brief biography of michelangelo

Michelangelo

Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo created the 'David' and 'Pieta' sculptures and the Sistine Chapel and 'Last Judgment' paintings.

(1475-1564)

Who Was Michelangelo?

What followed was a remarkable career as an artist, famed in his own time for his artistic virtuosity. Although he always considered himself a Florentine, Michelangelo lived most of his life in Rome, where he died at age 88.

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, the second of five sons.

When Michelangelo was born, his father, Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni, was briefly serving as a magistrate in the small village of Caprese. The family returned to Florence when Michelangelo was still an infant.

His mother, Francesca Neri, was ill, so Michelangelo was placed with a family of stonecutters, where he later jested, "With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues."

Indeed, Michelangelo was less interested in schooling than watching the painters at nearby churches and drawing what he saw, according to his earliest biographers (Vasari, Condivi and Varchi). It may have been his grammar school friend, Francesco Granacci, six years his senior, who introduced Michelangelo to painter Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Michelangelo's father realized early on that his son had no interest in the family financial business, so he agreed to apprentice him, at the age of 13, to Ghirlandaio and the Florentine painter's fashionable workshop. There, Michelangelo was exposed to the technique of fresco (a mural painting technique where pigment is placed directly on fresh, or wet, lime plaster).

Medici Family

From 1489 to 1492, Michelangelo studied classical sculpture in the palace gardens of Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici of the powerful Medici family. This extraordinary opportunity opened to him after spending only a year at Ghirlandaio’s workshop, at his mentor’s recommendation.

This was a fertile time for Michelangelo; his years with the family permitted him access to the social elite of Florence — allowing him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and exposing him to prominent poets, scholars and learned humanists.

He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study cadavers for insight into anatomy, though exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health.

These combined influences laid the groundwork for what would become Michelangelo's distinctive style: a muscular precision and reality combined with an almost lyrical beauty. Two relief sculptures that survive, "Battle of the Centaurs" and "Madonna Seated on a Step," are testaments to his phenomenal talent at the tender age of 16.

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Move to Rome

Political strife in the aftermath of Lorenzo de' Medici’s death led Michelangelo to flee to Bologna, where he continued his study. He returned to Florence in 1495 to begin work as a sculptor, modeling his style after masterpieces of classical antiquity.

There are several versions of an intriguing story about Michelangelo's famed "Cupid" sculpture, which was artificially "aged" to resemble a rare antique: One version claims that Michelangelo aged the statue to achieve a certain patina, and another version claims that his art dealer buried the sculpture (an "aging" method) before attempting to pass it off as an antique.

Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio bought the "Cupid" sculpture, believing it as such, and demanded his money back when he discovered he'd been duped. Strangely, in the end, Riario was so impressed with Michelangelo's work that he let the artist keep the money. The cardinal even invited the artist to Rome, where Michelangelo would live and work for the rest of his life.

Personality

Though Michelangelo's brilliant mind and copious talents earned him the regard and patronage of the wealthy and powerful men of Italy, he had his share of detractors.

He had a contentious personality and quick temper, which led to fractious relationships, often with his superiors. This not only got Michelangelo into trouble, it created a pervasive dissatisfaction for the painter, who constantly strived for perfection but was unable to compromise.

He sometimes fell into spells of melancholy, which were recorded in many of his literary works: "I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and have no friends of any kind, nor do I want them; and I do not have enough time to eat as much as I need; my joy and my sorrow/my repose are these discomforts," he once wrote.

In his youth, Michelangelo had taunted a fellow student, and received a blow on the nose that disfigured him for life. Over the years, he suffered increasing infirmities from the rigors of his work; in one of his poems, he documented the tremendous physical strain that he endured by painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Political strife in his beloved Florence also gnawed at him, but his most notable enmity was with fellow Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci , who was more than 20 years his senior.

Poetry and Personal Life

Michelangelo's poetic impulse, which had been expressed in his sculptures, paintings and architecture, began taking literary form in his later years.

Although he never married, Michelangelo was devoted to a pious and noble widow named Vittoria Colonna, the subject and recipient of many of his more than 300 poems and sonnets. Their friendship remained a great solace to Michelangelo until Colonna's death in 1547.

Soon after Michelangelo's move to Rome in 1498, the cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, a representative of the French King Charles VIII to the pope, commissioned "Pieta," a sculpture of Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap.

Michelangelo, who was just 25 years old at the time, finished his work in less than one year, and the statue was erected in the church of the cardinal's tomb. At 6 feet wide and nearly as tall, the statue has been moved five times since, to its present place of prominence at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Carved from a single piece of Carrara marble, the fluidity of the fabric, positions of the subjects, and "movement" of the skin of the Piet — meaning "pity" or "compassion" — created awe for its early viewers, as it does even today.

It is the only work to bear Michelangelo’s name: Legend has it that he overheard pilgrims attribute the work to another sculptor, so he boldly carved his signature in the sash across Mary's chest. Today, the "Pieta" remains a universally revered work.

Between 1501 and 1504, Michelangelo took over a commission for a statue of "David," which two prior sculptors had previously attempted and abandoned, and turned the 17-foot piece of marble into a dominating figure.

The strength of the statue's sinews, vulnerability of its nakedness, humanity of expression and overall courage made the "David" a highly prized representative of the city of Florence.

Originally commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, the Florentine government instead installed the statue in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now lives in Florence’s Accademia Gallery .

Sistine Chapel

Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to switch from sculpting to painting to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which the artist revealed on October 31, 1512. The project fueled Michelangelo’s imagination, and the original plan for 12 apostles morphed into more than 300 figures on the ceiling of the sacred space. (The work later had to be completely removed soon after due to an infectious fungus in the plaster, then recreated.)

Michelangelo fired all of his assistants, whom he deemed inept, and completed the 65-foot ceiling alone, spending endless hours on his back and guarding the project jealously until completion.

The resulting masterpiece is a transcendent example of High Renaissance art incorporating the symbology, prophecy and humanist principles of Christianity that Michelangelo had absorbed during his youth.

'Creation of Adam'

The vivid vignettes of Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling produce a kaleidoscope effect, with the most iconic image being the " Creation of Adam," a famous portrayal of God reaching down to touch the finger of man.

Rival Roman painter Raphael evidently altered his style after seeing the work.

'Last Judgment'

Michelangelo unveiled the soaring "Last Judgment" on the far wall of the Sistine Chapel in 1541. There was an immediate outcry that the nude figures were inappropriate for so holy a place, and a letter called for the destruction of the Renaissance's largest fresco.

The painter retaliated by inserting into the work new portrayals: his chief critic as a devil and himself as the flayed St. Bartholomew.

Architecture

Although Michelangelo continued to sculpt and paint throughout his life, following the physical rigor of painting the Sistine Chapel he turned his focus toward architecture.

He continued to work on the tomb of Julius II, which the pope had interrupted for his Sistine Chapel commission, for the next several decades. Michelangelo also designed the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library — located opposite the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence — to house the Medici book collection. These buildings are considered a turning point in architectural history.

But Michelangelo's crowning glory in this field came when he was made chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica in 1546.

Was Michelangelo Gay?

In 1532, Michelangelo developed an attachment to a young nobleman, Tommaso dei Cavalieri, and wrote dozens of romantic sonnets dedicated to Cavalieri.

Despite this, scholars dispute whether this was a platonic or a homosexual relationship.

Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564 — just weeks before his 89th birthday — at his home in Macel de'Corvi, Rome, following a brief illness.

A nephew bore his body back to Florence, where he was revered by the public as the "father and master of all the arts." He was laid to rest at the Basilica di Santa Croce — his chosen place of burial.

Unlike many artists, Michelangelo achieved fame and wealth during his lifetime. He also had the peculiar distinction of living to see the publication of two biographies about his life, written by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi.

Appreciation of Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the finest humanist tradition of the Renaissance.

Watch "Michelangelo: Artist and Man" on HISTORY Vault

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Birth Year: 1475
• Birth date: March 6, 1475
• Birth City: Caprese (Republic of Florence)
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo created the 'David' and 'Pieta' sculptures and the Sistine Chapel and 'Last Judgment' paintings.
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Pisces
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Michelangelo was just 25 years old at the time when he created the 'Pieta' statue.
• For the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo fired all of his assistants and painted the 65-foot ceiling alone.
• Despite his immense talent, Michelangelo had a quick temper and contempt for authority.
• Death Year: 1564
• Death date: February 18, 1564
• Death City: Rome
• Death Country: Italy

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Michelangelo Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/michelangelo
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 4, 2020
• Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.
• I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
• I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and have no friends of any kind, nor do I want them; and I do not have enough time to eat as much as I need; my joy and my sorrow/my repose are these discomforts.
• With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues.
• A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.
• Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.
• If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
• Critique by creating.
• The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
• With few words I will make thee understand my soul.
• Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.
• Genius is eternal patience.
• If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius.

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Michelangelo

Italian Painter, Sculptor, Poet, and Architect

Summary of Michelangelo

It is universally accepted that Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in the history of art. His phenomenal virtuosity as a sculptor, and also as a painter and architect, is married to a reputation for being hot-tempered and volatile. He was central to the revival in classical Greek and Roman art , but his contribution to Renaissance art and culture went far beyond the mere imitation of antiquity. Indeed, he conjured figures, both carved and painted, that were infused with such psychological intensity and emotional realism they set a new standard of excellence. Michelangelo's most seminal pieces: the massive painting of the biblical narratives on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the 17-foot-tall and anatomically flawless David, and the heartbreakingly genuine Pietà, are considered some of the greatest achievements in human history. Tourists flock to Rome and Florence to stand before them.

Accomplishments

• Michelangelo's early studies of classical sculpture were coupled with research into human cadavers. Having been granted access to a local hospital, he gained an almost surgical understanding of human anatomy. The resultant musculature of his figures is so naturalistic and precise they have been expected to spring to life at any moment.
• Michelangelo's dexterity with carving an entire sculpture from a single block of marble remains unmatched. He once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He was known as the sculptor who could summon the living from stone.
• The fact that he considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, didn't stop Michelangelo from producing what is perhaps the most famous fresco in the history of world art. Featuring scenes from the Old Testament, his sublime achievement, which adorns the ceiling of the Vatican's holy Sistine Chapel, attracts millions of visitors to Rome each year. The task of painting the ceiling is at the heart of Michelangelo's legend. It is the tale of a disgruntled artist working for four years, in uncomfortable and cramped conditions atop a scaffold structure, on a commission that he never wanted.
• Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in history and was the first to have had his biography published while still working. The great Renaissance biographer, Giorgio Vasari, confirmed Michelangelo’s genius in his legendary book, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550).
• The artist's feisty and tempestuous personality is legendary. He often abandoned projects midway through or expressed his defiance through controversial means such as painting his own face on figures, or by putting in the faces of his enemies (in mocking fashion). One infamous attack was aimed at a high-ranking Vatican priest, Biagio de Cesena, who had complained about the level nudity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco. In an act of revenge, the artist painted Minos (judge of the dead in Greek mythology) with Cesena's face, giving him donkeys ears, and with his testicles being bitten by a serpent.

The Life of Michelangelo

"The sculptor's hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone," Michelangelo famously said. Carved from a single block of marble, each figure he sculpted came alive with physical and psychological power, making him the most famous sculptor in history.

Important Art by Michelangelo

Bacchus , Michelangelo's first surviving large statue, depicts the Roman god of wine precariously balancing on a rock in a state of intoxication. He wears a wreath of ivy and holds a goblet in one hand, raised up toward his lips. In the other hand, he holds a lion skin, which is a symbol of death as derived from the myth of Hercules. From behind his left leg peeks a satyr, significant to the cult of Bacchus as often representing a drunken, lusty, woodland deity. The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert writes, "The Bacchus relies on ancient Roman nude figures as a point of departure, but it is much more mobile and more complex in outline. The conscious instability evokes the god of wine and Dionysian [relating to the sensuous and the orgiastic] revels with extraordinary virtuosity. Made for a garden, it is also unique among Michelangelo's works in calling for observation from all sides rather than primarily from the front." The work caused considerable controversy when it was unveiled. It was originally commissioned by Cardinal Riario and was inspired by a description of a lost bronze sculpture by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. But when Riario saw the finished piece he found it inappropriate and rejected it. Michelangelo duly sold it to his banker, Jacopo Galli. Despite its checkered past, the piece is early evidence of Michelangelo's genius. His excellent knowledge of anatomy is seen in the androgynous figure's body which biographer Giorgio Vasari described as having the "the slenderness of a young man and the fleshy roundness of a woman." A high center of gravity lends the figure a sense of captured movement, which Michelangelo would later perfect for David . Although intended to mimic classical Greek sculpture Michelangelo remained true to what it means to be drunk; the unseemly swaying body was unlike any depiction of a god previously. Art historian Claire McCoy said of the sculpture, "Bacchus marked a moment when originality and imitation of the antique came together."

