Michelangelo
Introduction
"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free," stated Michelangelo Buonarotti, one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. This amazing man changed the world of art forever with his creations, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his seventeen foot tall David.
Childhood
The childhood of Michelangelo Buonarotti was both a sweet and saddening beginning to his life. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni was born in the town of Caprese, Tuscany in 1475. Since his family was poor, when Michelangelo was a month old, the family packed and moved to Florence, Italy. There Michelangelo lived on a small farm in the village of Settignano. He was raised by a stonecutter and his wife because his parents could no longer sustain care of him and his brothers. While living with the stonecutter, he often visited the quarry, and so some of Michelangelo's predominant memories as a young boy were of stone. The quarry was where workers cut and hauled the rocks for buildings, monuments and statues. All of Michelangelo's trips there played a role in how he slowly began to love carving and sculpting.
Education
Michelangelo wanted to attend school, but little is known about how much his family contributed in his education . However, Michelangelo's father, Lodovico Buonarrotti, did send the seven-year-old boy to school in 1482. Michelangelo was an enterprising child, and by age ten he was attending Latin school and learning to be a gentleman. Although Michelangelo had an interest and talent for drawing, his father's perspective was that art was beneath his son, and thought he should instead be a great military leader or government figure. Nevertheless, Michelangelo did not give up, and so finally he had the privilege of apprenticing to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who helped him finesse painting as well as sculpting. Michelangelo improved greatly, and by 1489 he was studying at the art school of Giovanni di Bertoldo. While with Bertoldo, one of the other students, Pietro Torrigiano, became jealous. He held so much enmity that one day he punched Michelangelo hard on the nose, and it was flat and misshapen his whole life. Overall, Michelangelo did very well in school; he stood above all the other students. Little did he know that after a long life, he would become one of the most famous sculptors of his time.
Late Education
After his schooling, Michelangelo gained more notoriety. Soon enough, he was living and working for ruler of Florence Lorenzo de' Medici. By about age eighteen, Michelangelo had decided to make sculpting his life's work. Lorenzo de' Medici provided a home with care for Michelangelo in his palace, but the kind man died soon after Michelangelo created The Battle of the Centaurs in 1492. Lorenzo's son, Pietro de' Medici, was a weak and dire ruler, and after a very short reign fell from power. The Medicis were exiled to Bologna, Italy, and Michelangelo went there with them. The artist, approaching age twenty, did well in this new city. He was hired for three jobs and continued in his earlier study of the human body, visiting the Hospital of Santo Spirito to cut open corpses in order to look at the muscles and bones. Over time, Michelangelo gained more and more fame and improved his sculpting and painting.
Adulthood
Though he had done well in Bologna, Michelangelo decided to revert to Florence to continue his work in 1495. Although Florence was home to Michelangelo, it was no longer a beneficial place for an artist. A monk named Savonarola had conveyed the message that all art must be religious and all other art was distasteful. Michelangelo did not agree with this and left to find work in Rome. There he received an important offer to sculpt, and he created a statue of the god Bacchus. The work was purchased by Jacopo Galli, who introduced Michelangelo to Jean Villiers de Fezenzac. Fezenzac wanted a statue of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in her arms, and Michelangelo was hired to sculpt it. He began on August 27, 1498. When he finished his Pieta, he was twenty-four. On Mary's sash crossing her chest, the sculptor carefully carved, 'MICHAELACELUS BONAROTUS FLOREN FACIEBA', or 'Michelangelo Buonarrotti the Florentine made this'. Unfortunately, Fezenzac died before he could see the beautiful statue. Michelangelo stayed in Rome for five years. He earned money and gained confidence, but soon enough he traveled back to Florence. A huge slab of marble had been found in a quarry. It was eighteen feet high and weighed several tons, and was being offered to someone who could sculpt it into something great. The great block of stone was so big that people were calling it "The Giant." When Michelangelo asked to work with the block, people thought he was crazy, but he was given permission to use it. Michelangelo slaved two years before he finished the seventeen foot-tall masterpiece David. The creation was placed in the Palazzo della Signoria, and Michelangelo's name was now famous across much of Europe. His works became better and better and he was hired as an artist for the Florentine Government. There he met Pope Julius II, who became his new employer. The pope sent Michelangelo and himself to Rome, where Michelangelo did many projects for the pope. Julius also wanted Michelangelo to carve his tomb, but when he started, the pope realized it would take much too long and gave up the project. By this time Michelangelo had decided he wanted no employer and secretly returned to Florence. As soon as Pope Julius found out, he was absolutely furious and immediately sent for him to come back. Although disgruntled, he did not want to anger the pope any further and so Michelangelo returned. For the next two years of his life, Michelangelo worked on a magnificent bronze statue of Pope Julius. When he finished, it was placed in a cathedral. Unfortunately, an Italian army attacked Bologna and the statue was sold as a bronze scrap. Even though his recent work had not gone as well as it could have, Michelangelo did not lose hope. Soon enough, he would be working on one of the greatest projects he ever did in his life, he just didn't know it yet.
Late Life
In 1508, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo and told him that he would like him to paint a mural on the ceiling of the great Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo accepted the offer and began in May at age thirty-three. The Pope Julius had requested that the artist paint the Twelve Apostles, but instead he created an amazing mural of over three hundred beautifully painted figures, both clothed and nude, in a lovely array across the chapel's curving ceiling. Michelangelo worked long and hard and the painting was unveiled in October 1512. The Pope Julius II died in late February 1513. After this event, Michelangelo completed three more statues, "The Dying Slave," "The Rebellious Slave," and "Moses." Michelangelo was growing older and with age growing slower and more fragile. When the great artist reached age sixty-one, he began a painting titled "The Last Judgment." He worked on the fifty foot-tall painting for five years. It was complete on October 31, 1541 When finished, it included the Virgin Mary, the risen Christ, and much more. It too was displayed in the huge Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo kept painting and sculpting, though he was getting old. In those later years he completed more paintings than statues, because he was becoming older and more frail. His days were still happy, though. Michelangelo Buonarrotti died on February 18, 1564, at age eighty-nine. He was buried in the town of his childhood; Florence, Italy. even in the last few years of his life, Michelangelo created beautiful pieces of artwork, and many people still admire them to this day.
Conclusion
Even though he wasn't an engineer or a scientist, Michelangelo Buonarrotti was a very influential person in the Renaissance period. He has changed our art world forever even though he lived so long ago. Michelangelo stood above most all other artists in the Renaissance. He used eternal patience, amazing technique, and pure talent to create over fifty beautiful and unique paintings and sculpture pieces that we still marvel at today.