Database: From: Michelangelo

Dear Father,

It has been almost a week since I abandoned my schooling. I don't expect you to understand why, I can't really explain it myself, but I feel the world flying by and I need to catch it, to become part of its tides and currents. I'm not very good with speaking or numbers, but with my hands I can shape everything flowing around me, every moment, every mood.

I know that you wanted me to become something more than an artist, but, please, for the sake of my future, relent. As you have always known, I am much more interested in sculpting and painting than I am in studying and now the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio has asked me to join him as an apprentice. He just got back from Roma, where he painted a masterful panel in the Capella Sistina. If I work hard, I might even be invited inside the Vatican, and maybe I'll get to see it.

Please give your blessing to this apprentice job. I promise to live up to your lofty expectations, and I hope that one day you will be proud of me.

Your son,

Michelangelo