Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, better known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Today he is recognized as one of the greatest and most renowned creators in the history of art.
He was the only artist of his time whose biography was published during his lifetime, in The Lives by Giorgio Vasari, who chose to place him at the pinnacle of artists, using for Michelangelo the epithet “the Divine” (Il Divino). Among his most celebrated works are the frescoes he created for the Papal Chapel of the Vatican (the Sistine Chapel), the statue of David, and the Pietà (Deposition) in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Early Years
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a small town about 60 kilometers from Florence, which today, in his honor, is called Caprese Michelangelo. He was the son of Lodovico di Buonarroti di Simoni and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. The Buonarroti family descended from an old Florentine lineage, whose members had held important public offices in the past. Their financial prosperity appears to have declined in the mid-15th century. In 1474, his father was appointed podestà (local governor) in the town of Chiusi and later in Caprese.
Michelangelo had four brothers, and during the birth of the youngest, in 1481, his mother died. Later, the family settled in the town of Settignano, near Florence, where Lodovico entrusted Michelangelo’s upbringing to a wet nurse.
Despite his evident inclination toward painting and at his father’s wish, he initially studied under the guidance of the humanist Francesco da Urbino, but in 1487 he began an apprenticeship in the painting workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. There he became acquainted with the technique of fresco painting and practiced drawing. It is considered likely that Michelangelo remained in Ghirlandaio’s workshop for three years of apprenticeship, according to a contract his father had signed in 1488, although he was to a large extent self-taught.
By visiting the Garden of the Medici, which housed an important collection of ancient sculptures under the supervision of the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, he learned the art of sculpture. At the same time, he met Lorenzo de’ Medici, the prominent ruler of Florence, who introduced him to his court. He was educated alongside Lorenzo’s sons and formed ties with Marsilio Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, as well as with the ideas of Neoplatonism. During this period, Michelangelo completed two marble reliefs: The Madonna of the Stairs (1490–1492) and The Battle of the Centaurs (1491–1492), the latter commissioned by Lorenzo and based on a subject suggested by Poliziano.
After Lorenzo’s death on April 8, 1492, and following a brief return to his family home, Michelangelo was later hosted at the monastery of Santo Spirito, where he was given the opportunity to acquire knowledge of anatomy by studying the corpses from the neighboring hospital. In return for this hospitality, Michelangelo carved a wooden Crucifix (1493), which he donated to the monastery. From the same period likely dates his first major sculpture, Hercules, a work that was initially placed in the Palazzo Strozzi but later transferred to France, where it was probably destroyed in the 18th century.
Michelangelo remained in the service of the Medici after power passed to Lorenzo’s son, Piero de’ Medici. However, this regime was soon to collapse following the rise of the monk Girolamo Savonarola and the growing influence of his sermons. Fearing reprisals as a Medici favorite, Michelangelo left Florence and, after staying for a time in Venice, later settled in Bologna. There he secured an important commission to complete three unfinished sculptures for the church of San Domenico. He remained in Bologna for more than a year and returned to Florence in November 1495.
Unlike Leonardo da Vinci, who regarded Savonarola as a fanatic, Michelangelo was influenced by his sermons, which may have contributed to the formation of his religious outlook.
Rome
On June 26, 1496, Michelangelo visited Rome. Earlier, he had sculpted a marble Cupid, whose subject matter, however, made its sale impossible under the Savonarolan regime in Florence. For this reason, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a relative of the Medici family, suggested altering the features of the work so that it would appear to be an ancient sculpture. In this way, it was sold to Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who—when the truth was later revealed—invited Michelangelo to Rome in order to meet the talented artist.
In Rome, Michelangelo sculpted a Bacchus commissioned by Riario, and later undertook the creation of the Pietà for the Vatican, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica. This work depicts the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ after the Crucifixion. The Pietà played a decisive role in establishing his reputation and is also the only work that bears Michelangelo’s signature, as he carved the words MICHEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENT FACIBAT upon it.
Michelangelo remained in Rome for approximately five years and then returned to Florence, which was emerging from a period of political instability following the condemnation of Savonarola. Thanks to the fame he had acquired in Rome, he received several commissions. Among them stands out the commission for the David, intended for Florence Cathedral—a monumental marble sculpture. The work was completed in 1504, greatly enhancing Michelangelo’s prestige. At the same time, it became a symbol of the new Florentine Republic, and as a result it was ultimately placed in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
Sistine Chapel
In 1505, Michelangelo returned to Rome at the invitation of the new Pope, Julius II, who commissioned him to create an imposing mausoleum. This project ultimately remained unfinished; however, while working on it, Michelangelo simultaneously undertook other commissions. One of these concerned the decoration of the ceiling of the Papal Chapel (the Sistine Chapel) with frescoes of the twelve Apostles. Michelangelo proposed instead a far more complex and ambitious undertaking. Ultimately, over a period of four years (1508–1512), he created more than 300 biblical figures and other religious representations, including scenes from Genesis, the story of Noah, and the Last Judgment.
It is said that during these four years Michelangelo rarely left the Sistine Chapel and allowed no one to see his work, thus creating great anticipation, rumors, and crowds gathering outside the chapel. A significant innovation was also the depiction of themes drawn from ancient Greek and Roman tradition, without a direct connection to Christianity, such as the Sibyls. The ceiling was so high that Michelangelo devised a special technique: he painted the figures deliberately distorted so that viewers standing several meters below would perceive them as correctly proportioned.
At the beginning of 1513, Pope Julius II died, and his successor, Leo X, commissioned Michelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. He worked on this project for three years, but the pope ultimately rejected the design. Michelangelo then undertook the construction of a new sacristy for the same church, intended to house the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his brother Giuliano, as well as those of the two prematurely deceased dukes bearing the same names. The death of the pope in 1521 and the accession of Adrian VI temporarily suspended the work, which resumed when Clement VII ascended the papal throne. Although the project remained unfinished, it constitutes an important example of the coexistence of architecture and sculpture, in accordance with Michelangelo’s artistic vision.
In 1528, Michelangelo was assigned an important role in the defense of the city against the troops of Charles V and was appointed supervisor of the fortification works. Before the siege of the city, he fled to France at the invitation of Francis I, as a result of which he was labeled a deserter; however, he soon submitted a request to return, which was accepted. On August 12, 1530, Florence signed a capitulation, and after the return of the Medici, Michelangelo remained in the city, continuing his work on the sacristy as well as on the Laurentian Library.
Final Years
In the early 1530s, Michelangelo returned once again to Rome, making an effort to complete the Tomb of Pope Julius II. The work was interrupted during the period 1534–1541, when he undertook the painting of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. During the final years of the pontificate of Pope Paul III, he also assumed a series of architectural projects, among the most important of which were the redesign of the Capitoline Hill (Piazza del Campidoglio) and work on the Palazzo Farnese.
In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed chief architect for the completion of St. Peter’s Basilica. The original plans followed those of Donato Bramante, but Michelangelo designed the dome, the construction of which was completed before his death, although its final placement occurred later.
Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. According to Vasari, he expressed his will by saying that he left “his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his material possessions to his closest relatives.” His body was initially placed in a sarcophagus at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome. A few days later, however, his nephew Leonardo Buonarroti organized its removal, transferring the remains to the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, thus fulfilling Michelangelo’s own wish to be buried in his native city.
Fine arts.
