Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person.
A mononym may be the person's only name, given to them at birth. This was routine in most ancient societies, and remains ...
ously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect,
and poet of the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
. Born in the
Republic of Florence
The Republic of Florence (; Old Italian: ), known officially as the Florentine Republic, was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Florence in Tuscany, Italy. The republic originated in 1115, when the Flor ...
, his work was inspired by models from
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...
and had a lasting influence on
Western art
The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...
. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal
Renaissance man
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
, along with his rival and elder contemporary,
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
.
Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.
Michelangelo achieved fame early. Two of his best-known works, the ''
Pietà
The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...
'' and ''
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
'', were sculpted before the age of 30. Although he did not consider himself a painter, Michelangelo created two of the most influential
fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es in the history of Western art: the
scenes from Genesis on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome,
and ''
The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the ''Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism.
Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resu ...
'' on its altar wall. His design of the
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...
pioneered
Mannerist architecture
Mannerism is a Style (visual arts), style in Art of Europe, European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the ...
. At the age of 71, he succeeded
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (12 April 14843 August 1546), also known as Antonio Cordiani, was an Italian architect active during the Renaissance, mainly in Rome and the Papal States. One of his most popular projects that he worked on des ...
as the architect of
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...
. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the Western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death.
Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive.
Three biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
, proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all three".
In his lifetime, Michelangelo was often called ("the divine one"). His contemporaries admired his ''
terribilità
Terribilità, the modern Italian spelling, or terribiltà, as Michelangelo's 16th century contemporaries tended to spell it, is a quality ascribed to his art that provokes terror, awe, or a sense of the sublime in the viewer. It is perhaps especia ...
''—his ability to instill a sense of awe in viewers of his art. Attempts by subsequent artists to imitate the expressive physicality of Michelangelo's style contributed to the rise of
Mannerism
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...
, a short-lived movement in Western art between the High Renaissance and the
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
.
Life
Early life, 1475–1488
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on 6 March 1475 in
Caprese, known today as Caprese Michelangelo, a small town situated in Valtiberina, near
Arezzo
Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...
,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
.
[J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', p. 11] For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
; but the bank failed, and his father Ludovico briefly took a government post in Caprese.
At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the town's
judicial administrator and ''
podestà
(), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a c ...
'' (local administrator) of
Chiusi della Verna
Chiusi della Verna is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about east of Florence and about north of Arezzo. It is in the Casentino traditional region.
Chiusi della Verna borders the foll ...
. Michelangelo's mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena.
[C. Clément, ''Michelangelo'', p. 5] The Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess
Matilde di Canossa
Matilda of Tuscany (; or ; – 24 July 1115), or Matilda of Canossa ( ), also referred to as ("the Great Countess"), was a member of the House of Canossa (also known as the Attonids) in the second half of the eleventh century. Matilda was one ...
—a claim that remains unproven, but which Michelangelo believed.
Several months after Michelangelo's birth, the family returned to Florence, where he was raised. During his mother's later prolonged illness, and after her death in 1481 (when he was six years old), Michelangelo lived with a
nanny
A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...
and her husband, a stonecutter, in the town of
Settignano Settignano is a ''frazione'' on a hillside northeast of Florence, Italy. The little '' borgo'' of Settignano carries a familiar name for having produced three sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance, Desiderio da Settignano and the Gamberini broth ...
, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm.
There the young boy gained his love for marble. As his biographer
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
quotes him:
Apprenticeships, 1488–1492

As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to the city of Florence to study
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
under the
Humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
Francesco da Urbino.
[A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 9] Michelangelo showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters.
Florence was at that time Italy's greatest centre of the arts and learning.
[Coughlan, Robert; (1978), ''The World of Michelangelo'', Time-Life; pp. 14–15] Art was sponsored by the (the town council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the
Medici
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
and their banking associates.
[Coughlan, pp. 35–40] The
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, a renewal of
Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence.
[ In the early 15th century, the architect ]Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo di ser Brunellesco di Lippo Lapi (1377 – 15 April 1446), commonly known as Filippo Brunelleschi ( ; ) and also nicknamed Pippo by Leon Battista Alberti, was an Italian architect, designer, goldsmith and sculptor. He is considered to ...
, having studied the remains of Classical buildings in Rome, had created two churches, San Lorenzo's and Santo Spirito, which embodied the Classical precepts. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti
Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptister ...
had laboured for 50 years to create the north and east bronze doors of the Baptistry
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptist ...
, which Michelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise". The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele
Orsanmichele or Orsammichele (; from the Tuscan contraction of ''Orto di San Michele'', "Kitchen Garden of St. Michael") is a church in the Italian city of Florence. The building was constructed on the site of the kitchen garden of the monaster ...
contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence: Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...
, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio
Andrea del Verrocchio ( , , ; born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni; – 1488) was an Italian sculpture, sculptor, List of Italian painters, painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence.
