Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Essay Paper Example For Students

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Essay Paper The second of five brothers, Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, at Caprese, in Tuscany, to Ludovico di Leonardo di Buonarotto Simoni and Francesca Neri. The same day, his father noted down: Today March 6, 1475, a child of the male sex has been born to me and I have named him Michelangelo. He was born on Monday between 4 and 5 in the morning, at Caprese, where I am the Podest. Although born in the small village of Caprese, Michelangelo always considered himself a son of Florence, as did his father, a Citizen of Florence. His Childhood and Youth Buonarrotis mother, Francesca Neri, was too sick and frail to nurse Michelangelo, so he was placed with a wet nurse, in a family of stone cutters, where he, sucked in the craft of hammer and chisel with my foster mothers milk. When I told my father that I wish to be an artist, he flew into a rage, artists are laborers, no better than shoemakers. Buonarrotis mother died young, when the child was only six years old. But even before then, Michelangelos childhood had been grim and lacking in affection, and he was always to retain a taciturn disposition. Touchy and quick to respond with fierce words, he tended to keep to himself, ut of shyness according to some but also, according to others, a lack of trust in his fellows. His father soon recognized the boys intelligence and anxious for him to learn his letters, sent him to the school of a master, Francesco Galeota from Urbino, who in that time taught grammar. While he studied the principles of Latin, Michelangelo made friends with a student, Francesco Granacci six years older than him, who was learning the art of painting in Ghirlandaios studio and who encouraged Michelangelo to follow his own artistic vocation. Early Life in Florence. Michelangelos father, now a minor Florentine official with connections to the ruling Medici family, placed his 13-year-old son in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. After about one year, Michelangelo went on to study at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens and shortly thereafter was invited into the household of Lorenzo de Medici *http://www. thais. it/scultura/sch00073. htm*, the Magnificent. There he had an opportunity to converse with the younger Medici, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII). He also became acquainted with such humanists as Marsilo Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, frequent visitors to the Medici court. Michelangelo produced at least two relief sculptures by the time he was 16 years old, the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs (both 1489-92, Casa Buonarroti, Florence), which show that he had achieved a personal style at a precocious age. In Michelangelos personal diary he recounts his first two works: My first work was a small bas-relief, The Madonna of the Stairs. Mary, Mother of God, sits on the rock of the church. The child curls back into her body. She foresees his death, and his return on the stairway to heaven. My second work, another small relief. My tutor read me the myth of the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs. The wild forces of Life, locked in heroic combat. Already at 16, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms one spiritual, the other earthly, Ive kept these carvings on the walls of my studio to this very day. His patron Lorenzo died in 1492; two years later Michelangelo fled Florence, when the Medici were temporarily expelled. His Studies of Anatomy During the years he spent in the Garden of San Marco, Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study orpses, the prior of the church of Santo Spirito, Niccol Bichiellini, received a wooden Crucifix from Michelangelo. But his contact with the dead bodies caused problems with his health, obliging him to interrupt his activities periodically. The Bolognese Period During the unstable rule of Piero, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and shortly before the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Michelangelo made a brief visit to Venice and then went to Bologna, where he stayed until 1495, as a guest of Francesco Aldrovandi. It was here in Bologna that the monk Girolamo Savonarola impressed upon Michelangelo his apocalyptic vision, which would later fuse with the artists own tragic sense of human destiny. First Roman Sojourn. Michelangelo then went to Rome, where he was able to examine many newly unearthed classical statues and ruins. He soon produced his first large-scale sculpture, the over-life-size Bacchus *http://www. thais. it/scultura/sch00150. htm* (1496-98, Bargello, Florence). One of the few works of pagan rather than Christian subject matter made by the master, it rivaled ancient statuary, the highest mark of admiration in Renaissance Rome. Piet At about the same time, Michelangelo also did the marble Piet *http://www. istusrex. org/www1/citta/Bs-Pieta. jpg* (1498-1500), still in its original place in Saint Peters Basilica. One of the most famous works of art, the Pieta was probably finished before Michelangelo was 25 years old. The youthful Mary is shown seated majestically, holding the dead Christ across her lap, a theme borrowed from northern European art. Instead of revealing extreme grief, Mary is restrained, and her expression *images/mary-resign. jpg* is one of resignation. Just days after it was placed in Saint Peters, Michelangelo overheard a pilgrim remark that the work was done by Christoforo Solari, a compatriot from Lombard. That night in a fit of rage, Michelangelo took hammer and chisel and placed the following inscription on the sash running across Marys breast in lapidary letters: MICHEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENT FACIBAT (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this). This is the only work that Michelangelo ever signed. Michelangelo later regretted his passionate outburst of pride and determined to never again sign a work of his hands. The Piet, which many regard as the greatest work of sculpture ever created, inspired Giorgio Vasari to comment: It would be impossible for any craftsman or sculptor no matter how brilliant ever to surpass he grace or design of this work, or try to cut and polish the marble with the skill that Michelangelo displayed. For the Pieta was a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture. Among the many beautiful features (including the inspired draperies) this is notably demonstrated by the body of Christ itself. It would be impossible to find a body showing greater mastery of art and possessing more beautiful members, or a nude with more detail in the muscles, veins, and nerves stretched over their framework of bones, or a more deathly corpse. The lovely expression of the head, he harmony in the joints and attachments of the arms, legs, and trunk, and the fine tracery of the veins are all so wonderful that it is hard to believe that the hand of an artist could have executed this inspired and