Decoration of the Medici Chapel in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Medici Chapel, Michelangelo: description and photos

Tombs of the Medici (1520-1534)

"The death of Leo led to such confusion of artists and art in Rome and Florence that during the life of Adrian VI Michelangelo remained in Florence and worked on the tomb of Julius. But when Adrian died and Clement VII was elected pope, striving in the arts of architecture, sculpture and painting leave no less glory than Leo and his other predecessors ... Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Clement VII, by order of which he began the library of San Lorenzo and the New Sacristy, where the marble tombs of his ancestors made by him were to be placed dads...

He placed there four tombs that adorned the walls, intended for the ashes of the fathers of two popes: Lorenzo the elder and Giuliano, his brother, as well as for Giuliano, the brother of Leo, and for Duke Lorenzo, his nephew. And since he intended to imitate the old sacristy created by Filippo Brunellesco, but with decorations of a different order, he finished it with a complex order in a more varied and newer spirit than that old and modern masters ever dared to allow, for the novelty of such beautiful cornices, capitals and bases, doors, niches and tombs, he created something very different from what was done in size, order and rules in accordance with generally accepted custom, with Vitruvius and with antiquity by people who did not want to add anything to the old. And these liberties greatly encouraged those who, seeing his work, began to imitate him; whereupon new inventions appeared in their ornaments, rather as whims than according to reason or rules. Therefore, the artists are infinitely and forever indebted to him for the fact that he broke the bonds and chains in those things that they invariably created on a single beaten track" Vasari.

For almost fifteen years, Michelangelo worked on the tomb of the Medici in Florence, commissioned by Pope Clement VII, who was from the Medici family.

It was a matter of perpetuating the memory not of the former famous Medici, but of those representatives of this family who openly established monarchical rule in Florence, two dukes who died early and were unremarkable. The new sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo (Medici Chapel) was a pair of the Old, built by Brunelleschi a century earlier; it was left unfinished due to Michelangelo's departure for Rome in 1534. The new sacristy was conceived as a funerary chapel for Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Pope Leo, and Lorenzo, his nephew, who died young.

In 1520 Cardinal Giulio Medici, the future Pope Clement VII (with the approval of Pope Leo X, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent), commissioned Michelangelo to build the Medici chapel and tombs. Initially, it was planned to build four tombs: Lorenzo the Magnificent, his brother Giuliano, who died as a result of the Pazzi conspiracy, and his grandson Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (brother of Piero and Leo X). Work began in 1521, but the death of Pope Leo X stopped the work. Again, work began only in 1523 after the election of Cardinal Giulio Medici as pontiff under the name of Pope Clement VII, but the plan no longer included a pair of tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who were supposed to stand in the central niche of the chapel. In 1524, Clement VII decided to add the sarcophagi of Leo X and his own to the most honorable places in the chapel.

The Pope, wishing to monopolize the genius of Michelangelo, offered the master to take the veil as a monk in the Franciscan order (in 1524), promised a profitable beneficiation. After Michelangelo refused, he gave him a house near the church of San Lorenzo and appointed a salary three times higher than Michelangelo asked.

In a free cubic space (with a side of a square of about 12 m), crowned with a vault, Michelangelo placed the wall tombs of the Medici. Michelangelo not only enlarged the scale of the tombs, he also pioneered the use of life-size figures in them. On one side is the altar, opposite - the statue of the Madonna and Child. On the sides in the lower tier, exactly opposite each other, the sarcophagi of the Dukes of the Medici - Lorenzo of Urbino and Giuliano of Nemours - are organically inscribed in the overall structure of the interior. Their idealized statues are placed in niches; the eyes are turned to the Mother of God and the Child. All these images seem to be separated by a certain distance from the viewer and are in their own special world of sorrow and tension. The general idea of ​​the allegory is complemented by the figures "Morning", "Evening", "Day" and "Night".

The deep pessimism that seized him in the face of the death of political and civil liberties in Italy, the crisis of Renaissance humanism, was reflected in the figurative structure of the sculptures of the Medici tomb. Internal tension and at the same time aching doubt, a premonition of doom - that's what all these figures express. As P. Muratov very accurately noted, "sadness is spilled here in everything and goes in waves from wall to wall". With the architecture and sculptural decoration of the chapel, Michelangelo erected a monument not to the Medici, but to Florence. He mourned in it the death of the freedom of his native city. The Medici Chapel became a stage in the development of Michelangelo's work, and at the same time, world art. The Renaissance did not yet know such a synthesis of architecture and sculpture. At the same time, the harmonious clarity and balance, which the architects of the early and High Renaissance so aspired to, gave way to internal tension, the effectiveness of all architectural forms. Thus, the Medici Chapel reflected the new situation that was then developing in Italy.

This architectural and sculptural ensemble showed the features of a new style. The harmonic clarity and balance of the forms of the early Renaissance, the majesty of the massive full-blooded forms of the High Renaissance give way here to internal tension, the dynamics of the forms of the late Renaissance.

In 1527, when the revolution broke out in Florence, involving the great sculptor in its maelstrom, not a single statue for the Medici chapel was yet ready. In the midst of the siege, he retired at the first opportunity to his seclusion, where he secretly worked on the statue of Lorenzo de' Medici. The people would kill him if they found him at this work, but Michelangelo separated art from politics and eternal ideas from temporary passions.