He apparently bec ...
, and Nanni di Banco
Giovanni di Antonio di Banco, called Nanni di Banco ( 1374 – 1421), was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence. He was a contemporary of Donatello – both are first recorded as sculptors in the accounts of the Florence Duomo in 1406, p ...
.[ The interiors of the older churches were covered with frescos (mostly in Late Medieval, but also in the Early Renaissance style), begun by ]Giotto
Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...
and continued by Masaccio
Masaccio (, ; ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great List of Italian painters, Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaiss ...
in the Brancacci Chapel
The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian language, Italian, "Cappella dei Brancacci") is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine di Firenze, Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the ...
, both of whose works Michelangelo studied and copied in drawings.[Coughlan, pp. 28–32]
During Michelangelo's childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel ( ; ; ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and ...
. Among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio (also spelt as Ghirlandajo), was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-c ...
, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence.[ In 1488, at the age of 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio.][R. Liebert, ''Michelangelo: A Psychoanalytic Study of his Life and Images'', p. 59] The next year, his father persuaded Ghirlandaio to pay Michelangelo as an artist, which was rare for someone that young. When in 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...
, '' de facto'' ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci.
From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the Platonic Academy
The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Classical Athens, Athens by Plato ''wikt:circa, circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where ...
, a Humanist academy founded by the Medicis. There, his work and outlook were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the day, including Marsilio Ficino
Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neo ...
, Pico della Mirandola
Giovanni Pico dei conti della Mirandola e della Concordia ( ; ; ; 24 February 146317 November 1494), known as Pico della Mirandola, was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, ...
and Poliziano
Agnolo (or Angelo) Ambrogini (; 14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known as Angelo Poliziano () or simply Poliziano, anglicized as Politian, was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scholars ...
.[J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', pp. 18–19] At this time, Michelangelo sculpted the reliefs '' Madonna of the Stairs'' and '' Battle of the Centaurs'',[ the latter based on a theme suggested by Poliziano and commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici.][A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 15] Michelangelo worked for a time with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni
Bertoldo di Giovanni (after 1420, in Poggio a Caiano – 28 December 1491, in Florence) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and medallist.
Most of his sculptures, as opposed to medals, were small bronzes for the Medici, of the sort Giambologna p ...
. When he was 17, another pupil, Pietro Torrigiano
Pietro Torrigiano (24 November 1472 – July/August 1528) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, who had to flee the city after breaking Michelangelo's nose. He then worked abroad, and died in prison in Spain. He was important in ...
, struck him on the nose, causing the disfigurement that is conspicuous in the portraits of Michelangelo.
Bologna, Florence, and Rome, 1492–1499
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on 8 April 1492 changed Michelangelo's circumstances.[J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', pp. 20–21] He left the security of the Medici court and returned to his father's house. In the following months he carved a polychrome wooden ''Crucifix
A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...
'' (1493), as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him to do some anatomical
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
studies of the corpses from the church's hospital.[A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 17] This was the first of several instances during his career that Michelangelo studied anatomy by dissecting cadavers.
Between 1493 and 1494, Michelangelo bought a block of marble, and carved a larger-than-life statue of Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
. On 20 January 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero de Medici, commissioned a statue made of snow, and Michelangelo again entered the court of the Medici. In the same year, the Medici were expelled from Florence as the result of the rise of Savonarola Savonarola is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498), Italian Dominican friar and reformer
* Michele Savonarola (1385–), Italian physician, humanist and historian
{{Surname, 2=Italian-la ...
. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
and then to Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
. In Bologna, he was commissioned to carve several of the last small figures for the completion of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church dedicated to that saint. At this time Michelangelo studied the robust reliefs carved by Jacopo della Quercia
Jacopo della Quercia (, ; 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Early Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello.
Biography
Jacopo della Quercia takes hi ...
around the main portal of the Basilica of St Petronius, including the panel of ''The Creation of Eve'', the composition of which was to reappear on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
The Sistine Chapel ceiling (), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance Renaissance art, art.
The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican City, Vatican betwee ...
. Towards the end of 1495, the political situation in Florence was calmer; the city, previously under threat from the French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats. Michelangelo returned to Florence but received no commissions from the new city government under Savonarola. He returned to the employment of the Medici.[J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', pp. 24–25] During the half-year he spent in Florence, he worked on two small statues, a child ''St. John the Baptist'' and a sleeping ''Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid ( , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known as Amor (Latin: ...
''. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici
Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (4 August 1463 – 20 May 1503), nicknamed ''the Popolano'', was an Italian banker and politician, the brother of Giovanni il Popolano. He belonged to the junior (or "Popolani") branch of the House of Med ...
, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted ''St. John the Baptist'', asked that Michelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he could "send it to Rome ... pass t off asan ancient work and ... sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario
Raffaele Sansoni Galeoti Riario (3 May 1461 – 9 July 1521) was an Italian cardinal of the Renaissance, mainly known as the constructor of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and the person who invited Michelangelo to Rome. He was a patron of the ...
, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome.[A. Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', pp. 19–20] This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine situation may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate's invitation.
Michelangelo arrived in Rome on 25 June 1496[J. de Tolnay, ''The Youth of Michelangelo'', pp. 26–28] at the age of 21. On 4 July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god ''Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...
''. Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for his garden. In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a ''Pietà
The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary (mother of Jesus), Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent from the Cross. It is most often found in sculpture. ...
'', a sculpture showing the Virgin Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
grieving over the body of Jesus. The subject, which is not part of the Biblical narrative of the Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture of medieval northern Europe and would have been very familiar to the Cardinal.[ The contract was agreed upon in August of the following year. Michelangelo was 24 at the time of its completion.][Hirst and Dunkerton pp. 47–55] It was soon to be regarded as one of the world's great masterpieces of sculpture, "a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture". Contemporary opinion was summarised by Vasari: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh." Michelangelo's only work known to have been signed, his name on Mary's sash, it is now located in St Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian Renaissance architecture, Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the cit ...
.
Florence, 1499–1505
Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The Republic
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
was changing after the fall of its leader, anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, ; ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498), also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic ...
, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the ''gonfaloniere'' Piero Soderini
Piero di Tommaso Soderini (March 17, 1451 – June 13, 1522), also known as Pier Soderini, was an Italian statesman of the Republic of Florence.
Biography
Soderini was born in Florence to Tommaso di Lorenzo Soderini, a member of an old family ...
. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio
Agostino di Duccio (1418 – ) was an early Renaissance Italian sculptor.
Born in Florence, he worked in Prato with Donatello and Michelozzo, who influenced him greatly. In 1441, he was accused of stealing precious materials from a Florent ...
: a colossal statue of Carrara marble
Carrara marble, or Luna marble (''marmor lunense'') to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara ...
portraying David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of Florence Cathedral
Florence Cathedral (), formally the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower ( ), is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Florence in Florence, Italy. Commenced in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed b ...
.[Paoletti and Radke, pp. 387–89] Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of ''David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
'', in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants, including Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...
, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
, Filippino Lippi
Filippino Lippi (probably 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian Renaissance painter mostly working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. He also worked in Rome for a ...
, Pietro Perugino
Pietro Perugino ( ; ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; – 1523), an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famou ...
, Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi (1456/59 – January 12, 1537) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor best known for his paintings of religious subjects, and portraits. With some excursions to nearby cities, his whole life was spent in Florence. ...
, Antonio
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top ...
and Giuliano da Sangallo
Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giuli ...
, Andrea della Robbia
Andrea della Robbia (20 October 14354 August 1525) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, especially in ceramics.
Biography
Born in Florence, Robbia was the son of Marco della Robbia, whose brother, Luca della Robbia, popularized the use of g ...
, Cosimo Rosselli
Cosimo Rosselli (; 1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large ...
, Davide Ghirlandaio
Davide Ghirlandaio (1452–1525), also known as David Ghirlandaio and as Davide Bigordi, was an Italian painter and mosaicist, active in his native Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It i ...
, Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who continued to use an essentially Early Renaissance style into the 16th century.
He is most famous for the mythologica ...
, Andrea Sansovino
Andrea dal Monte Sansovino or Andrea Contucci del Monte San Savino (1529) was an Italian sculptor active during the High Renaissance. His pupils include Jacopo Sansovino (no relation).
Biography
He was the son of Domenico Contucci of Monte ...
and Michelangelo's dear friend Granacci, was called together to decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio
The ( "Old Palace") is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the , which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi.
Originally called the ''Palazzo della Signoria'', a ...
. It now stands in the Academia
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
, and in 1910 a marble replica was raised its place in the square. In the same period of placing the ''David'', Michelangelo may have been involved in creating the sculptural profile on Palazzo Vecchio's façade known as the Importuno di Michelangelo. The hypothesis of Michelangelo's possible involvement in the creation of the profile is based on the strong resemblance of the latter to a profile drawn by the artist, datable to the beginning of the 16th century, now preserved in the Louvre.
With the completion of the ''David'' came another commission. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint ''The Battle of Anghiari (painting), The Battle of Anghiari'' in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the Battle of Anghiari, battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the ''Battle of Cascina (Michelangelo), Battle of Cascina''. The two paintings are very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them, Leonardo's work having been copied by Rubens and Michelangelo's by Bastiano da Sangallo.
Also during this period, Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a "Holy Family" as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi. It is known as the ''Doni Tondo, Doni Madonna'' and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, still in its original magnificent frame, which Michelangelo may have designed. He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with John the Baptist, known as the ''Manchester Madonna'' and now in the National Gallery, London.
Tomb of Julius II, 1505–1545
In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II and commissioned to build the Tomb of Pope Julius II, Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years. Under the patronage of the pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks.
