Michelangelo Buonarroti

views updated

Michelangelo Buonarroti

March 6, 1475
Caprese, Italy
February 18, 1564
Rome, Italy

Artist

"I'm not in a good place, and I'm no painter."
Michelangelo, on painting the Sistine ceiling as quoted in The Complete Poems of Michelangelo.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (known as Michelangelo) was the greatest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance. He was also one of the greatest painters and architects of the time. In fact, Michelangelo had an exceptionally long career and dominated the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a movement based on the revival of ancient Greek and Roman culture (the classical period). When he died in 1564, at age eighty-nine, he had lived nearly twice the expected life span of the average person in the sixteenth century. His impact on younger artists was immense, but it tended to be crushing. Major artists of the next century, such as Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640; see entry), were better able to study Michelangelo's ideas at a distance without danger to their own artistic independence.

Begins sculpting

Michelangelo was born in Caprese, an Italian village where his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly served as an agent for the government of Florence. The family had been in the banking business and therefore had a higher social rank than that of other artists' families in Florence. In the sixteenth century artists were still considered craftsmen—they belonged to trade guilds (associations of craftsmen, merchants, and professionals that trained apprentices and set standards of production or business operation), as did skilled laborers such as shoemakers or carpenters—and they were on the same social level as common workers. Michelangelo's grandfather had failed as a banker, however, and his father was too genteel to go into trade. Consequently, the family lived on the income from land and his father's few official appointments. His mother died when he was six. After completing grammar school, Michelangelo was apprenticed at age thirteen to Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico di Tommaso Bigordi; 1449–1494), the most fashionable painter in Florence. The apprenticeship was broken off within a year, and Michelangelo was given access to the collection of ancient Roman sculpture owned by Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492; see entry), duke of Florence. The boy dined with the Medici family and was looked after by the retired sculptor who was in charge of the collection. This arrangement was quite unprecedented at the time.

Michelangelo began working as a sculptor in 1492, at age seventeen. Over the next sixteen years he produced many of the best-known sculptures of the Italian Renaissance. His earliest sculpture was a stone relief (raised images on a flat background) titled Battle of the Centaurs, which was based on a Latin poem a court poet read to him. Resembling the Roman sarcophagi (coffins) in the Medici collection, it had simple, solid forms and squarish figures that added intensity to their violent interaction. Soon after Lorenzo de' Medici died in 1492, the Medicis fell from power and Michelangelo fled from Florence to Bologna. In 1494 he obtained a commission to carve three saints needed to complete the tomb of Saint Dominic in the church of San Domenico. The tomb had been started by the sculptor Nicola Pisano (c. 1220–1278 or 1284) around 1265. In this work Michelangelo's figures are again squarish, in contrast with the linear forms that were then dominant in sculpture.

After settling in Rome in 1496, Michelangelo made a statue of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, for the garden of ancient sculpture owned by a banker. His earliest surviving large-scale work, Bacchus shows the god in a teetering stance, either because he is drunk or dancing. It is Michelangelo's only sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides. His other works were generally set in front of walls and to some extent resemble reliefs. In 1498, through the same banker, Michelangelo obtained his first important commission, the larger-than-life Pietà, which is now in Saint Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the Christian world and the symbol of papal authority. The term pietà refers to a popular image in which Mary (mother of Jesus Christ, founder of Christianity) supports the dead Christ across her knees. Although several versions of this scene have been created, Michelangelo's sculpture is the most famous. In both the Pietà and the Bacchus he made hard polished marble resemble soft flesh.

Known as greatest sculptor

When Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1501, he was recognized as the most talented sculptor in central Italy. That year he was commissioned to do the marble sculpture David for Florence Cathedral. After he completed the project in 1504, it was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Immediately thereafter Michelangelo accepted the job of painting the Battle of Cascina, a huge fresco (wall painting) for the Council Chamber of the Republic in the Palazzo della Signoria. The building was to have vast patriotic murals that would also show the special skills of Florence's two leading artists: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1529; see entry) and Michelangelo.

The subject of Michelangelo's fresco, the Battle of Cascina, was a celebrated Florentine military victory. Although Michelangelo never completed this fresco, several sketches and a copy of the cartoon (design plan) exist. (At that time a cartoon had not yet come to mean a satirical or humorous drawing. Instead, it was a preparatory design or drawing for a fresco.) The central scene shows a group of muscular nude soldiers climbing from a river where they had been swimming to answer a military alarm. This work clearly showed Leonardo's influence in the depiction of a continuous flowing motion through living forms. This combination of throbbing life with colossal grandeur became the special quality of Michelangelo's art. From then on his work consisted mainly of very large projects that he never finished. Because he preferred to work on a grand scale, however, he could not turn down commissions from great clients. For instance, he contracted to make statues of the Twelve Apostles (Jesus Christ's disciples) for the Florence Cathedral, yet he started only the St. Matthew.