When Michelangelo left for Rome in 1534, the sculptures had not yet been erected and were in various stages of completion. The surviving sketches testify to the hard work that preceded their creation: there were designs for a single tomb, a double tomb, and even a free-standing tomb.

The tomb portrait statue of Lorenzo the Magnificent was never created. The ashes of Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano rest in a place of honor at the foot of the statue of the Madonna, with the upcoming Sts. Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of the Medici.

"The architectural composition of the Medici Chapel is restless, tense. Relatively small sarcophagi are opposed by false windows of the second tier large scale. The walls between the windows are so closely filled with paired pilasters that the windows seem to be squeezed. These pilasters protrude forward, the cornice above them is loosened, but the pilasters themselves are not as freely developed as the semi-columns of Bramante. Arched pediments lie on the windows, they are opposed by garlands on the attic.
Whatever part of the tomb is taken, a violation of the accepted architectural forms and types is evident everywhere. Some parts stick out forward, others go back, the cornices break, the articulations double. The whole chapel gives rise to a contradictory impression of movement and stiffness, effort and stiffness. There is not a single architectural line in it that would not affect another, would not cause opposition, resistance. In the architecture of the Medici Chapel, dissonance that cannot be resolved triumphs.
In the development of the relationship between sculpture and architecture, the Medici Chapel marks an important stage. In antiquity, the figures of the pediments easily and freely enter the architecture, in Gothic architecture, as it were, is overgrown with sculptural bodies. Statues placed in niches in the 15th century find their natural spatial environment in them. In the Medici Chapel, the sculptural figures form pyramidal groups, but the figures of the dukes crowning the pyramids are placed in niches and at the same time stick out of them somewhat. The figures of the times of the day come forward even more strongly: they are too large for the sarcophagi, they are forced to make an effort not to roll off them, and at the same time they are constrained, flattened, cannot unbend their members. M. Alpatov.

There are a variety of interpretations of the place and significance of the Medici Chapel ensemble, both in a general cultural sense and in relation to the stage in the work of Michelangelo: a reflection of views on the world order, philosophical discussions about the essence of time, grief about the fate of Florence, which lost its freedom, or thoughts about the immortality of the soul.

In fact, Michelangelo embodied in architectural forms and plastic images his personal thoughts so universal that they gained universal significance. And the Medici monument eventually became a monument to Florence itself.

Story

In 1520, by order of Pope Leo X and Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, Michelangelo Buonarotti began work on the creation of the Medici tomb in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Aristocrats by birth, rebels by spirit who supported the Ciompi uprising, politicians, bankers, philanthropists, educators, industrialists and religious figures - all these are the Medici, each of whom contributed to the history of Florence. The embodiment of Michelangelo's plan to create the Medici Chapel was to become evidence not only of the power of this kind, but also "the mirror of all Italy."

The fourteen-year period of work on the tomb became for the Master years of alternating despair and hope. The impending crisis of the Renaissance culture, the war, the tough anti-Florentine policy within the country, which led to the fall of Florence and the destruction of the spirit of free citizenship inherent in the city, created the conditions for the collapse of all human and political hopes of Michelangelo. It is no coincidence that the sculptural images he made for the Chapel embody tragedy and doom, which can be seen even in the photo.

The Medici Chapel is the only architectural and visual monument created by Michelangelo from beginning to end, unlike many of his other ideas, which were not fully embodied.

Unity of space and contradiction of content

The Medici Chapel is located in the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo. For a small square room, an area of ​​​​about 120 square meters. meters, the architect set a goal to stretch the entire composition and interior vertically so that it seems higher. The innovations of Michelangelo's artistic views were manifested in the fact that the massive filling of the space (tombs, sculptures) contrasts with the light frame (the cornice of the lower zone of the sacristy and the half-column). The dynamics of the architectural language was also manifested in the fact that the master was not afraid to cut through the framing lines with fragments of statues protruding beyond their borders, as if pushing the interior of the chapel apart.

The sculptural decoration was dedicated to the dead Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. In contrast to the stereotypes of the 15th century, when the dead were portrayed as peacefully reposed, Lorenzo deeply thoughtful and Giuliano full of action are represented sitting in niches. Tombstones seem to form two facades of palace buildings, sculptures acquire a natural spatial environment.

On the lid of Lorenzo's sarcophagus, the sculptor placed the figures "Morning" and "Evening". "Morning" symbolizes a painful awakening, all the plasticity of this figure is full of forebodings of new suffering. And the movement of the hand, freeing the face from the veil, and the sigh that escapes from half-open lips, go out, barely having time to begin. The pose, facial expression "Morning" suggests that a tired, perishing soul lives in this flowering body. The image of "Evening" is filled with humility, immersion in the haze of sleep. The impression of inertia is intensified by the conscious incompleteness of the sculpture's stone work: the face, arms, and legs of the "Evening" seem to be shrouded in the twilight of the approaching extinction.

Giuliano's tomb is decorated with figures of "Day" and "Night". The titanic image of "Day", full of power and even some threat, is opposed by "Night", leaving the impression of complete exhaustion of vitality and dying.

For the Medici Chapel, Michelangelo also created a statue of the Madonna feeding the baby. The location of the sculpture is such that it involves walking around in an arc, from each point of which a completely new aspect of the expressiveness of plasticity and the beauty of internal movement is revealed.

