Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet.
He was born on March 6, 1475 in the Tuscan village of Caprese, where Michelangelo's father was headman. Despite the sharp protests of his father, he became an apprentice to the fresco painter Ghirlandaio and soon began to study at the Florentine art school of Lorenzo Medici.
The work of Michelangelo belongs to the era of the High Renaissance. Already in youthful works, such as the reliefs "Madonna at the Stairs", "Battle of the Centaurs" (both around 1490-1492), the main features of Michelangelo emerge: monumentality, plastic power and drama of images, reverence for man. Fleeing from the civil unrest that arose as a result of the reign of Savonarola, Michelangelo moved from Florence to Venice, then to Rome.
During his five years in Rome, he produced the first of his famous works, including the Bacchus (1496-1497) and Pieta (1498-1501) sculptures in St. Peter's Basilica. In 1500, at the invitation of the citizens of Florence, Michelangelo returned in triumph to this city.
Soon at his disposal was a four-meter-high marble block, which had already been abandoned by two sculptors. For the next three years he worked selflessly, almost without leaving his workshop. In 1504, a monumental statue of a naked David appeared before the public.
In 1505, the power-hungry Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to return to Rome, ordering a tomb for himself. The sculptor worked for a whole year on a giant bronze statue, which was supposed to crown the monument, so that almost immediately after finishing, he would witness how his creation was melted down into cannons.
After Julius II in 1513, his heirs insisted on the implementation of another project of tomb sculpture. This, including numerous alterations caused by the whims of customers, took 40 years of Michelangelo's life. As a result, he was forced to abandon the implementation of his plan, which included the erection of a tombstone as part of the internal architecture of St. Peter's Cathedral.
The colossal marble Moses and the statues known as "Slaves" have forever remained impressive parts of an unfinished whole.
According to contemporaries, Michelangelo was a closed and self-absorbed person, prone to sudden outbursts of violence. In private life he was almost an ascetic, he went to bed late and got up early. It was said that he often slept without even taking off his shoes. When he was almost sixty, Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to create wall frescoes in the Sistine Chapel depicting scenes of the Last Judgment (1536-1541).
In 1547 he received the post of chief architect for the reconstruction of St. Peter's and designed the huge dome, which to this day remains one of the greatest masterpieces of architecture.
When they say that Michelangelo is a genius, they not only express a judgment about his art, but also give him a historical assessment. Genius, in the view of the people of the sixteenth century, was a kind of supernatural force affecting the human soul, in the romantic era this force would be called "inspiration."
Divine inspiration requires solitude and reflection. In the history of art, Michelangelo is the first loner artist, leading an almost continuous struggle with the world around him, in which he feels alien and unsettled.
On Monday, March 6, 1475, in the small town of Caprese, a male child was born to the podesta (city governor) of Chiusi and Caprese. In the family books of the old Buonarroti family in Florence, there is a detailed record of this event of a happy father, sealed with his signature - di Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarroti Simoni.
The father sent his son to the school of Francesco da Urbino in Florence. The boy had to learn how to decline and conjugate Latin words from this first compiler of Latin grammar. The boy was extremely inquisitive by nature, but Latin oppressed him. The teaching went from bad to worse. The grieved father attributed this to laziness and negligence, not believing, of course, in the vocation of his son. He dreamed for him of a brilliant career, dreamed of seeing his son someday in the highest civil positions.
But, in the end, the father resigned himself to his son’s artistic inclinations and one day, taking a pen, he wrote: “One thousand four hundred and eighty-eight, April 1, I, Lodovico, son of Lionardo di Buonarroti, place my son Michelangelo with Domenico and David Ghirlandaio for three years from now, under the following conditions: the said Michelangelo remains with his teachers for these three years as an apprentice for an exercise in painting, and must, in addition, do everything that his masters order him to; as a reward for his services, Domenico and David pay him a sum of 24 florins: six in the first year, eight in the second, and ten in the third; only 86 livres.