Michelangelo had stopped working on the Apostle statues when Pope Julius II (1443–1513; reigned 1503–13) called him to Rome in 1505. He had accepted a commission to design the pope's tomb, which was to include about forty life-size statues. This project occupied him off and on for the next forty years. In 1506 a dispute over funds for the tomb led Michelangelo, who had spent almost a year at the marble quarries (sites where marble is extracted from the ground) in Carrara, to flee to Florence. A reconciliation between Julius II and Michelangelo later took place in Bologna, which the pope had just conquered.

Paints Sistine ceiling

Michelangelo's career took another direction in 1508, when Pope Julius II offered him a commission to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. At first Michelangelo protested that he was a sculptor, not a painter. Finally he accepted the job and devoted all of his creative energies to the project. The theme of the ceiling painting is the nine stories from the book of Genesis in the Bible. Interspersed with figures of the male biblical prophets (Hebrew leaders) are the female sibyls (prophetesses) of antiquity, a series of nude youths, lunettes (crescent-shaped decorative objects) with representations of the ancestors of Christ, and a host of other figures and decoration.

By the time the Sistine Chapel project was completed four years later, in 1512, Michelangelo had made a major innovation in ceiling painting. Traditionally, artists had depicted only single figures, but he introduced the portrayal of dramatic scenes involving hundreds of figures. The concept was so successful that it set the standard for future artists. The painting is also considered one of the most awe-inspiring works of Western (non-Asian) art. The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) reportedly remarked that one cannot fully appreciate human achievement without first seeing the Sistine Chapel. Nevertheless, the project had been a grueling one for Michelangelo. He was required to lie on a scaffold with arms outstretched for hours at a time. As a result of working on the Sistine Chapel, he was reportedly disabled for the rest of his life. An accomplished and prolific poet, Michelangelo composed "Sonnet to John of Pistoia on the Sistine Ceiling" (1509–12). The first two stanzas, as quoted inThe Complete Poems of Michelangelo translated by John Frederick Nims, give the reader an idea of the physical stress and pain he endured for four years:

I've got myself a goiter [enlarged thyroid gland] from this strain,
As water gives the cats in Lombardy
Or maybe it is in some other country;
My belly's pushed by force beneath my chin.
My beard toward Heaven, I feel the back of my brain
Upon my neck, I grow the breast of a Harpy [Greek mythological creature];
My brush, above my face continually,
Makes it a splendid floor by dripping down.

Michelangelo concluded the poem with this line: "I'm not in a good place, and I'm no painter."

Favored by popes

As soon as the Sistine ceiling was completed, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved Moses and Slaves. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb. For the next few years Michelangelo created sculptures for popes. They were anxious to have work by the recognized greatest sculptor of monuments for themselves, their families, and the church. Pope Leo X (1475–1521; reigned 1513–21), son of Lorenzo de' Medici, proposed a marble facade for the family parish church of Saint Lorenzo in Florence. It was to be decorated with statues by Michelangelo, but the project was canceled after four years of quarrying and designing.

In 1520 Michelangelo was commissioned to execute a tomb chapel for two young Medici dukes. The Medici Chapel (1520–34), an annex to Saint Lorenzo, is the most nearly complete large sculptural project of Michelangelo's career. The two tombs, each with an image of the deceased and two allegorical figures (images of people with symbolic significance), are placed against elaborately decorated walls. These six statues and a seventh, the Madonna, on a third wall are by Michelangelo's own hand. The two saints flanking the Madonna were made by assistants from his clay sketches. The allegories on the curved lids of the tombs are also innovative: Day and Night recline on one tomb, Morning and Evening on the other. Political leaders were becoming more powerful at the time, and Michelangelo's statues were often used as models for portraits that depicted emperors, popes, kings, and dukes.

Paints Reformation works

In 1534 Michelangelo left Florence for the last time and settled in Rome. For the next ten years he produced paintings for Pope Paul III (1468–1549; reigned 1534–49). The pope had convened a series of meetings called the Council of Trent, which initiated the Catholic Reformation, a wide-ranging effort to revitalize the Roman Catholic Church. One area of reform was the arts, through which Paul III wanted to promote a more human image of the church. The first project Michelangelo executed for the pope was the Last Judgment (1536–41), a vast painting on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel. The design functions like a pair of scales, with some angels pushing the damned (those who have not been forgiven for their sins) to hell on one side and some pulling up the saved (those whose sins have been forgiven) on the other side. Angels on both sides are directed by Christ, who "conducts" with both arms. In the two top corners are the cross (Christ died on a cross in order to save all of humankind) and other symbols of the Passion (the crucifixion and death of Christ), which serve as Christ's credentials to be judge.