Location, opening hours and cost

Address: Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6. 50123 Firenze, Italy.

The Medici Chapel is located in Piazza Madonna delli Aldobrandini. The museum is open to visitors from 08:15 to 16:50. It should be noted, however, that the ticket ticket office closes at 16:20. Entrance costs 8 euro, children under 10 years old are free. Excluding holidays and weekends:

• Christmas (note, Catholic, December 25!);
• New Year;
• 1st of May;
• every even Sunday;
• every odd Monday;
• the chapel is open every day.

In the souvenir shop at the Sacristy, you can buy jewelry made of silver and semi-precious stones, exactly the same as those depicted on the portraits of members of the Medici family. Prices range from 20 to 300 euros.

How to get there

How to get to the Medici Chapel by bus No. C1 to the stop "Church of San Lorenzo". You can also walk. You should focus on the Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella, located on the opposite side of the forecourt. Then follow the short street from Piazza Santa Maria Novella to the Church of San Lorenzo.

In contact with

The Medici Chapel in Florence is located on the territory of the church of San Lorenzo and is considered one of the most beautiful and sad places in the city. Thanks to the great masters of the Renaissance, the luxury of the earthly existence of the Medici clan was embodied in the decoration of their last shelter. Crypts and tombstones, made by famous masters of the Renaissance, remind of the perishability of earthly existence and the eternity of the universe.

The church of San Lorenzo, founded in 393 by Saint Ambrose, was reconstructed in the 11th century, after which it acquired the appearance of a rectangular basilica with columns of different sizes at the base. The architect Filippo Bruneleschi, commissioned by Cosimo the Elder Medici, added a building in the form of a hemispherical dome to the medieval church in the 15th century and covered it with red tiles.

The long rectangular room of the Basilica of San Lorenzo ends with a bifurcation, on the left side of which there is an old sacristy (sacristy) and a passage to the Laurenziano library building, on the right side is the Medici Chapel, and at the end rises the Chapel of the Princes. The rough facing of the outer surface of the church contrasts with its magnificent interior decoration.

Interior decoration

The church of San Lorenzo is the tomb of many prominent Florentine painters, historians and politicians. For the most famous people sarcophagi were installed on the marble floor and on the upper tiers of the walls. The pillars of the basilica end with Gothic ceiling vaults made of gray stone. In huge vertical niches there are paintings by the great Florentine painters Pietro Marchesini "Saint Matthew" 1723, "The Crucifixion" 1700 by Francesco Conti, "The Crucifixion and Two Sorrowers" Lorenzo Lippi.

Part of the wall is decorated with a huge fresco depicting the Great Martyr St. Lawrence by the artist Bronzino, and on a dais there is musical organ. Through the bronze lattice, under the altar of the church, one can see the burial place of Cosimo the Elder Medici, which was arranged by the townspeople themselves, expressing deep gratitude and appreciation to the philanthropist and ruler of Florence.

In the center of the hall, on high supports, there are two pulpits resembling sarcophagi. They are decorated with bronze reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Christ. These are the last works of Donatello, a unique master of bronze casting, the founder of a sculptural portrait and a round statue, who spent time in Florence last years of his life and rests under a marble slab in the church of San Lorenzo.

old sacristy

The sacristy (sacristy) serves to store church supplies and prepare priests for worship, but in the Basilica of San Lorenzo it has a different purpose. The old sacristy has turned into a crypt of the founder of the Medici family - Giovanni di Bicci. Designed by the architect Filippo Brunneleschi, the tomb is an ideal square room, the architecture of which is dominated by strict geometric lines.

Influenced by ancient masters, Brunneleschi uses columns and pilasters in the interior, which are characteristic of Roman architecture. The walls are decorated with gray-green marble overlays, which, in combination with beige plaster, emphasize correct forms sacristies. A corridor under the gloomy vaults leads to the lower burial chambers and to the tomb of the Medici Cosimo the Elder. The walls of the crypt are decorated with red altar velvet with patterns of silver ornate plates.

Bronze busts of the reposed Medici and precious church utensils are placed everywhere. The silver cross for processions of 877, the reliquary of the Saints of the Dead of 1715, the golden tabernacle of Lorenzo Dolci of 1787 deserve special attention. The wooden doors of the crypt are elaborately carved.

New sacristy

The New Sacristy, or Chapel, was designed and recreated by the architect Michelangelo commissioned by Giulio de' Medici of Pope Clement VII in 1520. The room was intended for the burial places of the great Tuscan dukes from the Medici family. Michelangelo at that time was in a rather difficult position, being, on the one hand, a supporter of the Republicans, who fought a fierce struggle with the Medici, on the other hand, he was a court sculptor working for his enemies.

The master erected a temple and a crypt for the family, which, in case of victory, could severely punish their architect. The road to the Medici Chapel leads through the entire Basilica of San Lorenzo and turns right, where going down the stairs you can get to the room with the tombs.

Sarcophagus of the Duke of Neymour

The muted colors of the room and the thin rays of light breaking through a small window in the ceiling create a feeling of sadness and peace in the ancestral tomb. In one of the niches on the wall there is a marble sculpture of Giuliano Duke of Neymour, younger son Lorenzo Medici. Figure young man sitting on a throne, dressed in the armor of a Roman soldier, and his head thoughtfully turned to the side. On both sides of the sarcophagus, majestic statues are reclining, personifying the day and night of the work of Michelangelo.