The commission for the tomb forced the artist to leave Florence with his planned ''Battle of Cascina'' painting unfinished. By this time, Michelangelo was established as an artist; both he and Julius II had hot tempers and soon argued. On 17 April 1506, Michelangelo left Rome in secret for Florence, remaining there until the Florentine government pressed him to return to the pope.
Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction. It is located in the San Pietro in Vincoli, Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and is most famous for the central Moses (Michelangelo), figure of Moses, completed in 1516. Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two, known as the ''Rebellious Slave'' and the ''Dying Slave'', are now in the Louvre Museum, Louvre.
Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508 –1512
During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512).[Bartz and König, p. 134] According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...
, resented Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius II to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Genesis creation story, Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents elements of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling and contains over 300 figures. At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge myth, Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl.
Florence under Medici popes, 1513 – early 1534
In 1513, Pope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici.[ From 1513 to 1516, Pope Leo was on good terms with Pope Julius's surviving relatives, so encouraged Michelangelo to continue work on Julius's tomb, but the families became enemies again in 1516 when Pope Leo tried to seize the Duchy of Urbino from Julius's nephew Francesco Maria I della Rovere. Pope Leo then had Michelangelo stop working on the tomb, and commissioned him to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. He spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade, as well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520, the work was abruptly cancelled by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been made. The basilica lacks a façade to this day.
In 1520, the Medici came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.][ For posterity, this project, occupying the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realised. Michelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the Medici Chapel (Michelangelo), Medici Chapel, which houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more famous predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who are buried nearby. The tombs display statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing ''Night (Michelangelo), Night'' and ''Day (Michelangelo), Day'', and ''Dusk (Michelangelo), Dusk'' and ''Dawn (Michelangelo), Dawn''. The chapel also contains Michelangelo's ''Medici Madonna''.] In 1976, a concealed corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls that related to the chapel itself.
Pope Leo X died in 1521 and was succeeded briefly by the austere Pope Adrian VI, Adrian VI, and then by his cousin Giulio Medici as Pope Clement VII. In 1524, Michelangelo received an architectural commission from the Medici pope for the Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...
at San Lorenzo's Church.[ He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule, a building utilising architectural forms with such dynamic effect that it is seen as the forerunner of Baroque architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and carry out construction. The library was not opened until 1571, and the vestibule remained incomplete until 1904.
In 1527, Florentine citizens, encouraged by the sack of Rome (1527), sack of Rome, threw out the Medici and restored the republic. A siege of the city ensued, and Michelangelo went to the aid of his beloved Florence by working on the city's fortifications from 1528 to 1529. The city fell in 1530, and the Medici were restored to power,][ with the young Alessandro Medici as the first Duke of Florence. Pope Clement, a Medici, sentenced Michelangelo to death. It is thought that Michelangelo hid for two months in a small chamber under the Medici chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo with light from just a tiny window, making many charcoal and chalk drawings which remained hidden until the room was rediscovered in 1975, and opened to small numbers of visitors in 2023. Michelangelo was eventually pardoned by the Medicis and the death sentence lifted, so that he could complete work on the Sistine Chapel and the Medici family tomb. He left Florence for Rome in 1534. Despite Michelangelo's support of the republic and resistance to the Medici rule, Pope Clement reinstated an allowance that he had previously granted the artist and made a new contract with him over the tomb of Pope Julius.
]
Rome, 1534–1546
In Rome, Michelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto (Rome), Santa Maria di Loreto. It was at this time that he met the poet Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara, who was to become one of his closest friends until her death in 1547.[A. Condivi (ed. Hellmut Wohl), ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 103, Phaidon, 1976.]
Shortly before his death in 1534, Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of ''The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the ''Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism.
Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resu ...
'' on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Pope Paul III, was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project, which he laboured on from 1534 to October 1541.[ The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked.][ He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell.][Bartz and König, pp. 100–02.]
Once completed, the depiction of Christ and the Virgin Mary naked was considered sacrilegious, and Pope Paul IV, Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored, but the Pope resisted. At the Council of Trent, shortly before Michelangelo's death in 1564, it was decided to obscure the genitals and Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was commissioned to make the alterations. An uncensored copy of the original, by Marcello Venusti, is in the Museo di Capodimonte, Capodimonte Museum of Naples.
Michelangelo worked on a number of architectural projects at this time. They included a design for the Capitoline Hill with its trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. He designed the upper floor of the Palazzo Farnese and the interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Roman bathhouse. Other architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Porta Pia.
St Peter's Basilica, 1546–1564
While still working on the ''Last Judgment'', Michelangelo received yet another commission for the Vatican. This was for the painting of two large frescos in the Cappella Paolina depicting significant events in the lives of the two most important saints of Rome, the ''The Conversion of Saul (Michelangelo), Conversion of Saint Paul'' and the ''The Crucifixion of St. Peter (Michelangelo), Crucifixion of Saint Peter''. Like the ''Last Judgment'', these two works are complex compositions containing a great number of figures. They were completed in 1550. In the same year, Giorgio Vasari published his ''Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Vita'', including a biography of Michelangelo.
