In the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1489-1492)
J. Vasari. Portrait Lorenzo Medici. Florence, Uffizi Gallery
"And deciding to help Michelangelo and take him under his protection, he sent for his father Lodovico and informed him about this, declaring that he would treat Michelangelo as his own son, to which he willingly agreed. After which the Magnificent took him a room in own house and ordered him to be served, so he always sat at the table with his sons and other worthy and noble persons who were with the Magnificent, who did him this honor; and all this happened in the next year after his admission to Domenico, when Michelangelo was in his fifteenth or sixteenth year, and he spent four years in this house, until the death of the Magnificent Lorenzo, which followed in 1492. All this time, Michelangelo received from the signor of this content to support his father in the amount of five ducats a month, and in order to please him, the signor gave him a red cloak, and arranged his father in customs "Vasari
The early manifestation of the great talent of the sculptor gives Michelangelo access to the court of Lorenzo Medici, one of the most brilliant and major centers Italian culture of the Renaissance. The ruler of Florence managed to attract such famous philosophers, poets, artists, like Pico della Mirandola, head of the Neoplatonist school Marsilio Ficino, poet Angelo Poliziano, painter Sandro Botticelli. There Michelangelo had the opportunity to meet the young representatives of the Medici family, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII).
Giovanni de' Medici subsequently became Pope Leo X. Although he was only a teenager at the time, he had already been appointed a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Michelangelo also met with Giuliano de' Medici. Decades later, already a renowned sculptor, Michelangelo worked on his tomb.
At the court of the Medici, Michelangelo becomes his own man, and falls into the circle of enlightened poets and humanists. Lorenzo himself was an excellent poet. The ideas of the Platonic Academy, created under the auspices of Lorenzo, had a huge impact on the formation of the worldview of the young sculptor. He was carried away by the search for the perfect form - the main, according to the Neoplatonists, the task of art.
Some of the main ideas of the Lorenzo Medici circle served as a source of inspiration and torment for Michelangelo in his later life, in particular the contradiction between Christian piety and pagan sensuality. It was believed that pagan philosophy and Christian dogmas could be reconciled (this is reflected in the title of one of Ficino's books - "Plato's Theology on the Immortality of the Soul"); that all knowledge, if rightly understood, is the key to divine truth. Physical beauty, embodied in the human body, is an earthly manifestation of spiritual beauty. Bodily beauty can be glorified, but this is not enough, for the body is the prison of the soul, which seeks to return to its Creator, but can only do this in death. According to Pico della Mirandola, during life a person has free will: he can ascend to the angels or plunge into an unconscious animal state. The young Michelangelo was influenced by the optimistic philosophy of humanism and believed in the limitless possibilities of man. In the luxurious chambers of the Medici, in the atmosphere of the newly opened Platonic Academy, in communication with such people as Angelo Poliziano and Pico Mirandolsky, the boy turned into a young man, matured with intelligence and talent.
Michelangelo's perception of reality as spirit embodied in matter undoubtedly goes back to the Neoplatonists. For him, sculpture was the art of "isolating" or freeing a figure encased in a block of stone. It is possible that some of his most striking and impactful works, which seem "unfinished", could have been deliberately left as such, because it was at this stage of "liberation" that the form most adequately embodied the artist's intention.
Surrounded by luxury beautiful pictures and sculptures, in the graceful interiors of the Medici Palace, having access to the richest collection of monuments of ancient culture - coins, medallions, ivory cameos, jewelry - Michelangelo received the foundations of fine art. Probably, it was during this period that he chose sculpture as the business of his life. Having joined the high refined culture of the court of Lorenzo Medici, imbued with the ideas of the advanced thinkers of that time, having mastered the ancient tradition and high skill of his immediate predecessors, Michelangelo set about independent creativity, starting work on sculptures for the Medici collection.
Early work (1489-1492)
“Let us return, however, to the garden of the Magnificent Lorenzo: this garden was full of antiquities and highly decorated with excellent paintings, and all this was collected in this place for beauty, for study and for pleasure, and the keys to it were always kept by Michelangelo, who far surpassed others in solicitude. in all his actions and always with lively perseverance showed his readiness. For several months he copied the paintings of Masaccio in Carmine, reproducing these works so well that both artists and non-artists were amazed, and envy for him grew along with his fame " Vasari
At the court of Lorenzo Medici, the Magnificent Lorenzo, surrounded talented people, humanist thinkers, poets, artists, under the auspices of a generous and attentive nobleman, in the palace, where art became a cult, Michelangelo's main vocation was opened - sculpture. His earliest works in this art form reveal the true extent of his talent. Created by a sixteen-year-old boy, small relief compositions and statues based on the study of nature, but executed in a completely antique spirit, imbued with classical beauty and nobility:
- head of a laughing faun(1489, the statue has not survived),
- bas-relief "Madonna at the stairs", or "Madonna della Scala"(1490-1492, Buonarotti Palace, Florence),
- bas-relief "Battle of the centaurs"(c. 1492, Buonarroti Palace, Florence),
-"Hercules"(1492, the statue has not been preserved),
- wooden crucifix(c. 1492, church of Santo Spirito, Florence).
"Madonna at the stairs" marble bas-relief (1490-1492)
Michelangelo, Madonna at the Stairs, c. 1490 -1491 Italian. Madonna della Scala marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy
Marble bas-relief. Fragment. 1490-1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum
“The same Lionardo several years ago kept in his house in memory of his uncle a bas-relief with the Mother of God, carved out of marble by Michelangelo himself, a little more than an elbow high; in it, he, being a young man at that time, and having decided to reproduce the style of Donatello, did it so successfully, as if you see the hand of that master, but there is even more grace and drawing here. Lionardo then presented this work to Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who reveres it as the only thing of its kind, for there was no other bas-relief, except for this sculpture, by Michelangelo's hand. "Vasari
At the beginning of his career, Michelangelo acts primarily as a sculptor. Already the first works testify to his originality and are marked by the features of the new, what his teachers could not give him: the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo. His first relief Madonna at the Stairs (1489-1492, Florence, Buonarroti Museum), carved by him in marble when he was barely sixteen years old, differs from the works of his predecessors by the plastic power of images, emphasized by the seriousness of the interpretation of hundreds of times used theme.
“Madonna at the Stairs” is made in the technique of low, finely nuanced relief, traditional for Italian sculptors of the 15th century, reminiscent of Donatello’s reliefs, with which he is related by the presence of babies (putti) depicted on the upper steps of the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs sits a Madonna with a baby in her arms (hence the name of the relief). The subtle gradation of the molding of the forms of this three-dimensional relief gives it a picturesque character, as if emphasizing the connection of this type of sculpture with painting. If we take into account the fact that Michelangelo began his studies with a painter, then it becomes clearer why he initially turned to this particular type of sculpture and its corresponding interpretation. But the young Michelangelo, however, gives an example of the performance of a non-traditional image: the Madonna and the Christ Child are endowed with power and inner drama unusual for Quattrocento art.
The main place in the relief belongs to the Madonna, majestic and serious. Its image is associated with the tradition of ancient Roman art. However, her special concentration, a strong-sounding heroic note, the contrast of powerful arms and legs with the grace and freedom of interpretation of the picturesquely melodious folds of her long robe, the baby in her arms, amazing in childish strength - all this comes from Michelangelo himself. The special compactness, density, balance of composition found here, the skillful comparison of volumes and forms of various sizes and interpretations, the accuracy of the drawing, the correctness of the construction of figures, the subtlety of the processing of details anticipate his subsequent works. There is another feature in Madonna at the Stairs that will characterize many of the artist's works in the future - a huge inner fullness, concentration, the beating of life with external calmness.
Madonnas of the 15th century are pretty and somewhat sentimental. Michelangelo's Madonna is tragically thoughtful, self-absorbed, she is not a pampered patrician and not even a young mother touching in her love for the baby, but a stern and majestic maiden who is aware of her glory and knows about the tragic test prepared for her.
