Sistine Chapel Context

Michelangelo Buounarroti was the son of Ludovico, born in Caprese on March 6, 1475. His mother died when he was only six years old; apprenticed at the age of 13 to the Florentine studio of Ghirlandaio, he remained in this position for three years, coming to the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Medici scion, whose patronage was instrumental in introducing Michelangelo to Pico della Mirandola and the sculptor, Bertoldo, a disciple of Donatello ("Style and Art" 1). Through his association with the Medici, Michelangelo was also introduced to the papal Court and found favor with many prominent churchmen (Labella, 144 0 135). As a Florentine, he was extremely proud of his heritage and his ancestral nobility, though he was born to the bourgeois; he was devout in his religion, cognizant of the place of the secular and the profane in man's world, and deeply attracted to the classical styles of rediscovered antique sculpture ("Style and Art" 2 -3)

The commission for the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, like others, was received from Pope Julius II. This pope was a major patron of the artist, with whom Michelangelo had a "tormented relationship" (Popham 3). As an artist, Michelangelo preferred to work in marble as a sculptor; he is said to have been reluctant in the extreme to undertake the Sistine project (Janson 453-454).

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, the focus of Michelangelo's initial 12 figures which were greatly expand

Related Essays

Artistic Decoration of the Sistine Chapel .... The historical context for Michelangelo's decoration of the Sistine Chapel is the tension in the fifteenth century between the Church as the dominant .... (2585 10 )

Creating the Culture of Art .... context, in determining what is art, is ambiguous in Staniszewski's Believing Is Seeing. The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo, in the Sistine Chapel is not art .... (1661 7 )

Auguste Rodin .... to revive the learning and beauty of the past within the context of the .... reaching out across the centuries like God's hand on the Sistine Chapel bringing forth .... (1263 5 )

August Rodin .... be to set forth in general terms the historical and cultural context in which .... who cites the similar case of Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. .... (4603 18 )

"Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" "The .... Genius, in the context of Renaissance humanistic thought, was regarded as a great .... to what should be found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Fleming, 297). .... (5464 22 )

Category: Arts - S