Marble - National Museum of Bargello, Florence

This was the first of a number of Pietàs Michelangelo worked on during his lifetime. It depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother after the Crucifixion. This particular scene is one of the seven sorrows of Mary used in Catholic devotional prayers and depicts a key moment in her life foretold by the prophet, Simeon. Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned the work, stating that he wanted to acquire the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better. The 24-year-old Michelangelo answered his call, carving the work in two years out of a single block of marble. Although the work continued a long tradition of devotional images, stretching back to 14 th century Germany, the depiction was unique to Italian Renaissance art of the time. Many artists were translating traditional religious narratives in a more humanist vein, blurring the boundaries between the divine and man by humanizing biblical figures and by taking liberties with expression. Mary was a popular subject, portrayed in myriad ways, and in this piece Michelangelo presented her, not as a mother in her fifties, but as a figure of youthful beauty. As Michelangelo related to his biographer Ascanio Condivi, "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste?" Not only was Pietà the first interpretation of the scene in marble, but Michelangelo also moved away from the depiction of the Virgin's suffering which was usually portrayed in Pietàs of the time, presenting her instead with a profound sense of maternal tenderness. Christ too, shows little sign of his recent crucifixion with only slightly discernible nail marks in his hands and through the small wound in his side. Rather than a dead man, he looks as if he is sleeping in the arms of his mother while she waits for her son to awaken. A pyramidal structure, signature to the time, was also adopted here: Mary's head at the top and then the gradual widening through her layered garments towards the base. The folds of the draped clothing give credence to Michelangelo's mastery of marble, as they retain a sense of flowing movement, and an incredible standard of polished sheen, that is so difficult to achieve in stone. This is the only sculpture Michelangelo ever signed. In a fiery fit of reaction to rumors circulating that the piece was made by one of his competitors, Cristoforo Solari, he carved his name across Mary's sash right between her breasts. He also split his name in two as Michael Angelus, which can be seen as a reference to the Archangel Michael - an egotistical move and one he would later regret. He swore to never again sign another piece and stayed true to his word. This Pietà became famous immediately following its completion and was pivotal in contributing to Michelangelo's fame. The sculpture was loaned to the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. It was transported there by sea in a 2.5 ton buoyant and waterproof plexiglass case that contained a radio transmitter (so, should the ship sink, the sculpture could still be located and recovered). Despite an attack in 1972 (by a mentally unstable Hungarian-Austrian geologist, who cried out "I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!") which damaged Mary's arm and face, it was restored, placed behind a bulletproof crystal wall, and continues to inspire awe in visitors to this day.

Marble - Vatican City

The sculptor Donatello had revived the classical nude by sculpting a bronze version of David (1440-60). It would become a masterpiece of the Early Renaissance. But Michelangelo's towering marble figure overtook it as the most accomplished and iconic version of the story in the history of Western art. Michelangelo's majestic 17-foot-tall statue depicts the prophet David, with the slingshot he will use to slay Goliath, slung over his left shoulder. Michelangelo took the unusual decision to depict David before battle (in contrast, Donatello's triumphant David stands with his foot on top of his enemy's severed head). In fact, David's great foe (Goliath) is not referenced in the work at all. Michelangelo was commissioned to produce the sculpture for the Opera del Duomo at the Cathedral of Florence. It was to be one of a series of statues to be placed in the niches of the cathedral's tribunes (some 80 meters above ground). He was asked by the consuls of the Board to complete a project, abandoned previously by Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, both of whom had rejected the enormous block of marble due to the presence of too many " taroli " (imperfections). The block of marble had stood idle in the Opera's courtyard for some 25 years. In his oft-cited biography, Ascanio Convidi wrote that it was known (from archive documents) that Michelangelo worked on David "in utmost secrecy, hiding his masterpiece in the making up until January 1504". He added that "since he worked in the open courtyard, when it rained he worked soaked" but, that rather than let the rain disturb him, it inspired Michelangelo's working method in which he created a wax model (of David ) and submerged it in water. As he worked, he would lower the level of the water, revealing the wax figure bit-by-bit. As Convidi explains, "using different chisels [he then] sculpted what he could see emerging". So engrossed was he in the project, Michelangelo is said to have "slept sporadically, and when he did he slept with his clothes and even in his boots still on, and rarely ate". The finished work is an exquisite example of Michelangelo's mastery of anatomy. This is most evident in David's musculature; his strength emphasized through the classical contrapposto (asymmetrical) stance, with weight shifting onto his right leg. The top half of the body was made slightly larger than the legs so that viewers glancing up at David from below, or from afar, would experience a more realistic perspective. Such was the figure's authenticity, Vasari proclaimed: "without any doubt this figure has put in the shade every other statue, ancient or modern, Greek or Roman." While the statue was widely revered, it was also reviled for its sexual explicitness. For instance, during the late nineteenth century, a plaster cast of David was exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. So as not to offend the tastes of noble women, Queen Victoria ordered that a "detachable" plaster fig leaf be added to the figure to protect David's modesty. On another occasion, a replica of David was offered to the municipality of Jerusalem to mark the 3,000th anniversary of King David's conquest of the city. Religious factions in Jerusalem urged that the gift be declined because the naked figure was considered pornographic. A fully clothed replica of David by Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine contemporary of Michelangelo, was accepted in its place.

Marble - Gallery of the Academy of Florence

Doni Tondo (Holy Family)

Holy Family , the only finished panel painting by the artist to survive, was commissioned by Agnolo Doni (which gives it its name) to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The inclusion of the infant St. John further suggests it was intended for mark the news of Maddalena's pregnancy (the couple's first child, Maria, was born in 1507). Moreover, botanists have identified the plant on the left as a clitoria plant that, like Mary's braid, was a symbol of fertility. The painting portrays Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and an infant John the Baptist. The intimate tenderness of the figures governed by the father's loving gaze emphasizes the love of family and divine love, representing the cores of Christian faith. In contrast, the five nude males in the background symbolize pagans awaiting redemption. The round (tondo) form was customary for private commissions and Michelangelo designed the intricate gold carved wooden frame. The work is believed to be entirely by his hand. We find many of the artist's influences in this painting, including Signorelli's Madonna . It is also said to have been influenced by Leonardo's The Virgin and Child with St. Anne , a full scale drawing that Michelangelo saw while working on his David in 1501. The nude figures in the background are thought to have been influenced by the ancient statue of Laocoön and His Sons attributed to the Greek sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, which was excavated in Rome in 1506 and publicly displayed in the Vatican. Yet these influences aside, the piece is an example of the artist's individualism, which was even considered avant-garde in its time. The painting represented a significant shift from the serene, static rendition of figures depicted in classical Roman and Greek sculpture. Michelangelo's twisting figures signify great energy and movement, and the vibrant colors add to the majesty of the work, which were later used in his frescos in the Sistine Chapel. The soft modeling of the figures in the background with the focused details in the foreground gives this small painting its great depth. This painting might be said to anticipate the Mannerist style which, in contrast to the High Renaissance commitment to proportion and idealized beauty, showed a preference for exaggeration and affectation over naturalism.

Oil and tempera - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Creation of Adam

This legendary image, part of the vast masterpiece that adorns the ceiling of the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel, shows Adam as a muscular classical nude, reclining on the left, as he extends his hand toward God who fills the right half of the painting. God rushes toward him, his haste conveyed by his white flaring robe and the energetic movements of his body. God is surrounded by angels and cherubim, all encased within a red cloud, while a feminine figure, thought to be Eve (first woman) or Sophia (symbol of wisdom), peers out with curious interest from underneath God's arm. Behind Adam, the green ledge upon which he lies, and the mountainous background create a strong diagonal, emphasizing the division between mortal man and heavenly God. As a result the viewer's eye is drawn to the hands of God and Adam, outlined in the central space, almost touching. Some have noted that the shape of the red cloud resembles the shape of the human brain, as if the artist meant to imply God's intent to infuse Adam with not merely animate life, but also the important gift of consciousness. This was an innovative depiction of the creation of Adam. Contrary to traditional artworks, God is not shown as aloof and regal, separate and above mortal man. For Michelangelo, it was important to depict the all-powerful giver of life as one distinctly intimate with man, whom he created in his own image. This reflected the humanist ideals of man's essential place in the world and the connection to the divine. The bodies have a sculptural quality that replicate the mastery of the artist's command of human anatomy. While acknowledging that Michelangelo painted the ceiling alone, laying on scaffolding on his back, and looking upward, the famous art historian E H Gombrich wrote that this feat of physical endurance was "nothing compared to the intellectual and artistic achievement. The wealth of ever-new [Renaissance] inventions, the unfailing mastery of execution in every detail, and, above all, the grandeur of the vision which Michelangelo revealed to those who came after him, have given mankind a quite new idea of the power of genius." The idea that Michelangelo was less than happy about the commission was confirmed through correspondences in 1509 to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia. He wrote, "I've already grown a goiter from this torture, [my] stomach's squashed under my chin, [my] face makes a fine floor for droppings, [my] skin hangs loose below me, [and my] spine's all knotted from folding myself over". He concluded, "I am not in the right place - I am not a painter."

Fresco - Vatican City

Michelangelo's monumental (eight-feet tall) statue depicts Moses seated regally as he shields the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. His expression is stern, reflecting his power and his displeasure at seeing the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (a pagan idol) on his return from Mount Sinai. Not only has Michelangelo rendered the great prophet with a complex emotional expression, strong muscular definition, and a flowing beard, his work on the deep folds of the fabric of Moses's clothes carries exquisite detail that completes its authenticity. Indeed, Michelangelo has imbued his Moses with a sense of energy that is remarkable for a stone figure, let alone one which who is seated. Michelangelo's reputation had reached new heights with his sculpture, David . This led to an invitation from Pope Julius II to come to Rome to work on a planned tomb. The artist initially proposed an (over) ambitious project featuring some 40 figures (the central piece being Moses). Much to the infuriation of the artist, however, Pope Julius II suspended work on the tomb so that he could paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (with the scaled-down tomb only completed in 1545 (32 years after Julius's death) and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli rather than the St. Peter's Basilica as originally planned). The sculpture has been the subject of much analysis, especially with regard to the horns protruding from Moses's head. In medieval art, Moses was often depicted with horns, and this was generally considered a symbol of the "glorification" of his power. This reading stems in fact from a mistranslation of the Hebrew word, karan which means "shining" or "emitting rays". Karan was translated into the Latin Bible as "horn", with the relevant passage reading thus: "And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." Legend tells that Michelangelo felt that Moses was his most life-like work and upon its completion he struck its knee, commanding "Now, speak!" The artist's pride in his achievement was fully warranted according to Vasari, who said of Moses that it was "a statue unrivaled by any contemporary or ancient achievement," adding that Moses's "long, lustrous beard, the strands of which are so silky and feathery that it appears as if the metal chisel has turned into a brush. The lovely face, like that of a prophet or a strong prince, seemed to require a veil to cover it, so magnificent and radiant is it, and so beautifully has the artist depicted in marble the purity with which he had bestowed that holy visage."

Marble - San Pietro Vincoli, Rome

The Last Judgment

This fresco covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel and is one of the last pieces to be made in the seminal building, and the first commissioned by Pope Paul III. Painted when Michelangelo was 62, we see the Second Coming of Christ as he delivers the message of salvation (through the Last Judgment). The monumental work took five years to complete and consists of over 300 individual figures. The scene is one of harried action around the central presence of Christ, his hands raised to reveal the wounds of his Crucifixion, as he looks down upon the souls of humans as they rise to their fates. With this arresting tableau, Paul III was seeking to counter the Protestant Reformation by reaffirming the orthodoxies and doctrines of the Catholic Church, and the visual arts were to play a vital role in his plans. To Christ's left, the Virgin Mary glances toward the saved. To either side of Christ are John the Baptist and St Peter holding the keys to heaven. On the right, Charon the ferryman is shown bringing the damned to the gates of Hell. Minos (ruler of Crete in Greek mythology), assuming the role Dante gave him in his Inferno , admits them to Hell. Another noteworthy group are the seven angels blowing trumpets illustrating the Book of Revelation's end of the world. Michelangelo's self-portrait appears twice in the painting, meanwhile, first in the flayed skin which the figure of St. Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and second in the figure in the lower left-hand corner, who is looking at the saved souls rising up from their graves. In typical Michelangelo fashion, the artist courted controversy, chiefly by rendering nude figures with pronounced muscular anatomies. One of the myths surrounding the fresco relates to the priest, and high-ranking Vatican official, Biagio de Cesena, whom Michelangelo portrayed as Minos following his public criticism of the (unfinished) painting. Cesena had complained that the painting contained so much nudity it was "more fitting for a tavern that the Sistine Chapel". Vasari reports that "Michelangelo, angry at the remark, is said to have painted Cesena's face onto Minos, judge of the underworld, with donkey's ears. Cesena complained to the Pope at being so ridiculed, but the Pope is said to have jokingly remarked that his jurisdiction did not extend to Hell." Following a recent cleaning of the fresco, moreover, it has been revealed that Minos's testicles are being attacked by a serpent. Interestingly, theologian John O'Malley, notes that in 1563 the Council of Trent pronounced that "iconoclasm is wrong" and that "images of sacred subjects […] should not contain any - sensual appeal or - seductive charm." Following the Council’s judgement, it was decreed that "The pictures in the Apostolic Chapel are to be covered..." On January 21, 1564, less than a month before Michelangelo's death, the decree was formally applied to The Last Judgment . So, next year, Michelangelo's friend, Daniele da Volterra, was commissioned to add clothing to the nude figures (earning Volterra the nickname "breeches-maker"). (O'Malley observes that "there is no instance of any other painting in Rome being defaced as a result of [the decree].") The Last Judgment was only restored to its original glory in the 1990s.