Michelangelo sculpted Mary when she, holding a child at her breast, had to decide the future - the future for herself, for the baby, for the world. The entire left side of the bas-relief is occupied by heavy stair steps. Maria is sitting in profile on a bench to the right of the stairs: a wide stone balustrade seems to break off somewhere behind Maria's right hip, at the feet of her child. The viewer, looking at the thoughtful and tense face of the Mother of God, cannot but feel what decisive moments she is going through, holding Jesus at her chest and, as if weighing in her palm the whole weight of the cross on which her son was destined to be crucified.
The Virgin, known as the Madonna della Scala, is now in the Buonarroti Museum in Florence.
Bas-relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (c. 1492)
Michelangelo. Battle of the Centaurs, 1492 Italian. Battaglia dei centauri, marble. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy
Marble bas-relief. Fragment. OK. 1492. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Florence, Buonarroti Museum
“At this very time, on the advice of Poliziano, a man of extraordinary learning, Michelangelo, on a piece of marble received from his signor, carved the battle of Hercules with the centaurs, so beautiful that sometimes, looking at it now, you can take it for the work of not a young man, but a master highly valued and tested in the theory and practice of this art. Now it is kept in memory of him in the house of his nephew Leonardo, as a rare thing, which it is "Vasari
The marble relief "Battle of the Centaurs" (Florence, Buonarroti Palace) (or "Battle of the Centaurs with the Lapiths") was carved in the form of a Roman sarcophagus from Carrian marble by the young Michelangelo for his noble patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, but probably because of whose death in 1492, and remained unfinished.
The bas-relief depicts a scene from Greek myth about the battle of the people of the Lapiths with the semi-animal centaurs who attacked them during the wedding feast. According to another version, the scene depicts one of the episodes of ancient mythology - the battle of the centaurs, the abduction of Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, or the battle of Hercules with the centaurs. This work clearly shows the master's study of ancient Roman sarcophagi, as well as the influence of the work of such masters as Bertoldo, Pollailo and Pisani.
The plot was suggested by Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494), the closest friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Its meaning is the victory of civilization over barbarism. According to the myth, the Lapiths won, but in Michelangelo's interpretation, the outcome of the battle is unclear.
About two dozen naked figures of Greek warriors fighting with mythical centaurs protrude from the flat surface of the marble. In this early work the young master was reflected in his passion for depicting the human body. The sculptor created compact and tense masses of naked bodies, demonstrating a virtuoso skill in conveying movement through the play of light and shadow. Cutter marks and jagged edges remind us of the stone from which the figures are made. This relief gives the impression of a truly explosive force, it amazes with its powerful dynamics, violent movement that permeates the entire composition, and the richness of plasticity. In this high relief there is nothing of the graphic quality of a three-dimensional construction. It is solved by purely plastic means and anticipates the other side of Michelangelo's subsequent creations - his indestructible striving to reveal the whole diversity and richness of plasticity, the movements of the human body. It was with this relief that the young sculptor declared with all his might the innovation of his method. And if in the theme of the "Battle of the Centaurs" there is a connection between Michelangelo's art and one of its sources - ancient plastic art and, in particular, with the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then new aspirations are clearly expressed in the interpretation of the topic. Michelangelo takes up little of the moment of narrative, of the story so detailed in the Roman masters. The main thing for the sculptor is the opportunity to show the heroism of a person who reveals his spiritual power and physical strength in battle.
In a tangle of bodies intertwined in mortal combat, we find Michelangelo's first, but already surprisingly broad embodiment of the main theme of his work, the theme of struggle, understood as one of the eternal manifestations of being. The figures of the fighters filled the entire field of relief, surprising in its plastic and dramatic integrity. Among the tangle of combatants stand out individual perfectly beautiful naked figures, modeled with accurate knowledge human anatomy. Some of them are brought to the fore and are given in high relief, approaching a round sculpture. This allows you to select multiple viewpoints. Others are relegated to the background, their relief is lower and emphasizes the overall spatiality of the solution. The deep shadows contrast with the midtones and brightly lit raised areas of the relief, which gives the image a lively and extremely dynamic character. Some incompleteness of individual parts of the relief enhances, in contrast, the expressiveness of the fragments, finished with all care and subtlety. The features of monumentality that emerged in this relatively small work anticipate the further conquests of Michelangelo in this area.
"The warrior second from the left is preparing to throw a huge stone with his right hand. The blow can be addressed to the one who is in the center, in the top row, and at the same time, his posture and turn of the body are opposed to the warrior, standing with his back to the viewer and pulling the stubborn enemy by the right hand hair. He, in turn, is preparing to be hit by a man supporting his comrade with his left hand. They form the next counterpoint. From this pair, a transition suggests itself to an old man on the left, pushing a stone with both hands, and to a young warrior at the left edge of the bas-relief - he grabbed behind the back of someone's neck. It is remarkable that any fragment simultaneously participates in several oppositions at once: this achieves a through consistency of all contrapostas, facilitating the perception of the whole. , but more expressively unfolds from the central group.Thus, in the bas-relief there is both the equality of all those participating in the battle, causing some discord, and at the same time an unobtrusive, rather even potential, hierarchy of mise en scenes, indicating the habit of order thinking. A poignant composition, containing the idea of an order, Michelangelo had nowhere and no one to borrow from. Here everything had to be done for the first time and by myself, but this does not mean timidly or ineptly "V. I. Loktev
Researchers are still arguing about exactly which episode of ancient mythology was reproduced by the young master, and this plot ambiguity itself confirms that the goal he set for himself was not to follow a certain narrative exactly, but to create an image of a broader plan. Many figures in relief, their dramatic meaning and sculptural interpretation, as if in a sudden revelation, foreshadow the motives of Michelangelo's future works, the plastic language of the relief, with its freedom and energy, generating associations with violently iridescent lava, reveals similarities with Michelangelo's sculptural style of much later years. The freshness and fullness of the worldview, the swiftness of the rhythm give the relief an irresistible charm and originality. No wonder Condivi testifies that Michelangelo in his old age, looking at this relief, said that he “realizes the mistake he made by not surrendering entirely to sculpture” (Correspondence of Michelangelo Buonarroti and the life of the master, written by his student Ascanio Condivi).
But, ahead of his time in the "Battle of the Centaurs", Michelangelo pulled too far ahead. With this bold breakthrough into the future, years of slower and more consistent creative development, in-depth interest in the great heritage of ancient and Renaissance art, and accumulation of experience in line with various, sometimes very contradictory traditions, were bound to come. Later, the master worked on a similar multi-figure battle composition “The Battle of Kashin” (1501-1504), a copy of the cardboard he created has survived to this day.
The study of anatomy. Statue "Hercules" (1492)
“After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Michelangelo returned to his father's house, infinitely saddened by the death of such a man, a friend of all talents. It was then that Michelangelo acquired a large block of marble in which he carved Hercules, four cubits high, who stood for many years in the Palazzo Strozzi and was considered a wonderful creation, and then in the year of the siege of Hercules this was sent by Giovanbattista della Palla to France to King Francis. They say that Piero dei Medici, for a long time who used his services when he became the heir of his father Lorenzo, often sent for Michelangelo when buying ancient cameos and other carvings, and one winter, when it was snowing heavily in Florence, ordered him to fashion a statue of snow in his courtyard, which turned out to be most beautiful, and revered Michelangelo for his virtues to such an extent that the father of the latter, noticing that his son was valued on an equal footing with the nobles, began to dress him more magnificently than usual ”Vasari
In 1492 Lorenzo died and Michelangelo left his house. When Lorenzo died, Michelangelo was seventeen years old. He conceived and executed a statue of Hercules larger than the height of a man, in which his powerful talent was manifested. This was the first, complete attempt of a genius who aspired to express heroic ideas in art.
