Michaelangelo
I was born on March 6th, 1475, in Caprese, a village where my father was briefly a Florentine government agent. I came from a family of higher rank than most other artists during my time. My father was a banker, however he was too genteel for trade and instead of being aggressive, he made a living from his land and a few appointments. My mother died when I was six so my memory of her is very weak. After grammar school I was taught by Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the best painters in Florence. My work was known for the simple, solid forms and proportions of figures, which some say, added intensity to their violent interaction.My artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in it's natural state. I was called to Rome in 1505 by Pope Julius II to create a monumental tomb for him. (We currently have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five revisions.) The tomb was to have three levels; the bottom level was to have sculpted figures representing Victory and bond slaves. The second level was to have statues of Moses and Saint Paul as well as symbolic figures of the active and contemplative life-representative of the human stri
I had hardly begun work on the pope's tomb when Julius commanded me to fresco the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to complete the work done in the previous century under Sixtus IV. In Rome, in 1536, I was at work on the Last Judgment for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, which he finished in 1541. Soon, I produced my first large-scale sculpture, the over life-size Bacchus. This theme, I had borrowed from northern European art. I embodied many characteristic qualities of the Renaissance. They are naked humans, perhaps representing the naked truth. No I did not come back from the dead, This is just your imagination. Christ, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion the separation, with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting and the damned descending on the right into a horrible hell. I was not afraid to show humanity in its natural state - nakedness, even in front of the Pope and the other religious leaders. I must have finished this piece when I was about 25 years old. My works showed humanity in its natural state. Many church officials objected to the nude figures, but Pope Julius gave me the artistic freedom, and eventually ruled the chapel off limits to anyone until the painting was completed. The Sistine Chapel is considered the best fresco ever done. I continued to have a deep attachment to my city (Florence), its art, and its culture throughout my life.
Common topics in this essay:
Sistine Chapel,
Greek Roman,
Pope Julius,
Peter's Basilica,
Julius II,
Michelangelo Buonarroti,
Sixtus IV,
Jesus Christ,
Italian Renaissance,
Day Christ,
nude figures,
sistine chapel,
pope julius,
humanity natural,
people people,
pope julius ii,
julius ii,
triangles depict,
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Acceptance Essays