The Deposition

This piece is not only sculpturally complex, but it carries layers of meaning and has sparked multiple interpretations. In it, we see Christ the moment after the Deposition, or being taken down from the cross of his crucifixion. He is falling into the arms of his mother, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene, whose presence in a work of such importance was highly unusual. Behind the trio is a hooded figure, which is said to be either Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus, both of whom were in attendance at the entombment of Christ (which followed the Deposition). Joseph would give up his tomb for Christ and Nicodemus would speak with Christ about the possibility of obtaining eternal life. Because Christ is seen falling into the arms of his mother, this piece is also often referred to as a Pietà. The three themes alluded to in this one piece - The Deposition, The Pietà, and The Entombment - are further emphasized by the way Michelangelo carved out his narrative. Not only is it intense in its realism, The Deposition was sculpted so that a viewer could walk around the piece and observe each of the three narratives from different visual perspectives and to possibly reflect upon how the stories might be interrelated. The sculpture is also a perfect example of Michelangelo's temperament and perfectionism. The process of making it was arduous. Vasari relates that the artist complained about the quality of the marble. Some suggest he had a problem with the way Christ's left leg originally draped over Nicodemus, worrying that some might interpret it in a sexual way, causing him to remove it. It is also feasible that Michelangelo was so particular with the piece because he intended it for his own future tomb. In 1555, Michelangelo attempted to destroy the piece causing further speculation about its meaning. There is a suggestion that the attempted destruction of the piece was because Nicodemus, by reference to his conversation with Christ about the need to be born again to find everlasting life, is associated with Martin Luther's Reformation. Michelangelo was rumored to be a secret sympathizer, which was dangerous even for someone as influential as he. Perhaps a coincidence, but his Lutheran sympathies are given as one of the reasons why Pope Paul IV cancelled Michelangelo's pension in 1555. Vasari also suggests that the face of Nicodemus is a self-portrait, which may allude to the artist's crisis of faith. Michelangelo gave the unfinished piece to Francesco Bandini, a wealthy merchant, who commissioned Tiberio Calcagni, a friend of Michelangelo's, to finish the work and repair the damage (but stopping short of replacing Christ's left leg).

Marble - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

Pietà Rondanini

Pietà Rondanini is the last sculpture Michelangelo worked on in the weeks leading up to his death, finalizing a story that weaved through his many Pietàs and now reflective of the artist's reckoning with his own mortality. The depiction of Christ has changed from his earlier St. Peter's Pietà in which Christ appeared asleep, through to his Deposition, where Christ's body was more lifeless, to now, where Christ is shown in the pain and suffering of death. His mother Mary is standing in this piece, an unusual rendition, as she struggles to hold up the body of her son while engulfed with grief. What's interesting about this work is that Michelangelo abandoned his usual detail at carving the body, even though he worked on it intermittently for some 12 years. It was a departure that, coming so late in his prolific career, signified the enduring genius of an artist whose confidence would allow him to try new things even when his fame would have allowed him to rest upon his laurels. The detached arm, the subtle sketched features of the face, and the way the figures almost blend into one other provide a more abstracted quality than was his norm, and prefigures a minimalist quality that was yet to come in sculpture. The renowned sculptor Henry Moore later said of this piece, "This is the kind of quality you get in the work of old men who are really great. They can simplify, they can leave out... This Pietà is by someone who knows the whole thing so well he can use a chisel like someone else would use a pen." This sculpture's importance was ignored for centuries, and it almost entirely disappeared from public discourse until it was found in the possession of Marchese Rondanini in 1807. It has since excited many modern artists. The Italian artist Massimo Lippi is quoted as saying that modern and contemporary art began with this Pietà , and the South African painter, Marlene Dumas, based her Homage to Michelangelo (2012) on this work.

Marble - Museo d'arte antica, Sforza Castle, Milan

Biography of Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was born to Leonardo di Buonarrota and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, a middle-class family of bankers, living in the small village of Caprese (now known in his honor as Michelangelo Caprese), near Arezzo, Tuscany. His mother's unfortunate and prolonged illness, which led to her death while Michelangelo was just six years old, forced his father to place his son in the primary care of his nanny. The nanny was married to a stonecutter and legend tells it that this (forced) domestic situation would form the foundation for the artist's lifelong love affair with marble.

By the time he was 13 years old, it was clear to his father that Michelangelo had no aptitude for the family vocation. The young boy was sent to apprentice in the well-known Florentine studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio . The art historian E.H. Gombrich writes, "In his workshop the young Michelangelo could certainly learn all the technical tricks of the trade, a solid technique in painting frescoes, and thorough grounding in draftsmanship. But, as far as we know, Michelangelo did not enjoy his days in the painter's firm. His ideas about art were different. Instead of acquiring the facile manner of Ghirlandaio, he went out to study the work of the great masters of the past, Giotto , Masaccio , Donatello , and other Greek and Roman sculptors whose work he could see in the Medici collection".

After only a year in the studio, Lorenzo de' Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and renowned patron of the arts, asked Ghirlandaio to supply his two best students - Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci - to join the Medici's Humanist academy. It was a thriving time in Renaissance Florence when artists were encouraged to study the humanities, complementing their creative endeavors with knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art and philosophy. Progressive artists were moving away from Gothic iconography and devotional work and evolving a Renaissance style that would foreground humanist ideals and celebrate man's primary role in shaping the modern world.

Michelangelo studied under the bronze sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, bringing him exposure to the great classical sculptures in the palace of Lorenzo. But as Gombrich says, "Like Leonardo, [Michelangelo] was not content with learning the laws of anatomy secondhand, as it were, from antique sculpture. He made his own research into human anatomy, dissected bodies and drew from models, till the human figure did not hold any secrets for him." However, unlike Leonardo, for whom human anatomy was just one of the many "riddles of nature", Michelangelo "strove with an incredible singleness of purpose to master this one problem, but to master it fully."

During this period, Michelangelo obtained permission from the friars at the Church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in the convent's hospital where he would gain a deep understanding of human anatomy. Michelangelo's uncanny ability to render the muscular tone of the body was evidenced in two surviving sculptures from the period: Madonna of the Stairs (1491), and Battle of the Centaurs (1492). The 17-year-old Michelangelo was given refuge at the convent following the death of his patron, Lorenzo di Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) in 1492. By way of a "thank-you", Michelangelo carved a highly realistic wooden sculpture which hung over the main altar. (After the French occupation in the late 18 th -century, the cross was recorded as lost but it had in fact been moved to another chapel where it was painted to disguise its origins. Once restored, it was on display at the museum of Casa Buonarroti, where it remained until 2000 before being returned to its original home at Santo Spirito.)

Early Training and Work

In 1494, as the Republic of Florence was under the threat of siege from the French. Michelangelo, fearing for his safety, moved, via a brief stop in Venice, to the relative safety of Bologna. In the city he was befriended by the wealthy Bolognese senator, Giovan Francesco Aldrovandi, who was able to secure the 19-year-old Michelangelo the commission to complete the remaining statuettes for the marble sarcophagus lid for the Arca of St. Dominic. The original lid, by Niccolò dell'Arca, was installed in 1473, with Michelangelo sculpting the few remaining figures, including Saint Proculus, Saint Petronio, and an angel with candelabra, in 1496. Still just 19 years old, Michelangelo overshadowed the work of the older sculptor through his fine detail in the folds of the cloth and drapery, and in the figure of Petronio to whom he brought a tangible sense of movement by representing him in mid-step.

Michelangelo returned briefly to Florence after the threat of the French invasion abated. He worked on two statues, one of St. John the Baptist , the other, a small cupid. The Cupid was sold to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, who had been duped into believing that it was an antique sculpture. Although angry on learning of the deception, Cardinal Riario was impressed by Michelangelo's skill and invited him to Rome to work on a new project. For this commission, Michelangelo created a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which was, on its completion, rejected by the Cardinal who thought it politically imprudent to be associated with a naked pagan figure. Michelangelo, who had already garnered a reputation for being volatile, was left incensed and many years later instructed his biographer, Condivi, to deny the commission came from the Cardinal at all, and to record it rather as a commission from his banker, Jacopo Galli (who had purchased the finished work).

Michelangelo remained in Rome after completing the Bacchus , and in 1497 the French Ambassador, Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas commissioned his Pietà for the chapel of the King of France in St Peter 's Basilica. Probably its most famous interpretation, Pietà was in fact a generic title applied to devotional works designed to prompt worshippers to engage in repentant prayer. What was unusual (although not unheard of) about Michelangelo's sculpture was that he realized two figures from a single block of marble. Moreover, his treatment of his subjects, which foregrounded the artist's acuity with emotion and realism, garnered Michelangelo much praise and many new admirers. Indeed, his Pietà was to become one of his most famous early carvings; one which the 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari , described as something "nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."

Although his status as one of the period's most divinely gifted artists was now secure, Michelangelo didn't receive any major commissions for some two years. Financially, however, this shortage of work and/or money wasn't of primary concern to the artist. As he would say to Condivi towards the end of his life, "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."

In 1497, the puritanical monk Florentine Girolamo Savonarola became famous for his Bonfire of the Vanities, an event in which he and his supporters publicly burned art and books. Their actions caused an interruption to what had been a thriving period of Renaissance culture. Michelangelo would have to wait until Savonarola's ousting a year later before returning to his beloved Florence.

In 1501, his most majestic achievement in sculpture was born through a commission from the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun by Agostino di Duccio some 40 years earlier. This project, completed in 1504, was a 17-foot-tall nude statue of the biblical hero David. The work - its importance to the history of sculpture, comparable, perhaps, to Leonardo's Mona Lisa and its place in the history oil painting - was a testament to the artist's unparalleled excellence at carving breathtakingly real human figures out of inanimate marble.

The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert said of the David , "It has continued to serve as the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity. Although the sculpture was originally intended for the buttress of the cathedral, the magnificence of the finished work convinced Michelangelo's contemporaries to install it in a more prominent place, to be determined by a commission formed of artists and prominent citizens. They decided that the David would be installed in front of the entrance of the Palazzo dei Priori (now called Palazzo Vecchio) as a symbol of the Florentine Republic".

Several painting commissions followed David's completion. Michelangelo's only known surviving painting is, Doni Tondo ( The Holy Family ) (1504). Gilbert writes that the painting betrays "the artist's fascination with the work of Leonardo". He adds that Michelangelo "regularly denied that anyone influenced him, and his statements have usually been accepted without demur. But Leonardo's return to Florence in 1500 after nearly 20 years was exciting to younger artists there, and later scholars generally agreed that Michelangelo was among those affected."

During this time of the High Renaissance in Florence, rivalry between Michelangelo and his peers was fierce, with artists competing for prime commissions (and the accolades that came with them).

Leonardo was, at 23 years Michelangelo's senior, the most celebrated figure of all within the Florentine fraternity of Renaissance masters. But an unspoken rivalry between the two men was well known. In 1503, Piero Soderini, the lifetime Gonfalonier of Justice (a senior civil servant position akin to the role of Mayor), commissioned both artists to paint opposing walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio. As Gombrich writes, "It was a dramatic moment in the history of art where these two giants competed for the palm, and all of Florence watched with excitement the progress of their preparations." Sadly, Soderini abandoned the commission and the paintings (Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo's The Battle of Cascina ) were never finished. Leonardo returned to Milan, while Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II.

Mature Period

In Rome, Michelangelo made preparations for the Pope's tomb; a giant mausoleum that was to be completed within a five-year timeline. Having travelled to the famous quarries at Carrara, he spent some six months painstakingly searching out the perfect blocks of marble from which to conjure his figures. Much to his chagrin, Julius recalled Michelangelo to Rome where he learned that the building earmarked to house the tomb was to be pulled down and the project as a whole put on ice. Michelangelo was incensed and became convinced that there was a conspiracy to destroy him. Indeed, he believed that the architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica, Bramante, was hatching a plot to have him poisoned. In his anger, Michelangelo returned to Florence and wrote a letter to the Pope expressing disgust at his treatment in Rome.

Michelangelo found himself at the center of a tricky diplomatic standoff between Florence and Rome. As Gombrich writes, "The head of the city of Florence therefore persuaded Michelangelo to return to the services of Julius II and gave him a letter of recommendation in which he said that his art was unequalled throughout Italy, perhaps even throughout the world, and that if he met with kindness 'he would achieve things that which would amaze the whole world'."

Having produced a colossal bronze statue of the pope for the newly conquered city of Bologna (unceremoniously pulled down once papal occupiers had been repelled), Michelangelo was commissioned by Julius to complete a project already started by Botticelli , Ghirlandaio , and others. The commission was to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and legend has it that Bramante had convinced the Pope that Michelangelo was the best man for the job, in the knowledge that Michelangelo was better known for his sculptures and was therefore almost certain to fail in this enormous undertaking.

Michelangelo would work on the Sistine Chapel for nearly four years. It was a job of extraordinary endurance in which (according to popular mythology) the artist painted the ceiling laying on his back atop a wooden scaffold structure (a task made even more difficult given that the tempestuous artist had dismissed all of his assistants, save one who helped him mix paint). What resulted, however, was a monumental work of stunning virtuosity illustrating stories from the Old Testament including the Creation of the World and Noah and the Flood. The finished work, which featured several nude figures (a fairly uncommon feature of the time) would become a towering masterpiece of human creation.