Sarcophagus of the Duke of Urbino

On the opposite side of the wall, opposite the coffin of Giuliano, there is a sculpture of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, grandson of Lorenzo Medici. The Duke of Urbino, Lorenzo, is depicted as an ancient Greek warrior sitting in armor over his tomb, and majestic sculptures recreating morning and evening are located at his feet.

Sarcophagi of the brothers Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano

The third burial of the Chapel is the graves of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his 25-year-old brother Giuliano, who died at the hands of the conspirators in 1478. The tombstone is made in the form of a long tabletop, on which marble statues"Madonna and Child" by Michelangelo, "Saint Cosmas" by Angelo di Montorsoli and "Saint Domian" by Raphael di Montelupo. The entire composition of the Chapel is united by the rapidly running moments of life and the endless flow of time.

Chapel of the Princes

The entrance to the Chapel of the Princes is possible from Piazza Madonna del Brandini, which is located on the opposite side of the Church of San Lorenzo. This sumptuous room houses the six tombs of the hereditary Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The Hall of the Princes was designed in 1604 by Mateo Nigetti, and decorated by Florentine artisans from the Pietra dura workshop, which belonged to the Medici family.

Various types of marble and semi-precious stones were used for wall cladding. Thin stone plates were selected according to the ornament and tightly fastened at the joints. The installed sarcophagi are decorated with the Medici family coats of arms. The dukes were moneylenders and the founders of the extensive banking system of Western Europe.

On their coat of arms there are six balls, which were considered the value of the interest rate on loans issued. Mosaic tiles in the lower part of the wall are represented by coats of arms of Tuscan cities. Only two sculptures are installed in the recesses - these are Dukes Ferdinand I and Cosimo II. Due to the fact that the Chapel was not finally completed, other niches were left empty.

What else to see

The most valuable collection of books and ancient manuscripts is in the Laurenziano Library. The library building and the magnificent gray staircase leading to it are the work of Michelangelo. The beginning of the collection of the manuscript collection was laid by Cosimo the Elder Medici and continued by Lorenzo I Medici, after whom the literary repository is named. To get to the library, you need to cross the well-groomed churchyard.

Excursions

The reign of the Medici dukes lasted about 300 years and ended in the middle of the 18th century. The Medici skillfully used art and architecture to demonstrate their wealth and power. Court sculptors, architects and artists received orders for the construction of palaces and the manufacture of paintings. At the beginning of the 15th century, several Medici families chose the church of San Lorenzo as a burial place for members of their family.

Each of the branches of the dynasty paid for the construction and reconstruction of a certain area in the basilica. Someone from the clan was honored to be in the Chapel of the Princes, and someone rests in the niches of the crypt. All the subtleties and interweaving in the biography of the most famous Tuscan family will be explained to travelers by competent guides who have extensive experience in conducting excursions in Florence and are fluent in historical material.

Mysteries of the Medici Chapel

The clan of the Medici dukes from the 15th to the 18th century created the history of Florence. Their families included popes and two queens of France. The Medici were not only influential rulers, but also patrons who patronized the great creators of the Renaissance. Possessing great power and untold wealth, the Medici dukes, historical evidence, tried at first to buy, but having been refused, made several attempts to steal the Holy Sepulcher from Jerusalem in order to put it in the middle of the Chapel of the Princes.

Who is buried in the Chapel of the Princes of the Basilica of San Lorenzo? What gems are used to decorate the octagonal tomb of the Dukes? Who owned and how were the jewelry and granite workshops of Florence used? How the mosaic surfaces were connected to each other various breeds And why are the connecting seams not visible on the wall cladding? Curious tourists will get answers to these and many other questions by taking advantage of an individual tour with a professional guide.

Great Tombs of the Medici

Two years after the death of Pope Leo X, the grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Pope Clement XVII, continued to finance the construction of the chapel in the new sacristy of San Lorenzo. The sculptor Michelangelo and his apprentices worked on the design of the Medici Chapel for more than 10 years. Michelangelo's favorite material was white marble from the Carrara quarries. The master himself was often present at the selection of blocks for his work.

The allegorical sculptures of Day, Night, Morning and Evening in the Medici Chapel are also made by the architect from white Carrara marble and carefully polished to a shine. Explore all corners of the Church of San Lorenzo and not get lost in the corridors of the tombs, learn a lot of interesting information in a short period of time and see the iconic sights of Florence and the Medici Chapels - this is possible only with the help of competent guides and individual excursions.

Medici and Renaissance

Freedom of creative choice was possible in Republican Florence, but since the 15th century, all talented craftsmen were completely dependent on the Medici court. Michelangelo was a supporter of the Republicans and opposed the tyranny of the Medici, while fulfilling multiple orders of the family. Fearing the ducal wrath, the sculptor continued to decorate the church of San Lorenzo, the Laurenziano library and the new sacristy.

After the defeat of the Republicans, Michelangelo hid from his masters in the sacristy under the chapel of San Lorenzo and stayed there until the Pope forgave his rebellion. After these events, in 1534 the master moved to Rome without completing the design of the Medici Chapel. Work on the tomb of Lorenzo the Magnificent was continued by Vasari, and the sculptures of Cosimo and Domiano were completed by the students of Michelangelo. The great Michelangelo himself (1475-1564), a sculptor, poet, painter and engineer, is buried in the marble tomb of San Lorenzo.

