Though he had been a pupil of Poliziano, he displayed but little of his father's interest in learning, art, and literature.

Chance brought Michelangelo into personal relations with this man.

On the 20th of January 1494 there was a heavy fall of snow in Florence, and Piero sent for the young sculptor to model a colossal snow-man in the courtyard of his palace.
Critics have treated this as an insult to the great artist, and a sign of Piero's want of taste; but nothing was more natural than that a previous inmate of the Medicean household should use his talents for the recreation of the family who lived there.

Piero upon this occasion begged Michelangelo to return and occupy the room he used to call his own during Lorenzo's lifetime.

"And so," writes Condivi, "he remained for some months with the Medici, and was treated by Piero with great kindness; for the latter used to extol two men of his household as persons of rare ability, the one being Michelangelo, the other a Spanish groom, who, in addition to his personal beauty, which was something wonderful, had so good a wind and such agility that when Piero was galloping on horseback he could not outstrip him by a hand's-breadth." II At this period of his life Michelangelo devoted himself to anatomy.