A serious rival to Michelangelo was a 26-year-old "upstart" named Raphael. He had burst upon the scene and was chosen in 1508 to paint a fresco in Pope Julius II's private library, a commission vied for by both Michelangelo and Leonardo. When Leonardo's health began to fail him, Raphael assumed the role of Michelangelo's greatest rival. Because of Raphael's acuity in depicting anatomy, and his finesse for painting nudes, Michelangelo would accuse him of copying his own work. Although acknowledging a degree of debt to Michelangelo, Raphael resented such animosity toward him and responded by painting the artist with his sulking face in the guise of Heraclitus in his famous fresco The School of Athens (1509-11).

Once the Sistine ceiling was completed, Michelangelo returned to work on the earlier project for the tomb of Pope Julius. Between 1513-15 he carved Moses , in which many recognize a new level of detail and control in his work that can be traced back to the figures of the prophets he painted on the Sistine ceiling. He also carved two further figures, thought to be slaves or prisoners. These pieces were also intended for the Julius tomb project, but they remained in the artist's possession until old age when he gifted them to a family who had nursed him through an earlier bout of illness (they are now housed in the Louvre).

Following Pope Julius II's death in 1513, funds for his tomb were cut and Michelangelo was commissioned by the new Pope Leo X to work on the façade of the Basilica San Lorenzo, the largest church in Florence (and therefore dedicated to the legacy of the Medici clan rather than the papacy). Michelangelo spent the next three years working on it before the project was cancelled due to lack of funds. Florence was under the rule of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (Pope Leo X's cousin) and the two men formed a close working relationship. Indeed, Michelangelo enjoyed great creative liberties under the Cardinal, and this allowed him to move further into the field of architectural design. A project for a parish church in San Lorenzo was never realized, but Michelangelo did work on a design for The Medici Chapel.

Michelangelo worked on the New Sacristy (complementing the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi that sat on the opposite side of the church) between 1520 and 1534. In its own literature, the Medici Chapels describes how "Michelangelo worked on the sculptures of the sarcophagi, but the only ones actually completed were the statues of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano, the allegories of Dawn and Dusk , Night and Day and the group of Madonna and Child placed above the sarcophagus of the two 'magnifici' and flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian. The latter were executed by Montorsoli and Baccio di Montelupo, pupils of Michelangelo."

The figure of Night ranks for many as one of Michelangelo's finest works. In his entry, "The Life of Michelangelo", in The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550), Giorgio Vasari quotes an epigram by Giovanni Strozzi who said of the figure: "Night, whom you see sleeping in such sweet attitudes was carved in this stone by an Angel and although she sleeps, she has life: wake her, if you don't believe it, and she will speak to you."

The Laurentian Library ( Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ) was built into a cloister of the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The library contains manuscripts and early printed books donated by Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent. It was built under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, who commissioned Michelangelo to design the architecture in 1524. Although often overlooked in surveys of his work, the stairwell ( ricetto ) features Michelangelo's original wall and floor decorations while the columns in the library's main chamber are concealed behind the walls (rather than in front as was typical of classical architectural design) allowing for the rows of desks to be placed in a rhythmic harmony with the windows. The library is considered an early example of the more decorative Mannerist style of High Renaissance art and architecture.

Following the capture and looting of Rome by the armies of Charles V in 1527, Florence, was declared a republic. However, the city came under siege in October 1529 before it finally fell in August 1530. In a new agreement between Pope Clement VII and Charles V, the Medici family was once more returned to power in the city. Having worked for the defense of the Florence (it is thought that Michelangelo had a profound love of the city rather that a belief in any religious/political cause) by designing fortifications, Michelangelo was re-employed by Pope Clement who gave him a new contract to re-commence work on the tomb of Pope Julius II.

In 1534, Michelangelo headed to Rome where he would live out the rest of his days. He sent many letters from Rome to family members (many relating to the marriage of a nephew and the preservation of the family name). His father and brother had recently passed, and Michelangelo reveals himself as someone becoming increasingly concerned about his own mortality.

At the age of 57, Michelangelo would establish the first of three close friendships. Tommaso dei Cavalieri was a 23-year-old Italian nobleman who is thought to have been the artist's young lover and a lifelong friend. However, some historians (Gilbert included) point out that Michelangelo's sexuality cannot be confirmed, and the fact that he had no heir, suggests that in Tommaso (the "light of our century, paragon of all the world" as the artist once described him) Michelangelo might have been seeking an adopted son. The belief that Michelangelo was homosexual is nevertheless reinforced by the knowledge that he penned over 300 poems and 75 sonnets, some so homoerotic in nature, that his grandnephew, upon publishing these as a collection in 1623, changed the gender pronouns to disguise their original context.

In Rome, Michelangelo turned to fresco panting once more, this time in the services of Pope Paul III. In 1534 he found himself again at the site of one of his greatest triumphs, painting a grand and dynamic salvation narrative for the altar wall in the Sistine Chapel. It would take him seven years to complete. The Last Judgment , with its theme of Jesus's "second coming", was part of the grand narrative of Roman Catholic teaching. Michelangelo's fresco represented an attempt on the part of the Pope to oppose the Protestant Reformation (in what was known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation) which was sweeping Northern Europe and had challenged the authority of the Catholic church. Michelangelo still took subtle liberties with the traditional telling of the biblical story, such as the representation of a beardless Christ, and by omitting altogether his throne and the attendant wingless angels.

During this period, in which Michelangelo became an official Roman citizen in 1537, he found another close companion in the widow, Vittoria Colonna, the Marquise of Pescara. She too, was a poet. Indeed, the majority of Michelangelo's poetry is devoted to Colonna, and his adoration of her continued until her death in 1547. He also gifted her paintings and drawings, and one of the most beautiful to have survived is the black chalk drawing Pietà for Vittoria Colonna (1546). Colonna was the only woman to play a significant part in Michelangelo's life (his mother, we recall, died when he was just a small boy) and their relationship is generally believed to have been platonic. But in 1540, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci, the 12-year-old son of a wealthy Florentine banker, at the Court of Pope Paul III. The epitaphs Michelangelo wrote following Cecchino's death four years later strongly suggest a sexual relationship. In one, the artist wrote, "Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed. When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live."

Late Period

During the late period of his career, Michelangelo worked more and more on architectural designs. These included plans for the plaza at the civic center at Capitoline Hill, (with Luigi Vanvitelli) the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (construction from 1562), and the Sforza Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (1561-64). But it was for his work on the St Peter's Basilica that he is best remembered.

It was Pope Julius II who proposed demolishing the old Basilica and replacing it with what he called the "grandest building in Christendom." Although the design by Donato Bramante had been selected in 1505, and foundations laid the following year, little progress had been made since. By the time Michelangelo reluctantly took over the project from his nemesis (Bramante) in 1546 he was in his seventies, stating, "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honor of the Apostle."

Michelangelo worked continuously throughout the rest of his life as Head Architect on the Basilica. His most important personal contribution to the project was his work on the design of the dome at the eastern point of the Basilica. He dismissed all the ideas of previous architects working on the project except for those of the original designs of Bramante who, like him, had envisioned a structure to outdo even Brunelleschi's famous dome in Florence. Although the dome was not finished until after his death, the base on which the dome was to be placed was completed, which meant the final version of the dome remains true in essence to Michelangelo's majestic vision. Still the largest church in the world, the dome is both a Roman landmark (rather than just a functional covering for the building's interior) and a testament to Michelangelo's eternal connection to the city.

Michelangelo's last paintings, produced between 1542-50, were a series of frescos for the private Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. One of these paintings, The Crucifixion of St. Peter , features a horseman wearing a turban and restorers and historians believe that this was in fact a self-portrait of the artist. He continued to sculpt but did so privately for personal pleasure. He completed a number of Pietàs including the Disposition (which he attempted to destroy), as well as his last, the Rondanini Pietà , on which he worked until the last weeks before his death.

Gilbert has observed that a "side effect of Michelangelo's fame in his lifetime was that his career was more fully documented than that of any artist of the time or earlier" and that he was in fact the subject of two important biographies: a first for a living artist. In the final chapter of his series on artists' lives (1550), Vasari "explicitly presented Michelangelo's works as the culminating perfection of art, surpassing the efforts of all those before him". Yet Gilbert explains that Michelangelo "was not entirely pleased" with Vasari's piece and "arranged for his assistant Ascanio Condivi to write a brief separate book (1553); probably based on the artist's own spoken comments". It is, nevertheless, Vasari's "lively writing" and the influence of the book (which was translated into many languages) that "have made it the most usual basis of popular ideas on Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists".

Gombrich notes that in his final years Michelangelo "seemed to retire more and more into himself [...] The poems he wrote show that he was troubled by doubts as to whether his art had been sinful, while his letters make it clear that the higher he rose in esteem in the world, the more difficult and bitter he became. He was not only admired, but feared for his temper, and he spared neither high nor low." His highly secretive and guarded nature, and an incident where, while working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he threw wooden planks at an approaching Pope who he had mistaken for a spy, seems to suggest he suffered with feelings of paranoia. His great companion Tommaso remained with him until his death at home, in Rome, following a short illness in 1564, aged 88. Per his wishes, his body was returned to his beloved Florence and interred at the Basilica di Santa Croce.

The Legacy of Michelangelo

Michelangelo was the undisputed master of sculpting the human form, which he did with such technical aplomb that his marble seemed to almost transform into living flesh and bone. His dexterity with handling human emotions and psychological insights only enhanced his standing and brought him world-wide fame during his own lifetime. He complemented his Pietas , David , and Moses with what is the most famous ceiling fresco in the world, and has made the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel a site of pilgrimage for those with and without faith. Gombrich said of his cupola for St Peters, "As it rises above the city of Rome, supported, it seems, by a ring of twin columns and soaring up with its clean majestic outline, it serves as a fitting monument to the spirit of this singular artist who his contemporaries called 'divine'."

Historians have tracked Michelangelo's influence through the work of such luminaries as Raphael , Peter Paul Rubens , Gian Lorenzo Bernini , and the last great sculptor to follow in his realist tradition, Auguste Rodin . Yet Gilbert makes the point that Michelangelo belongs to a very select and exalted group of artists, which includes William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven, who were able to capture "the tragic experience of humanity with the greatest depth and universal scope", and as such, their "influence on later art is relatively limited." Gilbert's point is that Michelangelo's works (like those of Shakespeare and Beethoven) carry "an almost cosmic grandeur [that] was inhibiting" for those artists who followed and who might aspire to emulate his achievements.

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, meanwhile, likened his own song writing processes to those of Michelangelo. He said in a recent interview, "There's a Duff McKagan song called 'Chip Away,' that has profound meaning for me. It's a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn't build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It's like my own song writing, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing."

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Michelangelo

• Michelangelo: His Epic Life By Martin Gayford
• Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times By William E. Wallace
• Michelangelo: A Biography By George Bull
• Michelangelo Our Pick By Howard Hibbard
• Michelangelo: The Achievement of Fame By Michael Hirst
• The Life of Michelangelo By Ascanio Condivi
• The Lives of the Artists By Giorgio Vasari
• Michelangelo, God's Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece By William E. Wallace
• Michelangelo's Mountain: The Quest For Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara By Eric Scigliano
• Michelangelo's Notebooks: The Poetry, Letters, and Art of the Great Master By Carolyn Vaughan
• The Complete Poems of Michelangelo By Michelangelo
• Michelangelo: The Complete Paintings, Sculptures and Architecture By Frank Zöllner
• Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces By Miles J. Unger
• Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling Our Pick By Ross King
• Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer Our Pick By Carmen C. Bambach
• Michelangelo's Tomb for Julius II: Genesis and Genius By Christoph Luitpold Frommel
• Michelangelo and the Reform of Art Our Pick By Alexander Nagel
• From Marble to Flesh. The Biography of Michelangelo's David Our Pick By A. Victor Coonin
• Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master By Hugo Chapman
• Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Biography of Michelangelo
• Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Heavenly art Our Pick By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / March 6, 2006
• Why Michelangelo Matters By Theodore K. Rabb / Commentary Magazine / September 1, 2006
• Michelangelo - The Poetry and the Man By Kara Ross / Art Renewal Centre / January 1, 2008
• Michelangelo Divine Draftsman and Designer - How a Monument Comes Alive By Renato Miracco / iItaly Magazine / January 25, 2018
• David's assets protected as Italy bans images of Michelangelo's famous sculpture By Nick Squires / November 24, 2017
• Michelangelo and his First Biographers By Michael Hirst / Proceedings of the British Academy / 1997
• Michelangelo as Nicodemus: The Florence Pieta By Jane Kristof / The Sixteenth Century Journal / Summer 1989
• Michelangelo and the Medieval Pietà: The Sculpture of Devotion or the Art of Sculpture? Our Pick By Joanna E. Ziegler / Gesta / 1995
• Michelangelo Matter & Spirit
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, Moses, and the Tomb of Pope Julius II Our Pick
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, Pietà Our Pick
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, The Slaves
• Smarthistory: Last Judgment (altar wall, Sistine Chapel)
• Smarthistory: Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Our Pick
• Art History Lesson: Michelangelo Biography: Who Was This Guy, Really?
• Biographics - Michelangelo: The Story of a Sculptor
• Mickey, Teenage Mutant Turtles, named after Michelangelo
• The Simpsons, Season 2, episode 9, (December 20, 1990), Michelangelo's David Protest

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Content compiled and written by Zaid S Sethi

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Nichols , Antony Todd

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The Life of Michelangelo

Do you wish to know more about Michelangelo and his life, his creations? We’ve created a time line below to highlight the important dates and periods of his life to give you a better sense of all he did and created.