In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.[ The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the 4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Bramante, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually. The dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by Banister Fletcher, "the greatest creation of the Renaissance".
As construction was progressing on St Peter's, there was concern that Michelangelo would die before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable.
]
Personal life
Faith
Michelangelo was a devout Catholic whose faith deepened at the end of his life. Along with Raphael, he was enrolled in the Secular Franciscan Order.
His poetry includes the following closing lines from what is known as poem 285 (written in 1554): "Neither painting nor sculpture will be able any longer to calm my soul, now turned toward that divine love that opened his arms on the cross to take us in."
Personal habits
Michelangelo was moderate in his personal life, and once told his apprentice, Ascanio Condivi: "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."[Condivi, ''The Life of Michelangelo'', p. 106.] Michelangelo's bank accounts and numerous deeds of purchase show that his net worth was about 50,000 gold ducats, more than many princes and dukes of his time. Condivi said he was indifferent to food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure"[ and that he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots."][ His biographer Paolo Giovio says, "His nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him." This, however, may not have affected him, as he was by nature a solitary and melancholy person, , a man who "withdrew himself from the company of men."][Condivi, p. 102.]
Relationships and poetry
Michelangelo wrote more than three hundred sonnets and wikt:madrigal, madrigals. About sixty are addressed to men – "the first significant modern corpus of love poetry from one man to another".
The longest sequence, displaying deep loving feeling, was written to the young Roman patrician Tommaso dei Cavalieri (), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo first met him in 1532, at the age of 57. In his ''Lives of the Artists'', Vasari observed: "But infinitely more than any of the others he loved M. Tommaso de' Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman, for whom, being a young man and much inclined to these arts, [Michelangelo] made, to the end that he might learn to draw, many most superb drawings of divinely beautiful heads, designed in black and red chalk; and then he drew for him a Ganymede rapt to Heaven by Jove's Eagle, a Tityus with the Vulture devouring his heart, the Chariot of the Sun falling with Phaëthon into the Po, and a Bacchanal of children, which are all in themselves most rare things, and drawings the like of which have never been seen." Some scholars downplay the relationship between Michelangelo and Cavalieri as one of platonic friendship. The poems to Cavalieri make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another; they predate by 50 years Shakespeare's Shakespeare's sonnets, sonnets to the fair youth:
Cavalieri replied: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours." Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until the latter's death.
In 1542, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci who died only a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write 48 funeral wikt:epigram, epigrams. Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his poetry, took advantage of him: the model Febo di Poggio asked for money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini, shamelessly stole from him.
The nature of the poetry has been a source of discomfort to later generations. Michelangelo's grandnephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed; he also removed words or in other instances insisted that Michelangelo's poems be read allegorically and philosophically, a judgment some modern scholars still repeat today. Anthony Hughes, for example, says that it is impossible to know whether Michelangelo was sexually active and, while acknowledging that it is a reasonable guess that Michelangelo's sexuality was inclined towards men rather than women, insists the letters and poems Michelangelo addressed to Cavalieri cannot be taken as expressions of personal desire, and should be understood in the context of the realities of Italian Renaissance culture.
But since John Addington Symonds translated the poems into English in 1893, restoring the original genders, it has become more accepted that Michelangelo's poems should be understood at face value, that is, as indicating his personal feelings and a preference for young men.
Late in life, Michelangelo nurtured a friendship with the poet and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538 and who was in her late forties at the time. They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until she died. These sonnets mostly deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them. Condivi, who in his biography was preoccupied with downplaying Michelangelo's attraction to men, alleged Michelangelo said his sole regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her hand.
Feuds with other artists
In a letter from late 1542, Michelangelo blamed the tensions between Julius II and him on the envy of Bramante and Raphael, saying of the latter, "all he had in art, he got from me". According to Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Michelangelo and Raphael met once: the former was alone, while the latter was accompanied by several others. Michelangelo commented that he thought he had encountered the chief of police with such an assemblage, and Raphael replied that he thought he had met an executioner, as they are wont to walk alone.
