Born (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) 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 (Ghirlandaio is best known for his frescoes, in which he often set religious subjects in a secular setting and in which he included recognizable portraits). 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. ...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. ...Michelangelo also studied from and drew copies of the frescos of Giotto and Masaccio. [Artchive.com, from The Bulfinch Guide to Art History.] Portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti, By Marcello Venusti, 1535.
Though he'd later deny it, In 1488 Michelangelo apprenticed to Ghirlandaio for three years. Michelangelo introduced the idea of the fine arts' having no connection with the craft that painting had always previously been, which prompted his claim of having been self-taught. The Visitation, Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1491.
Bacchus, c. 1496-97.
By June 1496 he was in Rome and here established his reputation with two marble statues, Bacchus, for a private patron and The Pietá, 1498-99 for St. Peter's Cathedral.
The Pietá, 1498-99. Considered to be the finest work of his early years. The theme is of Northern origin, popular in France and Germany but not yet in Italy. The Pietá, 1498-99
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 (1501-1504, original now in the Accademia). David, 1501-1504.
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. [Source above.] Click to go to The MMA's page on this drawing, as it is in their permanent collection. Detail of above.
Project for a Wall Tomb for Pope Julius II
Two slave figures, The Dying Slave and The Rebellious Slave, c. 1513, 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. [Source above] Moses, c. 1515.
The tomb is now principally famous for the colossal figure of Moses (c 1515), one of Michelangelo's greatest sculptures.
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'. [This] exerted a tremendous impact on Rodin who recognized in them expressive possibilities that would be lost in a 'finished' piece.[Source above] The Dying Slave, c. 1513.
The Rebellious Slave, c. 1513.
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. [Source above] Unveiled 11/1/1512 - All Saints Day. Eve, Auguste Rodin, c. 1881 (the year, incidentally, of the gunfight at the OK Corral).
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 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. 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. [Source above]
Interior of the Sistine Chapel (named for Pope Sixtus). The vault was painted by Michelangelo from 1508-1512.
The donor patron was the Head Chancellor of the Papal Court, Johannes Goritz of Luxemburg. Goritz, angry about the price solicited by Raphael for this commission, asked Michelangelo for his opinion of its worth. Michelangelo simply replied, "For that knee alone, it is worth the price." Left Side
Left Center
Right Center
Right Side
Creation of Adam
The Deluge
God (based on antique images of Zeus)
The Temptation of Adam and Eve
The Expulsion
The Delphic Sybil
The Libyan Sybil
Study for the above (In the permanent collection of The MMA)
The Prophet Isaiah, Raphael, 1511-12.
In 1534 Michelangelo departed for Rome, never to return to Florence. From now on he worked mainly for the papacy. Soon after his arrival Pope Clement VIII commissioned him to paint the fresco of the Last Judgement for the Sistine Chapel (work commenced under Pope Paul III in 1536, completed in 1541). The spirit of the work is totally different from that of the ceiling unveiled 29 years earlier. In the interim, the Church had been torn apart by the Reformation, Rome had been sacked (1527), and Michelangelo's fresco breathes the new militancy of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The optimism and confidence of the ceiling is replaced by the pessimism and emotional turmoil of the altar wall: saints swarm around the Apollo-like figure of Christ, wielding their instruments of martyrdom, seemingly demanding righteous judgement on the sinners stirring to life from the bare earth at the bottom of the picture. Ignudi
Study for an ignudi
Ignudi
Ignudi
The Last judgement was intended as the climax of the chapel's account, represented in coherent stages, on the ceiling and walls, of the Christian history of the world. This was Michelangelo's most controversial work to date and was as much condemned (for its nudity) as it was praised (for its artistry). After the death of Michelangelo, the fresco was nearly destroyed, but the Church authorities settled for Daniele da Volterra painting draperies over the offending nudity. [Source above]
The Last Judgment, 1536-1541. Shows a shift in Michelangelo's technique too, one towards Mannerism.
In the year of his death, he was working on yet another pietá, the Rondanini Pietá (aka: Milan Pieta, c. 1555-1564, unfinished marble.
Hercules and Cacus, 1534, Bartolommeo Bandinelli.
Giorgio Vasari, a former pupil in Bandinelli's workshop, claimed Bandinelli was driven by jealousy of Benvenuto Cellini and Michelangelo. He worked in opposition to Michelangelo's style.
