NAVIGATIONALL ARTISTS
Michelangelo
Buonarroti (1475 - 1564) simply known as Michelangelo was born
in Caprese Italy, within the territory of Florence. His father Ludovico
Buonarroti was a local Magistrate, known as podesta', for the towns of
Caprese and Chiusi. Michelangelo's artistic career began in 1488, at the
age of 13, when he was apprenticed to the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio.
This apprenticeship was under contract to last for three years but it
was less than a year later that the young Michelangelo was transferred
to the fledgling school of the artist Bertoldo set up by Lorenzo de' Medici
in the Medici Garden. It is certain even this early in Michelangelo's
training that his skill was evident or he would not have been invited
into the powerful Medici family's patronage. This idyllic existence was
to last only four years - in 1492 Lorenzo (known as "Il Magnifico"
or "The Magnificent") died and the entire Medici family was
expelled from Florence and the Theocratic government of Girolamo Savonarola
came to full power. The Dominican father Savonarola's sermons condemning
the flowering of art and culture in Italy as work of the devil were to
haunt Michelangelo his entire live. In 1497 Savonarola's followers carried
out a "bonfire of the vanities" in which some of Michelangelo's
paintings were burned. By this time Michelangelo had fled - first to Bologna
and in 1496 to Rome. Rome's classical influence on the young artist was
not inconsiderable - he began one of his most famous works the St. Peter's
Pieta - in this year and completed it in 1500. At the age of 25 it was
clear that not only was Michelangelo a full fledged master but was also
something more. The Pieta was so skillfully executed, the composition
so natural, even tender for the subject that few believed the young artist
had carved the work believing instead it to be a work of Gobbo di Milano.
An infuriated Michelangelo stole into St. Peter's at night and carved
upon the statue the Latin phrase "Angelus Bonarotus Florentinus Faciebat"
('Angelo Buonarroti of Florence Made This). In 1501 the now famous sculptor
returned to a now safe Florence (Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Savonarola
and after a month of torture burned him at the stake) and carved his masterpiece
David and painted another masterwork the Doni Tondo which were completed
in 1504. In 1508 he returned to Rome under duress to paint the frescoes
of the Sistine chapel ceiling. The Sistine chapel is remarkable not only
for its beauty, the circumstance under which it was painted (Michelangelo
painted most of it lying on his back only and arms length away), but also
for how it catalogues the artist's growth across its length. Begun in
1508 and not completed until 1512 the Sistine project was a massive undertaking
whose first dabs of paint were carefully and meticulously applied - by
the end of the project so confident and skilled was the artist (not to
mention angry and indifferent to the outcome) that Michelangelo was psychologically
free to single-handedly bring fresco painting to its pinnacle. Michelangelo's
art was a culmination of the knowledge and revival of the classics during
the Renaissance and his work was the launching point of a new style of
art which became known as Mannerism. Giorgio Vasari a longtime friend,
admirer, and fellow artist wrote in his 1553 "Life of Michelangelo"
that Michelangelo was "greatest sculptor, painter, and draughtsman
that has ever lived".