Michelangelo almost did not know the entertainment of a youth of his age, working on a statue of Hercules, he continued to study at the same time. Michelangelo studied anatomy on cadavers, with the permission of the Prior of the Santo Spirito Hospital. According to prof. S. Stama, Michelangelo began to dissect corpses from about 1493. In one of the remote halls of the monastery of Santo Spirito, he spent the night alone, by the light of a lamp, dissecting corpses with an anatomical knife. Giving various positions to parts of the body and muscles, he studied the sizes and proportions and carefully trimmed the drawings, thus replacing dead body living nature. Creating a living image, he seemed to see through the skin, fitting the body, the whole mechanism of these movements.
The master retained his passion for anatomy for the rest of his life. The famous anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1515-1564) testified that Michelangelo was about to write an unusual anatomical treatise. An unwritten anatomy, about which Michelangelo said that it would be unlike the past, would become a textbook for a new compositional manner.
Unfortunately, "Hercules" has not been preserved (it is depicted on the engraving of Israel Sylvester "Courtyard of the Castle of Fontainebleau"). The snow figure was made on January 20, 1494.
Wooden crucifix (1492)
Michelangelo Crucifixion of the Church of Santo Spirito, 1492 Italian. Crocifisso di Santo Spirito, wood, polychrome. Height: 142 cm, Santo Spirito, Florence
Fragment. 1492 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of Santo Spirito, Florence
“For the church of Santo Spirito in the city of Florence, he made a wooden crucifix, placed and still standing over the semicircle of the high altar with the consent of the prior, who provided him with a room where, often dissecting corpses to study anatomy, he began to perfect that great art of drawing, which he acquired afterwards" Vasari
For many years, the work was considered lost until it was discovered in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito. Quite unusual for our ideas about Michelangelo was the wooden polychrome crucifix of the sacristy in the church of Santo Spirito, known from sources, but only recently identified. The crucifix was created by a young 17-year-old master for the prior of the church, who patronized him.
Probably, the young master could follow the type of crucifixion common in Italy in the 15th century, dating back to the times of the Gothic and therefore falling out of the circle of the most advanced searches for sculpture of the end of the Quattrocento. The head of Christ with closed eyes is lowered to the chest, the rhythm of the body is determined by crossed legs. The head and legs of the figure are located in contrapost, the face of the Savior is given a soft expression, fragility and passivity are felt in the body. The subtlety of this work distinguishes it from the power of the marble relief figures. Among the works of Michelangelo that have come down to us, there are no similar works.
Already in these early works of Michelangelo one can feel the originality and strength of his talent. Performed by a 15-17-year-old artist, they not only seem completely mature, but also truly innovative for their time. In these youthful works, the main features of Michelangelo's work emerge - an attraction to monumental enlargement of forms, monumentality, plastic power and drama of images, reverence for the beauty of man, they show the presence of young Michelangelo's own sculptural style. Here we have ideal images of the mature Renaissance, built both on the study of antiquity and on the traditions of Donatello and his followers.
Along with sculpture, Michelangelo did not stop studying painting, mostly monumental, as evidenced by his drawings from Giotto's frescoes. Along the way, independent motifs appear in Michelangelo's graphics. A fifteen-year-old boy was convinced that it was impossible to draw, let alone create a sculpture, looking at a person only from the outside. He was the first sculptor who decided to study internal structure human body. It was strictly forbidden, so he even had to proceed with the law. He secretly, at night, entered the mortuary, located at the monastery, opened the bodies of the dead, studied anatomy in order to show people all the perfection of the human body in his drawings and in marble.
The death in 1491 of Bertoldo, and in the next - of Lorenzo Medici, seemed to complete the four-year period of Michelangelo's study in the Medici gardens. The independent creative path of the artist begins, which, however, became apparent already in the years of study, when he performed his first works, marked by features of a bright individuality. These early works of his testify to the qualitative shift that occurred in Italian sculpture- about the transition from the Early to the High Renaissance.
Bologna (1494-1495)
Michelangelo's patron and regular customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent, died in 1492. Lorenzo Medici was a strong, charismatic ruler, a successful leader. His son Piero, who inherited his father's empire, lacked these character traits. Within a few months, he completely lost influence. The life of a young sculptor has changed significantly since then. He had to leave beautiful Florence and go into exile.
After the death of Lorenzo Medici, due to the danger of the French invasion, the artist moved to Bologna for a while, following the remnants of the great Medici family. In Bologna, Michelangelo studies the works of Dante and Petrarch, under the influence of whose canzones he begins to create his first poems. Strong impression produced on him the reliefs of the church of San Petronio, executed by Jacopo della Quercia. Here, Michelangelo made three small statues for the tomb of St. Dominic, work on which was interrupted due to the death of the sculptor who started it.
After some time, Michelangelo moved to Venice. He lives in Venice until 1494, and then moves again to Bologna.
“A few weeks before the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Michelangelo went to Bologna, and then to Venice, fearing, due to his proximity to this family, that no trouble would happen to him, since he also saw the licentiousness and bad rule of Piero dei Medici. Unable to find employment in Venice, he returned to Bologna, where, due to an oversight, misfortune befell him: when entering the gate, he did not take back the exit certificate, about which, for safety, an order was issued by Messer Giovanni Bentivogli, which stated that foreigners should not having certificates are subject to a fine of 50 Bologna lire. Michelangelo, who got into such trouble, who had nothing to pay, accidentally drew the attention of Messer Francesco Aldovrandi, one of the sixteen rulers of the city. When he was told what had happened, he, taking pity on Michelangelo, released him, and he lived with him for more than a year. Somehow Aldovrandi went with him to look at the shrine of St. Dominic, on which, as was said earlier, the old sculptors worked: Giovanni Pisano, and after him the master Nicola d "Arca. There were two figures missing about an elbow high: an angel carrying a candlestick and St. Petronius and Aldovrandi asked if Michelangelo would dare to make them, to which he answered in the affirmative. And indeed, having received the marble, he executed them so that they became the best figures there, for which Messer Francesco Aldovrandi ordered to pay him thirty ducats Michelangelo spent a little more than a year in Bologna and would have stayed there longer: such was the courtesy of Aldovrandi, who fell in love with him both for drawing and because, as a Tuscan, he liked the pronunciation of Michelangelo and listened with pleasure as he read him the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and other Tuscan poets" Vasari
Michelangelo tries his hand at different creative tasks, in addition to the already existing sculptural ensemble of Benedetto da Maiano, the tombstone of St. Dominic in the church of San Domenico in Bologna, for which he created small marble statues:
St. Proclus (1494) and St. Petronius (1494)
Marble. 1494 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Angel holding a candelabra (1494-1495) for the altar of the chapel
Marble. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Marble. Fragment. 1494-1495 Michelangelo Buonarroti. Church of San Domenico, Bologna
Their images are fulfilled inner life and bear a clear imprint of the individuality of their creator. The figure of a kneeling angel is very natural and beautiful, precisely designed to be viewed from a certain point of view. With simple economical gestures, he clasps the carved stand of the candelabra, a spacious robe wraps around his bowed legs in voluminous folds. With the prettiness of the features and the detached expression of the face, the angel resembles an antique statue.
Inscribed in the previously created tomb ensemble, these statues did not violate its harmony. In the statues of St. Petronius and St. Proclus, the influence of the work of Donatello, Masaccio and Jacopo della Quercia is clearly traced. They can be compared with the statues of saints in the outer niches of the facade of the Church of Or San Michele in Florence, created in the early period of Donatello's work, which Michelangelo could freely study in his native city.
