Michelangelo: The Artist —Not the Turtle
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| Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra (1545) |
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in 1475, to a middle-class family, in the small village of Caprese, which is located 60 miles east of Florence, Italy. At the age of six, Michelangelo lost his mother to a prolonged illness. His father, a banker, was forced to seek help in raising his son, and left him in the care of a nanny. As fate would have it, his nanny’s husband was a stonecutter in the local area. Perhaps, this new family arrangement, provided him with the foundation for his future artistic endeavors in sculpture.
By the time Michelangelo had reached his early teens, he was showing more of an interest in watching artisans paint in local churches, than in continuing the family tradition of banking. Resolved to the matter, his father sent him to Domenico Ghirlandaio’s studio, where he would study as an apprentice and learn artistic techniques such as fresco painting—a skill, which would serve him well, in the undertaking of the Sistine Chapel.
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| Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512) |
Within a year of apprenticeship at Ghirlandaio’s studio, he was invited to the palace of Italy’s ruling family, the Medicis. Here, he would join their Humanist academy, and study sculpture under the supervision of Bertoldo di Giovanni, who would immerse him in the art of Donatello, Masaccio, and Giotto.
During this time, Michelangelo approached the Church of Santo Spirito to ask special permission, from the friars, to study cadavers in the convent’s hospital. With permission granted, he began his focus on human anatomy and musculature.
In 1494, the Medici family, due to unpopular political alignments, was forced to flee Florence. In keeping his standing with the family, Michelangelo followed them to Bologna. Here, he would continue his artistry with commissioned pieces for the Shrine of St. Dominic. It was during this time, that his interest in antiquities and talent in sculpture, would lead him into dishonesty (he sold one of his own Cupid sculptures to Cardinal Raffaele Riario as an antiquity). Realizing he had been deceived, but taken by the quality of the piece and talent of the artist, Cardinal Riario extended an invitation for Michelangelo to come to Rome and work on a private commission.
During his time in Rome, Michelangelo created one of his most loved pieces—the Pietà, a marble statue depicting Mary holding the body of Christ. The young artist, now in his early twenties, selected the single piece of marble, from which the masterpiece was carved. The Pietà currently resides in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
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| Pietà, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1498-1499) |
Within a few years of finishing the Pietà, Michelangelo was presented with a commission from the Guild of Wool in Florence. The final 17 foot sculpture not only immortalized David in his Biblical battle with Goliath, but also denoted the artist’s prior study of anatomy. Additionally, Michelangelo’s mastery of perspective and knowledge of stonework, led him to carve the dimensions of the upper part of David’s body slightly larger than the lower half. This creating of a forced perspective, allows the viewer, gazing up at the statue, to perceive it in correct proportions.
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| David, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1501-1504) |
Such was the majesty of the piece, that it became the symbol of the Florentine Republic, and was placed in the front entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio.
A year after the completion of David, Michelangelo was called back to Rome to work on the tomb of Pope Julius II. During these years in Rome, he would undertake another of his well known pieces—the Sistine Chapel—an endeavor which would take four years to complete. Perhaps, the job may have taken less time, had the artist repressed both his temperament and paranoia.
It was well known that Michelangelo was suspicious of his fellow artists. Such was his distrust, it was rumored, that while working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he threw a board from the scaffolding at a priest below—mistaking him for another artist, spying on his work. It is said that, by the time he finished the ceiling of the chapel, he had fired all of his assistants, except for one person (he was allowed, only, to mix paint).
This extreme distrust of others, finds the world robbed of a large body of the preliminary drawings, for his masterpieces. It is estimated that, during his lifetime, Michelangelo would have created roughly twenty-eight thousand drawings. Through paranoia and his perceived effort to prevent others from stealing his ideas, he destroyed most of his own work, leaving, only, about six hundred pieces.
While known for his volatility, Michelangelo is considered, by art critics, to be the greatest artist of all time. Credited with the revival of classical Greek and Roman art, along with his artistic achievements in the Renaissance period, it is little wonder that he was the first artist to gain fame and have biographies written about him, during his own lifetime. Whether it was the dedication to his craft or the passion with which he created, Michelangelo’s masterpieces will, undoubtedly, continue to evoke strong emotions, from viewers, for centuries to come.
If you would like to learn more about this artist and his work, please see my reference links below:
https://www.worldhistory.org/Michelangelo/“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:25
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