(Caprese 1475- Rome 1564)
Michelangelo Buonarroti is an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. The study of ancient sculpture and the example of Donatello were decisive in shaping his artistic personality.
Son of the podestà of Caprese, he entered Ghirlandajo's workshop at the age of thirteen, who, amazed by his talent, recommended him to Lorenzo the Magnificent. By the age of fifteen, he was already working with Bertoldo in the “casino” of San Marcos, a museum of antiquities gathered by the Medici. There he sculpted the Fight of the Centaurs against the Lapiths, where he combines mass with movement in a way that Donatello had never achieved.
After Lorenzo the Magnificent's death, he went to Bologna, where he completed some works started by Niccolò dell'Arca and studied the work of Jacopo Della Quercia.
From his early period in Rome dates the Drunken Boat: the young god raises a cup in his right hand and adopts an original tilting posture. In the Pietà of St. Peter, also from this period, he manages to highlight the harmonious nakedness of the Son, in which the classical ideal that the Renaissance aspired to at the end of the quattrocento seems to be centered, without forgetting the pathos, treated with unparalleled grandeur, both in the whole and in the very young face of the Virgin.
Back in Florence (1501), he carved the gigantic David in marble, the statues of the twelve apostles for the cathedral, of which only St. Matthew remains, and painted a monumental fresco, The Battle of Cascino.
In 1505 he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II, who commissioned him to create his tomb; the initial project was deferred, and the pope had the artist focus on decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo would represent the prologue and epilogue of Humanity: The Creation and The Last Judgment. The biblical scenes emerge on the ceiling like celestial visions; the figures of the sibyls and prophets, the astonishing ignudi, represent the purest conception of the drawing technique of the Florentines, allied here with Roman monumentality: it is the culmination of the Renaissance and perhaps the most complete expression of the genius of Michelangelo.
The project for Julius II's tomb, grand in its initial conception, was modified several times and ultimately reduced at the request of the pope's heirs. It was finally decided to construct a simple wall tomb, for which some of the already sculpted statues were used.
The great failure of Michelangelo's life, as he himself proclaimed, was the simplification of the initial project for Julius II's tomb, which the artist considered the masterpiece of his life. The pathetic Captives or Slaves, carved for this work, were conceived, therefore, to be part of a wonder that would never be realized.
After finishing the Moses, Michelangelo returned to Florence (1515). By express commission of the new pope, Leo X, he designed the façade of the San Lorenzo temple, which was never built.
Until 1530, when the freedom of Florence came to a crisis, the artist participated as an engineer in the fortification of the city against the pope's troops and those of the emperor.
After Florence was defeated, the enemies of the fallen republic sought to assassinate Michelangelo, who fled to Rome, where he was welcomed by Clement VII and permanently settled there (1534). Dominated by his ardent friendship with T. Cavalieri and by a passionate cult of earthly beauty, he composed ecstatic poems and carefully crafted drawings on mythological themes, such as Ganymede.
At the urging of the new pope Paul III, Michelangelo returned to painting with the Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel (1536-1541).
From 1546 onwards, Michelangelo dedicated himself mainly to architecture. He succeeded A. Sangallo in the works of the Vatican and designed the dome, which he did not finish, as well as those of the Farnese Palace, where he created the daring cornice.
The rest of his constructions also tend to manifest the superhuman, pathetic emphasis with which he conceived architecture; the project for Santa Maria degli Angeli, in the Baths of Diocletian; the impressive Porta Pia; the plans for the urbanization of the Capitol Square.
In the last years of his life, Michelangelo, driven by the spiritual upheavals of the Catholic Reformation, expressed in his works and writings a painful faith, a certain unavoidable need for penance. The Florentine Academy paid tribute to him until the end of his days.
The mortal remains of the artist were displayed in the Saints Apostles of Rome and transferred to Florence; his funeral was held with great solemnity in San Lorenzo, and he was buried in Santa Croce.
