Michelangelo Buonarroti

Who was he? Born in the year 1475 in the town of Ceprese in Italy. He was raised in Florence. His father was a judge.

Who was he? Cont. At a young age his father sent him to school to study grammar. He showed no interest in his schooling, but was interested in art. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a painter named Ghirlandaio. This is where he started formal art training.

What did he do? In his lifetime he was considered the greatest living artist and is considered by many to be the greatest artist of all time. He rivals da Vinci is the ideal “Renaissance Man”. He was well learned and/or trained in painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and engineering. He lived and worked at the same time as da Vinci. During the High Renaissance.

His Artwork The Sistine Chapel Ceiling The ceiling was painted from 1508 to It is a fresco painting. The ceiling is 40 feet wide and 130 feet long.

The Sistine Chapel The ceiling includes over 300 paintings of people. The main subject matter is nine different stories from the book of Genesis.

The Sistine Chapel Michelangelo was coerced by the Pope to do the painting. He had to stop working on another project, a design for the Popes tomb, to work on this. Michelangelo saw himself as a sculptor. He did not like painting, he thought it was insignificant compared to sculpture. So when asked/forced to do this he was insulted. He was also insulted because ceiling paintings were considered less important than wall paintings.

The Sistine Chapel Because Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor, he did not like having to paint. So to make the job more bearable he painted a lot of it to look like sculpture.

The Sistine Chapel Michelangelo was infamous for being stubborn and hard to work with. Because of this he did not allow anyone to help him with the project. He was also legendary in his time for his work ethic. He would climb the scaffolding he made and work on the painting all day without coming down. He would go weeks without even changing cloths because he was working so much. He had to design and build the scaffolding himself. It is rumored that he fell of more than once.

The Creation of Adam

The Libyan Sibyl

The Delphic Sibyl

David and Goliath

His Artwork The Pieta Done in in marble

The Pieta Pieta means “A representation of Mary mourning over the dead body of Jesus.” This sculpture was done when Michelangelo was only in his early 20’s, about 24.

The Pieta People of his time were so shocked that such a young artist could create such a beautiful artwork that some didn’t believe he actually did it. Because of this, after the sculpture was complete, Michelangelo went in and signed it saying “Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this”

The Pieta The Pieta is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed. In the sculpture Mary is significantly larger than Jesus. This is because Michelangelo needed a strong base to hold the weight of the rest of the sculpture.

Vandalism

His Artwork Moses Done in using marble. Was originally done for the tomb of the pope, but that project was never finished. Almost 8 feet tall

Moses

The Laurentian Library

Done in 1571, after Michelangelo had died It was completed according to his plans and instructions Part of the Basilica of San Lorenzo

Mannerism As a result of all of Michelangelo’s artwork, he started the next big movement in art. Mannerism. Mannerism was a movement where artists distorted proportions and used their own style rather than making things look “ideal” or “perfect”