A special role in the design of the Basilica of San Lorenzo was played by the genius of sculpture Donatello (1386-1466). Two huge pulpits, each standing on four columns, are decorated with bronze overlays made by the master. The plot for their design was the biblical themes that describe the life of St. Lawrence, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Descent from the Cross. Being an unpretentious man, Donatello did not work for the sake of money, he was content with modest food and did not wear rich outfits.

The funds he earned were freely available to students, and according to contemporaries, "were kept in a basket suspended from the ceiling in the sculptor's workshop." Combining antiquity and renaissance in his works, Donatello paid great attention to drawing and test castings from wax and clay. Unfortunately, not a single scheme or pattern has survived to this day.

These and other interesting facts about the role of the Medici in the centuries-old history of Renaissance Florence, tourists will learn from competent guides during individual excursions.

Opening hours and ticket prices

Complex historical buildings in the church of San Lorenzo, varies in time of visit and requires a separate purchase of tickets.

Opening hours of the Basilica of San Lorenzo:

• from 10.00 to 17.00 daily
• from 13.30 to 17.30 on Sunday
• closed on Sundays from November to February

Ticket offices close at 16.30.

Ticket price:

• 6 euros to visit the basilica;
• 8.5 euros for joint visit basilicas and libraries of Laurenziano.

Opening hours of the Medici Chapel:

• from 08.15 to 15.45;
• closed January 1, December 25, May 1, from 1 to 3, and 5 Monday of the month, 2 and 4 Sunday of the month.

The cost of tickets to the Chapel is 8 euros.

Where is it located and how to get there

The Church of San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapel are located at: Piazza di San Lorenzo, 9, 50123 Firenze FI, Italia.

City bus number 1 delivers tourists to the San Lorenzo stop.

If you travel by car, you can use the underground parking of Florence Santa Maria Novella train station, which is within walking distance of the Basilica.

Medici Chapel in Florence on the map

Michelangelo - sculptor, painter, architect and poet... Part 2

In the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1489-1492)

J. Vasari. Portrait of 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 of this, declaring that he would treat Michelangelo as own son to which he readily agreed. After that, the Magnificent gave him a room in his 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 as Pico della Mirandola, the head of the Neoplatonist school Marsilio Ficino, the poet Angelo Poliziano, the artist 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 circle of Lorenzo de Medici 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 they are, 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 by talented people, humanist thinkers, poets, artists, under the patronage of a generous and attentive nobleman, in the palace where art became a cult, Michelangelo's main vocation was discovered - sculpture. His earliest works in this art form reveal the true extent of his talent. Created by a sixteen-year-old youth, small relief compositions and statues, based on the study of nature, but executed in a completely antique spirit, are 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. This work was then presented by Lionardo to Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who reveres it as a thing of its kind, the only one of its kind, for another bas-relief, except for this sculpture, was not made 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 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 the images, emphasized by the seriousness of the interpretation of the theme hundreds of times used.

“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 ideally beautiful naked figures, modeled with an accurate knowledge of the anatomical structure of a person. 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 separate parts relief enhances the contrast of the expressiveness of the fragments, finished with all the 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 motifs 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 much more late 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. And 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, the accumulation of experience in line with various, sometimes very contradictory traditions. 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 finished the drawings, thus replacing the living nature with a dead body. 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 by 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 main 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. Head of Christ with eyes closed 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 the internal structure of the 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. Starts independent creative way the artist, who, however, became apparent already during the years of study, when he performed his first works, marked by features of a bright personality. These early works of his also testify to the qualitative shift that took place in Italian sculpture - 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 various creative tasks, in addition to the already existing sculptural ensemble of Benedetto da Maiano, the tomb 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 full of 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 made it very diligently with paints on a small board, and painting work this one is now in the first chapel of the church of San Pietro a Montorio, to the left 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 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 a religious center 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, in the works of which religious ideas and aspirations should be expressed, the task of which, as a result, 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 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. With a genius instinct, the great master was 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 antique 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.

Visit to Rome, contact with ancient culture, whose monuments Michelangelo admired in the Medici collection in Florence, the discovery of the most famous monument of 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 the 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. He endowed the generalized image of an ideally beautiful person, found by ancient art, with individual character traits, revealing the complexity of the inner world, the spiritual life of a 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 ancient 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 a 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 marble figure. big size. Like the ancient masters, he introduced a support - a marble stump, on which he planted a satirenka, thus beating this technical detail compositionally and meaningfully.

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 group "Lamentation of Christ", 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 this will be the best work of marble that exists today, and that no master today will 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 Michelangelo's early Roman period, marking the beginning of the High Renaissance in Italian plastic art. 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 arms, and in the connection of the torso and legs, and such processing of the blood vessels that one is truly plunged into amazement, how could the artist's hand in the shortest possible time so divinely and impeccably create such a marvelous 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 the sculptural group depicted 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 the mourning of Christ was popular both in Gothic art and in the Renaissance, but here it is treated 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)

The New Sacristy, a splendid room created by Michelangelo.
A small square room rushes up with almost gothic persistence. The white marble of the walls is dynamically dissected with the help of dark stone by a system of arches, pilasters, capitals, window frames.

