Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564),
"Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. He was one of the founders of the
High Renaissance and, in his later years, one of the principal exponents of
Mannerism. Born at Caprese, the son of the local magistrate, his family returned to
Florence soon after his birth. Michelangelo's desire to become an artist was initially
opposed by his father, as to be a practising artist was then considered beneath the
station of a member of the gentry. He was, however, eventually apprenticed in
1488 for a three-year term to Domenico Ghirlandaio. Later in life Michelangelo
tried to suppress this apprenticeship, implying that he was largely self-taught,
undoubtedly because he did not want to present himself as a product of the
workshop system which carried with it the stigma of painting and sculpture being
taught as crafts rather than Liberal Arts. Nevertheless, it was in Ghirlandaio's
workshop that Michelangelo would have learnt the rudiments of the technique of
fresco painting. Before the end of his apprenticeship, however, he transferred to the
school set up by Lorenzo the Magnificent in the gardens of the Palazzo Medici.
Here he would have had access to the Medici collection of antiques, as well as a
certain amount of tuition from the resident master, Bertoldo di Giovanni. His work
here included two marble reliefs, a Madonna of the Steps (Casa Buonarroti,
Florence), carved in rilievo schiacciato and showing the influence of Donatello
(Bertoldo's master) and a Battle of the Centaurs (Casa Buonarroti, Florence),
based on Bertoldo's bronze Battle of the Horsemen, which itself appears to be
based on an antique prototype. Either at this time, or when he was in the
Ghirlandaio workshop, Michelangelo also studied from and drew copies of the
frescos of Giotto and Masaccio.
"With the death of Lorenzo in 1492, the school broke up and Michelangelo was
given permission to study anatomy at the hospital attached to Sto Spirito. In
gratitude to the prior for allowing him this privilege he carved a wooden Crucifix
(the one now in the Casa Buonarroti is considered by some scholars to be the
work in question). In October 1494, Michelangelo transferred to Bologna and was
awarded the cornmission for three marble figures to complete the tomb of St.
Dominic in S. Domenico Maggiore, begun by the recently deceased Niccoló dell'
Arca. By June 1496 he was in Rome and here established his reputation with two
marble statues, the drunken Bacchus (c 1496-7; Florence, Bargello) for a private
patron and the Pietá for St. Peter's (1498-9). The latter is generally considered to
be the masterpiece of his early years, deeply poignant, exquisitely beautiful and
more highly finished than his later works were to be. In creating a harmonious
pyramidal group from the problematic combination of the figure of a full-grown man
lying dead across the lap of his mother, Michelangelo solved a formal problem that
had hitherto baffled artists. He returned to Florence a famous sculptor and was
awarded the commission for the colossal figure of David to stand in the Piazza
della Signoria, flanking the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio (1501-4, original now
in the Accademia). Soon after this he was cornmissioned to paint a battle scene for
the new Council Chamber of the Palazzo. On one wall he commenced the painting
of the Battle of Cascina, while on the opposite wall his principal rival, Leonardo,
was commissioned to paint the Battle of Anghiari. Although neither painting was
ever finished, copies of a fragment of Michelangelo's full-size cartoon, showing a
group of nude soldiers reacting variously to the battle alarm that has interrupted
their bathing, soon began to circulate (e.g. Earl of Leicester Collection, Holkharn
Hall, Norfolk). These nudes, posed in a variety of turning and animated poses,
established the Mannerist conception of the male nude as the principal vehicle for
the expression of human emotions.
"Michelangelo abandoned this Florentine commission when Pope Julius II
summoned him to Rome to design his tomb. What should have been the most
prestigious commission of his career, a free-standing tomb with some 40 figures, to
be located in St. Peter's, became, in Michelangelo's own words, the 'tragedy of the
tomb'. Julius died in 1513, the contract was redrawn several times over the
following years with ever-diminishing funding, other demands were made on
Michelangelo by successive popes, and the project was finally cobbled together in
1545, a shadow of its original conception, with much help from assistants, in S.
Pietro in Vincoli Julius' titular church). The tomb is now principally famous for the
colossal figure of Moses (c 1515), one of Michelangelo's greatest sculptures. Two
slave figures, The Dying Slave and the Rebellious Slave (c1513), intended for the
largest of the schemes for the tomb, are now in the Louvre in Paris, and four
unfinished slaves, from an intermediate stage when the tomb had been only slightly
reduced, are now in the Accademia in Florence. The four unfinished slaves reveal
eloquently Michelangelo's sculptural process: the figure would be outlined on the
front of the marble block and then Michelangelo would work steadily inwards from
this one side, in his own words 'liberating the figure imprisoned in the marble'. As
the more projecting parts were reached so they were brought to a fairly finished
state with those parts further back still only rough-hewn: thus the figures of these
slaves literally appear to be struggling to be free. The (unintentional) pathos
specifically evoked by the unfinished state of figures such as these and the St.
Matthew (Accademia, Florence) exerted a tremendous impact on Rodin who
recognized in them expressive possibilities that would be lost in a 'finished' piece.
