Michelangelo

1475-1564

Sculptor, painter, architect

Sources

Early Years. Michelangelo, whose full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese and died on 18 February 1564 in Rome, Italy. He was active as a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet during his lengthy career. His initial training was in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. As a member of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s household Michelangelo was introduced to the family’s antique sculpture collection and the circle of Neoplatonic humanists active there. The Bacchus (1496) demonstrates his study of the male nude figure and classical sources. In 1497 Cardinal Villiers gave him a com-mission for a tomb sculpture. The Pieta, or Mary mourning over the death of her son Christ, was uncommon in Italian art. When Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1501, he created a nude figure of the biblical hero David (1504). The statue was placed in front of the town hall at Florence as asymbol of civic virtue.

Religious Art. In 1505 Michelangelo returned to Rome to work on the tomb of Julius II for St. Peter’s Basilica. This work was never completed, as Michelangelo refocused his attention on painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican (1508-1512), a complex thematic program that illustrates the creation cycle in Genesis. The restoration and cleaning of the Sistine ceiling, completed in 1989, led to a major reevaluation of Michelangelo’s career as a painter, as scholars reexamined his methods of creating three-dimensional forms with the fresco technique. He completed the papal chapel with a fresco of The Last Judgement (1534-1541) located over the main altar. Michelangelo, influenced by the Italian poet Dante, included the figure of the mythological King Minos as the judge of the dead. A self-portrait of Michelangelo can be found on the facial features of a flayed human skin held by St. Bartholomew in the frescoe.

Architect. Michelangelo’s architectural commissions included several projects in Florence. He designed the funerary chapel for Pope Leo X’s Medici ancestors (1519-1534) but was unable to finish the project. Idealized figures of two Medici dukes represented the Active and Contemplative Life; reclining figures of the times of day were placed below. In addition, Michelangelo designed the Laurentian Library for the Medici family’s manuscript collection housed at the San Lorenzo cloister. The vestibule, with its unique staircase design, was completed in 1559. These works challenged the stylistic conventions of Renaissance art and are linked to Michelangelo’s contribution to the development of Mannerism. By 1546 Michelangelo was appointed chief architect of St. Peter’s, his most ambitious architectural project at Rome. He refined and reintegrated the architectural plan of the church into an organic structure.

Later Years. During the last decades of his life he returned to the theme of the pietà. The Duomo Pietà (circa 1547-1555) was intended for Michelangelo’s own tomb, but was completed by others and placed in the Florence Cathedral. According to Italian painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari, the standing figure of Nicodemus, placed behind the collapsed figure of Christ, represented a self-portrait of Michelangelo. His prolific activities in the visual arts had a great impact during the sixteenth century and beyond.

Sources

George Bull, Michelangelo: A Biography (London & New York: Viking, 1995).

Anthony Hughes, Michelangelo (London: Phaidon, 1997).

Joachim Poeschke, Michelangelo and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, photographs by Albert Hirmer and Irmgard Ernstmeier-Hirmer, translated by Russell Stockman (New York: Abrams, 1996).

Jane Turner, ed., The Dictionary of Art (New York: Grove, 1996).