A lot has been written about the New Sacristy both by professional art historians and ordinary travelers. There are also a lot of publications on this topic in LiveJournal. As a rule, in the latter there is no in-depth analysis of this masterpiece by Michelangelo. I am saddened by the often rather superficial description: visited, a lot of male sculptures of Morning and Night and ... that's it. Many enthusiastically describe the beauty of the Chapel of the Princes, preferring and putting it in the first place. For me, visiting the Academy of Fine Arts and the opportunity to see the originals of Michelangelo - his SLAVES, radically influenced my attitude towards his work ().
I am always afraid to describe the brilliant works of sculpture, painting and music, because I do not have enough words to appreciate them. That is why I turned to the impressions of famous people who had their say in art.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous Russian art historian, an expert on the Florentine Renaissance, Pavel Muratov, remarkably wrote about the Chapel:

“In the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, in front of the tombs of Michelangelo, one can experience the purest, most fiery touch of art that a person can experience. All the forces that art exerts on human soul, united here - the importance and depth of the idea, the genius of the imagination, the greatness of the images, the perfection of execution. Before this creation by Michelangelo, one involuntarily thinks that the meaning contained in it must be the true meaning of all art in general. Seriousness and silence are the first impressions here, and even without Michelangelo's famous quatrain, hardly anyone would have dared to speak loudly here. There is something in these tombs that firmly commands to be silent, and as immersed in thought, and as concealing the excitement of feelings, like the "Pensieroso" himself on the grave of Lorenzo. Pure contemplation is prescribed here by brilliant craftsmanship. But in the atmosphere surrounding the tomb of Michelangelo, there is no complete transparency, it is painted in dark colors of sadness. At the same time, there should be no place for abstract and dispassionate contemplation. It is impossible to spend hours in the sacristy of San Lorenzo without experiencing ever-increasing acute spiritual anxiety. Sadness is poured into everything here and goes in waves from wall to wall. What could be more decisive than this experience of the world, made by the greatest of artists? With this revelation of art before one's eyes, can one doubt that sorrow lies at the basis of all things, at the basis of every destiny, at the very basis of life? Michelangelo's sorrow is the sorrow of awakening. Each of his allegorical figures addresses the viewer with a sigh: Non mi destar[do not wake Me Up]. Tradition dubbed one of them "Morning", another "Evening", the third and fourth "Day" and "Night". But "Morning" remained the name of the best of them, best expressing main idea Michelangelo. It should be called "Dawn", always remembering that at the dawn of every day there is a minute that pierces with pain, longing and gives rise to a quiet cry in the heart. The darkness of the night then dissolves into the pale light of dawn, the gray shrouds become thinner and thinner and descend one after another with painful mystery, until dawn at last becomes morning. Michelangelo's "Morning" by Michelangelo, obscure in its unfinished forms, is still shrouded in these gray shrouds. Awakening was for Michelangelo one of the phenomena of life being born, and the birth of life was, according to Pater, the content of all his works. The artist never got tired of watching this miracle in the world. The co-presence of spirit and matter has become the eternal theme of his art, and the creation of a spiritualized form is his eternal artistic task. Man has become the subject of all his images, because in human form the most complete union of the spiritual and the material has been achieved. But it would be a mistake to think that Michelangelo saw harmony in this combination! The dramatic nature of his work is based on the dramatic collision that spirit and matter enter into at each birth of life and on all its paths. To capture the grandeur of this drama, one had to hear the soul of things so sensitively and at the same time feel them so keenly. material value, as was given only to Michelangelo ... He looked at the work of the sculptor only as the liberation of those forms that are hidden in marble and which were given to discover by his genius. That's how he matured inner life of all things, the spirit that lives in the seemingly dead matter of the stone. The liberation of the spirit, forming a form from an inert and formless substance, has always been main task sculptures. Sculpture became the predominant art of the ancient world because the ancient worldview rested on the recognition of the spirituality of all things. This feeling resurrected with the Renaissance - first in the era of French Gothic and the preaching of Francis of Assisi, only as a feeling of a faint aroma, easy breathing passing through everything created in the world, and later it revealed to artists quattrocento the inexhaustible riches of the world and all the depth of spiritual experience it brings. But the native home of the spirit, as it was for Greek sculptors, or its new beautiful country, as it was for painters Early Renaissance, the world ceased to be for Michelangelo. In his sonnets, he speaks of immortal forms doomed to imprisonment in an earthly prison. His chisel frees the spirit not for a harmonious and anciently reconciled existence together with matter, but for separation from it. Michelangelo did not find faith in the liberation of the spirit throughout his long life. We return to the sacristy of San Lorenzo again to collect the last fruits of his wisdom and experience.

The chapel is built of light stone covered with white plaster, but with richer and more complex architectural decorations (niches, windows, arches, etc.).