Michelangelo Buonarroti is an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. The study of ancient sculpture and the example of Donatello were decisive in shaping his artistic personality.
Son of the podestà of Caprese, he entered Ghirlandajo's workshop at the age of thirteen, who, amazed by his talent, recommended him to Lorenzo the Magnificent. By the age of fifteen, he was already working with Bertoldo in the “casino” of San Marcos, a museum of antiquities gathered by the Medici. There he sculpted the Fight of the Centaurs against the Lapiths, where he combines mass with movement in a way that Donatello had never achieved.
After Lorenzo the Magnificent's death, he went to Bologna, where he completed some works started by Niccolò dell'Arca and studied the work of Jacopo Della Quercia.
From his early period in Rome dates the Drunken Boat: the young god raises a cup in his right hand and adopts an original tilting posture. In the Pietà of St. Peter, also from this period, he manages to highlight the harmonious nakedness of the Son, in which the classical ideal that the Renaissance aspired to at the end of the quattrocento seems to be centered, without forgetting the pathos, treated with unparalleled grandeur, both in the whole and in the very young face of the Virgin.
Back in Florence (1501), he carved the gigantic David in marble, the statues of the twelve apostles for the cathedral, of which only St. Matthew remains, and painted a monumental fresco, The Battle of Cascino.
In 1505 he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II, who commissioned him to create his tomb; the initial project was deferred, and the pope had the artist focus on decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo would represent the prologue and epilogue of Humanity: The Creation and The Last Judgment. The biblical scenes emerge on the ceiling like celestial visions; the figures of the sibyls and prophets, the astonishing ignudi, represent the purest conception of the drawing technique of the Florentines, allied here with Roman monumentality: it is the culmination of the Renaissance and perhaps the most complete expression of the genius of Michelangelo.
The project for Julius II's tomb, grand in its initial conception, was modified several times and ultimately reduced at the request of the pope's heirs. It was finally decided to construct a simple wall tomb, for which some of the already sculpted statues were used.
The great failure of Michelangelo's life, as he himself proclaimed, was the simplification of the initial project for Julius II's tomb, which the artist considered the masterpiece of his life. The pathetic Captives or Slaves, carved for this work, were conceived, therefore, to be part of a wonder that would never be realized.
After finishing the Moses, Michelangelo returned to Florence (1515). By express commission of the new pope, Leo X, he designed the façade of the San Lorenzo temple, which was never built.
Until 1530, when the freedom of Florence came to a crisis, the artist participated as an engineer in the fortification of the city against the pope's troops and those of the emperor.
After Florence was defeated, the enemies of the fallen republic sought to assassinate Michelangelo, who fled to Rome, where he was welcomed by Clement VII and permanently settled there (1534). Dominated by his ardent friendship with T. Cavalieri and by a passionate cult of earthly beauty, he composed ecstatic poems and carefully crafted drawings on mythological themes, such as Ganymede.
At the urging of the new pope Paul III, Michelangelo returned to painting with the Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel (1536-1541).
From 1546 onwards, Michelangelo dedicated himself mainly to architecture. He succeeded A. Sangallo in the works of the Vatican and designed the dome, which he did not finish, as well as those of the Farnese Palace, where he created the daring cornice.
The rest of his constructions also tend to manifest the superhuman, pathetic emphasis with which he conceived architecture; the project for Santa Maria degli Angeli, in the Baths of Diocletian; the impressive Porta Pia; the plans for the urbanization of the Capitol Square.
In the last years of his life, Michelangelo, driven by the spiritual upheavals of the Catholic Reformation, expressed in his works and writings a painful faith, a certain unavoidable need for penance. The Florentine Academy paid tribute to him until the end of his days.
The mortal remains of the artist were displayed in the Saints Apostles of Rome and transferred to Florence; his funeral was held with great solemnity in San Lorenzo, and he was buried in Santa Croce.