He did not stay in Ghirlandaio's workshop for long, because he wanted to become a sculptor, and went on to become an apprentice to Bertoldo, a follower of Donatello, who led the art school in the Medici gardens in Piazza San Marco. Biographers say that he was engaged there in drawing from old engravings, as well as copying, achieving tremendous success in this.
The young artist was immediately noticed by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who patronized him and introduced him to his Neoplatonic circle of philosophers and writers. Already in 1490, they began to talk about the exceptional talent of the still very young Michelangelo Buonarroti. In 1494, with the approach of the troops of Charles VIII, he left Florence, returning to it in 1495. At twenty-one, Michelangelo goes to Rome, and then in 1501 he returns to his native city again.
Unfortunately, there is little information about Michelangelo's early paintings. The only painting he completed and survived is the tondo "Holy Family". There is no exact documentary data on the time of creation of this tondo (tondo is an easel painting or sculptural work that has a round shape).
The composition of the picture is dominated by the figure of the Madonna. She is young and beautiful, calm and majestic. Michelangelo did not see fit to go into more detail about what caused her complex movement. But it is precisely this movement that binds the Madonna, Joseph and the baby into one whole. This is no ordinary happy family. There is no trace of intimacy here. This is the majestic "holy family".
IN In 1504, the Florentine Signoria commissioned two frescoes by famous artists - Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to decorate the walls of the Great Council Hall in the Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo made a cardboard depicting the "Battle of Anghiari", and Michelangelo - "The Battle of Kashin".
Unlike Leonardo, Michelangelo wanted to depict in the picture not a battle, but bathing soldiers who, having heard the alarm, rush to get out of the water. Eighteen figures were painted by the artist, all of them are in motion.
In 1506, both cardboards were put on display. However, the frescoes were never painted. The cardboard “Battle of Kashin”, which was valued by contemporaries more than all other works by Michelangelo, perished: it was cut into pieces and sold to different hands until the last pieces of it disappeared without a trace. Vasari, who saw some of its parts, says that "it was more of a divine creation than a human one," and the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, who had the opportunity to study both cardboards - Michelangelo and Leonardo - testifies that they were "a school for the whole world."
Vasari notes that Michelangelo used different techniques in his cardboard, trying to show off his perfect mastery of the drawing: “There were still many figures there, grouped and sketched in different ways: the contours of some were outlined in charcoal, others were drawn with strokes, others were filled with ink and colors. they are laid with chalk, since he (that is, Michelangelo) wanted to show all his skill in this matter.
In 1505, Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo. He decided during his lifetime to create a worthy tomb for himself. For more than thirty years, the innumerable complications associated with this tomb constituted the tragedy of Michelangelo's life. The project was repeatedly changed and completely reworked, until the completely exhausted artist, busy in his declining years with other orders, did not agree to a smaller version of the tomb installed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli.
Michelangelo reluctantly agreed to the commission given to him in 1508 by Julius II to paint the vault of the Sistine Chapel. According to the original plan, only the twelve apostles and the most ordinary ornamental decorations were supposed to be depicted on the plafond in the corresponding lunettes.
“But having already begun work,” wrote Michelangelo, “I saw that it would look poor, and I told the pope that it would be poor with some apostles. Dad asked why? I answered: because they themselves were poor people. Then he agreed and told me to do as I know ... "
IN AND. Surikov wrote to P.P. Chistyakov: “Prophets, sibyls, evangelists and scenes of St. the writings poured out so completely, nowhere is hushed up, and the proportions of the paintings to the entire mass of the ceiling are incomparably maintained.
“Initially, Michelangelo wanted to paint the vault with small compositions, almost decoratively, but then abandoned this idea. He creates his own painted architecture on the vault: powerful pillars, as it were, support the cornice and arches, "thrown" through the space of the chapel. All the gaps between these pillars and arches are occupied by images of human figures. This "architecture" depicted by Michelangelo organizes painting, separates one composition from another.
A person entering the chapel immediately sees the whole cycle of murals: having not yet begun to consider individual figures and scenes, he gets the first general idea of the frescoes and how the master sets out the history of the world ...
