curiosity, you opened the letter.

Lucky reader:

I wrote this letter before I died.The content of this letter is how I pursued, discovered and determined to hide a story.If I have to define the nature of this story, I would say that it is a love story; as for the reason why I have kept silent about it, it is because my time still does not welcome such a love story.And I cherish this story to the point of being reluctant to tell it, fearing that it will be distorted and misrepresented if it is made public; however, it has haunted me like a ghost for decades, until I decided that I would no longer carry this secret with me. God.I therefore write this letter, and hide it discreetly, in the hope that it will be lost like Timaeus's History of Sicily; or, like Procopius' unfortunate History, It will be 1000 years before people will discover the truth they never expected from the corner of the library.

Every middle school student has heard their history teacher mention the name of one of the protagonists of the story: Giovanni di Buonarroti, one of the greatest artists known to have lived.It is said that Mercury and Venus were in the house of Jupiter when he was born. According to the interpretation of astrologers, this mysterious planetary arrangement destined the baby 300 years ago to have amazing achievements in "the art of pleasing the senses".Before his death, his works were worth thousands of dollars, and now they have already become priceless treasures in museums everywhere.He was one of the first people who sparked my fascination with art in my teenage years.So when I aspired to be a disciple of Vasari, but was unwilling to be a copyer and simple recorder of the past, when I was 22 years old, I began to visit various places to find the traces he left hundreds of years ago .Following in his footsteps through Athens, Corinth, Rome and Bologna, at the age of 23 (I deliberately chose the same age as he returned to the city) to Florence.I searched for the works of art that he was said to have looked at, whether lost or preserved; I went to the archives of these cities again and again, and rummaged through the dusty letters and papers.It was during this process that I discovered the master's deadly secret.

From the accounts of contemporaries, we know that Giovanni Buonarroti was not an eloquent man, and this is also reflected in his letters.Few of his personal letters have survived, and communications with clients, quarry workers, and paint dealers make up the vast majority of them.These letters have been studied over and over again by the "Buonarroti scholars" who have appeared in recent years, and I am not content to visit all the famous private libraries on the Apennine peninsula, and look through the books locked by silver chains. Rare archives and transcripts.And among the large number of ancient letters that a collector accidentally acquired, I found his letter to Lorenzo de' Medici.

These ancient letters have not been touched for hundreds of years.When I carefully blew off the dust and opened the envelope, the silver dust on the letter paper was still glistening.Every "Scholar of Buonarroti" knew how important the Medici family was to him: it was his most important patron, and Giovanni's first and last works were dedicated to this once glorious family.And Lorenzo Medici was the first person in the family to notice him. Many people would describe their relationship like this: Giovanni Buonarroti is to Lorenzo Medici, just like Ape Lys to Alexander the Great.

How do people in our generation remember Lorenzo?Politicians, diplomats, a few people recognized him as an outstanding patron and antiquities collector, and even fewer scholars knew that he was proficient in many classical languages ​​and had considerable artistic accomplishment. After the "Pazzi War", it was he who established the absolute dominance of the Medici family in Florence, and then helped the emperor and the pope against the Turks in the protracted battle, thus obtaining the "Grand Duke of Tuscany" title.For the next 200 years, this became the hereditary title of his descendants. It was not until the family died out 100 years ago that the letters kept by the owners of the successive generations flowed out together with their treasured artworks.

As a monarch, his most important legacy is the Plato Academy and the Sculpture Academy in Florence. The former is the predecessor of the modern university, and the latter is one of the earliest art academies in Europe; Florence has always been the most dazzling in Europe during his lifetime. One of the city-states, and he built the city into what it is today.But as Menander said: "The beloved of God does not live long", many scholars have thought: If God allows him to have a longer life, he may be able to achieve Augustus' achievements as a "city builder".At any rate, Giovanni Buonarroti had a number of close collaborations with him in the building of the city-state, so before reading the letter, I guessed that they were about these patronage matters - however, I was wrong .

