Statement
Michelangelo
(1475-1564), Italian artist, one of the most inspired creators
in the history of art and, with Leonardo da Vinci, the most potent
force in the Italian High Renaissance. As a sculptor, architect,
painter, and poet, he exerted a tremendous influence on his contemporaries
and on subsequent Western art. Born
in Caprese, Michelangelo is most associated with the city of Florence.
His father, a Florentine official who had connections to the ruling
Medici family, placed his 13-year-old son in the workshop of Florentine
painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Later, after studying at the sculpture
school in the Medici gardens, Michelangelo was invited into the
household of Lorenzo de' Medici. His patron died in 1492; two
years later Michelangelo fled Florence when the Medici were temporarily
expelled. After
some time in Bologna, Michelangelo went to Rome, where he soon
produced his first large-scale sculpture, Bacchus (1496-1498,
Bargello, Florence). Around the same time, he also did the marble
Pietà (1498-1500), still in its original place in Saint
Peter's Basilica in Rome. The famous Pietà was probably
finished before Michelangelo was 25 years old, and it is the only
work he ever signed. After returning to Florence, Michelangelo
produced his most famous sculpture, the gigantic (4.34 m/14.24
ft) marble David (Accademia, Florence). Created between 1501 and
1504, David became the symbol of Florence. In
1505 Michelangelo was recalled to Rome by Pope Julius II for two
commissions. The most important was for the frescoes of the Sistine
Chapel ceiling. Between 1508 and 1512, working high above the
floor while lying on his back on scaffolding, Michelangelo painted
some of the finest pictorial images ever, including such scenes
as God Separating Light from Darkness and the Creation of Adam.
These images, demonstrating his masterly understanding of human
anatomy and movement, changed the course of Western painting.
Michelangelo
also had been commissioned by Julius II to produce his tomb, which
was to be located in the new Saint Peter's Basilica, then under
construction. Michelangelo made some of his finest sculpture for
the Julius Tomb. These demonstrate his approach to carving: He
believed that the figure was imprisoned in the block of stone,
and that by removing the excess stone, he released the form.
Michelangelo's
activity as an architect began in 1519, but his plan for the facade
of Florence's Church of San Lorenzo was never executed. In the
1520s he designed the Laurentian Library and its elegant entrance
hall adjoining San Lorenzo, although these were not finished until
decades later. Between 1519 and 1534 Michelangelo also undertook
the commission of the Medici Tombs for the New Sacristy of San
Lorenzo. Work on the tombs continued long after Michelangelo went
back to Rome in 1534. From
1536 to 1541 Michelangelo worked on the altar wall of the Sistine
Chapel, creating Last Judgment, the largest fresco of the Renaissance.
He was also commissioned to paint the Pauline Chapel in the 1540s,
but he directed his main energies toward architecture. Although
his program was not finished until the 17th century, Michelangelo
designed the remodeling of the buildings surrounding the Campidoglio
on the Capitoline Hill (Monte Capitoline), the civic and political
heart of Rome. His crowning achievement as an architect was his
work at Saint Peter's Basilica, where he was made chief architect
in 1546. The building was constructed according to plans by Italian
architect Donato Bramante, but Michelangelo ultimately became
responsible for the exterior altar end of the building and for
the dome's final form.
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