Works
Madonna and Child
The ''Madonna of the Stairs'' is Michelangelo's earliest known work in marble. It is carved in shallow relief, a technique often employed by the master-sculptor of the early 15th century, Donatello, and others such as Desiderio da Settignano. While the Madonna is in profile, the easiest aspect for a shallow relief, the child displays a twisting motion that was to become characteristic of Michelangelo's work. The ''Taddei Tondo'' of 1502 shows the Christ Child frightened by a Bullfinch, a symbol of the Crucifixion. The lively form of the child was later adapted by Raphael in the ''Bridgewater Madonna''. The ''Madonna of Bruges'' was, at the time of its creation, unlike other such statues depicting the Virgin proudly presenting her son. Here, the Christ Child, restrained by his mother's clasping hand, is about to step off into the world. The ''Doni Tondo'', depicting the Holy Family, has elements of all three previous works: the frieze of figures in the background has the appearance of a low-relief, while the circular shape and dynamic forms echo the Taddeo Tondo. The twisting motion present in the ''Madonna of Bruges'' is accentuated in the painting. The painting heralds the forms, movement and colour that Michelangelo was to employ on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
File:Michelangelo, madonna della scala, 1491 ca, 01.JPG, The '' Madonna of the Stairs'' (1490–1492)
File:Taddei Tondo.JPG, The ''Taddei Tondo'' (1502)
File:Madonna michelangelo1.jpg, ''Madonna of Bruges'' (1504)
File:Tondo Doni, por Miguel Ángel.jpg, The ''Doni Tondo'' (1504–1506)
Male figure
The kneeling ''Angel (Michelangelo), Angel'' is an early work, one of several that Michelangelo created as part of a large decorative scheme for the Arca di San Domenico in the church dedicated to that saint in Bologna. Several other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. In the late 15th century, the project was managed by Niccolò dell'Arca. An angel holding a candlestick, by Niccolò, was already in place. Although the two angels form a pair, there is a great contrast between the two works, the one depicting a delicate child with flowing hair clothed in Gothic robes with deep folds, and Michelangelo's depicting a robust and muscular youth with eagle's wings, clad in a garment of Classical style. Everything about Michelangelo's ''Angel'' is dynamic. Michelangelo's ''Bacchus'' was a commission with a specified subject, the youthful Bacchus, God of Wine. The sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a vine wreath, a cup of wine and a fawn, but Michelangelo ingested an air of reality into the subject, depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and a stance that suggests he is unsteady on his feet. While the work is plainly inspired by Classical sculpture, it is innovative for its rotating movement and strongly three-dimensional quality, which encourages the viewer to look at it from every angle.
In the so-called ''Dying Slave'', Michelangelo again utilised the figure with marked contraposto, contrapposto to suggest a particular human state, in this case waking from sleep. With the ''Rebellious Slave'', it is one of two such earlier figures for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Louvre, that the sculptor brought to an almost finished state. These two works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture, through Rodin who studied them at the Louvre. The ''Atlas Slave'' is one of the later figures for Pope Julius' tomb. The works, known collectively as ''The Captives'', each show the figure struggling to free itself, as if from the bonds of the rock in which it is lodged. The works give a unique insight into the sculptural methods that Michelangelo employed and his way of revealing what he perceived within the rock.
File:Autori vari, arca di san domenico, angelo reggicandelabro di michelangelo, 1494, 02.jpg, ''Angel (Michelangelo), Angel'' by Michelangelo, early work (1494–95)
File:Michelangelo Bacchus.jpg, ''Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...
'' by Michelangelo, early work (1496–1497)
File:'Dying Slave' Michelangelo JBU001.jpg, ''Dying Slave'', Louvre (1513)
File:Michelangelo - Atlas.jpg, ''Atlas Slave'' (1530–1534)
Sistine Chapel ceiling
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512. The ceiling is a flattened barrel vault supported on twelve triangular pendentives that rise from between the windows of the chapel. The commission, as envisaged by Julius II, was to adorn the pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles. Michelangelo, who was reluctant to take the job, persuaded the Pope to give him a free hand in the composition.[ The resultant scheme of decoration awed his contemporaries and has inspired other artists ever since. The scheme is of nine panels illustrating episodes from the Book of Genesis, set in an architectonic frame. On the pendentives, Michelangelo replaced the proposed Apostles with Prophets and Sibyls who heralded the coming of the Messiah.][Paoletti and Radke, pp. 402–03.]
Michelangelo began painting with the later episodes in the narrative, the pictures including locational details and groups of figures, the ''Drunkenness of Noah'' being the first of this group.[ In the later compositions, painted after the initial scaffolding had been removed, Michelangelo made the figures larger.][ One of the central images, ''The Creation of Adam'' is one of the best known and most reproduced works in the history of art.] The final panel, showing the ''Separation of Light from Darkness'' is the broadest in style and was painted in a single day. As the model for the Creator, Michelangelo has depicted himself in the action of painting the ceiling.[
As supporters to the smaller scenes, Michelangelo painted twenty youths who have variously been interpreted as angels, as muses, or simply as decoration. Michelangelo referred to them as "ignudi". The figure reproduced may be seen in context in the above image of the ''Separation of Light from Darkness''.
In the process of painting the ceiling, Michelangelo made studies for different figures, of which some, such as that for ''The Libyan Sibyl'' have survived, demonstrating the care taken by Michelangelo in details such as the hands and feet. The prophet Jeremiah, contemplating the downfall of Jerusalem, is a self-portrait.