These letters were written in Greek, and it occurred to me a long time later that this was evidence that Buonarroti was indeed proficient in Greek, and then I could deduce the influence of ancient Greek philosophy on his art-and I had no time to take care of these at the time, I was greatly shocked-most of the surviving letters come from the "Pazzi War" period, and a few are the correspondence with Lorenzo when he visited other city-states afterwards.Buonarrotti called the Duke "my heart", and asked him about his condition in every detail, asking whether his migraine had recurred, and was as trivial and intimate as every wife who stayed at home.In peaceful times, he would still send his own sketches to the duke—then he was already "Lorenzo I"—with a few lines of poems behind the drawing paper, mostly asking him to return to him as soon as possible.

Given how little we have ever known about the master's personal life, I can declare that his emotional devotion to Lorenzo de' Medici is one of the most certain facts known about him.

After that, I began to pay attention to many details that I had never noticed before: some ancient scholars have always believed that there is a tendency of same-sex love hidden in Buonarrotti's "sculptural language" (I used to think this is nonsense) ; We know that Buonarroti wrote some love poems, but never published them during his lifetime. The original manuscripts of these poems were discovered after his death from the Medici Palace; Giulio de' Medici, who became Pope (whose lineage continues to be disputed to this day), had a deep friendship with Buonarrotti, and it seemed that they got along more like relatives than diners; of course, no one could Neglected - Giovanni and Lorenzo are buried in the same crypt in the Medici Chapel.I used to think that this was a way for the great nobles to show their favor to the artist. After all, Lorenzo's grandfather and the famous Donatello did the same.But after I read these letters, when I re-enter this crypt (which is already a popular attraction in Florence), I can't help but wonder if Lorenzo's alcove seems too large-- Among the two sarcophagi lined up side by side, is one empty?

I began to imagine how, in their youth, their lives were shaken by passion, and how they lived in secret, how the branches of the years intertwined until one died first.Buonarrotti lived to be 82 years old, a rare longevity for that era.Even in the last stage of his life, the invitations of the monarchs from all over the world never ceased; but since the 86th year of the Holy Calendar, he never left Florence-you know that when he was young, he was always the most famous artist among artists. rover.The 40 years of this painting is still a mystery that scholars have been discussing endlessly, but I think I am close to the answer: it was in this year that Lorenzo Medici died.

It was also in this year that Buonarroti started his final project: the tomb of Lorenzo I, including the group sculptures on the wall coffin and a bust of the Medici Grand Duke himself. When looking at the gorgeous mausoleum of the theme, they will say: This is the rebirth of classicism, the reflection of Neo-Platonism, or the product of other "isms" and "theories".But when I looked at the statues of weepers lined up on both sides of the wall tomb, I felt that huge, irreparable crack of pain, even after 300 years, it can still echo clearly in the hearts of the viewers; What I saw was a monument to a love story, hewn by one of the protagonists.You can't call it the end, it's as if the protagonists just rest here, thrown into the arms of eternal sleep.

Finally, I must remind future readers of the bust of Lorenzo - the only real-life statue we know of by Buonarrotti.Through the letters left by him, we know that he has rejected many orders for making statues for real people, and many dignitaries think he is very arrogant, "there is no worldly person in his eyes" - but I believe that you who have seen this place have touched it like me Another more romantic explanation.Unlike the rest of the tomb, it took almost 40 years to complete the statue, and since the great genius died months after it was completed, we can almost be sure that it was his last work.But even after such a long time interval, we know that this statue is very similar to the young Archduke Lorenzo through the records in his diary of Pitty Ricci, a former disciple and later important arm of the Medici family. The resemblance, almost to the point of being lifelike, makes people can't help feeling the extraordinary memory of the sculptor.

Today, it still often appears on the covers of many books as the standard portrait of Lorenzo I.It was unquestionably beautiful: many felt that its beauty would leave the viewer feeling a sense of love and awe, as if it were "imbued with light and spirit".Unlike traditional tomb sculptures with closed eyes and crossed hands, the expression and posture of this statue are very natural, as if the sculptor just took a tiny fragment of the Duke's life and shaped it into eternity.It took 40 years for one person to imprint another person, stationed in the place where the story happened, existing forever, never getting old-like a miracle.

And I already know the secret of this miracle.

Amorvincitomnia.*

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The author has something to say:

* Latin motto, meaning "love conquers all".

This is the end of "The Immortal", thank you for reading^^