michelangelo

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Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy. His father was the mayor of the town and was very proud of it until their fortune took a turn for the worst. His father became unemployed and they moved to a run down house in Florence. In Florence Michelangelo was in full care of his nanny and barely ever got to see his parents, so at age six when his mother died it wasn’t saddening for him. At thirteen Michelangelo became an apprentice at the studio of painter Domenico Ghirlandaio who was the most vogue painter in Florence. While working for him at fourteen he carved a sculpture that attracted Lorenzo of the Medici and he invited Michelangelo to come and study and their palace with his son and nephew. There he studied sculpture and painting from Bertoldo di Giovanni the Medici’s art keeper. While he was there the two most prominent pieces he made were “Madonna of the stairs and the “battle of the centaurs.”

In 1492 Lorenzo de Medici abruptly died and in 1494 the Medici lost power. Michelangelo, at 19, left Florence in search of work. He found it in a nearby city called Bologna, where he carved two missing saints in a tomb in the San domenico church. Then in 1499, when he was 24, he started his first major sculpture called pieta. It is of Virgin Mary leaning over a crucified Jesus on her lap and her melancholy expression looking downward at her son. It was important to him because he felt it was balancing renaissance pure beauty with naturalism and carved each individual crinkle into Mary’s drapery.

After that he made his way back to Florence and from 1501- 1504 he was given a 16 ft piece of marble by the head of the cathedral who gave him the task of finishing a sculpture another man had started forty years earlier but forsaken. He started to carve a sculpture of the biblical character David about to go into battle. David is idolized as a strong, handsome young man; He now stands in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, and is one of the most famous of Michelangelo’s sculptures.

In 1505 Michelangelo went back to Rome where Pope Julius the 2nd wanted him to make a marble tomb with 40 statues. He had only spent eight months selecting stones when Pope Julius decided he would save the money for the painting of the Sistine chapel. In 1508 Michelangelo was called by Pope Julius to be the one to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. At first Michelangelo rejected the idea saying he was a sculptor not a painter but when the pope persisted he gave in. The original plan was to paint twelve of the apostles but Michelangelo ended up painting a much more complicated scene with more the 300 people which took four years. He tried to contact some painters he knew but when they failed he fired them and re did it himself.



In 1516 he went back to Florence and started working for the Medici again and in 1530 he started making four marble tombs for previous rulers. But soon after Michelangelo fled from his life because the Medici were making threats but they said if he came back to finish the tombs they wouldn’t kill him. He finished two out of four before he went back to Rome in 1534 to paint a fresco for pope Julius. He started painting the last judgment in 1537 on the alter wall in the Sistine chapel. It showed the second coming of Christ with the souls of humans rising and descending to their fates. It took nine years to finish was made three decades after he painted the ceiling.



In his 70’s and 80’s Michelangelo was mainly focused on architecture. He designed the great dome of saint Peter's in the Vatican and oversaw its construction. Then after he painted two last paintings called " The Conversion of St. Paul" and "The Crucifixion of St. Peter." The crucifixion of saint peter was later hung in some chapels over candles to show his suffering was as harsh as fire.

Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564 at 89 years old. He was buried in Florence but still honored in Rome. He had an influenced mannerist artists from his 16th century expressive treatment of human form and he also had an influence on 17th century baroque artists from his power and drama. An all others are influenced by his originality, independent spirit, success shaped life and someone who turned the word artist into meaning creative genus. As historian Vasary said “Greatest man known to arts."

Three links-outside resources: [] [|www.info.com] [|www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/michelangelo/]

Three sources: [|www.info.com] [|www.wikipedia.com] [|www.ibiblio.org] renassaince Grolier volume seven

Three links to classmates: Michelangelo (by Courtney) William Shakespeare Renaissance Medicine