FREE ESSAY ON MICHELANGELO BUONARROTTI

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTTI

Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarrotti, although considered by many a Florentine, was actually born in
Caprese, Italy in 1475. Michelangelo was an inspired artist of the Renaissance period. He
and Leonardo DaVinci were considered to be the two greatest figures of this highly
artistic movement. Michelangelo was a highly versatile artist and was involved in
sculpting, architecture, painting, and even poetry. .At the age of 13, he was apprenticed
to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who at the time was painting a chapel in the church of Santa
Maria Novella in Florence. Here, the young Michelangelo learned the technique of fresco
(painting on fresh plaster before it dries); He would use this technique many years later
in his work in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. At the age of fifteen, Michelangelo began to
spend time in the home and in the gardens of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he studied
sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. It was during this time that he completed the
Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs.
The political climate in Florence following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici may have led
Michelangelo to leave the city, going first to Bologna and, after a brief return to
Florence, to Rome. In Rome, he carved the Bacchus and then the Pieta which is in St.
Peter's basilica in Rome. Michelangelo returned to Florence where he began work on the
David. Called the Giant by his fellow Florentines, this statue was completed in 1504.
Later that year, Michelangelo was commissioned to undertake a fresco of the Battle of the
Cascina, a work that was unfortunately later destroyed. During this same time period,
Michelangelo produced several Madonnas; including the painting the Holy Family (also
known as the Doni Madonna), a statue of the Madonna and Child (called the Bruges Madonna)
which was purchased by a Flemish merchant and is now in Bruges, and two marble reliefs,
the Taddei tondo and the Pitti tondo. Michelangelo was called to Rome by Pope Julius II
to create a tomb for him which was to contain forty lifesize figures, an endeavor that
was never fully realized. In 1508, Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
frescoes, a task that would occupy him until 1512. Upon completing the Sistine Chapel,
Michelangelo returned to the work on Julius' tomb, completing the figure of Moses and
leaving unfinished two Slaves. Following Julius' death in 1513, he worked for Pope Leo X,
Lorenzo de' Medici's son. At the Medici family's parish church in Florence, San Lorenzo,
Michelangelo created tombs for Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici (II) and designed the
Laurentian library, an annex to San Lorenzo. In 1534, Michelangelo left Florence for
Rome, where he was to spend the remainder of his life. He returned to the Sistine Chapel
where he created the Last Judgment, another fresco, on the end wall. He designed the dome
for St. Peter's and the Capitoline Square. He also worked on the Palazzo Farnese. His
last paintings were the frescoes of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St.
Peter in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564.
Michelangelo established himself as one of the great artists of all time through his
various artistic abilities. Not only was Michelangelo Buonarrotti a fantastic painter as
he showed through his masterpiece on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but many thought that
his greatest artistic achievements were his sculptures. He was a man of many talents and
will go down in history as one of the greatest and most versatile visionaries of all
time.
Bibliography: 1) www.michelangelo.com 2) Encyclopedia Britannica 3) Microsoft Encarta '98