6 MARZO 1475 – CAPRESE MICHELANGELO (AREZZO) Painter, sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance, was born in Tuscany on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, a little village close to Arezzo. Michelangelo’s father, Lodovico, was briefly serving as a magistrate in the small village when he recorded the birth of his second of five sons with his wife, Francesca Neri. They returned to Florence when Michelangelo was still an infant, and he was placed with a family of stonecutters, where he later reported: “ I sucked in chisels and hammers with my nurse’s milk .”

1487 – FLORENCE Michelangelo is introduced to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo’s father in fact, realized early that his son had no interest in the family business, so agreed to apprentice him, at the age of 13, to the well-known Florentine painter’s workshop. There, Michelangelo learns the technique of fresco and panel painting for a few months. He is supposed to stay there for about three years, but an extraordinary opportunity opens to him. At the recommendation of Ghirlandaio, he moves into the palace of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the powerful Medici family, to study classical sculpture in the Medici gardens.

1488 – 1492 FLORENCE This is a fertile time for Michelangelo; his years with the Medici family, permit him access to the social elite of Florence, allowing him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, Donatello’s pupil , and exposing him to prominent poets, scholars and Humanists. Two early relief sculptures survive from those years: “ Battle of the Centaurs ” and “ Madonna Seated on a Step ,” now exhibited at casa Buonarroti in Florence.

1493 – FLORENCE Piero de’ Medici introduces Michelangelo to the Augustinian friars of the Church of Saint Spirit in Florence, who hosted the young talent within their convent. He obtained a special permission to study cadavers for insight into anatomy, though exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health. These combined influences laid the groundwork for what would become Michelangelo’s distinctive style: a muscular precision and reality combined with a touching beauty. As a sign of gratitude to the friars Michelangelo sculpted a wooden Crucifix which is still today located inside the Sacristy of the Church of Saint Spirit.

1494 – BOLOGNA-VENICE Before the Medici family were banished from Florence, Michelangelo moves to Bologna hosted by Gianfranco Aldrovandi and then to Venice, where he continues his studies of literatures and sculpture practice. He returns to Florence in 1495 to begin work as a sculptor, modeling his style after masterpieces of classical antiquity,

1496 – ROME In 1496 Michelangelo moves to Rome as a result of the famous “ Sleeping Cupid affair ” which had made him a reputation. He hopes to find in the “Eternal town” new donors for his creations. He starts modeling a marble “ Bacchus ”, under the patronage of the banker Jacopo Galli. On August 27, 1498 Michelangelo signs his first great commission for cardinal Jean Bilheres de Lagrualas. Buonarroti is entrusted to sculpt a “ Pietà ”, a sculpture of Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap, and the work was at first erected in the church of the cardinal’s tomb. The estimated length of the working was a year, which was fully respected by Michelangelo. At that time the genius is only 25 years old, and with the reward of 450 ducats he is acknowledged to be one of the best and most paid artists in his days. Michelangelo’s “Pietà” is now displayed at the Vatican City, in St. Peter’s Basilica.

1505 – ROME Michelangelo has just completed “David” and is called back to Rome for the ambitious project for the tomb of Pope Julius II. The grandiose idea includes forty statues to be completed within five years. The first drawings and plans were featured on the same year, and Michelangelo starts selecting the materials at the marble quarries of Carrara. Michelangelo actually keeps on working on the tomb of Julius II for the next several decades in various phases, defining this project “the t orment of my life” until 1545.

1508 – 1514 ROME The commission for the tomb is interrupted: Pope Julius II asks Michelangelo to switch from sculpting to painting to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . Buonarroti completes the 65-foot ceiling alone, spending endless hours on his back and guarding the project jealously until revealing the finished work, on October 31, 1512 . The breathtaking cycle of frescoes stretches over 500 square meters of ceiling and contains over 300 stunning figures.

Pope Julius II dies in 1513: the commission for the tomb is downsized in scale by the heirs and Michelangelo works at “ Moses ” and the first two “ Slaves ”, now showcased at the Louvre in Paris.

1515 – FLORENCE When Pope Julius II dies, he is succeeded by the Florentine Pope Leo X , the second son of Lorenzo dei Medici. Pope Leo, who was born in the same year of Michelangelo, commissions Buonarroti to reconstruct the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. The artist features drawings and wooden models for the facade, as well as attempts to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520 the work was abruptly canceled due to financial shortening and the basilica lacks a facade still today.

1520 – FLORENCE In 1520 the Medici entrust Michelangelo another grand proposal, for a family funerary chapel in the “ New Sacristy” at San Lorenzo Basilica in Florence. It houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours , and Lorenzo, his nephew, but it also serves to commemorate their more famous predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent (Pope Leo’s father) and his brother Giuliano (Pope Leo’s uncle). The tombs display statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing “ Night ” and “ Day ”, opposite to “ Dusk ” and ” Dawn ”. In the New Sacristy one can also admire Michelangelo’s Medici Madonna .

Pope Leo X died in 1521, to be succeeded briefly by the austere Adrian VI, then his cousin Giulio Medici as Pope Clement VII . In 1524 Michelangelo receives another architectural commission from the last Medici pope: the “ Laurentian Library ” next to San Lorenzo’s Church. In these years, Michelangelo tries to model other five blocks of marble for Pope Julius’s tomb, starting other four “ Slaves ” which will remain unfinished inside his studio in Florence. These powerful figures are now showcased along the Hall of the Prisoners at the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The fifth statue, the “ Genius of Victory” , is composed by a young figure polished to perfection and a rough incomplete figure of nude male, today displayed inside the Hall of the Five Hundreds of Palazzo Vecchio (Florence).

1527 – 1534 FLORENCE In 1527, the Florentine citizens banish the Medici and restore the republic. Charles V put the town under siege to restore the Lordship, supporting the Medici family. Michelangelo actively works on the city’s fortifications from 1528 to 1529 around San Miniato Church. The city falls in 1530 and the Medici were restored to power. Michelangelo fell out of favor with the young Alessandro Medici who had been installed as the first Duke of Florence, and fearing for his life, he fled to Rome, leaving assistants to complete the Medici chapel and the Laurentian Library. The artist will never get back to Florence in the following years.

1534 – ROME Shortly before his death in 1534 Pope Clement VII commissions Michelangelo to paint a fresco of “ The Last Judgement ” on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III follows the artist in the project till completion in October 1541. In Rome Michelangelo meets the poet, Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara, who was to become one of his closest friends until her death in 1547. A long epistolary correspondence linked them, such as the deep friendship with Tommaso dei Cavalieri who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. The artist dedicated to him several sonnets and madrigals.

1539 – ROME Niccolò Ridolfi enthrusts Michelangelo to sculpt a bust of “ Brutus ”, now on display at the Bargello Museum in Florence. Michelangelo works on a number of architectural projects during these mature years. They included a design for the Capitoline Hill with its trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. He designed the upper floor of the Palazzo Farnese, and the interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Roman bathhouse. Other architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and the Porta Pia. In 1546, Michelangelo is appointed architect of St. Peter’s Basilica , at the Vatican City.

1547 – ROME In his old age, Michelangelo created a number of Pietas in which he apparently reflects upon mortality.

The “ Pietà Rondanini ” was begun around 1547, and the artist worked at this subject in various phases until his death, leaving it unfinished . The work is now showcased at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

1550 – ROME Between 1550 and 1555 Michelangelo begins sculpting the “ Bandini Pietà “, a work which was intended for the artist’s tomb. In this Florentine Pieta , Michelangelo depicts himself as the aged Nicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross into the arms of Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene. In a moment of anger and frustration Michelangelo suddenly smashes the left arm and leg of the figure of Jesus. His pupil Tiberio Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole in which to fix a replacement leg. The work is now showcased at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence. Dating from 1555 is also the “ Palestrina Pietà ”, a marble group which is now housed at the Accademia Gallery. The attribution of the work is still controversial. Due to the lack of official documents, it is mostly considered to have been outlined by some pupils or followers.

1564 – ROME According to Giorgio Vasari chronicles, Michelangelo’s friend Daniele da Volterra, watches him work all day on February 12 on the Rondanini Pietà. Two days later he comes down with a fever but goes for a walk in the cold night air, saying he just can’t rest. The next day he spends sitting next to the fireplace but finally must crawl into bed. He dies on February 18 . Michelangelo dies just weeks before his 89th birthday at his home in Macel de’ Corvi, Rome.

The Pope would like to have him buried in St. Peter’s but Michelangelo’s nephew and heir, Leonardo, transports secretly the body back to Florence, where it is still today buried inside Santa Croce .

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The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

- Michelangelo

Michelangelo, his Sculptures and Life

Michelangelo was without doubt one of the most inspirational and talented artists in modern history. During his life, the western world underwent what was perhaps the most remarkable period of change since the decline of the Roman Empire. The Renaissance saw changes in all aspects of life and culture, with dramatic reforms sweeping through the worlds of religion, politics, and scientific belief. Michelangelo was one of the most fervent advocates of this exciting new philosophy, working with a remarkable energy that was mirrored by contemporary society. One of the leading lights of the Italian Renaissance, his extraordinary talents emerged in early works such as the Pieta for the Vatican, and the statue of David commissioned for the city of Florence. His paintings and frescoes were largely taken from mythological and classical sources works. He manages to combine his high level of technical competence and his rich artistic imagination to produce the perfect High-Renaissance blend of aesthetic harmony and anatomical accuracy in his works.

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany. He was the first artist who was recognized during his lifetime. He is also the first western artist whose biography was published when he is still alive. Two biographies for him was written, one was by Giorgio Vasari, who praised Michelangelo as the greatest artist since the beginning of the renaissance. He is the best-documented artist in 16th Century and has influenced so many areas of art development in the West. Together with Leonardo da Vinci , the two stood out as strong and mighty-personalities with two irreconcilably opposed attitudes to art, yet with a bond of deep understanding between them.

At the age of 6, Michelangelo was sent to a Florence grammar school but he showed no interest in schooling. He would rather watch the painters at nearby churches, and draw what he saw there. His father realized he had no interest in the family's financial business and agreed to send him to the painter Ghirlandaio to be trained as an apprentice. He was 13 years old at the time. In this fashionable Florentine painter's workshop, Michelangelo learned the technique of Fresco and draftsmanship.

Genius is eternal patience. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo spent only a year at the workshop the moved into the palace of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the powerful Medici family, to study classical sculpture in the Medici gardens. He studied under famous sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni there and exposed himself to many of the great artists of past centuries, Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello , as well as the masterpiece antiquities of ancient Greece and Rome: works that were held in Medici's vast collection. He also met many living artists, philosophers, writers and thinkers of the day, including Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. It was while he was with the Medicis that Michelangelo completed his first two commissions as a sculptor: marble reliefs, Madonna of the Stairs , and Battle of the Centaurs . Both amazingly sophisticated and complex works for a teenager. Michelangelo became, during this time, an expert in portraying the human form, drawing from life and studying anatomy. He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study human corpses to learn anatomy, though exposure to corpses had worsened his health condition.

After the death of Lorenzo de Medici, Michelangelo left the Court and, soon after, the arrival of Savonarola and the expulsion of the Medicis from Florence brought a huge change for the young artist. After a short return to his father's house, Michelangelo left Florence during the political upheaval and, maintaining his links to his patrons, the Medicis, he followed them to Venice, then on to Bologna.

In Bologna, Michelangelo continued his work as a sculptor. He carved three statues for the Shrine of St. Dominic, an angel with a candlestick, and saints, Petronius and Proculus. Continuing to be heavily influenced and inspired by classical antiquities, Michelangelo also became involved in a scheme to pass off one of his sculptures, a marble cupid, as an ancient work. Allegedly, he was told by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici to make it look as though it had been dug up, so he could sell it in Rome. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who bought the piece, discovered the deception, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome.

Michelangelo arrived in Rome in 1496 when he was 21 years old. It was while in Rome, in his early twenties, that Michelangelo sculpted Pieta , now in St. Peters in the Vatican, in which the Virgin Mary weeps over the body of Jesus. Michelangelo went to the marble quarry and selected the marble for this exquisite piece himself. It was frequently said that Michelangelo could visualise the finished sculpture just be gazing at a block of stone.

He was now a man at the height of his creative powers, and, in 1504, back in Florence, he completed his most famous sculpture, David . David, depicted at the moment he decides to battle Goliath, was a symbol of Florentine freedom. It is said to be a masterpiece of line and form. A committee, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli , was created and decided on its placement, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo accepted many commissions, sculptures and paintings during his time in Florence, many of which went unfinished when, in 1505, he was called back to Rome to work on a Tomb for Pope Julius II. It was planned to be finished within 5 years but he worked on it (with frequent interruptions) for over forty years, and it seems it was never finished to his satisfaction. Fortunately, Michelangelo also completed some of his best, and most well-known work, during this time, most notably the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , which took him four years to finish.