American author Irving Stone in his novel "Agony and Ecstasy" (published in Russia in 1985 by the publishing house " Fiction” under the title “Torments and Joys” translated by N. Bannikov) writes:

“Love and sorrow, now living in the heart of Michelangelo, pushed him to one thing: to say his word about Lorenzo, to reveal in this work the whole essence of human talent and courage, a zealous desire for knowledge; outline the figure of a husband who dared to call the world to a spiritual and artistic upheaval. The answer, as always, matured slowly. Only stubborn, constant thoughts about Lorenzo led Michelangelo to a plan that opened the way for his creative powers. More than once he recalled conversations with Lorenzo about Hercules. The Magnificent believed that the Greek legend does not give the right to understand the exploits of Hercules literally. The capture of the Erymanthian boar, the victory over the Nemean lion, the cleaning of the Augean stables by the waters of the river turned in its course - all these deeds, perhaps, were only a symbol of the various and unthinkable difficult tasks that each new generation of people faces. Was Lorenzo himself the incarnation of Hercules?

Lorenzo is depicted in a noble meditative state (called "The Thinker"), on his head is a powerful helmet.

The master depicted Giuliano with his head uncovered, courageous, energetic, but indifferent - as the personification of an effective principle. With a casual graceful gesture, he leans on the commander's baton, symbolizing the peace won by war. Giuliano froze in a beautiful and slightly melancholy pose, he has a masculine profile, wonderfully modeled hands, an ideal muscular torso, covered with a thin shell with decorative ornaments:

In Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo, many pages are devoted to Chapel. Stone believes that in the image of "Evening" Michelangelo portrayed himself in an idealized form - with an almost straight nose. Recall the lines from the novel: “No one will return my face to me. My face was shattered under the blow of the fist of the massacre Torrigiano, like a mirror. Fragments remained: it is in my scars. My face was pressed under the blow of his joints, as if it were made of dough, and so hardened and left. I will go through life, and my face is like a hole, scorched and festered by leprosy, I fell down dead, covered in blood. I am crippled for life! At a time when beauty is valued above all, the beauty of the face, when judged by the expression of the eyes, when they fall in love forever at first sight, as in that wonderful April evening when the divine sir met his Beatrice on the bridge in the most delicate pink color, among two ladies, at a time when women look for our smile with a smile, at a time when a person reads only in the face, unable to penetrate into the dark secrets of the heart. At such a time, until my death, I will walk on white light a noseless monster with a twisted face. If I smile, the more vile the gnawed hole will stretch - in my opinion, it will never be able to heal.

The similarity of the images of "Morning" and "Night" is complemented by the similarity of both of them, especially "Morning", with the image of the Madonna. The first concept that arose in connection with the similarity of female images could be the very bold idea that Michelangelo in the statue of "Morning", on which direct sunlight falls during sunrise, depicted an immaculate conception. Indeed, on the face of "Morning" it is not at all necessary to read, as is commonly believed, a difficult awakening (as at birth or leaving a night's sleep), on the contrary, it expresses that carnal languor of satisfied desire, which cannot be confused with anything. This understanding of sculpture has certain grounds. James Hall's latest English study of the Morning statue says: "Morning offers itself for the first time. She either wakes up or is in a state of emotional dope.” Another English author Anthony Hughes wrote that "Morning" became an erotic ideal for later generations of Italian sculptors and painters. Unexpected interpretation, isn't it?

The “Morning” belt-ribbon under the chest is a direct indication of Venus and, of course, does not serve, as I. Stone wrote, simply to emphasize the attractiveness of the Morning chest. Moreover, almost nowhere in the known world painting XV-XVI centuries, except in the image of some Venuses, we do not find such a belt under the chest on a naked body, under a dress.

Within the framework of this concept, the statue “Night” is an image of the Virgin Mary, tormented by the suffering of the crucifixion and falling asleep after the Ascension of Christ with a heavy, but already calm sleep. Then the unity of these three statues expresses for the first time (and the last for the present) the immaculate conception shown in art, the traditional feeding of Jesus born as a result of this conception and oblivion after three days of sleepless mourning and receiving the news of His Ascension. However, the concept of depicting a naked Virgin Mary and a scene of the Immaculate Conception seems too bold. In addition, it has no direct scientific confirmation in the works of art known to us.

When access to the chapel was opened, the poets composed about a hundred sonnets dedicated to these four statues. The most famous lines of Giovanni Strozzi dedicated to "Night":

This is the night that sleeps so peacefully
In front of you is a creation angel,
She is made of stone, but she has a breath,
Just wake up - she will speak.

Michelangelo answered this madrigal with a quatrain that has become no less famous than the statue itself:

It is gratifying to sleep, it is more gratifying to be a stone,
Oh, in this age, criminal and shameful,
Not to live, not to feel - an enviable lot.
Please be quiet, don't you dare wake me up.

(Translated by F.I. Tyutchev)

That is why we would like to present another concept, which appeared later, but has a serious, albeit indirect, scientific justification.

On November 7, 1357, a significant event for the future Florentine Renaissance took place. A few years earlier, a naked Greek statue of Venus had been dug out of the ground in Siena. The respectable Sienese could not stand the test of the beauty of the naked statue and on this day, November 7, they again buried it in the ground, but already on the territory that belonged to the Florentine Republic - they believed that the pagan goddess would bring misfortune to their sworn enemy. However, everything happened differently, and the ancient beauty brought good luck to Florence. This city soon became the cradle of the Renaissance, and one of the most famous masterpieces born here is Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus".
The famous historian Ruskin, in his 1874 lecture, described Botticelli as “the most learned theologian, the most the best artist and the most pleasant person that Florence has ever produced."
For the first time in the history of Christian painting, creating the image of the Madonna, the Mother of God, the artist used the facial features of a naked ancient heroine. It was an incredibly bold artistic decision for that time.
In the 15th - early 16th centuries, a statue of a naked woman with the face of the Madonna could not be in the church. Now Botticelli's Venuses and Madonnas hang in Uffizi gallery nearby, and in the 15th century the artist painted them to order, and they dispersed in private collections, in different houses; there were no exhibitions in those days. The chapel was a public place, a temple where anyone could come.

