Michelangelo

This paper will discuss the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), who is "the most famous artist who ever lived and many would say the greatest" (Hibbard 10). Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance artist who is most widely known for his sculptures David and the Pieta, as well as the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 in the village of Caprese, where his father Lodovico Buonarroti, "was serving a short term as mayor (podesta) - almost his first job" (15). The family had once been wealthy, but by the time Michelangelo was born they had lost most of their fortune. Even so, they were proud people who continued to live as though they were still rich. For example, Michelangelo's father "took on the grand manner of a decadent nobleman and would not work" (Besdine 15). Michelangelo was the second of five sons, and when he was only one month old, his parents sent him to live with a wet-nurse on a farm in Settignano, near Florence. Little is known about this woman who raised Michelangelo until he was ten years old, other than that she was the daughter and wife of stone masons. In his later years, the artist used to joke that "he had taken in the hammer and chisel along with her milk" (Hibbard 15). When Michelangelo was six years old, his mother died, and four years later, when his father remarried, he went to live with his own family at Florence for the first time. Upon joining his father's household, he was sent to

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nt-sized statue of David (1501-1504). This work was commissioned by the city of Florence, and Michelangelo was very proud to be called upon to create a great work for his home town. It is interesting to note that the block of marble from which the David was carved had already been worked on by other artists, who had practically ruined it. This circumstance created certain limitations from the start of the project, since Michelangelo had to work on a damaged stone. Because of this, the "figure is very narrow when seen from the side" (Murray 39). Nonetheless, the David is a masterpiece of sculpture, which has been called "the first wholly successful union of antique inspiration with the new Florentine celebration of man: and from the time of its unveiling it was understood as the beginning of a new epoch in art" Hibbard 56). Even the placement of the statue related to this theme. It was "placed on the steps of the Palazzo Vecchio on the right side of the entrance where Donatello's Judith had formerly stood," showing that Michelangelo "had outstripped his teachers and taken his place as the outstanding sculptor of the Renaissance" (Besdine 43). In 1505, Michelangelo returned to Rome at the summons of Pope Julius II, who cont

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