Michelangelo's Life

If one were to be asked if Michelangelo’s life affected his work, I would have to say yes and that would be saying it in the least. All of Michelangelo’s work was based on his life from childhood up to six days before his death.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 in the village of Caprese, Italy, where his father was serving as a magistrate of the Florentine Republic. Michelangelo briefly attended grammar school managed by Francesco da Urbino but he spent most of his time drawing or sketching. It was something he couldn’t live without, but brought him frequent scolding and even beatings by his father who considered drawing and fine arts to be a waste of time that brought no money or honor to his family. Little did his father know that in time Michelangelo would become one of the most important artists of the Italian Renaissance.

At thirteen Michelangelo was apprenticed to Dominico Ghirlanaio, the leading fresco (wall) painter in Florence. Michelangelo remained only one year: it was Ghirlandaio himself who sent him to the “Medici Gardens Art School” that Lorenzo the magnificent had founded in Florence for young artists and sculptures. During this first year at the “Medici Gardens”, the young Buonarroti develo

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Minos, his torso encircled by a serpent, waits on shore for his new subjects. Michelangelo almost intended the work to make him famous (which it did), carving the drapery in elaborate detail and giving the surfaces a high polish such as he never felt to be necessary in later works. Moses is seated, with the tables of the law under his right arm, apparently lost in thought; but he radiates authority, and the tumblings of his long tangled beard and deeply carved draperies hint at his immense reserves of energy. A Tondo is a circular painting or sculpture; this one is linked with Michelangelo’s merchant friend Angelo Doni who was a perceptive patron and art collector. And then on the right side and down on the bottom of the picture is where the damned are being dragged down and delivered to Hell. Moreover, it is an unmistakably political statement, since Brutus was the assassin of Julius Caesar and the subject clearly alludes to the recent murder of Alessandro de’ Medici, the tyrannical ruler of Florence. When questioned about it, he retorted loftily, ‘In a thousand years’ time who will care what they looked like?’

Day (1532) and night are sculptured allegorical beings from the tomb of Guiliano de’ Medici. Saul eventually recovered from his blindness and, as the Apostle St Paul, became the driving force in bringing Christianity to the gentiles. Every muscle, vain, down to the fingernails seem to breathe with life. According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down at his own insistence, since he was unworthy to share the same fate as Jesus. Nevertheless Brutus is a work of grave nobility, evidently modeled on roman imperial busts. The tomb is littered with disputes; changes of plan and discarded statuary.

Approximate Word count = 5589
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page double spaced)

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