The whole history of the world, extremely tragically and personally read, appears before us in the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. On these grandiose frescoes, Michelangelo seems to create a world similar to his great soul - a gigantic, complex world, full of deep feelings and experiences ”(I. Tuchkov).
Those who see both before and now the "Sistine Ceiling" were and will be shocked. There is a lot of evidence for this, one of them is Bernard Bernson, the largest contemporary art historian: “Michelangelo ... created such an image of a person who can subjugate the earth, and, who knows, maybe more than the earth.” “Like a truly great work of art, this painting is infinitely wide and diverse in its ideological design, so that people of the most diverse mindset ... experience a blessed awe when contemplating it ... Giant waves of human life, of our entire destiny, seem to roll over this ceiling shaft after shaft ... "(L. Lyubimov).
The creation of this painting was painful and difficult for the artist. Michelangelo has to build scaffolding himself, work lying on his back. Condivi says that when painting the Sistine Chapel, “Michelangelo so trained his eyes to look up at the vault that later, when the work was completed and he began to hold his head straight, he saw almost nothing; when he had to read letters and papers, he had to hold them high above his head. Gradually, he again began to get used to reading, looking down in front of him.
Michelangelo himself conveys his condition on the scaffolding thus:
Chest like a harpy; skull to spite me
Climbed to the hump; and a beard on end;
And from the brush on the face flows burda,
Row me in brocade, like a coffin ...
The election of Leo X from the Medici family as pope in 1513 contributed to the renewal of the artist's connection with his native city. In 1516, the new pope instructs him to design the facade of the church of San Lorenzo, built by Brunelleschi. This was the first architectural order. Michelangelo spends a long time in the quarries, selecting marble for future work. He begins work on the chapel, but in 1520 Pope Leo X annuls the contract for the construction of the facade of San Lorenzo. The artist's four years of work were destroyed with a stroke of the pen.
In 1524, Michelangelo begins the construction of the Laurenziana Library. The fall of the Florentine Republic marked the most troubling period in the life of Michelangelo. Despite his firm republican convictions, Michelangelo could not stand the anxiety of the upcoming events: he fled to Ferrara and Venice (1529), wanted to take refuge in France. Florence declared him a rebel and a deserter, but then forgave him and invited him to return. Hiding and experiencing great torment, he witnessed the fall of his native city and only later timidly turned to the pope, who in 1534 instructed him to finish painting the Sistine Chapel.
The artist forever leaves Florence, which became the capital of the Duchy of Tuscany, and moves to Rome. A year later, Pope Paul III appoints him "painter, sculptor and architect of the Vatican", and in 1536 Michelangelo starts painting the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. He creates his most famous work - the painting "The Last Judgment". He worked on this fresco for six years, all alone.
“The theme of judgment over the world was close to the old Michelangelo. On earth he saw grief and injustice; and now, in this work of his, he judges mankind.
In the center of the composition, the saints surround the young and formidable Christ. They crowd around his throne, presenting evidence of their torment. They demand, they demand, and do not ask, for a fair trial. In fright, Mary clings to her son, and Christ, rising from the throne, seems to push away the people advancing on him. No, this is not a kind and not all-forgiving god, it is, in the words of Michelangelo himself, "the blade of judgment and the weight of anger." Obeying his gesture, the dead rise from the bowels of the earth to face judgment. With iron inevitability they rise up, some of them enter heaven, and some fall into hell. Mad with horror, sinners fall. And Charon is waiting for them below to transport them into the arms of Minos. Starting at the bottom left, the round dance of human bodies, having made a circle, closes at the bottom right on the eve of hell.
"The Last Judgment" is conceived as grandiose as it is generally possible, as the last moment before the disappearance of the universe in chaos, like the dream of the gods before its sunset ... ”(Burnson).
Paul III kept visiting the chapel. One day he went there with Biagio da Cesena, his master of ceremonies.
- How do you like these figures? Dad asked him.