Bramante Designs New Saint Peter's

Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio (called Bramante; 1444–1514) was the first influential Renaissance architect. He introduced a grave and monumental style that represented the ideal for later architects.

Bramante was born at Monte Asdruvaldo near Urbino. Little is known about his life until the late 1470s. Around 1481 he was named court architect for the Sforza family, the rulers of Lombardy. Bramante's first important commissions were for various features of churches in Milan. He fled to Rome in 1499, when the French captured Milan in 1499, during the Italian Wars (1494–1559; a conflict between France and Spain over control of Italy). After the election of Pope Julius II in 1503, Bramante became the official papal architect. He did extensive work in the Vatican Palace. In 1505 Pope Julius II decided that Saint Peter's Basilica should be completely rebuilt, and he commissioned Bramante to prepare a plan for the new church. Bramante based his plan on a central Greek cross design (an upright shaft crossed in the middle by a shaft of equal length). It called for a large dome sitting atop a drum (open circular base) supported by colonnades at the crossing. It also featured four smaller domes and corner towers.

When the Greek-cross design was not accepted, Bramante planned to lengthen one arm of the cross to form a nave (main part of a church) and thus suggest the shape of a Latin cross (a long shaft crossed with a shorter shaft above the middle). He then added ambulatories (walk-ways) in the wings that projected outward from the center of the cross. The foundation stone was laid in 1506, but at the time of his death Bramante had erected only the four main piers (bases) and the arches that were to support the dome. In 1513 the pope bestowed the office of Piombatore, or sealer of the papal briefs, on Bramante. The architect's last work was probably the Palazzo Caprini, which he started after 1510. Later owned by Italian architect Raphael, the Palazzo Caprini became the model for numerous palaces, especially in northern Italy. Bramante died in 1514 and was buried in Old Saint Peter's Basilica.

Bramante's design for the new Saint Peter's continued to cause controversy throughout the sixteenth century. Many critics wanted the church to have a more pronounced Latin-cross structure. Raphael and Bramante's assistant Antonio da Sangallo (1483–1546), changed the design and construction was delayed. Michelangelo took over the project in 1547. When he died in 1564, the building was completed in its present form up to the dome. Giacomo della Porta (c. 1537–1602) then altered the design again (he may have used a model made by Michelangelo) and completed the dome in 1590. Finally, supporters of the Latin cross design won, and the architect Carlo Maderna (1556–1629) added a nave and facade, which were completed in 1614.

In the Last Judgment Michelangelo used simple colors, blue and brown. The somber tone seems to parallel the ideas of the Catholic Reformation, which called for a renewed emphasis on spirituality. Michelangelo had contact with reform leaders through the poet Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547), a close friend and supporter to whom he addressed many of his poems. From 1541 until 1545 Michelangelo painted two large frescoes—Conversion of Saul and Crucifixion of Peter—for the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. They are similar to the Last Judgment, but in these works he expressed movement through linear perspective (a technique that depicts a scene from a single point of view; see Leonardo entry). He also used subtle colors in a more expressive way. He may have turned to these techniques because the Pauline Chapel frescoes were the first ones he executed on a normal scale and at eye level. Michelangelo's only sculpture during this period was limited to two pietàs that he executed for himself. The first one (un-finished), which is in the Cathedral of Florence, was meant for his own tomb. His last sculpture was the Rondanini Pietà in Milan, which he started in 1555 and was working on just six days prior to his death in 1564.

Concentrates on architecture

After 1545 Michelangelo devoted himself almost entirely to architecture. He had been working on architectural commissions since 1538, when Paul III commissioned him to redesign and refurbish Capitoline Hill, the geographical and ceremonial center of ancient Rome. As with many of Michelangelo's other commissions, the project was completed after his death. Paul III also hired him to direct construction of the Farnese Palace in 1546. During the reign of Pius IV (1499–1565; reigned 1559–65) Michelangelo designed the Porta Pia, converted the Roman Baths of Diocletion into the Christian church of Santa Maria segli Angeli, and designed the Sforza Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. Thus Michelangelo became an urban planner as well as an architect, helping to transform the appearance of Rome.

In 1547 Paul III appointed Michelangelo to direct construction of the new Saint Peter's Basilica. The project had been beset by problems since 1506, when Pope Julius II originally ordered the rebuilding of the Old Saint Peter's. By the time Michelangelo took over the project more than forty years later, three other architects—Bramante (see accompanying box), Raphael (1483–1520; see entry), and Antonio da Sangallo (1483–1546)—had changed the design, and construction was delayed. When Michelangelo died in 1564 the building was completed in its present form up to the dome. Two other architects, Giacomo della Porta (c. 1537–1602) and Carlo Maderna (1556–1629), worked on the church before its completion in 1614. Saint Peter's is now considered the crowning achievement of Renaissance architecture.