admirable work so perfectly and in so short a time. It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, first published 1550, 2nd edition 1558. First Return to Florence. On August 4th, 1501, after several years of political confusion, a republic was once again proclaimed in Florence. The order established over the following four years received the unconditional support of Michelangelo. Also, during the same period, the artist clearly expressed his own political orientation, unlike in later work. Abnormal Psychology: Bipolar Disorder EssaySince his very first visit to the site, he criticized the model designed by Sangallo, declaring that it had been blinded, devoid of light, that there were too many columns piled up on one on top of each other and that with so many projections, pinnacle turrets and various fragments of all kinds, it looked more like a German edifice than a monument inspired by the Antiquity or even by a beautiful modern school. Furthermore, sserted the Master, it was possible to spare fifty years of construction time and save over three hundred thousand ducats of expense. I spend my days supervising the construction of St. Peters. The Vaticans financial superintendent keeps harassing me for a progress report. My response: your lordship, I am not obliged to, nor do I intend to, tell you anything. Your job is to keep the money rolling in, and out of the hands of thieves. I will see to the building. The architect Piero Ligorio had just entered Paul IVs service. He began to torment Michelangelo again, repeating everywhere that he was growing senile. His intrigues made the sculptor furious. He wished to return to Florence, and was about to do so, but Giorgio Vasari wrote him again and encouraged him to pursue the building of Saint-Peters. Of course, Michelangelo felt the burden of old age; he often repeated that he had reached his last hour and that no thought was born in him where death did not figure. Thus, in one of his letters, he wrote: So, Vasari, God wants me to encumber him for a few more years. I know you will tell me I am a crazy old man to write sonnets but since many people say that I have become gaga, I have to live up to my reputation. I can eel through your letter the affection you feel for me. Yes, I would like to move my old bones next to those of my father, as you beseech me to do. But if I left Rome, I would feel guilty of dooming Saint Peters to failure, and that would be a great shame and a deadly sin. When enough of the construction is done and nothing can be changed to it any more, I hope to follow your advice when it is no longer important to frustrate the appetites of those who hope that I will leave soon. The Rondanini Pieta Mentioned by Vasari in his first edition in 1550, it was therefore begun before that date. According to Blaise de Vigenre, a French traveler, who saw Michelangelo work on this statue that very year, the sculptor (who was in his seventies and not very robust) chipped off more splinters from a very hard lump of marble, than three young stone-cutters in triple the time. He attacked the stone with such fiery energy that one expected to see the block shattered to pieces. With one blow he sent chips three to four fingers thick flying into the air, and penetrated to a point indicated by a drilling with such precision that he might have destroyed the whole stone, had he cut slightly deeper into it. Thanks to Condivi, we now for sure that he was still working on this group in 1553. In his second edition, Vasari reports: At this time (1556), Michelangelo was working at it almost every day: it was like a hobby for him. He ended up breaking the block, probably because the latter was full of impurities and so hard that sparks flew from under his chisel; perhaps also because his self-criticism was so ruthless that he was never satisfied with what he had done. Indeed, to tell the truth, he rarely completed the works of his old age when he had reached the peak of maturity in his creative power. The only completely finished culptures date back to the early period of his career. Here are Michelangelos last words concerning his final masterpiece: the course of my life has finally reached In its fragile boat, over stormy seas The common port where we must account For all our past actions. No painting or sculpture can quiet my soul, Now turned to the Divine Love that opens To embrace me in His arms. For ten years of sleepless nights, Ive been designing a Pieta. The body of our Lord was too heavy with death to be held up by his old Mother. His head too earthy with matter, too real so I cut away the Lords head and shoulders, eaving only his arm as a model for a new one, and carved a new head from the Virgins shoulder. He backs inward to fuse with his Motherss body, as she bends forward to raise him up. Mother and Son, the Living and the Dead, become One Death becomes a Resurrection. Michelangelo who could no longer sleep, got up at night to work with his chisel. As he used to do in the past, he had made himself a cardboard helmet upon which he fixed a candle to light up his work and keep his hands free. As he grew old, he wished more and more to be alone. He needed solitude, and when Rome was fast asleep, he ought refuge in nightly labor. Silence was a blessing to him and night was his friend. I live alone and miserable, trapped as marrow under the bark of the tree. My voice is like a wasp caught in a bag of skin and bones. My teeth shake and rattle like the keys of a musical instrument. My face is a scarecrow. My ears never cease to buzz. In one of them, a spider weaves its web, in the other one, a cricket sings all night long. My rattling catarrh wont let me sleep. This is the state where art has led me, after granting me glory. Poor, old, beaten, I will be reduced to nothing, if death does not come swiftly to my rescue. Pains have quartered me, torn me, broken me and death is the only inn awaiting me. Michelangelos Achievements During his long lifetime, Michelangelo was an intimate of princes and popes, from Lorenzo de Medici to Leo X, Clement VIII, and Pius III (1439-1503), as well as cardinals, painters, and poets. Neither easy to get along with nor easy to understand, he expressed his view of himself and the world even more *http://scriptorium. lib. duke. edu/mazzoni/exhibit/treasures/B56. html* than in the other arts. Much of his verse deals with art and the hardships he underwent, or with Neoplatonic philosophy and personal relationships. The great Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto wrote succinctly of this famous artist: Michelangelo was widely awarded the epithet divine because of his extraordinary accomplishments. Two generations of Italian painters and sculptors were impressed by his treatment of the human figure: Raphael, Annabale Carracci, Pontormo, Rosso Fiorention, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titian. His dome for St. Peters became the symbol of authority, as well as the model, for domes all over the Western world; the majority of state capitol buildings in the U. S. , as well as the Capitol in Washington, D. C. , are derived from it.