“I apologize to Your Holiness, but these naked bodies seem to me simply blasphemous and unsuitable for a holy temple.
Papa was silent. But when the visitors left, Michelangelo, seething with indignation, took up a brush and painted the devil Minos, giving him a portrait resemblance to the papal master of ceremonies. Hearing about this, Biagio ran to the pope with a complaint. To which he replied: “Biagio, my dear, if Michelangelo put you in purgatory, I would make every effort to get you out of there, but since he sent you to hell, my intervention is useless, I have no power there.”
And Minos with the feisty physiognomy of the master of ceremonies remains in the picture to this day.
During the Catholic reaction, Michelangelo's fresco with an abundance of beautiful and strong naked bodies seemed something blasphemous, especially considering its placement behind the altar. A little time will pass, and Pope Paul IV will order to record the nudity of individual characters with draperies. The draperies were made by the artist's friend Daniele da Volterra. Perhaps in this way he saved the great fresco from destruction by the leaders of the Catholic reaction.
After graduating from The Last Judgment, Michelangelo reached the pinnacle of fame among his contemporaries. He forgot to bare his head in front of the Pope, and the Pope, in his own words, did not notice this. Popes and kings used to seat him next to them.
From 1542 to 1550, Michelangelo creates his last paintings - two frescoes of the Paolina Chapel in the Vatican. As E. Rotenberg writes: “Both frescoes are multi-figure compositions with the central character depicted at a decisive moment in his life, surrounded by witnesses of this event. Much here looks unusual for Michelangelo. Although the frescoes themselves are quite large (the dimensions of each are 6.2x6.61 meters), they are no longer endowed with that extraordinarily large scale that was previously an integral part of Michelangelo's images. The concentration of the action is very peculiarly combined with the dispersal of the characters, who form separate episodes and isolated motifs within the compositions. But this dispersal is opposed by a single emotional tone, expressed very tangibly and constituting, in fact, the basis of the impact of these works on the viewer - the tone of oppressive, fettering tragedy, inextricably linked with their ideological concept.
In recent years, Michelangelo has been designing the central plan of the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, sketching out the plan for the Sforza Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, building the Porta Pia, giving a perspective monumental look to the Capitol Square.
In life, Michelangelo did not know tender affection and participation, and this, in turn, was reflected in his character. "Art is jealous," he says, "and demands the whole man." "I have a wife to whom I belong, and my children are my creations." A woman who would understand Michelangelo should have had a great mind and innate tact.
He met such a woman - Vittoria Colonna, granddaughter of the Duke of Urban and widow of the famous commander Marquis Pescaro, but too late: he was then already sixty years old. Vittoria was interested in science, philosophy, religious issues, was a famous Renaissance poetess.
Until her death, 10 years old, they constantly communicated, exchanged poems. Her death was a heavy loss for Michelangelo.
The friendship of Vittoria Colonna softened heavy losses for him - first the loss of his father, then his brothers, of whom only Lionard remained, with whom Michelangelo maintained a cordial connection until his death. In all actions and words, always homogeneous, consistent, clear, Michelangelo is seen as a strict thinker and a man of honor and justice, as in his works.
Dying, Michelangelo left a short testament, as in life, he did not like verbosity. “I give my soul to God, my body to the earth, my property to my relatives,” he dictated to his friends.
Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. His body was buried in the church of Santa Croce in Florence.
The greatest master and thinker of the High Renaissance - Michelangelo Buonarroti, who lived a long and fruitful life, always thought that all his creations were not worthy of the Lord God. And he himself is not worthy to end up in Paradise after death, because he left no offspring on earth, but only soulless stone statues. Although there was an extraordinary woman in the life of a great genius - a muse and a lover.
Bringing creative projects to life, the master could spend years in quarries, where he selected suitable blocks of marble and laid roads for their transportation. Michelangelo tried to do everything with his own hands, he was an engineer, a laborer, and a stonemason.
