The Poet Prince by Kathleen McGowan

the citizens below in the piazza near to death as the bust shattered into a million pieces. I only wish I had been there to see it!”
    Lorenzo laughed, but his nine-year-old mind was constantly inquiring. It was not enough to understand that Donatello was capable of such high jinks; he also wished to understand what motivated them. From his earliest days, Lorenzo had been supremely fascinated by human behavior and had strived to understand it. Certainly a character study such as Donatello was a great learning tool.
    “Why did he do it, Grandfather?”
    “The patron was a vainglorious fool and a skinflint,” Cosimo explained. “First, he insisted that Donatello bring the bust to the Signoria and cart it up the stairs. Then, after the successful unveiling,
where everyone agreed that it was yet another masterpiece of sculpture, the idiot of a man took our Doni aside and complained that there were flaws in the work! Now mind you, there were not, and everyone knew that there were not. The idiot believed that if he could convince Donatello that the work was imperfect, he could default on the rest of the commission payment. In short, he wanted to cheat an artist out of the payment he richly deserved.”
    “That’s a terrible thing to do!” Lorenzo was scandalized.
    “Not only is it terrible, it’s theft. No different from highway robbery, stealing what rightfully belongs to a man through force. And this is your next lesson as a defender of the arts, my boy. Artists are forever taken advantage of, cheated by those who do not understand how much of their heart and soul and essence goes into a work of art. All art is priceless, Lorenzo, and we diminish it every time we apply a monetary value to it. But this is the world that we live in, and why we must set an example as patrons. If Dante were here today, I believe he would create a special level of the
inferno
for men who cheat artists.”
    Cosimo could see that Lorenzo’s fine mind was taking it all in. The child missed nothing.
    “And so Donatello feigned that he wanted to see the sculpture in the light, to inspect the flaws that the man claimed he had discovered.” Cosimo stopped for a moment to laugh at what he knew was coming next. “The bust was brought to the balcony for inspection, and Donatello moved it to the edge, claiming that the best sunlight was right there . . . and then he tossed it over the edge and watched it shatter! He then turned to the wretched man and said, ‘I would rather see my work in a million pieces than in the hands of an undeserving swine such
as you.’ ”
    Lorenzo joined Cosimo, erupting in laughter at Donatello’s insult to the horrid man who tried to cheat him.
    “Of course, now the man wants his money back, which I, of course, will pay him as a means of protecting Donatello and keeping him out of a cell in the Bargello. But he is making enemies quickly, and after we defend him to the council today, we shall pay him a visit and ask that he try to behave himself for a while—before he breaks the Medici bank with restitution payments!”
    Lorenzo set out on the walk to the Palazzo Vecchio with his grandfather, who continued to fill him in on the adventures of Donatello and the reason this particular mission today was of such great importance. Several of Donatello’s outraged patrons had banded together to file a formal complaint about him, which now required diplomatic intervention.
    “I don’t understand what they are accusing him of, Grandfather.”
    Cosimo considered his explanation carefully. He had insisted that Lorenzo, as young as he was, accompany him today so that he could see the importance of standing up for the truth, even when it was very unpopular. Perhaps most of all when it was very unpopular. This case was delicate for one so young, and yet as always, Lorenzo was capable of understanding things well beyond the grasp of an average child.
    “Donatello, as you may or may not have noticed, has a grand appreciation of