First return to Florence
By the end of 1495, despite the rather good living conditions and the first completed successful orders in Bologna, Michelangelo nevertheless decided to return to Florence. However, the city of childhood has become unkind to the ministers of art. The accusatory sermons of the stern ascetic monk Savonarola slowly but steadily changed the worldview of the Florentines. In the squares of the city, where until recently talented artists, poets, philosophers, architects were praised, bonfires blazed, in which books and paintings were burned. Already Sandro Botticelli, succumbing to the general disgust for the ingeniously beautiful, but defiled by sinful idolatry, throws his masterpieces into the fire with his own hands. According to the teachings of the fiery monk, the masters had to create works of exclusively religious content. Under such conditions, the young sculptor could not stay for a long time, his imminent departure was inevitable.
“... he returned with pleasure to Florence, where for Lorenzo, the son of Pierfrancesco dei Medici, he carved St. John from marble as a child and immediately from another piece of marble of a sleeping Cupid of natural size, and when it was completed, through Baldassarre del Milanese his , as a beautiful thing, they showed Pierfrancesco, who agreed with this and said to Michelangelo: “If you bury it in the ground and then send it to Rome, forging it as an old one, I’m sure that it will pass for an ancient one there and you will get much more for it, than if you sell it here." They say that Michelangelo finished it so that it looked ancient, which is nothing to be surprised at, for he had the talent to do both this and the best. Others claim that Milanese took it to Rome and buried it in one of his vineyards, and then sold it as an ancient cardinal to St. George for two hundred ducats. It is also said that he was sold by someone who acted for Milanese and wrote Pierfrancesco, deceiving the cardinal, Pierfrancesco and Michelangelo, that Michelangelo should have given thirty scudos, since there was supposedly no more for Cupid. However, later it was learned from eyewitnesses that Cupid was made in Florence, and the cardinal, finding out the truth through his messenger, ensured that the man who acted for Milanese accepted Cupid back, who then fell into the hands of Duke Valentino, who presented him to the Marquise Mantua, who sent him to their possessions, where he is now. The whole story served as a reproach to Cardinal St. George, who did not appreciate the dignity of the work, namely its perfection, for new things are the same as ancient ones, if only they were excellent, and he who pursues more for the name than for quality , shows by this only his vanity, people of this kind, who attach more importance to appearances than to essences, are found at all times ”Vasari
Both statues - "Cupid" and "St. John" - did not survive.
In April or May 1496, Michelangelo finished Cupid and, following the advice, gave it the appearance of an ancient Greek work, and sold it to Rome to Cardinal Riario, who, being sure that he was acquiring antiques, paid 200 ducats. An intermediary in Rome deceived Michelangelo and paid him only 30 ducats. Upon learning of the forgery, the cardinal sent his man, who found Michelangelo and invited him to Rome. He agreed and on June 25, 1496 entered the "eternal city".
3. First Roman period (1496-1501)
“... Michelangelo's fame became such that he was immediately summoned to Rome, where, by agreement with Cardinal St. George stayed with him for about a year, but did not receive any orders from him, since he knew little about these arts. At that very time, the cardinal's barber, who was also a painter and very diligently painted in tempera, made friends with Michelangelo, but he did not know how to draw. And Michelangelo made for him a cardboard depicting St. Francis receiving the stigmata, and the barber executed it very diligently with paints on a small board, and this painting is now in the first chapel of the church of San Pietro a Montorio, on the left hand of the entrance. What were the abilities of Michelangelo, Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a gifted man, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus, perfectly understood after this ... that both his lofty thoughts and the difficult manner that he applied with the lightest ease seemed incredible, frightening both those who were unaccustomed to such things, and those who were accustomed to good things; after all, everything that was created before seemed insignificant in comparison with his things ”Vasari
In 1496 Michelangelo went to Rome with letter of recommendation Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, addressed to the cardinal patron Rafael Riario, who enjoyed considerable influence among the Roman clergy. Like Lorenzo de' Medici, the cardinal was an avid admirer of ancient art and owned an extensive collection of ancient sculptures.
Michelangelo entered Rome at the age of 21. Rome has been the center of life for many people living in northern Italy. It was also the religious center of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope lived there in a church complex called the Vatican. Many of the great masterpieces of Renaissance art were created in Rome, in particular by order of the pope or other important ecclesiastical persons. For the work of Michelangelo in Rome, new opportunities opened up, however, there were also limitations. The free-thinking young man did not want to limit himself to only religious art, whose works should express religious ideas and aspirations, whose task, in the end, is the renewal and reinforcement of religious beliefs. Michelangelo, on the other hand, felt closer to God, being in the process of creating, creating magnificent statues that reflect the beauty of the human body.
For the painter and sculptor, Rome was particularly interested in the ancient works of art that adorned the city and enriched it more than ever during the time of Michelangelo and Raphael through excavations. Going beyond the Florentine artistic environment and closer contact with the ancient tradition contributed to the expansion of the horizons of the young master, the enlargement of the scale of his artistic thinking. Not carried away to self-forgetfulness by ancient labels, he nevertheless carefully studied everything worthy of attention, which became one of the sources of his rich plasticity. Ingenious flair Great master deeply aware of the difference in the direction of ancient art and contemporary art. The ancients saw the naked body everywhere and everywhere; in the Renaissance, the beauty of the body again came to the fore as an element necessary in art.
With a trip to Rome and work there, a new stage in the work of Michelangelo opens. His works of this early Roman period are marked by a new scale, scope, and rise to the heights of mastery. Buonarroti's first stay in Rome lasted five years, and in the late 1490s he created two major works:
- statue of Bacchus(1496-1497, National Museum, Florence), paying a kind of tribute to the passion for ancient monuments,
- group "Lamentation of Christ", or "Pieta"(1498-1501, St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome), where he puts a new, humanistic content into the traditional Gothic scheme, expressing the sorrow of the young and beautiful woman about the dead son
and not saved:
- cardboard "St. Francis" (1496-1497) ,
- statue of Cupid(1496-1497).
Rome is full of ancient monuments. In its very center and now there is a kind of open-air museum - the ruins of a huge ensemble of ancient Roman forums. Many individual architectural monuments and sculptures of antiquity adorn the squares of the city and its museums.
A visit to Rome, contact with ancient culture, the monuments of which Michelangelo admired in the Medici collection in Florence, the discovery famous monument antiquity - the statue of Apollo (later called the Belvedere, in the place where the statue was exhibited for the first time), which coincided with his arrival in Rome - all this helped Michelangelo to more deeply and deeply appreciate ancient plastic. Having creatively mastered the achievements of ancient masters, sculptors of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, Michelangelo revealed his masterpieces to the world. A generalized image of an ideally beautiful person, found antique art, he endowed with individual character traits, revealing the complexity of the inner world, mental life person.
Intoxicated Bacchus (1496-1498)
Michelangelo traveled to Rome where he was able to explore the many recently unearthed ancient statues and ruins. Soon he created his first large-scale sculpture - "Bacchus" more than life size (1496-1498, Bargello National Museum, Florence). This statue of the Roman god of wine, created in the city - the center of the Catholic Church, on a pagan, and not on a Christian plot, competed with antique sculpture- the most high degree praise in Renaissance Rome.
Bacchus and fragment of Satyr
Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Museum of the Bargello, Florence
Fragment. Marble. 1496-1498 Michelangelo Buonarroti. National Museum of the Bargello, Florence
Michelangelo showed the finished statue of Bacchus to Cardinal Riario, but he was restrained and did not express much enthusiasm for the work of the young sculptor. Probably, the circle of his hobbies was limited to ancient Roman art, and therefore the works of his contemporaries were not of particular interest. However, other connoisseurs had a different opinion, and the statue by Michelangelo was generally highly appreciated. The Roman banker Jacopo Galli, who adorned his garden with a collection of Roman statues, and a collector as passionate as Cardinal Riario, acquired a statue of Bacchus. In the future, acquaintance with the banker played big role in the career of Michelangelo. With his mediation, the sculptor made acquaintance with the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fezanzac, from whom he received an important order.