The life path of the great Buonarroti was full of amazing labor feats that he performed, grieving and suffering, as if not by his own will, but forced by his genius. And distinguished by a sharp and extremely strong character, he had a will harder than granite itself.
Mike's childhood
In March 1475, the second son of five boys was born into the family of a poor nobleman. When Mika was 6 years old, his mother, exhausted by frequent pregnancies, died. And this tragedy left an indelible mark on the psychological state of the boy, which explained his isolation, irritability and unsociableness.https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/219410677.jpg" alt="Italian painting of 12-year-old Michelangelo: the earliest work." title="Italian painting of 12-year-old Michelangelo: the earliest work." border="0" vspace="5">!}
Having reached the age of 13, Mike told his father, who wanted to give his son a decent financial education, that he intended to study art.
And he had no choice but to send his son to study with the master Domenico Ghirlandaio.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0024.jpg" alt=" Madonna at the stairs. (1491). Author: Michelangelo Buonarroti." title="Madonna at the stairs. (1491).
Already in 1490, they began to talk about the exceptional talent of the still very young Michelangelo Buonarroti, and at that time he was only 15 years old. And two years later, the novice sculptor already had marble reliefs “Madonna at the Stairs” and “Battle of the Centaurs” on the account of the novice sculptor.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0022.jpg" alt="Statue of the prophet Moses, intended for one of the papal tombstones of the Vatican Cathedral." title="Statue of the prophet Moses, intended for one of the papal tombstones of the Vatican Cathedral." border="0" vspace="5">!}
The statues of Michelangelo, like titans, keeping their stone nature, have always been distinguished by solidity and at the same time elegance. The sculptor himself claimed that "Good is the sculpture that can be rolled down the mountain and not a single part of it will break off."
The only masterpiece of a genius with his autograph
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0010.jpg" alt="Fragment.
He made this signature in a fit of anger at the visitors of the temple, who attributed his creation to another sculptor. A little later, the master repented of his attack of pride and never signed any of his works again.
4 years of hard labor on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel
At 33, Michelangelo will begin his titanic work on the greatest achievement in the field of painting - the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The painting with a total area of 600 square meters was taken from the plots of the Old Testament: from the moment of the Creation of the world to the Flood.https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0011.jpg" alt="Michelangelo Buonarroti." title="Michelangelo Buonarroti." border="0" vspace="5">!}
At the end of the work, the master was practically blind from the fact that poisonous paint constantly dripped into his eyes during work, and its fumes completely undermined the health of the great master.
“After four tortured years, having made over 400 life-size figures, I felt so old and tired. I was only 37, and all my friends no longer recognized the old man that I had become..
The personal life of the artist, shrouded in secrets and conjectures.
There have always been many rumors around the personal life of the famous sculptor.Biographers stated that due to the fact that Michelangelo was deprived of maternal love, he did not develop relationships with women.
But he was credited with various close relationships with his sitters. In confirmation of the version of Michelangelo's homosexuality, only the fact that he had never been married spoke. He himself explained it as follows: “Art is jealous,” said Michelangelo, “and demands the whole person. I have a wife to whom I belong, and my children are my creations.
Some researchers believed that Michelangelo generally avoided physical sex, whether with women or men. Others considered him bisexual. However, as an artist, he preferred male nudity to female, and in his love sonnets, dedicated mainly to men, there are clearly homoerotic motifs.
The first mention of a romantic character will appear only when Michelangelo is already over fifty. Having met a young man named Tommaso de'Cavalieri, the master dedicates numerous love poems to him. But this fact is not reliable evidence of their intimate relationship, since divulging this to the whole world through love poetry was dangerous at that time even for Michelangelo, who in his youth was twice subjected to homosexual blackmail and learned caution.
But one thing is certain for sure, that these two people were connected by deep friendship and spiritual closeness until the death of the master. It was Tomasso who, until his last breath, sat at the bedside of his dying friend.