This grand fresco contains over three hundred figures over five hundred square meters of the ceiling. It took Michelangelo four years, lying on his back, to complete this masterful work, which stands even today as a testament to this one man's dedicated and accomplished artistry. The scenes depicted are from the Book of Genesis, the most famous of which is The Creation of Adam . The outstretched hands of God and Adam are an iconic image, perhaps the most widely known and imitated detail from any renaissance piece. Michelangelo, in this work, demonstrated his deep understanding of the human form, and how to depict it in a huge array of different poses.

The complex, twisting figures and vibrant colors of this work, and the sculptures with their writhing forms, played a huge role in the birthing of an entire artistic movement. Mannerism, largely derived from the work of Michelangelo, is a deliberately stylized form of sophisticated art, in which the human body is idealized. It can be characterized by often complex, and sometimes witty, composition and unnatural use of vibrant colors. Without Michelangelo, the works of later Mannerist artists like, for example, Pontormo and Bronzino, would not exist. Raphael was also strongly influenced by Michelangelo, as were later ceiling painters in the Baroque period, and many others since. His influence on art over the past centuries cannot be estimated. He is rightly viewed as a genius, and as the archetypal Renaissance man.

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo's art has far-reaching historic influence. His world is genetically a two-fold system continually expanding. Measuring his internal development from the Pieta through David to The Last Judgement , we view the path of an experience in which each stage provides the foundation for the next, from sculpture to painting, painting to architecture, architecture to the art of poetry. How can we not be moved by this will, anxious to express the new by using traditional means? At the same time we are aware of the power of his influence. First mannerism, then Johannes Vermeer , Rembrandt , Eugene Delacroix , Rodin, Pollock and De Kooning found in him a model on which they could base their own creations. But the "divine" Michelangelo is more than that. In the western world, he was the first - Picasso the last - to regard himself as an absolute and mythic cultural experience. He managed to combine his high level of technical competence and his rich artistic imagination to produce the perfect High Renaissance blend of aesthetic harmony and anatomical accuracy in his work.

Michelangelo dominated his time, the Renaissance. He is part of its myth. Like all mythic creation, he appears with the same vigor, the same impact, the mystery of origins, the comprehension of the moment and the interpretation of final endings. It is hard to imagine a more attentive and ambitious creation on these three points united by the energy of the most universal expression possible of that fulfillment we call destiny.

Just like William Shakespeare on literature, and Sigmund Freud on psychology, Michelangelo's impact on art is tremendous. Michelangelo not only outshines all his predecessors; he remains the only great sculptor of the Renaissance at its best. What most Late Renaissance artists lacked was not talent but the ability to use their own eyes and share a vision with either their contemporaries or posterity. Michelangelo's extreme genius left little scope for works that escaped his influence, damning all his contemporaries to settle for aping him. Appreciation of Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the best of the Renaissance Art.

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

The Last Judgment

The Creation of Adam

The Deposition

Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants

Madonna of Bruges

The Battle of Cascina

The Torment of Saint Anthony

Risen Christ

Michelangelo Buonarroti Biography

Learn more about the Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet.

• Art History
• Architecture

The Basics:

Michelangelo Buonarroti was arguably the most famous artist of the High to Late Italian Renaissance , and inarguably one of the greatest artists of all time -- along with fellow Renaissance men Leonardo DiVinci and Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) . He considered himself a sculptor, primarily, but is equally well known for the paintings he was induced (grudgingly) to create. He was also an architect and an amateur poet.

Early Life:

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese (near Florence) in Tuscany. He was motherless by the age of six and fought long and hard with his father for permission to apprentice as an artist. At the age of 12, he began studying under Domenico Ghirlandajo, who was the most fashionable painter in Florence at the time. Fashionable, but extremely jealous of Michelangelo's emerging talent. Ghirlandajo passed the lad off to be apprenticed to a sculptor named Bertoldo di Giovanni. Here Michelangelo found the work that became his true passion. His sculpture came to the attention of the most powerful family in Florence, the Medici, and he gained their patronage.

Michelangelo's output was, quite simply, stunning, in quality, quantity, and scale. His most famous statues include the 18-foot David (1501-1504) and the (1499), which were both completed before he turned 30. His other sculpture pieces included elaborately decorated tombs.

He did not consider himself a painter, and (justifiably) complained throughout four straight years of the work, but Michelangelo created one of the greatest masterpieces of all time on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512). Additionally, he painted The Last Judgement (1534-1541) on the altar wall of the same chapel many years later. Both frescoes helped Michelangelo earn the nickname Il Divino or "The Divine One."

As an old man, he was tapped by the Pope to complete the half-finished St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Not all of the plans he drew were utilized but, after his death, architects built the dome still in use today. His poetry was very personal and not as grand as his other works, yet is of great value to those who wish to know Michelangelo.

Accounts of his life seem to portray Michelangelo as a prickly-tempered, mistrusting and lonely man, lacking in both interpersonal skills and confidence in his physical appearance. Perhaps that is why he created works of such heartbreaking beauty and heroism that they are still held in awe these many centuries later. Michelangelo died in Rome on February 18, 1564, at the age of 88.

Famous Quote:

"Genius is eternal patience."

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Michelangelo Buonarroti – A Detailed Michelangelo Biography

Michelangelo Buonarroti is considered by many to be among the most significant luminaries in the history of art. But, what is Michelangelo famous for and what did Michelangelo study? Michelangelo was one of those incredibly talented people that excelled in multiple disciplines, and was renowned for his sculptures, architecture, and paintings. To find out more about this fascinating Renaissance man, let’s take a deeper look at Michelangelo’s biography, as well as address some common questions on the topic, such as, “where did Michelangelo live?”, “was Michelangelo married?”, “how did Michelangelo die?”, and “how old was Michelangelo when he died?”.

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Childhood and Early Training
• 1.2.1 Time in Florence
• 1.2.2 Time in Rome
• 1.2.3 The Making of David and Other Works
• 1.2.4 Rivalries
• 1.3.1 The Sistine Chapel
• 1.3.2 Julius II’s Tomb
• 1.4 Late Period
• 2 The Legacy of Michelangelo
• 3 Notable Artworks
• 4.1 How Did Michelangelo Die?
• 4.2 How Old Was Michelangelo When He Died?
• 4.3 What Did Michelangelo Study?
• 4.4 Was Michelangelo Married to Anyone?
• 4.5 Where Did Michelangelo Live?

Exploring Michelangelo’s Biography

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in Caprese, a little village close to Arezzo. He came from a middle-class background and his father was a banker. His mother had suffered for many years from an illness which unfortunately took her life when the young Michelangelo was only six years of age. His father had no choice but to leave him in the care of his nanny as he did not have the time to raise him. The nanny’s husband was a stonecutter by trade and it is believed that this is where the young artist’s passion for marble first began.

Childhood and Early Training

Even at the age of 13, it was apparent to Michelangelo’s father that the young boy had no desire to follow the family trade of banking and so he was sent to Domenico Ghirlandaio’s studio to serve as his apprentice. This studio would be the perfect place for the aspiring artist to pick up all the necessary techniques and tricks of the trade, with Ghirlandaio possessing a thorough knowledge of draftsmanship and fresco painting techniques. However, it is believed that Michelangelo found that his personal views on art often clashed with those of his mentor, and he preferred to study the works of the masters such as Donatello , Masaccio, and Giotto than follow Ghirlandaio’s methods. He had only been working at the studio for around a year when the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici, asked Ghirlandaio to let Michelangelo and Francesco Grancci (his two best students) join his Humanist academy.

In Renaissance Florence at this time, new ideas and philosophies were starting to emerge and artists were encouraged to study the humanities in order to supplement their artistic works with an understanding of ancient Greco-Roman art and philosophy.

The more progressive artists were establishing a Renaissance style that would promote humanist principles and recognize man’s essential role in creating the modern world, moving away from Gothic imagery and devotional works. While there, Michelangelo Buonarroti trained under Bertoldo di Giovanni, the bronze sculptor, who exposed him to the iconic classical statues in the Lorenzo Palace. Michelangelo, like Leonardo da Vinci , was not content with studying the principles of anatomy from classical sculptures. He undertook his own studies into human anatomy, dissecting corpses, and sketching from models until he got to the point where the human body no longer held any mysteries for him, and he felt like he quite literally knew the human body inside-out.

Yet, he differed from da Vinci in the fact that anatomy was just one riddle to be figured out of many for the other artist, whereas for Michelangelo, it was the single most important problem that he wanted to master above all others. Around this time, he received the necessary permission from the friars of Santo Spirito Church to examine corpses in the convent’s hospital, where he would acquire a thorough grasp of the anatomy of humans. After Lorenzo de’ Medici passed away in 1492, the 17-year-old Michelangelo found himself without a patron and was offered shelter in the monastery. Michelangelo produced a strikingly life-like wooden sculpture that hung over the main altar out of gratitude. It was reported as lost after the French conquest in the late 18th century, although it had actually been transported to another church and painted to conceal its identity.

The Republic of Florence was threatened with siege by the French in 1494. Concerned about his safety, Michelangelo relocated to Bologna, with a brief detour in Venice. In the city, he met Giovan Francesco Aldrovandi, a rich Bolognese senator who was successful in obtaining the commission for the outstanding statuettes for the marble tomb lid for the Arca of St. Dominic for Michelangelo. The original lid was produced by Niccolo dell’Arca in 1473, with Michelangelo carving the few surviving figures in 1496, including Saint Petronio, Saint Proculus, and an angel with candles. 

Michelangelo, who was still just 19 years old at the time, eclipsed the production of the elder sculptor with his unprecedented detail in the folds of the linen and fabric, and in the form of Petronio, to whom he added a palpable feeling of motion by depicting him in mid-step.

Time in Florence

Once the risk of a French invasion passed, Michelangelo temporarily returned back to Florence. He was working on two sculptures: one of St. John the Baptist and another depicting a cupid. Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio bought the sculpture after being deceived into thinking it was actually an antique statue. Despite his initial anger upon learning about the deceit, Cardinal Riario was rather impressed by the young sculptor’s talent and summoned him to Rome to start on a new project. Michelangelo sculpted a figure of the Roman god of wine, Bacchus, for the commission, which was ultimately rejected by the Cardinal, who felt it was politically inappropriate to be affiliated with a nude pagan figure. Michelangelo, who had by that point gained notoriety for being temperamental, was enraged and told Condivi, his biographer, years later to instead record it as an order from his banker, Jacopo Galli, the man who ultimately bought the finished sculpture.

Time in Rome

After finishing the statue, Michelangelo stayed in Rome, and Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas ordered his Pietà for the chapel in Saint Peter’s Basilica for the King of France. “Pietà” was actually a generalized label assigned to devotional works aimed to encourage worshippers to participate in penitent prayer, but Michelangelo’s piece was its most renowned interpretation. Michelangelo’s sculpture was unique in that he created two characters from a single piece of marble. Additionally, his presentation of his figures, which highlighted the artist’s attention to emotion and naturalism, earned Michelangelo considerable praise and new followers. Despite the fact that his reputation as one of the most divinely talented individuals of the time was assured, Michelangelo failed to secure any big assignments for another two years.

Yet, he was not particularly concerned about a lack of employment or financial stability.

“No matter how affluent I may have been, I always behaved like a poor man”, he would declare to Condivi at the end of his life. Girolamo Savonarola, a Florentine puritanical monk, would become notorious in 1497 for his Bonfire of the Vanities, an occurrence in which he and his followers publicly destroyed paintings and books. Their behavior disrupted what had been a flourishing era of Renaissance culture. Michelangelo did not return to Florence until Savonarola was deposed a year later. In 1501, he received an order from the Guild of Wool to finish an incomplete project started four decades earlier by Agostino di Duccio.

The Making of David and Other Works

The 17-foot-tall naked figure of the scriptural hero David was completed in 1504. The piece was a testament to his unmatched talent in sculpting strikingly lifelike human beings out of cold marble. It has become the definitive symbol of the Renaissance concept of ideal humanity . Even though the artwork was initially planned for the cathedral’s buttress, the grandeur of the completed project persuaded Michelangelo’s peers to set it in a more significant location, to be decided by a committee of artists and influential figures. They opted to place the statue in front of the Palazzo Vecchio’s entryway as a representation of the Florentine Republic. Upon the iconic sculpture’s completion, he received numerous painting commissions.

Doni Tondo (1504) is the only painting of Michelangelo known to survive to the present day. Scholars believe the artwork reveals the artist’s infatuation with Da Vinci’s works. They claim that Michelangelo repeatedly denied being influenced by anybody, and his comments were typically accepted without question. However, Da Vinci’s return to Florence following almost two decades was exhilarating to the city’s younger artists, and later academics typically accepted that Michelangelo was among those artists influenced by his output. Competition between Michelangelo and his contemporaries was strong throughout the High Renaissance in Florence, with painters all competing for the same commissions.

Da Vinci was considered to be the most notable individual of the whole Florentine brotherhood of Renaissance masters and 23 years older than Michelangelo. Yet an unstated rivalry between the two artists was well recognized. Piero Soderini commissioned both painters to paint opposite walls of the Palace Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento in 1503. It was a momentous time in art history when these two titans contended for the palm, and everyone in Florence observed their preparatory efforts with eager anticipation. Unfortunately, 

Soderini abandoned the project, and neither of the artworks were ever completed. Da Vinci traveled to Milan, while Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to Rome.