"What were the abilities of Michelangelo, then perfectly understood Messer Jacopo Galli, a Roman nobleman, a man of gifts, who ordered him a marble Cupid of natural size, and then a statue of Bacchus, ten palm trees high, holding a bowl in his right hand, and a tiger skin and grapes in his left a brush towards which a small satyr reaches.From this statue one can understand that he wanted to achieve a certain combination of marvelous members of his body, in particular giving them both the youthful flexibility characteristic of a man, and the female fleshiness and roundness: one has to wonder what he is in statues showed his superiority over all the new masters who worked before him "Vasari
Bacchus (Greek), aka Bacchus (Lat.), or Dionysus - the patron saint of winegrowers and winemaking in Greek mythology, in ancient times he was revered in cities and villages, arranged in honor of him happy holidays(hence the orgy).
Michelangelo's Bacchus is very convincing. Bacchus is represented by the sculptor as a naked young man with a cup of wine in his hand. The human-sized statue of an intoxicated Bacchus is intended for a circular view. His posture is unstable. Bacchus seems to be ready to fall forward, but maintains his balance by leaning back; his eyes are fixed on the cup of wine. The musculature of the back looks firm, but the relaxed muscles of the abdomen and thighs show physical, and therefore spiritual, weakness. The lowered left hand holds the skin and grapes. The drunken god of wine is accompanied by a small satyr who regales himself with a bunch of grapes.
Like the "Battle of the Centaurs", "Bacchus" thematically directly connects Michelangelo with ancient mythology, with its life-affirming clear images. And if the “Battle of the Centaurs” is closer in character to the reliefs of ancient Roman sarcophagi, then in staging the “Bacchus” figure, the principle found by ancient Greek sculptors, in particular Lysippus, who was interested in the problem of transferring unstable movement, was used. But as in the "Battle of the Centaurs", Michelangelo gave here his implementation of the theme. In Bacchus, instability is perceived differently than in the plastic art of the ancient sculptor. This is not a momentary respite after a strenuous movement, but a prolonged state caused by intoxication, when the muscles are limply relaxed.
The image of a small goat-legged satire accompanying Bacchus is noteworthy. Carefree, cheerfully smiling, he steals grapes from Bacchus. The motif of laid-back fun that permeates this sculptural group is an exceptional phenomenon in Michelangelo. Throughout his long creative life, he never returned to it again.
The sculptor achieved a difficult task: to create an impression of instability without a compositional imbalance that could disrupt the aesthetic effect. The young sculptor masterfully coped with the purely technical difficulties of staging a large marble figure. Like the ancient masters, he introduced a support - a marble stump, on which he planted a satirenka, thus beating this technical detail compositionally and in meaning.
The impression of completeness of the statue is given by the processing and polishing of the marble surface, the careful execution of every detail. And although "Bacchus" does not belong to the highest achievements of the sculptor and, perhaps less than his other works, is marked by the stamp of the creator's individuality, it nevertheless testifies to his commitment to ancient images, the depiction of a naked body, as well as to the increased technical skill.
"Lamentation of Christ", or "Pieta" (c. 1498-1500)
Arriving in Rome in 1496, two years later Michelangelo received an order for a statue of the Virgin and Christ. He sculpted an incomparable sculptural group, including the figure of the Mother of God, mourning over the body of the Savior, taken down from the cross. This work unquestionably marks the beginning creative maturity masters. The "Lamentation of Christ" group, originally intended for the Chapel of the Virgin Mary in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and to this day is located in St. Peter's Basilica, in the first chapel on the right.
Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome. "Pieta"
Michelangelo "Pieta", 1499. Marble. Height: 174 cm. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome
Fragments:
Fragment. Marble. OK. 1498-1500. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Cathedral of St. Petra, Rome
The order for the sculptural group was received thanks to the guarantee of the banker Jacopo Galli, who purchased the Bacchus statue and some other works by Michelangelo for his collection. The contract was concluded on August 26, 1498, the French cardinal Jean de Villiers Fezanzac acted as the customer. According to the contract, the master was obliged to complete the work in a year, and received 450 ducats for it. The work was completed around 1500, already after the death of the cardinal, who died in 1498. Perhaps this marble group was originally intended for the future tomb of the customer. By the time the Lamentation of Christ ended, Michelangelo was only 25 years old.
The contract preserved the words of the guarantor, who claimed that “it will be the best work of marble that exists today, and that no master today can make it better. Time has confirmed the words of Galli, who turned out to be a far-sighted and subtle connoisseur of art. "Lamentation of Christ" and now irresistibly affects the perfection and depth of the artistic solution.
This grand order opens a new stage in the life of a young sculptor. He opened his own workshop, hired a team of assistants. During this period, he repeatedly visited the Karr quarries, where he himself chose marble blocks for his future sculptures. For the "Pieta" it took a low, but rather wide block of marble, since, according to his plan, the body of her adult Son was placed on the lap of the Virgin.
This composition became the key work of the early Roman period of Michelangelo's work, marking the beginning High Renaissance in Italian plastic. Some researchers compare the value of the marble group "Lamentation of Christ" with the value of the famous "Madonna in the Grotto" by Leonardo da Vinci, which opens the same stage in painting.
“... These things aroused the desire of Cardinal St. Dionysius, called the French Cardinal of Rouen, to leave, through the mediation of an artist so rare, a worthy memory of himself in a city so famous, and he ordered him a marble, entirely round sculpture with mourning for Christ, which, according to its completion was placed in St. Peter's in the chapel of the Virgin Mary, the healer of fever, where the temple of Mars used to be. Let it never occur to any sculptor, if he were a rare artist, the idea that he could add something to such a drawing and to such grace and by his labors he could someday achieve such subtlety and purity and cut marble with such skill as Michelangelo showed in this thing, for it reveals all the power and all the possibilities inherent in art. Among the beauties here, in addition to divinely made robes, the deceased Christ attracts attention; and let it not even occur to anyone to see a naked body, made so skillfully, with such beautiful members, with muscles, vessels, veins so finely trimmed, dressing his skeleton, or to see a dead man more like a dead man than this dead man. Here is the most delicate facial expression, and a certain consistency in the binding and mating of the hands, and in the connection of the torso and legs, and such processing of blood vessels that you truly plunge into amazement, how could the artist’s hand in shortest time so divinely and irreproachably to create such a wondrous thing; and, of course, it is a miracle that a stone, originally devoid of any form, could ever be brought to that perfection, which even nature hardly gives to flesh. In this creation, Michelangelo invested so much love and labor that only on it (which he no longer did in his other works) did he write his name along the belt that tightens the chest of the Mother of God; it so happened that once Michelangelo, approaching the place where the work was placed, saw there a large number of visitors from Lombardy, who praised it very much, and when one of them turned to another with a question who did it, he answered: " Our Milanese Gobbo." Michelangelo said nothing, and it seemed at least strange to him that his works were attributed to another. One night he locked himself in there with a lamp, taking his chisels with him, and carved his name on the sculpture. And truly, she is such, as one of the most beautiful poets said about her, as if referring to a real and living figure:
Dignity and beauty
And sorrow: over this marble it is full of you to moan!
He is dead, having lived, and taken down from the cross
Beware of raising songs
In order not to call from the dead until the time
The one who accepted grief alone
For all who are our lord,
You are father, husband and son now,
O you, his wife and mother and daughter." Vasari
This beautiful marble statue remains to this day a monument to the full maturity of the artist's talent. Sculpted in marble, this sculptural group impresses with its bold handling of traditional iconography, the humanity of the created images, and high craftsmanship. This is one of the most famous works in the history of world art.
“And it was not for nothing that he acquired the greatest fame for himself, and although some, after all, but still ignorant, people say that the Mother of God is too young for him, but did they not notice or do they not know that undiscredited virgins for a long time hold and keep their facial expressions undistorted, while burdened with sorrow, such as Christ was, the opposite is observed? Why did such a work bring honor and glory to his talent more than all the previous ones taken together. ”Vasari
The young Mary is depicted with the dead Christ on her knees, an image borrowed from northern European art. The earliest versions of the Pieta also included the figures of St. John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo, however, limited himself to two key figures - the Virgin and Christ. Some researchers suggest that Michelangelo in sculptural group portrayed himself and his mother, who died when he was only six years old. Art historians note that his Virgin Mary is as young as the sculptor's mother at the time of her death.