When the artist was already under 60, fate brought him together with a talented poetess named Vittoria Colonna, the granddaughter of the Duke of Urban and the widow of the famous commander Marquis Pescaro. Only this 47-year-old woman, distinguished by a strong masculine character and possessing an extraordinary mind and innate tact, was able to fully understand the state of mind of a lonely genius.
For ten years until her death, they constantly communicated, exchanged poems, and corresponded, which became a real monument of the historical era.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0029.jpg" alt=" Michelangelo at the tomb of Vittoria Colonna, kissing the hand of the deceased. Author: Francesco Jacovacci." title="Michelangelo at the tomb of Vittoria Colonna, kissing the hand of the deceased.
Her death was a heavy loss for the artist, who until the end of his days regretted that he kissed only the hand of his beautiful beloved, and he so wanted to kiss her on the lips, but he "не смел осквернить своим смрадным прикосновением её прекрасные и свежие черты". !}
He dedicated a posthumous sonnet to his beloved woman, which was the last in his poetic work.
Death of a genius
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0006.jpg" alt=" Buonarotti's tomb in Florence." title="Tomb of Buonarotti in Florence." border="0" vspace="5">!}
Michelangelo, during his lifetime, was revered by fans and enjoyed immense popularity, which many of his colleagues did not have.
So, the crown of creativity of the brilliant master of the Renaissance - reincarnated from a 5-meter block of spoiled marble into a masterpiece, glorified him throughout the world and is still considered one of the most famous and perfect works of art.
Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni (1475 - 1564) - the great Italian sculptor, artist, architect, poet, thinker. One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.
BIOGRAPHY OF MICELANGELO
One of the most famous sculptors, artists, poets, painters and architects of all time - Michelangelo Buonarotti was born on 03/06/1475 in the city of Caprese, where he studied in elementary grades, and upon graduation, in 1488, began to study sculpture, being a student of Bertoldo in the studio of the greatest painter History - Domenico Ghirlandaio.
The attention of Lorenzo Medici was attracted by the boy's talent, so he took him into his house and financially helped Michelangelo develop. When Lorenzo died, Buonarotti went to Bologna, where he erected a marble angel with a candelabra, as well as a statue for the church of St. Petronius. In 1494 he returned to Florence again. A new period of his work began, in which he boldly exaggerated the forms of nature in order to express his ideas and better convey the characters.
In 1503, Michelangelo was invited to Rome by Julius II to build a tombstone that Julius wanted to make for himself during his lifetime. The sculptor agreed and arrived. Two years later, Buonarotti considered that the pope's attention to him was not enough and, offended, returned to Florence.
In Rome, the artist was already in 1508, where he was again called by Julius II to continue the work he had begun, as well as to complete a new order - decorating the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace with fresco painting. Julius II died a couple of months after the completion of the painting of the Sistine ceiling.
The fall of Florence, which threatened Michelangelo with the danger of death, produced a serious shock in his soul, and also worsened his health. And being so unsociable and harsh, he became even more unsociable and gloomy, immersed entirely in his ideological world, which could not but affect the nature of his work.
In 1532, he received an invitation from the "new" pope to Rome to complete the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, depicting the "Last Judgment" on the altar wall, and the "Fall of Lucifer" on the opposite. Only the first was performed by Buonarotti in 1534-1541 without assistants.
Michelangelo's last works were frescoes in the chapel of the Vatican Palace. Buonarotti parted with sculpture a little later, his favorite industry in which he worked, being in old age.
The artist was engaged in architecture, living out his last years. He was appointed in 1546 as the chief architect of Peter's Cathedral, because Michelangelo was not only talented, but also experienced in building.
THE CREATIVITY OF MICELANGELO
The work of Michelangelo belongs to the era of the High Renaissance. Already in youthful works, such as the reliefs "Madonna at the Stairs", "Battle of the Centaurs" (both around 1490-1492), the main features of Michelangelo's art emerge: monumentality, plastic power and drama of images, reverence for the beauty of man. Fleeing from the civil unrest that arose as a result of the reign of Savonarola, Michelangelo moved from Florence to Venice, then to Rome.