File:Michelangelo libyan.jpg, Studies for ''The Libyan Sibyl''
File:Michelangelo the libyan.jpg, ''The Libyan Sibyl'' (1511)
File:Michelangelo Buonarroti 027.jpg, ''The Prophet Jeremiah'' (1511)
File:'Ignudo' by Michelangelo JBU33.jpg, ''Ignudo''
]
Figure compositions
Michelangelo's relief of the ''Battle of the Centaurs'', created while he was still a youth associated with the Medici Academy, is an unusually complex relief in that it shows a great number of figures involved in a vigorous struggle. Such a complex disarray of figures was rare in Florentine art, where it would usually only be found in images showing either the Massacre of the Innocents or the Torments of Hell. The relief treatment, in which some of the figures are boldly projecting, may indicate Michelangelo's familiarity with Roman sarcophagus reliefs from the collection of Lorenzo Medici, and similar marble panels created by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and with the figurative compositions on Ghiberti's Florence Baptistery#Lorenzo Ghiberti, Baptistry Doors.
The composition of the ''Battle of Cascina'' is known in its entirety only from copies, as the original cartoon, according to Vasari, was so admired that it deteriorated and was eventually in pieces.[ It reflects the earlier relief in the energy and diversity of the figures, with many different postures, and many being viewed from the back, as they turn towards the approaching enemy and prepare for battle.
In ''The Last Judgment'' it is said that Michelangelo drew Artistic inspiration, inspiration from a fresco by Melozzo da Forlì in Rome's Santi Apostoli, Rome, Santi Apostoli. Melozzo had depicted figures from different angles, as if they were floating in the Heaven and seen from below. Melozzo's majestic figure of Christ, with windblown cloak, demonstrates a degree of foreshortening of the figure that had also been employed by Andrea Mantegna, but was not usual in the frescos of Florentine painters. In ''The Last Judgment'' Michelangelo had the opportunity to depict, on an unprecedented scale, figures in the action of either rising heavenward or falling and being dragged down.
In the two frescos of the Pauline Chapel, ''The Crucifixion of St. Peter'' and ''The Conversion of Saul'', Michelangelo has used the various groups of figures to convey a complex narrative. In the ''Crucifixion of Peter'' soldiers busy themselves about their assigned duty of digging a post hole and raising the cross while various people look on and discuss the events. A group of horrified women cluster in the foreground, while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the events. In the right foreground, Michelangelo walks out of the painting with an expression of disillusionment.
File:Michelangelo, centauromachia, 1492 ca. 01 crop.JPG, '' Battle of the Centaurs'' (1492)
File:La batalla de Cascina - Sangallo.jpg, Copy of the lost ''Battle of Cascina'' by Bastiano da Sangallo
File:Michelangelo, giudizio universale, dettagli 33.jpg, '']The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the ''Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism.
Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resu ...
'', detail of the Redeemed (see whole image above)
File:Michelangelo, paolina, martirio di san pietro 01.jpg, ''The Crucifixion of St. Peter (Michelangelo), The Crucifixion of St. Peter''
Architecture
Michelangelo's architectural commissions included a number that were not realised, notably the façade for Brunelleschi's Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which Michelangelo had a wooden model constructed, but which remains to this day unfinished rough brick. At the same church, Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) commissioned him to design the Medici Chapel and the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici. Pope Clement also commissioned the Laurentian Library, for which Michelangelo also designed the extraordinary vestibule with columns recessed into niches, and a staircase that appears to spill out of the library like a flow of lava, according to Nikolaus Pevsner, "... revealing Mannerism
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...
in its most sublime architectural form".
In 1546 Michelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper storey for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Michelangelo returned to Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole.[Gardner.] Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta, is more so.
Final years
In his old age, Michelangelo created a number of ''Pietàs'' in which he apparently reflects upon mortality. They are heralded by the ''The Genius of Victory, Victory'', perhaps created for the tomb of Pope Julius II but left unfinished. In this group, the youthful victor overcomes an older hooded figure, with the features of Michelangelo. The ''Pietà of Vittoria Colonna'' is a chalk drawing of a type described as "presentation drawings", as they might be given as a gift by an artist, and were not necessarily studies towards a painted work. In this image, Mary's upraised arms and hands are indicative of her prophetic role. The frontal aspect is reminiscent of Masaccio's fresco of the Holy Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. In the ''Florentine Pietà'', Michelangelo again depicts himself, this time as the aged Nicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross into the arms of Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo smashed the left arm and leg of the figure of Jesus. His pupil Tiberio Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole in which to fix a replacement leg which was not subsequently attached. He also worked on the figure of Mary Magdalene.
The last sculpture that Michelangelo worked on (six days before his death), the ''Rondanini Pietà,'' could never be completed because Michelangelo carved it away until there was insufficient stone. The legs and a detached arm remain from a previous stage of the work. As it remains, the sculpture has an abstract quality, in keeping with 20th-century concepts of sculpture.