The theme of mourning for Christ was popular in gothic art, and in the Renaissance, but here it is interpreted rather restrainedly. Gothic knew two types of such mourning: either with the participation of the young Mary, whose ideally beautiful face is not able to overshadow the grief that befell her, or with the elderly Mother of God, seized with terrible, heartbreaking despair. Michelangelo in his group decisively departs from the usual attitudes. He portrayed Mary as young, but at the same time she is infinitely far from the conventional beauty and emotional immobility of Gothic Madonnas of this type. Her feeling is a living human experience, embodied with such depth and richness of shades that here for the first time we can talk about introducing a psychological principle into the image. The whole depth of her grief is guessed by the outward restraint of a young mother; the mournful silhouette of a bowed head, the gesture of a hand that sounds like a tragic question, everything adds up to an image of enlightened grief.
(To be continued)
Medici Chapel (Italy) - description, history, location. Exact address and website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
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The Medici Chapel is an attraction that everyone who travels in Florence must visit.
The Medici Chapel reflects many facets of Michelangelo's talent.
This memorial chapel is located at the church of San Lorenzo. Art critics call the Medici Chapel one of the greatest creations of Michelangelo. Yes, and eras late Renaissance generally.
Michelangelo was a brilliant sculptor, painter, architect, poet... And the Medici Chapel reflects many facets of his talent.
What to see
The Medici Chapel is a small but elongated building that crowns the dome. Michelangelo finished his architectural space. He managed to make sure that the appearance of the chapel corresponded to its internal content.
Everything in the Medici Chapel - from the walls to the decoration - is devoted to the theme of death.
Everything in the Medici chapel - from the walls to the decoration - is devoted to one theme - the theme of death. Below, in the sarcophagi, it is dark, the bodies of the dead are buried here. The higher, the more light enters the building: the soul is immortal, it is resurrected in the realm of light.
There is an altar on one wall of the chapel. Opposite are the tombs of Lorenz the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano. Near the tombs are three statues, including the famous "Madonna and Child", made by Michelangelo himself. The sculpture symbolizes the closeness of mother and child in its highest degree.
The Madonna is full of lyricism, unlike the other figures located in the Medici chapel, she is devoid of tragedy. This sculpture is recognized as one of the most beautiful images created during the Renaissance.
Figures of the Day brought real glory Michelangelo.
On the sarcophagi you can see the figures of the Day, which brought real fame to the sculptor. So, on the sarcophagus of Lorenz, we see the statues "Morning" and "Evening". They are clearly uncomfortable, they seem to slide off, but hold on to the figure of Lorenz the Magnificent.
The tomb of Giuliano is decorated with figures of "Night" and "Day". "Night" is the most tragic figure of Michelangelo. It leaves an indelible impression on today's visitors to the Medici Chapel as well as on the artist's contemporaries.
The figure of the "Day" is unfinished. But not because Michelangelo did not have time. So the sculptor wanted to convey the state of uncertainty, because no one can predict with certainty what awaits him during the day.
How to get there
Tourists vacationing in Florence should focus on the Church of San Lorenzo. This attraction is in all guides to the resort.
Bus number C1 stops near the church. The stop you need is called “San Lorenzo”.
The Medici Chapel is open from Monday to Sunday, from 8:15 to 18:00. Be careful, the box office closes at 16:20.
The chapel is open to tourists every day, except for holidays: Christmas (December 25), New Year(January 1) and May 1. There are also days off: every odd Monday of the month and every even Sunday of the month.
A ticket to the Medici Chapel costs 8-4 EUR, this includes a visit to the chapel and the New Sacristy.
Tickets for the Church of San Lorenzo and the Laurenzian Library must be purchased separately.
Children under the age of six can visit these Florence sights absolutely free.
Prices on the page are for September 2018.
Caro m'è il sonno, e più l'esser sasso,
mentre che ‘l danno e la vergogna dura.
Non veder, non sentir, m'è gran ventura;
però non mi destar, deh! Parla basso!
Michelangelo Buonarroti)
It is sweet for me to sleep with a sculpted stone in a niche,
while the world lives, ashamed and tormented;
not to feel, not to know - blessed is fate;
Are you still here? So speak quietly.
Translation by Elena Katsyuba.
The names of Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici are also associated with one of the greatest masterpieces of the High Renaissance - the Medici Chapel - a sculptural ensemble made by Michelangelo and located in the so-called New Sacristy (sacristy) of the church of San Lorenzo (the family church of the Medici family) in Florence. After the death of Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere, pont. 1503-1513), one of the most demanding, but also generous patrons of the arts, a man of exorbitant ambitions, the pope under whom the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral, unprecedented in scale, was begun, where Michelangelo was supposed to build a majestic tomb decorated with fifty statues, in which Julius rests; completed by Michelangelo and open for viewing are the frescoes of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chapel of St. Sixtus, patron of the Rovere family; the palace rooms (stanzas) of the pope's apartments in the Vatican were painted by Raphael, Leo X (Pont. 1513-1521), Giovanni de Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected pope.
Florence. c.San Lorenzo
Perhaps because he was born in the year of the memorable Florentine tournament, the so-called Giostra (1475), or perhaps because of a natural inclination, Leo X, having adopted his father's diplomatic abilities, also adopted an exorbitant love of luxury and entertainment. Papal estates, mines and the treasury left by Julius II were not enough to pay for hunting, feasts, and festivities. It was during these years that both Erasmus of Rotterdam and the young monk Martin Luther were horrified from visiting Rome. There was not enough money, and Leo X carried out several financial projects, two of which: the official sale of church positions (“simony”) and the sale of “absolutions” (“indulgences”), finally exhausted the patience of a large part of Western Christians. Luther issued the Theses, and the pope responded by issuing a bull ordering the burning of Luther's writings. The Reformation began in Germany.
Leo X died suddenly, without even having time to take unction. Of course, during the years of his pontificate, the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral progressed poorly, and there was nothing to think about the grandiose tomb of Pope Julius II. True, he suggested that Michelangelo create the facade of the church of San Lorenzo, unfinished by Brunelleschi, so that this temple would become the “mirror of all Italy”, and Michelangelo gladly agreed to leave for his beloved Florence, where he worked hard for four years until, in 1520, all according to the same the reason, due to lack of money, work on the facade was not stopped.
However, in the same year, Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (Pont. 1523-1534), the illegitimate son of Giuliano Medici and the same age as his cousin Giovanni (Leo X) who grew up in the house of his uncle (Lorenzo the Magnificent) after the murder of his father, proposed Michelangelo another job option in San Lorenzo. He proposed to create an ensemble of tombstones for recently deceased family members in the new sacristy of the church under construction: Lorenzo, the son of Pietro Medici (the elder brother of Leo X) and Giuliano, the youngest of the sons of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who are not famous except for their generic names: Lorenzo and Giuliano.
At first, Michelangelo, depressed by the failure with the facade of the church, accepted the idea without enthusiasm: he did not have any special feelings for the dead. But he remembered the years spent in the brilliant circle of Lorenzo the Magnificent, honored his memory. And in the New Sacristy there should have been sarcophagi with the ashes of the elders Lorenzo and Giuliano.
The architectural and plastic solution of the tomb was dictated by the small size of the chapel, which forms a square with a side of 11 meters in plan. It was impossible to place in such a small room a structure designed for a circular bypass, as he initially assumed (focusing on the compositional ideas of the tomb of Julius II), and Michelangelo chose the traditional composition of wall tombs.
Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici
The compositions of the tombs on the side walls are symmetrical. Near the wall to the left of the entrance is the tomb of Giuliano. In a rectangular wall niche is the figure of Giuliano, a seated young Florentine in the attire of a Roman patrician with an uncovered head facing the front wall of the chapel. Below it is a sarcophagus, on the currencies of which there are two allegorical figures: female - Night and male - Day. Night - sleeps, leaning her bowed head on her right hand, under her left hand is a mask, near her hip is an owl. Day is awake, he leans on his left elbow, half-turning towards the viewer in such a way that half of his face is hidden by his powerful right shoulder and back. The face of the Day is worked out sketchily.
Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici
Opposite, near the wall to the right of the entrance is the tomb of Lorenzo. He, too, is dressed in Roman clothes, but a helmet is pulled over his eyes, hiding them in the shadows. His posture is full of deep thought, his left hand, in which he holds a purse, is raised to his face and rests on a kneeling chest of jewels. The head is slightly turned to the right, towards the frontal wall.
"Evening"
The composition of the sarcophagus is similar, on the currencies there are figures: male - Evening, female - Morning. Both figures are turned towards the viewer. Evening tends to sleep, Morning awakens.
Italy | Michelangelo Buonarroti | (1475-1564) | Medici Chapel | 1526-1533 | marble | New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, Florence |
Near the front wall of the chapel, opposite the entrance and the altar in a rectangular niche framed by dark columns, orders in the Brunelleschi style, there is a simple rectangular sarcophagus with the ashes of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano. On the lid of the sarcophagus are figures: a seated Madonna with a baby on her knees (in the center), St. Cosmas and St. Domian on the sides. The figures of the saints were not sculpted by Michelangelo, but, respectively: Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo. The Medici Madonna is the key image of the chapel: she is placed in the center of the frontal wall, the eyes of the saints are turned to her, the dukes look at her from their niches. She sits, leaning her right hand on a pedestal, on her extended left knee - a baby, clinging halfway to her mother so that the viewer does not see his face. The Madonna holds the child with her left hand. The expression of her face and the whole posture are fanned with thoughtful detachment.
Contemporaries were struck by the same thing that strikes today - the perfection of the architectural and plastic ensemble of the chapel as a whole, the perfection of the plastic connection of all the sculptures in space, the extraordinary - even for the genius of Michelangelo - the realism of each of the sculptures, rising to a high generalization, a symbol. ABOUT symbolic meanings there are many allegories of Morning, Day, Evening and Night. As is known, special attention attracted the figure of the Night, there was an exchange of poetic epigraphs between Giovanni Strozzi and Michelangelo. We want to dwell on the sculptures of Lorenzo and Giuliano and touch on the problem of the “ideal portrait”.
Contemporaries did not see a portrait resemblance to the recently deceased relatives of Pope Leo X and Clement VII either in appearance or in faces. We think this is easy to understand. These particular people were not depicted by the sculptor over their sarcophagi. The legend of Florence was the other Lorenzo and the other Giuliano, brothers - those who rested near the front wall. Brothers - and therefore the tombstones are symmetrical.
Lorenzo the Magnificent - a diplomat, philosopher, banker - is a true ruler - and therefore a Roman helmet crowns his head, his hand rests on a casket of gold, but he himself is immersed in deep sad thoughts. The beautiful and young Giuliano, the hero of poems and legends, is brave, in love, who tragically died at the hands of conspirators. And that is why his posture is restless, his head is rapidly turned. But Michelangelo sculpted not those real Medici, the youngest of which he did not know, and he was familiar with the elder only in the last years of his life. He sculpted their legendary images, one might say Aristotelian forms - or the Platonic ideas of these two names imprinted in the history of Florence: Lorenzo and Giuliano.
During the construction of the chapel from 1520 to 1534, with two long breaks, such thunderstorms swept over Italy in general and over Florence that it seems surprising that the Medici chapel was almost completed. The pontificate of Clement VII was marked by such a sacking of Rome by the army of Charles V of Habsburg, which the Eternal City had not known since the invasion of the barbarians, and ended, in addition to the flaring Reformation, also with a split between the Roman and English churches, whose head Henry VIII proclaimed himself. Some church historians consider Clement VII the last pope Renaissance. And if you follow this, albeit very conditional, chronology, then the Medici Chapel is seen as an unsurpassed tombstone of the brilliant Florentine Renaissance in perfection.
"The Last Judgment" Michelangelo wrote, being a witness of a different time.
Manon&Gabrielle."Lorenzo and Giuliano".
Florence, like almost any Italian city, is literally flooded with sights, historical monuments, all kinds of priceless artifacts, which we mentioned a little in. Among all this abundance, there are places that simply cannot be missed, and one of these places is the Medici Chapel. She is part of memorial complex at the Church of San Lorenzo.
Strictly speaking, the chapel consists of three parts - the crypt with the burial of 49 not the most famous Medici; Chapels of the Princes, where the ashes of much more famous representatives of the family are buried; and the New Sacristy (Sagrestia Nuova).
It was on the design of the latter that the great Michelangelo Buonarroti worked, and, despite the very dramatic history of the project, it was here that the talent of the great Master reflected many of his facets. Actually, it is the New Sacristy that is most often meant when they talk about the Medici Chapel.
How to get there, opening hours
The main landmark for tourists wishing to visit the Medici Chapel in Florence is the Church of San Lorenzo itself. It is located at Piazza di San Lorenzo, 9.
The Medici Chapel is part of the San Lorenzo complex
The attraction is very significant, it is present in all possible guidebooks, so finding it will not be a problem. The bus route C1 passes near the church. The stop is called “San Lorenzo”. You can also get off at the next stop - "Cappelle Medicee".
The Medici Chapel is open to the public every day from 8:15 to 18:00. Regular holidays are every even Sunday and every odd Monday of the month. Also, the chapel is closed on the biggest holidays - January 1 (New Year), December 25 (Christmas) and May 1.
Tickets for the Medici Chapel and the Laurenzian Library (another project by Michelangelo on the territory of the San Lorenzo complex) are purchased separately. The box office is open until 16:20. Children under six years of age enter free.
The Medici Chapel in Florence is a very popular place, so it will be useful to book tickets in advance online.
Far from being the only picturesque tomb in Florence, the Medici Chapel is strikingly different from other similar objects. Michelangelo put all his talent into creating an atmosphere of deep tragedy and sorrow in the chapel - everything here is devoted to the theme of death.
Even the nature of natural light is very symbolic. At the very bottom, where the sarcophagi with the dead are located, it is darkest of all. The higher, the more light from outside gets inside the building. This symbolizes the immortality of the soul and its transition to the realm of light after the completion of a person's earthly life.
Above the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, you can see the work of Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child", sculptures of Saints Cosmas and Domian
The central object in the Medici Chapel is the altar. But he does not represent the greatest interest from an artistic and aesthetic point of view.
On the right and left sides of the altar are the tombs of the dukes Giuliano of Nemours and Lorenzo of Urbino. Directly opposite the altar, near the opposite wall in a protruding plinth, the ashes of two more Medicis lie - Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano.
These two representatives of a powerful family were in their time much more significant figures than their namesakes, buried "next door". But their sarcophagi are much more modestly decorated - three statues by Michelangelo are installed on the crypt - Saints Cosmas and Damian, and the Madonna and Child. The latter is perhaps the only sculpture in the chapel that is devoid of tragedy, but is filled with a lyrical reflection of the closeness of mother and child.
Lorenzo the Magnificent was a prominent statesman of the Florentine Republic and its leader during the Renaissance. Many people have a natural question why the tomb of him and his brother received such a minimalist design from Michelangelo.
The answer is actually very simple. Lorenzo of Urbino and Giuliano of Nemours were the first of the Medici family to receive ducal titles. In those feudal times, this circumstance was much more important than the real historical role one person or another.