Madonna at the Stairs Battle of the Centaurs Bacchus
During his five years in Rome, he produced the first of his famous works, including the Bacchus (1496-1497) and Pieta (1498-1501) sculptures in St. Peter's Basilica. In 1500, at the invitation of the citizens of Florence, Michelangelo returned in triumph to this city.
Soon at his disposal was a four-meter-high marble block, which had already been abandoned by two sculptors. For the next three years he worked selflessly, almost without leaving his workshop. In 1504, a monumental statue of a naked David appeared before the public.
In 1505, the power-hungry Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to return to Rome, ordering a tomb for himself. The sculptor worked for a whole year on a giant bronze statue, which was supposed to crown the monument, so that almost immediately after the end of the work he would become a witness of how his creation was melted down into cannons.
After the death of Julius II in 1513, his heirs insisted on the execution of another project for the tomb sculpture. This, including numerous alterations caused by the whims of customers, took 40 years of Michelangelo's life. As a result, he was forced to abandon the implementation of his plan, which included the erection of a tombstone as part of the internal architecture of St. Peter's Cathedral.
The colossal marble Moses and the statues known as "Slaves" have forever remained impressive parts of an unfinished whole.
According to contemporaries, Michelangelo was a closed and self-absorbed person, prone to sudden outbursts of violence. In private life he was almost an ascetic, he went to bed late and got up early. It was said that he often slept without even taking off his shoes.
In 1547, he received the post of chief architect for the reconstruction of St. Peter's and designed the huge dome, which to this day remains one of the greatest masterpieces of architecture.
Michelangelo was born into the family of the poorest Florentine nobleman Lodovico Buonarotti. Due to a lack of funds, the infant was given to another Topolino couple for maintenance. It was they who taught the future genius how to knead clay and work with a chisel before reading and writing. Michelangelo himself said to his friend Giorgio Vasari:
“If there is anything good in my talent, it is from the fact that I was born in the rarefied air of your Aretine land, and the chisels and the hammer with which I make my statues, I extracted from the statue of my nurse.”
Michelangelo created the famous statue of David from a piece of white marble that was left over from another sculptor. The valuable stone passed into other hands only because the previous owner was unable to complete the work from this piece, after which he abandoned it.
When Michelangelo finished his first "Pieta" and it was exhibited in St. Peter's Basilica, rumors reached the author that people's rumor attributed this work to another sculptor - Cristoforo Solari. Then Michelangelo carved on the belt of the Virgin Mary: "This was done by the Florentine Michelangelo Buonarotti." He later regretted this outburst of pride and never signed his sculptures again.
The great master often complained of losses and was considered a poor man. Throughout his life, the master saved literally on everything. There was practically no furniture and jewelry in his house. However, after the death of the sculptor, it turned out that Michelangelo had collected a fortune. The researchers calculated that in the modern equivalent, his fortune was equal to tens of millions of dollars.
In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo painted about a thousand square meters of the ceiling and the far walls of the chapel. It took the artist four years to paint the ceiling. During this time, the master's health deteriorated greatly - when working, a huge amount of paint fell into his lungs and eyes. Michelangelo worked without assistants, painted the ceiling for days, forgetting about sleep, and slept on the scaffolding without taking off his boots for weeks. But it was certainly worth the effort. Goethe wrote:
"Without seeing the Sistine Chapel, it's hard to get a visual idea of what one person can do."
In the winter of 1494, heavy snow fell in Florence. The ruler of the Republic of Florence, Piero de Medici, who went down in history under the name of Piero the Unlucky, summoned Michelangelo and ordered him to fashion a snow statue. The work was completed, and contemporaries noted its beauty, but no information has been preserved about what the snowman looked like or who he portrayed.