Michelangelo died in Rome on 18 February 1564, at the age of 88. His body was taken from Rome for interment at the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro's last request to be buried in his beloved Florence. His heir Lionardo Buonarroti commissioned Vasari to design and build the ''Tomb of Michelangelo'', a monumental project that cost 770 scudi, and took over 14 years to complete. Marble for the tomb was supplied by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who had also organized a state funeral to honour Michelangelo in Florence.
Legacy
Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
. Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and eight years older than Raphael. Because of his reclusive nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of them by more than 40 years. Michelangelo took few sculpture students. He employed Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo appears to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and grinding colours. Despite this, his works were to have a great influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations to come.
While Michelangelo's ''David'' is arguably the most famous nude of all time (it is called by the BBC "the world's most famous statue"), some of his other works have had perhaps even greater impact on the course of art. The twisting forms and tensions of the ''Victory'', the ''Bruges Madonna'' and the ''Medici Madonna'' make them the heralds of the Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II had profound effect on sculptors such as Rodin and Henry Moore.
Michelangelo's vestibule of the Laurentian Library was one of the earliest buildings to use classical forms in a plastic and expressive manner. This dynamic quality was later to find its major expression in his centrally planned St. Peter's, with its giant order, its rippling cornice and its upward-launching pointed dome. The dome of St. Peter's was to influence the building of churches for many centuries, including Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome and St Paul's Cathedral, London, as well as the civic domes of public buildings and state capitals across the United States.
Artists who were directly influenced by Michelangelo include Raphael, whose monumental treatment of the figure in the ''School of Athens'' and ''The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple'' owes much to Michelangelo, and whose fresco of ''The Prophet Isaiah (Raphael), Isaiah'' in Sant'Agostino closely imitates the older master's prophets. Other artists, such as Pontormo, drew on the writhing forms of the ''Last Judgment'' and the frescoes of the Cappella Paolina.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling was a work of unprecedented grandeur, both for its architectonic forms, to be imitated by many Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
ceiling painters, and also for the wealth of its inventiveness in the study of figures. Vasari wrote:
In popular culture
* '':it:Vita di Michelangelo, Vita di Michelangelo'' (1964)
* ''The Agony and the Ecstasy (film), The Agony and the Ecstasy'' (1965), directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo
* ''A Season of Giants'' (1990)
* '':it:Michelangelo - Infinito, Michelangelo - Endless'' (2018), starring Enrico Lo Verso as Michelangelo
* ''Sin (2019 film), Sin'' (2019), directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
See also
* Italian Renaissance sculpture
* Italian Renaissance painting
* Michelangelo and the Medici
* Michelangelo phenomenon
* Nicodemite
Notes
References
Sources
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* Helen Gardner (art historian), Gardner, Helen; Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, ''Gardner's Art through the Ages''. Thomson Wadsworth, (2004) .
* Hirst, Michael and Jill Dunkerton. (1994) ''The Young Michelangelo: The Artist in Rome 1496–1501''. London: National Gallery Publications,
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* Paoletti, John T. and Radke, Gary M., (2005) ''Art in Renaissance Italy'', Laurence King,
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Further reading
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* Barenboim, Peter (with Shiyan, Sergey). ''Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel: Genius in Details'' (in English & Russian), LOOM, Moscow, 2011.
* Barenboim, Peter (with Heath, Arthur)
''Michelangelo's Moment: The British Museum Madonna''
LOOM, Moscow, 2018.
* Barenboim, Peter (with Heath, Arthur)
''500 years of the New Sacristy: Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel''
LOOM, Moscow, 2019.
* Einem, Herbert von (1973). ''Michelangelo''. Trans. Ronald Taylor. London: Methuen.
* Gilbert, Creighton (1994). ''Michelangelo: On and Off the Sistine Ceiling''. New York: George Braziller.
* Hartt, Frederick (1987). ''David by the Hand of Michelangelothe Original Model Discovered'', Abbeville,
* Hibbard, Howard (1974). ''Michelangelo''. New York: Harper & Row.
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* Pietrangeli, Carlo, et al. (1994). ''The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration''. New York: Harry N. Abrams
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* Seymour, Charles, Jr. (1972). ''Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling''. New York: W.W. Norton.
* Summers, David (1981). ''Michelangelo and the Language of Art''. Princeton University Press.
* Symonds, John Addington (1893). ''The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti'', John C. Nimmo; reprinted by The Modern Library, Random House, 1927.
* Tolnay, Charles de. (1964). ''The Art and Thought of Michelangelo''. 5 vols. New York: Pantheon Books.
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* Wallace, William E. (2019). ''Michelangelo, God's Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece''. Princeton University Press,
* Wilde, Johannes (1978). ''Michelangelo: Six Lectures''. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
External links
The Digital Michelangelo Project
from Stanford University
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The BP Special Exhibition Michelangelo Drawings – closer to the master
from the British Museum
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