Allegorical figures "Morning" (female) and "Evening" (male) adorn the gravestone of Lorenzo Urbinsky
The sarcophagi of the Dukes of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici are decorated with sculptures that brought even more fame to the already famous Michelangelo at that time. These are the so-called "Days". The sculptures "Morning" and "Evening" are installed on the tomb of Lorenzo Urbinsky, and "Day" and "Night" - on the sarcophagus of Giuliano Nemours.
Even during the life of Michelangelo, the sculpture "Night" made an indelible impression on the contemporaries of the creator with its deep tragedy. The figure creates exactly the same mood now, as evidenced by the numerous reviews of visitors to the Medici Chapel.
The figures "Day" (male) and "Night" (female) were installed by Michelangelo over the tomb of Giuliano Nemours
Everything described is only the most notable creations of Michelangelo, created in the course of work on the interior decoration of the chapel. Awareness of the real grandeur of this work of art comes as you get acquainted with the very history of the creation of the Medici Chapel.
History of creation
Initially, the plans of Pope Leo X (Giovanni Medici) regarding the renovation of the Florentine church of San Lorenzo were completely different.
The Pope wanted to create a new facade for the Medici family temple and invited Michelangelo to complete this ambitious task. The goal was to embody in the new facade the full power of the talent of the best Italian artists and thus testify to the power of the Medici family.
Michelangelo arrived in Florence and began work in 1514. However, the first time that the sculptor spent in marble quarries turned out to be wasted. Pope Leo X was "famous" for extravagance, and there was simply not enough money to build a grandiose facade. After the death of the pope, the project was hopelessly frozen.
The facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo has remained unfinished to this day.
However, the name of Michelangelo was already so famous at that time that the Medici family decided to resume cooperation with the ambitious sculptor at all costs. So, on the initiative of Cardinal Giulio Medici, the idea of completing the construction of a new chapel on the territory of the Church of San Lorenzo was born (the New Sacristy was erected to the height of the cornice at the end of the 15th century).
Idea and projects
The placement of the tombs of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano in the future Medici Chapel in Florence was originally conceived. Michelangelo planned to install them in the very center of the chapel, but later the artist nevertheless leaned towards a more traditional, side wall layout of the monuments. According to his plan, the tombstones were to be decorated with symbolic sculptures, and the lunettes above them were painted with frescoes.
The sculptures of Lorenzo and Giuliano were designed as symbolic - they did not reflect the appearance of their real prototypes. This was the condition of the artist, who was known for his inexplicably negative attitude towards portraits and other forms of embodiment in art of accurate images of real people.
Therefore, the faces of the figures were presented as an idealized generalization. Allegorical figures of the course of the day were supposed to be a hint of the transience of the life of the dukes.
Sculptures of the Dukes of the Medici do not convey the real appearance of their prototypes
The project also assumed the presence of figures of river gods on the floor near the tombstones, it was planned to place armor, garlands and four figures of crouching boys over the tombstones. But, due to a number of circumstances, far from all of what was planned was realized.
Conflict with the Medici
Michelangelo began work on the interior decoration of the Medici Chapel when he was 45 years old. The grandeur of the idea did not frighten him at all. Although the master was already, at that time, very old, he began to implement the project with all zeal. As if he knew that the time of his life had barely exceeded half (the artist died in a very old age- 88 years).
Work on the main design elements of the Medici Chapel lasted almost 15 years. For all this time original intention had to be repeatedly corrected, which greatly annoyed Michelangelo, and, ultimately, he was not satisfied with the result.
At the same time, his relationship with the Medici family was rapidly deteriorating. In the end, in 1527, the republican-minded part of the Florentines rebelled against the Medici, and the latter had to flee. In this confrontation, Michelangelo was on the side of the rebels.
Florence did not remain long under the leadership of the provisional government. The combined armies of Emperor Charles and the Pope laid siege to the city. Michelangelo was put in charge of all the fortifications.
The figure of St. Cosmas was finalized by Michelangelo's assistant Giovanni Montorsoli
Photos by: Sailko, Rufus46, Rabe!, Yannick Carer
Cappella Medici
The Medici Chapel is part of the monumental complex of San Lorenzo. was the official church of the Medici family, who lived in the palace on Via Larga (now Via Cavour). The chapel itself became their mausoleum. Giovanni de' Bicci de' Medici (Giovanni de' Bicci de' Medici, died in 1429) was the first of the Medici family, who bequeathed to bury himself and his wife Piccard in Bruneleschi's small sacristy. Later, his son, Cosimo the Elder, was buried in the church. The project for a Medici family mausoleum was conceived in 1520 when Michelangelo began work on the New Sacristy, located opposite Bruneleschi's Old Sacristy on the other side of the church. Eventually Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, conceived the idea of building a mausoleum for some members of his family, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brothers, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino (1492-1519) and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (1479-1516).
The construction of the Medici Chapel was completed in 1524, with its white walls and pietra serena interior based on Brunneleschi's design. The entrance to the chapel is located at the back. The Medici Chapel is divided into three parts:
- crypt
- princely chapel
- new treasury
Visit the Medici Chapel
- Medici Chapel
- Capelle Medicee
- Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6, near
- entrance to the Medici Chapel from the piazza. S. Lorenzo
Working hours:
- daily from 8:15 to 13:50
- from March 19 to November 3 and from December 26 to January 5 from 8:15 to 17:00.
- Closed: second and fourth Sunday of the month; first, third, fifth Monday of the month; New Year, May 1, December 25.
Admission ticket:
- Full price: 6.00 €
- Reduced: €3.00 (children aged 18 to 25, school teachers)
What to see in the Medici Chapel
In the first hall Medici chapels- the family tomb of the Medici, designed by Buontalenti, are the tombs of Cosimo the Old, Donatello, the Grand Dukes from the family of the Dukes of Lorraine that ruled after the Medici. From this hall you can go up to the Chapel dei Principi ( Cappella dei Principi), or Prince's Chapel, the design of which continued until the 18th century and where the great dukes of Tuscany are buried: Cosimo III, Francesco I, Cosimo I, Ferdinand I, Cosimo II and Ferdinand II.
From the Prince's Chapel, a corridor leads to New Treasury(Sagrestia Nuova), which is located symmetrically to the Old Treasury of the Church of San Lorenzo. On behalf of Pope Leo X, from the Medici family, who wanted to create a crypt for the younger members of the house, Michelangelo built on the treasury. The resulting square in plan room (11 x 11 m) is called the Medici Chapel.
In the design of the interior, the sculptor was guided by the decoration of the Old Sacristy, built according to the project of Brunelleschi. He divided the walls with vertical fluted Corinthian pilasters and cut them with horizontal cornices. At the same time, Michelangelo resorted to Brunelleschi's favorite decorating technique - juxtaposing a white wall with divisions of dark gray stone. Michelangelo seeks to stretch this "frame" system in height, for which he narrows the window framing in the lunettes of the upper tier and gives the dome caissons in perspective reduction. The lower pilasters and cornice are perceived as frames of sculpted tombs.
In such a decision, the new, no longer renaissance, principle of interior design, based on a combination of contrasts, is most clearly visible. With the simplest methods, Michelangelo achieves unprecedented dynamism, giving rise to a different artistic language. And from the Renaissance, we suddenly find ourselves in the Baroque era.
Tombs of the Medici Chapel
In the design of the tombs, Michelangelo decisively violates the harmony and lightness of the Renaissance architectural frame. Visually heavy sculptures seem to want to get out of their architectural “frames”, with difficulty holding on to the sloping lids of the sarcophagi. It is impossible to more accurately convey the feeling of tightness of the crypts, the heaviness of the tombstones and the intense desire to live. Michelangelo completed only two of the planned tombs. The great-grandchildren of Cosimo the Old are buried in them. The helmet depicts Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino Allegorical figures on the tomb of the first are called "Evening" and "Morning", the second - "Night" and "Day".