Michelangelo depicted Moses with horns on his sculpture. Many art historians attribute this to a misinterpretation of the Bible. The Book of Exodus says that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, it was difficult for the Israelites to look at his face. At this point in the Bible, a word is used that can be translated from Hebrew as both “rays” and “horns”. However, from the context, we can definitely say that we are talking about rays of light - that the face of Moses shone, and was not horned.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Somov A.I. Michelangelo Buonarroti // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
- Karel Schulz, "Stone and Pain" (text of the novel in the library of Alexander Belousenko)
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Whose work undoubtedly left a mark on history and influenced the development and formation of Western art. In the West, he is considered the greatest sculptor, and although he spoke not flatteringly about painting, his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the Last Judgment, and other works helped to establish him a place among the greatest artists. In addition, Michelangelo was one of the best architects of his time. This list of works included both sculptures and architectural projects, as well as paintings.
10 Iconic Works by Michelangelo
10. Madonna Doni.
Type: Tondo.
Year of writing: 1507.
Madonna Doni
Angelo Doni in the early 1500s gives the master an order to depict the “Family of Saints” in order to present it to his wife in the future. The master used a round frame (tondo) for the picture.
The Doni Madonna includes the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the Christ Child and John the Baptist. Behind are five nude male figures.
9. Bacchus.
Type: Marble statue.
Year of creation: 1497.
This statue was completed by the sculptor at the age of 22. The famous work depicts the Roman god of wine, Bacchus, holding a glass of wine in his right hand and a tiger skin in his left. Behind him sits a faun eating a bunch of grapes. "Bacchus" is one of two surviving sculptures from the early period of Michelangelo's work in Rome.
8. Madonna of Bruges.
Type: Marble statue.
Year of creation: 1504.
Madonna of Bruges
"Madonna of Bruges" depicts Mary with the baby Jesus. In this sculpture, Michelangelo does not adhere to the traditions of depicting this composition. The face of the virgin is removed, she does not look at Christ, as if she knows his future. At this time, the baby, without maternal support, departs into the world.
7. Laurentian Library.
Type: Architecture.
Year of creation: 1559.
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library was designed by Michelangelo in 1524 for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence (Italy). The entire construction, including the interior of the premises, was developed by the master in an innovative, at that time, Mannerist style.
This work is one of the most important architectural achievements of Michelangelo. It is characterized by innovation and revolutionary ways of using space.
6. Moses.
Type: Marble statue.
Year of creation: 1515.
In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to work on his tomb. The statue is located in Rome (Church of San Pietro in Vincoli). There is a legend that when the work was completed, Michelangelo hit the right knee of the sculpture with a hammer, as she began to speak, he was so realistic.
Type: Marble statue.
Year of creation: 1499.
The pieta depicts the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, which lies on her lap. The statue is not based on real biblical stories, but still gained popularity in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages.
Buonarroti was only 24 years old when he completed what is now considered one of the world's greatest masterpieces of sculpture.
4. The Last Judgment.
Type: fresco painting.
Year of creation: 1541.
Last Judgment
In Western art, The Last Judgment is one of the most significant works. Painted on the altar wall of the chapel, it demonstrates the second coming of Christ to earth. Jesus is shown in the center and surrounded by eminent saints who have risen from the dead.
Type: Architecture.
Year of issue: 1626.
Located in the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica is the most famous piece of Renaissance architecture. Many famous masters worked on the creation (including Antonio da Sangallo). Although Michelangelo did not create it from scratch, the cathedral has come down to our time in the form in which Buonarroti was conceived.
2. Creation of Adam.
Type: fresco painting.
Year of creation: 1512.
The cornerstone of Renaissance painting, The Creation of Adam, is located on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which spawned a number of followers and a large number of parodies.
1. David.
Type: Marble statue.
Year of creation: 1504.
Probably the most famous work of Michelangelo is the masterpiece sculpture of the biblical character David, who is ready to fight Goliath. The theme of David and Goliath was quite popular in the art of that time. Caravaggio, for example, has three works dedicated to this subject.
The colossal statue, 5.17 meters high, demonstrates Michelangelo's exceptional technical skills as well as the power of symbolic imagination.
10 Iconic Works by Michelangelo updated: October 2, 2017 by: Gleb