“And what made Botticelli sad made him unbridled, and if Sandro’s fingers trembled with anxious anguish, then Michelangelo’s fists cut the image of his rage into a trembling stone,” writes Rilke.

Michelangelo could not but know and not see the Botticelli triad. The fact that Botticelli was inspired in his images of female statues of the Medici Chapel can be seen from his drawings of female nature, located in Casa Buanarotti, the sculptor's house-museum in Florence. In these drawings, according to art historians, there is a direct connection with the portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, who was, in turn, according to the generally accepted opinion, the “model” of Botticelli.
Three female images of the Chapel can be seen at once, from one place. If you stand facing the Madonna, then the statue of "Morning" will be on the right, and "Night" on the left. It is difficult to say why they are arranged in this order, but it is safe to say that Michelangelo made a daring attempt to revise, in order to update and refresh, traditional Christian symbols, introducing into them that beauty that the Florentines idolized in the ancient heritage.

Auguste Rodin was not only shocked by the sculptures of Michelangelo (primarily the Medici Chapel), but, it seems to us, he set himself the "Michelangelian" task - to surpass the great sculptor. The grandiosity of the goal allowed Rodin to reach the greatest creative peaks. He probably still realized that he had not surpassed the great Florentine, and this was the drama of his life.

In Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo, many pages are devoted to the Chapel... The statue of the "Day" is not completed, and it is difficult to establish its portrait resemblance to the original. She represents a large, muscular man with a broken bridge of the nose. The sculptor deliberately left the face unfinished - he makes it clear that this is his image - a giant of incredible strength, which he most likely realized himself to be. "Day" - a man whose face is not visible; his body is muscular and strong; he lies with his back to the viewer, restless, and it is difficult to understand whether he is going to roll over to the other side, or stand up, or lie down better; his right leg rests on something, his left is raised and thrown over his right, his left hand is behind his back; all together - a whole whirlwind of counterpoints that create Michelangelo's favorite position: a figure in the moment of preparation for an undecided, completely abrupt movement.




The sculpture "Day" aroused the liveliest interest and thoughts in me. I do not confess exactly what thoughts arose in my head. But how I would like to understand this plan of Michelangelo!!! It is this sculpture that is least of all discussed by art historians. Very interesting, why?
How not to recall Rilke here: “Know that the master creates for himself - only for himself. What you will laugh at or sob at, he must blind with strong hands of the soul and bring him out of himself. In his soul there is no place for his own past - therefore, he endows it with a separate, original existence in his creations. And only because he has no other material than this world of yours, he gives it the appearance of your everyday life. Do not touch them with your hands - they are not for you; know how to respect them."

The Medici Madonna, placed in the center of the anti-altar wall, the key image of the chapel and one of the highest creations of the pictorial genius of Michelangelo, acts as an image, beautiful and internally concentrated, directly involved in the viewer with the world of his feelings, the depth and complexity of which do not obscure their simple humanity. This statue was begun in 1521, was finalized in 1531, when Michelangelo brought it to the full definition of the group, far from the final finish, in this form it has survived to this day. "Madonna" performs a very important compositional role in the entire chapel: she unites the statues, the figures of Lorenzo and Giuliano are facing her.

According to the original plan, it was supposed to be located in a separate niche opposite the altar, but subsequent changes in the project led to a rearrangement of the sculptural group of the chapel. The Uffizi Museum keeps a drawing copy from Michelangelo's project, which shows that the original "Madonna" was conceived in the style of the early "Madonna of Bruges": a baby standing on the floor between the knees of the Madonna, in the hands of the Madonna - a book.
In the sculptural group of the Medici tomb, the Infant sits on the Mother's lap in a very complex position: the head of the infant, suckling the breast, is sharply turned back, with his left hand he holds on to the mother's shoulder, and he puts his right hand on her chest. It resembles full internal forces the figures of the early Michelangelo, but the bowed head of the Madonna, her mournful gaze gazing into space is full of the same sadness as the whole chapel. The feelings oppressing Michelangelo find expression not only in allegorical figures, but in the whole ensemble and even in the statue of the Madonna and Child (Madonna of the Medici), which accentuates the middle part of the wall between the tombs. The statues of Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici, sitting in their narrow niches, face her.
The image of the Madonna, imbued with the tragedy of the worldview, is significant, majestic and humane. Thoughtful look of the Madonna, immersed in her inner world. Her posture, tense and dynamic, the restless rhythm of the folds of her clothes - everything connects her with other images of the chapel, with the architecture itself, the forms of which are either concentrated or rarefied, creating the impression of the tension of the whole. Only the strong, unchildishly serious Baby, reaching for the mother's breast, continues the line of images full of inner charge that were created by the artist earlier. But the general mood of grief, deep heavy meditation, bitterness of loss is conveyed in the ensemble of the chapel with amazing integrity and strength.