Mature Period

When in Rome, Michelangelo began work on the Pope’s tomb, a gigantic mausoleum that was scheduled to be finished in five years. After visiting the famed Carrara quarries, he spent six months carefully searching for the ideal blocks of marble from which to create his figures. To his great disappointment, Julius summoned Michelangelo to Rome, where he heard that the structure designated to hold the tomb was to be demolished and the undertaking as a whole halted. Michelangelo was enraged and believed that there was some kind of plot to destroy him. He even suspected that Bramante, the new St. Peter’s Basilica’s architect, was plotting to poison him. Michelangelo then returned to Florence, enraged, and penned a letter to the Pope, voicing his indignation at his mistreatment in Rome.

The Sistine Chapel

The artist found himself in the midst of a complex diplomatic struggle between Rome and Florence. The head of the Florence city government convinced Michelangelo to return to Julius II’s employment and provided him with a recommendation letter in which he stated that his art was unparalleled across the whole of Italy, possibly even throughout the whole world. After creating a massive bronze figure of the pope for the recently acquired city of Bologna (which was abruptly demolished after papal invaders were defeated), 

Julius commissioned Michelangelo to finish a project begun by Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, and others.

The assignment was to create frescoes for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and it is believed that Bramante persuaded the Pope that Michelangelo was the ideal person for the task, despite the fact that Michelangelo was primarily recognized for his sculptures and hence almost certainly would not succeed in this massive endeavor. Michelangelo would spend the next four years working on the Sistine Chapel. He painted the ceiling while lying on his back on a scaffold structure made from wood, with only one assistant to mix the paint. What emerged, though, was a significant work of incredible talent depicting Old Testament narratives. 

The completed painting, which featured multiple naked individuals (an unusual sight at the time), would ultimately become a magnificent masterwork of artistic expression. After completing the Sistine ceiling, he went back to working on the initial project for Pope Julius’ tomb. After the passing of Pope Julius II in 1513, financing for his tomb came to a halt, and the artist was assigned by the new Pope Leo X to start working on the Basilica San Lorenzo’s façade, Florence’s largest church. Michelangelo worked on it for the next three years before abandoning it because of a shortage of funding. Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici ruled Florence at the time, and the two men had a strong professional connection. Actually, under the Cardinal, Michelangelo enjoyed considerable creative freedom, which enabled him to venture deeper into the sphere of architectural design.

Julius II’s Tomb

Florence was proclaimed a republic following the conquest and pillage of Rome by Charles V’s forces in 1527. Nevertheless, the city was besieged in October 1529 before eventually falling in August 1530. The Medici family was reinstated to authority in the city by a new accord between Charles V and Pope Clement VII. After building defense structures for the fortification of Florence, Michelangelo was re-hired by Pope Clement, who offered him a new contract to resume work on Pope Julius II’s tomb. Michelangelo turned to fresco painting once more in Rome, this time for Pope Paul III. In 1534, he returned to the location of one of his greatest accomplishments, painting a huge and vibrant redemption tale for the Sistine Chapel’s altar wall. 

The Last Judgment, with its concept of Jesus’ “second coming,” was part of Roman Catholic teaching’s great narrative, and it took him seven years to complete.

Late Period

Toward the end of his career, Michelangelo began to focus more on architectural designs, and his most recognized work is St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Julius II suggested removing the existing Basilica and replacing it with the “greatest structure in Christendom”.  While Donato Bramante’s design was selected in 1505, and foundations were constructed the year after that, minimal progress had been made since. Michelangelo was in his 70s when he hesitantly took over the project from his rival (Bramante) in 1546, claiming, “I do this solely for the love of God and in reverence of the Apostle”. He continued working on the Basilica as Chief Architect for the remainder of his existence.

His most significant contribution to the design was his work on the dome at the Basilica’s eastern end. Except for the initial plans of Bramante, who had also envisioned an edifice to rival even Brunelleschi’s iconic dome in Florence, he disregarded all preceding architects’ ideas on the project. While the dome was not completed until after his passing, the foundation on which the dome was to be put was constructed, ensuring that the final draft of the dome remained loyal to Michelangelo’s grandiose vision.

The dome, which is still the biggest cathedral in the world, is both a Roman landmark and a tribute to Michelangelo’s eternal bond with the city.

Michelangelo’s final paintings, completed between 1542 and 1550, were a series of frescoes for the Vatican’s private Pauline Chapel. One of these works, The Crucifixion of St. Peter (1550), includes a horseman with a turban, and conservators and scholars think that this was actually a self-portrait. He also kept sculpting but did so privately for his own enjoyment. He finished a number of Pietàs, including the Deposition (1547), (which he actually tried to destroy) and his final work, the Rondanini Pietà (1564), on which he worked until his eventual death.

In his late years, the artist appears to have withdrawn more and more into himself. The poetry he composed indicates that he was tormented by uncertainties as to whether his artwork had been as sinful as others had accused it of being, while his letters made it obvious that the higher he gained in favor in the world, the more unpleasant and caustic he became. His infamous temper not only left others in awe but also in fear. His intensely private and reserved demeanor, including an instance where, while painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he flung wooden boards at a passing Pope who he had confused for a spy, indicates he battled from bouts of paranoia.

The Legacy of Michelangelo

What is Michelangelo famous for? Michelangelo was regarded as the absolute master of sculpting when it came to the human form, which he accomplished with so much technical flair that his marble almost appeared to transform into life. Scholars have noted his influence on the works of other masters such as Peter Paul Rubens , Raphael, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as well as Auguste Rodin, considered to be the last great sculptor to follow Michelangelo’s realist manner. Michelangelo has always been regarded as among a very small group of creative minds that were able to express the deepest and most tragic of human emotions to a degree of universal scope, along with other luminaries such as Beethoven and Shakespeare. And although the works of artists in this group were highly revered, they were seldom replicated and their subsequent influence was rather limited.

This was not because the artwork was regarded as too difficult to try and emulate – in fact, Raphael was regarded in the same light as Michelangelo as far as abilities are concerned, yet he was emulated much more by subsequent artists.

It appears that it was his particular style (that aspired to a “cosmic grandeur”), which artists found creatively inhibiting, and therefore did not try to mimic, except for a few artists such as Daniele de Volterra, who fully embraced his style. Rather, there were specific elements of his work that were embraced by certain movements. He was considered to be a master of anatomical drawing in the 17th century, for example, yet they found other aspects of his art lacking. Yet, while his influence may not always be so apparent or obvious, there is no doubt that his work had a very significant impact on the world of art.

Notable Artworks

Many consider Michelangelo’s ability to carve a figure (sometimes multiple figures) out of a single block of marble to be unmatched by any other sculptor. Yet, in addition to being so well-renowned as a sculptor, his artistic abilities knew no bounds, and he also created one of the most iconic frescoes in the history of art – the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . That’s not even mentioning his world-famous architecture! Here are a few of his most notable artworks.

As we have discovered through our exploration of Michelangelo’s biography, he was an extremely talented yet temperamental individual who was determined to unravel all the secrets of human anatomy so that he could accurately depict our form in his famous sculptures. His talent was also the source of much paranoia in his life, often believing that someone was out to destroy him and his career. Despite his increasingly reclusive nature over the years, he was often called upon to produce works – many of which that have become some of the most iconic pieces in the history of art.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did michelangelo die.

It is believed that Michelangelo Buonarroti passed away due to a combination of issues with his kidneys and a simultaneous fever. Yet, despite his deteriorating condition, he worked right up to his death. He was even preparing sketches for new projects just before he passed away.

How Old Was Michelangelo When He Died?

The renowned sculptor and artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, was 88 years of age when he eventually passed away. He died on the 18th of February 1564, following a prolonged illness that affected his kidneys and a serious fever. He was an active artist even in the final years of his life.

What Did Michelangelo Study?

From a young age, Michelangelo apprenticed under a series of various artists, such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, whom he first worked under when he was 13 years of age. He also took it upon himself to learn about human anatomy by dissecting corpses. He also studied humanities for a while at the De Medici Academy in Florence.

Was Michelangelo Married to Anyone?

No, Michelangelo Buonarroti is not known to have married anyone throughout his life, and it is not even known if he ever had any romantic relationships. There were many rumors that he was actually gay, much of which could be backed up by his own writings, which were apparently very homo-erotic in nature. Yet, his main love was his art, and this is where all of his attention and devotion went to. However, we do know that he enjoyed the company of close friends, several of whom he was particularly fond of and confided in.

Where Did Michelangelo Live?

Michelangelo Buonarroti first grew up in Caprese in Florence, near Tuscany. Many of his famous works were created while living in Florence, such as David . He also spent a considerable amount of time in Rome, living and working on various projects such as the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo would continue to move depending on where he was commissioned to go, or sometimes based on political events where he no longer felt safe to stay where he was. He spent a fair amount of time in Venice, working on the Virgin Mary and Child sculpture. Several years were also spent in Bologna working on St. Dominic’s tomb, and he also spent time selecting marble for his sculptures in places such as Carrara.

Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.

Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20 th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.

Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Isabella, Meyer, “Michelangelo Buonarroti – A Detailed Michelangelo Biography.” Art in Context. June 1, 2023. URL: https://artincontext.org/michelangelo-buonarroti/

Meyer, I. (2023, 1 June). Michelangelo Buonarroti – A Detailed Michelangelo Biography. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/michelangelo-buonarroti/

Meyer, Isabella. “Michelangelo Buonarroti – A Detailed Michelangelo Biography.” Art in Context , June 1, 2023. https://artincontext.org/michelangelo-buonarroti/ .

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The Most Famous Artists and Artworks

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors…in all of history! 

MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors!

Biography Online

Michelangelo Biography

Short biography of Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475, in a Florentine village called Caprese. His father was a serving magistrate of the Florentine Republic and came from an important family.

However, Michelangelo did not wish to imitate his father’s career and was attracted to the artistic world. At the time, being an artist was considered an inferior occupation for a family of his standing. But, aged 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, the leading fresco wall painter in Florence. Here Michelangelo learned some of the basic painting techniques and also taught himself new skills such as sculpting. He loved sculpting more than painting, feeling that sculptor allowed the creation of living works of art.

Madonna of the stairs – Michelangelo’s earliest works

His talents were soon noticed by one of the most powerful families in Florence – Lorenzo de’ Medici. Here, at de’ Medici’s court, Michelangelo was able to learn from the classic Masters. He also gained an all-round education, even taking part in dissections to learn more about the anatomy of the human body and muscles. He was also very ambitious becoming determined to improve upon the great classics of Greek and Latin art and become famous throughout the artistic world.

His Pietà can still be seen inside the Basilica of St Peter in Rome, Italy.

Michelangelo’s Pietà

His next most famous sculpture was his huge undertaking of a life-size David . This was hewn from a huge block of marble dragged down from a nearby Florentine mine. Michelangelo created a masterpiece, a perfection of the human form, and many agreed that Michelangelo had surpassed his classic predecessors. David was put pride of place in front of the seat of Florentine government. A remarkable feature of David and other Michelangelo’s sculptures was the smoothness of the finished product, he left no sign of any chisel mark – everything was beautifully smooth. He once claimed that the sculptures were already living in the marble and all he had to do was carve them out.

Michelangelo’s David

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. “

– Michelangelo

Michelangelo was a contemporary of the other sublime artist of his generation, the genius  Leonardo da Vinci . However, with Michelangelo’s short temper and pride, the two had a difficult relationship. At one time, the Florentine government wanted the two geniuses of art to work side by side, each painting a side of a council chamber. But, it was not a success and neither finished.

In 1505, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to Rome and commissioned him in a number of projects. The first was to create a magnificent tomb. However, this ran into problems as the Pope later diverted funds to the ambitious scheme to rebuild St Peter’s. Michelangelo was quick to anger – it did not matter even if it was the Pope. But the Pope deflected Michelangelo’s anger and, through a combination of persuasion, threat and flattery later offered Michelangelo a new commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel

This was a huge undertaking which Michelangelo began in 1508. Initially, the Pope suggested scenes from the New Testament, but Michelangelo chose the Old Testament with its great variety of characters and dramatic scenes. The project took four years to complete and involved Michelangelo working in awkward positions with paint frequently dripping onto his face. After months of working at awkward angles, he developed serious neck pain, but he continued to work at a furious pace trying to do the great fresco painting singlehandedly. Despite the magnitude of the task, Michelangelo did not want to delegate any work to assistants. He wanted to succeed alone; he felt like it was his divine mission.

The Sistine Chapel which took Michelangelo four years to paint.

“If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius.”

– Michelangelo as quoted in Speeches & Presentations Unzipped (2007) by Lori Rozakis, p. 71

On completion, everyone was awestruck by the magnificence of the work, including Pope Julius II. The vast work included the great Biblical stories of creation, the Great Flood and the Fall of Man, within this work, were nearly 300 figures. Michelangelo gained the reputation of the ‘divine Michelangelo’ – a reputation he was only too quick to encourage. Michelangelo suffered from no false modesty and always felt himself to be God’s artist.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

― Michelangelo

In later years, Michelangelo returned to Florence and became embroiled in politics as he helped defend the city against the attacks of the De’ Medicis. When the city fell to the De’ Medicis, Michelangelo feared for his life. But, his fame as the greatest artist of his generation made him too valuable to kill and he was simply given more art to work on. In 1546, he was also appointed to be the architect for the redesign of St Peter’s in Rome.