"While in the early stages of work on the Tomb, Julius also commissioned
Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was evidently
reluctant to abandon his sculptural project for one of painting (always much less
satisfying to him), but he nonetheless began work in 1508, completed the first half
by 1510 and the whole ceiling by 1512. Dissatisfied with traditional methods of
fresco painting and mistrustful of assistants who could not meet his evolving
demands, he dismissed his workshop at an early stage and completed the
monumental task almost single-handedly. The main scenes - the histories - in the
centre of the shallow barrel vault, alternate larger and smaller panels and represent
the opening passages of the Bible, from the Creation to the Drunkenness of Noah
with, at each of the corners of the smaller panels, idealized nude youths, variously
interpreted as angels or Neoplatonic perfections of human beauty. The histories are
treated like quadri riportati with a horizon parallel to the picture plain. The ignudi,
however, inhabit a different reality - one created by the fictive architecture which
also forms the shallow space occupied by the enthroned prophets and sibyls (those
who foretold Christ's coming) located towards the sides of the vault. Lower down
still, in the Nunettes above the windows, are the ancestors of Christ and, at the four
corners of the ceiling, Old Testament scenes that prefigure Christ's Crucifixion and
thus humanity's salvation. The programme of the ceiling, life before the
establishment of the Mosaic Law, relates it to the frescos of the lives of Moses and
Christ by Perugino and other artists on the walls below. Michelangelo gives a
poignant account of his gruelling task, painting bent over backwards, his neck
permanently arched to look up, his arm stretching upwards to wield his brush, in
one of his sonnets. The break in work in 1510 allowed him to see the effect of the
fresco from the ground (hitherto hidden by scaffolding) and in the second half (that
closest to the altar wall) there is a perceptible simplification of detail and a
corresponding monumentalization of figure style. Always heralded as the supreme
example of Florentine disegno, the recent restoration has also revealed
Michelangelo to have been a brilliant colourist.
Creation of the Sun and Moon
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo was recalled to Rome by Pope Julius II in 1505 for two commissions. The most
important one was for the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Working high above the chapel floor,
lying on his back on scaffolding, Michelangelo painted, between 1508 and 1512, some of the finest
pictorial images of all time. On the vault of the papal chapel, he devised an intricate system of decoration
that included nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, beginning with God Separating Light from Darkness
and including the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, and
the Flood. These centrally located narratives are surrounded by alternating images of prophets and sibyls
on marble thrones, by other Old Testament subjects, and by the ancestors of Christ. In order to prepare
for this enormous work, Michelangelo drew numerous figure studies and cartoons, devising scores of
figure types and poses. These awesome, mighty images, demonstrating Michelangelo's masterly under-
standing of human anatomy and movement, changed the course of painting in the West.
The Laurentian Library
The project for the Julius Tomb required architectural planning, but Michelangelo's activity as
an architect only began in earnest in 1519, with the plan for the facade (never executed) of the Church
of San Lorenzo in Florence, where he had once again taken up residence. In the 1520s he also designed
the Laurentian Library and its elegant entrance hall adjoining San Lorenzo, although these structures were
finished only decades later. Michelangelo took as a starting point the wall articulation of his Florentine
predecessors, but he infused it with the same surging energy that characterizes his sculpture and painting.
Instead of being obedient to classical Greek and Roman practices, Michelangelo used motifs-columns,
pediments, and brackets-for a personal and expressive purpose. Michelangelo, a partisan of the
republican faction, participated in the 1527-29 war against the Medici and supervised Florentine
fortifications.
The Medici Tombs
While residing in Florence for this extended period, Michelangelo also undertook
between 1519 and 1534-the commission of the Medici Tombs for the New Sacristy of San
Lorenzo. His design called for two large wall tombs facing each other across the high,
domed room. One was intended for Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino; the other for
Giuliano de' Medici, duke of Nemours. The two complex tombs were conceived as representing
opposite types: the Lorenzo, the contemplative, introspective personality; the Giuliano, the active,
extroverted one. He placed magnificent nude personifications of Dawn and Dusk beneath the seated
Lorenzo, Day and Night beneath Giuliano; reclining river gods (never executed) were planned for
the bottom. Work on the Medici Tombs continued long after Michelangelo went back to Rome in 1534,
although he never returned to his beloved native city.
The Last Judgment
In Rome, in 1536, Michelangelo was at work on the Last Judgment for the
alter wall of the Sistine Chapel, which he finished in 1541. The largest fresco of the
Renaissance, it depicts Judgment Day. Christ, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion
the inevitable separation, with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting and
the damned descending on the right into a Dantesque hell. As was his custom,
Michelangelo portrayed all the figures nude, but prudish draperies were added by
another artist (who was dubbed the "breeches-maker") a decade later, as the cultural climate became
more conservative. Michelangelo painted his own image in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew. Although
he was also given another painting commission, the decoration of the Pauline Chapel in the 1540s, his
main energies were directed toward architecture during this phase of his life.
The Campidoglio
In 1538-39 plans were under way for the remodeling of the buildings surrounding the
Campidoglio (Capitol) on the Capitoline Hill, the civic and political heart of the city of Rome. Although
Michelangelo's program was not carried out until the late 1550s and not finished until the 17th century,
he designed the Campidoglio around an oval shape, with the famous antique bronze equestrian statue of
the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the center. For the Palazzo dei Conservatori he brought a new
unity to the public building facade, at the same time that he preserved traditional Roman monumentality.
Dome of St. Peter's Basilica
Michelangelo's crowning achievement as an architect was his work at St. Peter's Basilica,
where he was made chief architect in 1546. The building was being constructed according to Donato
Bramante's plan, but Michelangelo ultimately became responsible for the altar end of the building
on the exterior and for the final form of its dome.
Michelangelo's Achievements
During his long lifetime, Michelangelo was an intimate of princes and popes, from Lorenzo de'
Medici to Leo X, Clement VIII, and Pius III, as well as cardinals, painters, and poets. Neither easy to
get along with nor easy to understand, he expressed his view of himself and the world even more directly
in his poetry than in the other arts. Much of his verse deals with art and the hardships he underwent,
or with Neoplatonic philosophy and personal relationships.
The Pietà
Whether in painting, sculpture or architecture, Michelangelo's influence has been immense.
Some Part of the Text which appears here was from "The Bulfinch Guide to Art History :
A Comprehensive Survey and Dictionary of Western Art and Architecture.
By: Shearer West (Editor)
Web Page By: PSONE ©, Updated 2001