In his final years, he became increasingly religious. His depth of religious feeling can be seen through his poetry and the direction of his art.

“The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”

Michelangelo was a unique artist who created works of such sublime beauty his reputation will always be treasured.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Michelangelo”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , Published 25 Dec. 2009. Last updated 2 March 2020.

Complete works of Michelangelo

Michelangelo – The Complete works at Amazon

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Michelangelo Biography

Born: March 6, 1475 Caprese, Italy Died: February 18, 1564 Rome, Italy Italian artist

Michelangelo was one of the greatest sculptors of the Italian Renaissance and one of its greatest painters and architects.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a village where his father, Lodovico Buonarroti, was briefly serving as a Florentine government agent. The family moved back to Florence before Michelangelo was one month old. Michelangelo's mother died when he was six. From his childhood Michelangelo was drawn to the arts, but his father considered this pursuit below the family's social status and tried to discourage him. However, Michelangelo prevailed and was apprenticed (worked to learn a trade) at the age of thirteen to Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), the most fashionable painter in Florence at the time.

After a year Michelangelo's apprenticeship was broken off. The boy was given access to the collection of ancient Roman sculpture of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492). He dined with the family and was looked after by the retired sculptor who was in charge of the collection. This arrangement was quite unusual at the time.

Early works

Michelangelo's earliest sculpture, the Battle of the Centaurs (mythological creatures that are part man and part horse), a stone work created when he was about seventeen, is regarded as remarkable for the simple, solid forms and squarish proportions of the figures, which add intensity to their violent interaction.

Soon after Lorenzo died in 1492, the Medici family fell from power and Michelangelo fled to Bologna. In 1494 he carved three saints for the church of San Domenico. They show dense forms, in contrast to the linear forms which were then dominant in sculpture.

After returning to Florence briefly, Michelangelo moved to Rome. There he carved a Bacchus for a banker's garden of ancient sculpture. This is Michelangelo's earliest surviving large-scale work, and his only sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides.

In 1498 the same banker commissioned Michelangelo to carve the Pietà now in St. Peter's. The term pietà refers to a type of image in which Mary supports the dead Christ across her knees. Larger than life size, the Pietà contains elements which contrast and reinforce each other: vertical and horizontal, cloth and skin, alive and dead, female and male.

On Michelangelo's return to Florence in 1501 he was recognized as the most talented sculptor of central Italy. He was commissioned to carve the David for the Florence Cathedral.

Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina was commissioned in 1504; several sketches still exist. The central scene shows a group of muscular soldiers climbing from a river where they had been swimming to answer a military alarm. This fusion of life with colossal grandeur henceforth was the special quality of Michelangelo's art.

From this time on, Michelangelo's work consisted mainly of very large projects that he never finished. He was unable to turn down the vast commissions of his great clients which appealed to his preference for the grand scale.

Pope Julius II (1443–1513) called Michelangelo to Rome in 1505 to design his tomb, which was to include about forty life-size statues. Michelangelo worked on the project off and on for the next forty years.

Sistine Chapel

In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the chief Vatican chapel, the Sistine. The traditional format of ceiling painting contained only single figures. Michelangelo introduced dramatic scenes and an original framing system, which was his earliest architectural design. The chief elements are twelve male and female prophets (the latter known as sibyls) and nine stories from Genesis.

Michelangelo stopped for some months halfway along. When he returned to the ceiling, his style underwent a shift toward a more forceful grandeur and a richer emotional tension than in any previous work. The images of the Separation of Light and Darkness, and Ezekiel illustrate this greater freedom and mobility.

After the ceiling was completed in 1512, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved a Moses and two Slaves. His models were the same physical types he used for the prophets and their attendants in the Sistine ceiling. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb.

Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, proposed a marble facade for the family parish church of San Lorenzo in Florence to be decorated with statues by Michelangelo. After four years of quarrying and designing the project was canceled.

Medici Chapel

In 1520 Michelangelo was commissioned to execute the Medici Chapel for two young Medici dukes. It contains two tombs, each with an image of the deceased and two allegorical (symbolic) figures: Day and Night on one tomb, and Morning and Evening on the other.

A library, the Biblioteca Laurenziana, was built at the same time on the opposite side of San Lorenzo to house Pope Leo X's books. The entrance hall and staircase are some of Michelangelo's most astonishing architecture, with recessed columns resting on scroll brackets set halfway up the wall and corners stretched open rather than sealed.

Michelangelo wrote many poems in the 1530s and 1540s. Approximately three hundred survive. The earlier poems are on the theme of Neoplatonic love (belief that the soul comes from a single undivided source to which it can unite again) and are full of logical contradictions and intricate images. The later poems are Christian. Their mood is penitent (being sorrow and regretful); and they are written in a simple, direct style.

Last Judgment

Works after 1545

Michelangelo devoted himself almost entirely to architecture and poetry after 1545, including rebuilding of the Capitol area, the Piazza del Campidoglio, for Pope Paul III. The pope also appointed Michelangelo to direct the work at St. Peter's in 1546. The enormous church was planned to be an equal-armed cross, with a huge central space beneath the dome. Secondary spaces and structures would produce a very active rhythm. By the time Michelangelo died, a considerable part of St. Peter's had been built in the form in which we know it.

Michelangelo's sculpture after 1545 was limited to two Pietàs that he executed for himself. The first one, begun in 1550 and left unfinished, was meant for his own tomb. He began the Rondanini Pietà in Milan in 1555, and he was working on it on February 12, 1564 when he took ill. He died six days later in Rome and was buried in Florence.

Michelangelo excelled in poetry, sculpture, painting, and architecture. He was the supreme master of representing the human body. His idealized and expressive works have been a major influence from his own time to ours.

For More Information

Beck, James H. Three Worlds of Michelangelo. New York: Norton, 1999.

Bull, George Anthony. Michelangelo: A Biography. New York: Viking, 1995.

Gilbert, Creighton. Michelangelo. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Pettit, Jayne. Michelangelo: Genius of the Renaissance. New York: Franklin Watts, 1998.

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Michelangelo is born

Michelangelo Buonarroti , arguably the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, is born in the small village of Caprese on March 6, 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist’s apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. He would go on to master painting, sculpture and even architecture , becoming best known for powerful sculptures like David and for his ceiling frescoes at the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

For two years beginning in 1490, he lived in the Medici palace, where he was a student of the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and studied the Medici art collection, which included ancient Roman statuary.

With the expulsion of the Medici family from Florence in 1494, Michelangelo traveled to Bologna and Rome, where he was commissioned to do several works. His most important early work was the Pieta (1498), a sculpture based on a traditional type of devotional image that showed the body of Christ in the lap of the Virgin Mary. Demonstrating masterful technical skill, he extracted the two perfectly balanced figures of the Pieta from a single block of marble.

With the success of the Pieta, the artist was commissioned to sculpt a monumental statue of the biblical character David for the Florence cathedral. The 17-foot statue, produced in the classical style, demonstrates the artist’s exhaustive knowledge of human anatomy and form. In the work, David is shown watching the approach of his foe Goliath, with every muscle tensed and a pose suggesting impending movement. Upon the completion of David in 1504, Michelangelo’s reputation was firmly established.

That year, he agreed to paint a mural for the Florence city hall to rest alongside one being painted by Leonardo da Vinci , another leading Renaissance artist and an influence on Michelangelo. These murals, which depicted military scenes, have not survived. In 1505, he began work on a planned group of 12 marble apostles for the Florence cathedral but abandoned the project when he was commissioned to design and sculpt a massive tomb for Pope Julius II in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. There were to have been 40 sculptures made for the tomb, but the pope soon ran out of funds for the project, and Michelangelo left Rome.

In 1508, he was called back to Rome to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chief consecrated space in the Vatican. Michelangelo’s epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures are nine panels devoted to biblical world history. The most famous of these is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are outstretched toward each other.

In 1512, Michelangelo completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling and returned to his work on Pope Julius II’s tomb. He eventually completed a total of just three statues for the tomb, which was eventually placed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli. The most notable of the three is Moses (1513-15), a majestic statue made from a block of marble regarded as unmalleable by other sculptors. In Moses, as in David, Michelangelo infused the stone with a powerful sense of tension and movement.

Having revolutionized European sculpture and painting, Michelangelo turned to architecture in the latter half of his life. His first major architectural achievement was the Medici chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, built to house the tombs of the two young Medici family heirs who had recently died. The chapel, which he worked on until 1534, featured many innovative architectural forms based on classical models. The Laurentian Library, which he built as an annex to the same church, is notable for its stair-hall, known as the ricetto, which is regarded as the first instance of mannerism as an architectural style. Mannerism, a successor to the Renaissance artistic movement, subverted harmonious classical forms in favor of expressiveness.

In 1534, Michelangelo left Florence for the last time and traveled to Rome, where he would work and live for the rest of his life. That year saw his painting of the The Last Judgment on a wall above the altar in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Paul III. The massive painting depicts Christ’s damnation of sinners and blessing of the virtuous, and is regarded as a masterpiece of early mannerism. During the last three decades of his life, Michelangelo lent his talents to the design of numerous monuments and buildings for Rome, which the pope and city leaders were determined to restore to the grandeur of its ancient past. The Capitoline Square and the dome of St. Peter’s, designed by Michelangelo but not completed in his lifetime, remain two of Rome’s most famous visual landmarks.

Michelangelo worked until his death in 1564 at the age of 88. In addition to his major artistic works, he produced numerous other sculptures, frescoes, architectural designs, and drawings, many of which are unfinished and some of which are lost. He was also an accomplished poet, and some 300 of his poems are preserved. In his lifetime, he was celebrated as Europe’s greatest living artist, and today he is held up as one of the greatest artists of all time, as exalted in the visual arts as William Shakespeare is in literature or Ludwig van Beethoven is in music.

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Art History and Artists

Michelangelo.

• Occupation: Sculptor, Painter, Architect
• Born: March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy
• Died: February 18, 1564 in Rome, Italy
• Famous works: David , the Pieta , and paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
• Style/Period: Renaissance

• His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
• When he was seventeen he was hit on the nose by fellow artist Pietro Torrigiano in an argument. His nose was severely broken as can be seen in the portraits we have of Michelangelo.
• He thought that the painter Rafael convinced the Pope to have him paint the Sistine Chapel out of jealousy over his sculptures.
• He also painted The Last Judgment , a famous painting on the wall of the Sistine Chapel.
• No two of the 300 people painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel look alike.
• He was also a poet who wrote over 300 poems.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

Michelangelo – the last decades review: an 'absorbing' exploration of art

New exhibition focuses on works from the final 30 years of the artist's long career

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In 1534, Michelangelo Buonarroti left his native Florence for the final time. He had been summoned to Rome to work for Pope Clement VII, and would spend the rest of his life there. 

He was already the most famous artist of his age, said Hettie Judah on the i news site, and was renowned for the "masterworks" created during an "intense" period earlier in his career – from 1501, when he began sculpting David, to 1512, when he completed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. 

Yet Michelangelo was now 59 years old, "suffering from kidney stones and feeling his age": he regarded the "vast" commissions he would be expected to produce for the Pope "with apprehension". 

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This is the starting point for a new exhibition at the British Museum, which follows the artist's story until his death in 1564 at the age of 88 – a period of his long career that remains "less explored" by comparison with his well-documented youth. The show brings together some 100 exhibits, including drawings by Michelangelo himself and many works by younger artists under his tutelage, as well as a wealth of his personal correspondence. By turns entertaining and "poignant", it adds up to a fascinating portrait of an artist facing up to his "own mortality". 

The major works for which Michelangelo was commissioned in his final decades – notably "The Last Judgment", an "intensely personal" fresco commissioned for the Sistine Chapel – obviously cannot be removed from the Vatican, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian . The exhibition instead relies on his preparatory drawings, and a projection of the fresco. 

Although the drawings don't quite communicate the grandeur of the finished article, they still contain extraordinary passages, including "sketches of swarming muscular nudes, struggling and fighting" to "join the ranks of the blessed". Even so, this show rather takes "the drama out of his life". The artist's homosexuality, for instance, is largely overlooked in favour of his devout Catholicism in old age. Worse still, far too much space is given to paintings by his "awful" pupils. Even as a Michelangelo obsessive, I found this "hard work". 

"The ardour, even severity, of Michelangelo's spirituality may shock a secular audience," said Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph . Indeed, visitors must steel themselves "for a history lesson in religious schism" in order to appreciate much of the work here. 

Nevertheless, the drawings are sublime: "sketches buzz with figures, like bees in a hive, and reveal his methods"; sketches Michelangelo made for a "beautiful young Roman nobleman with whom he was besotted", including an eagle "about to tear into a stripling's torso"; the shading in a "stunning" crucifixion scene renders Christ's flesh almost "squishable". All in all, this is an austere but "absorbing" show that "encourages close-up contemplation" of his 50 drawings on display. 

British Museum , London WC1 (020-7323 8000, britishmuseum.org). Until 28 July

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