Michelangelo

Subject: Michelangelo Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:50 am

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. While he made few forays beyond the arts, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Florentine Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo's output in every field during his long life was prodigious; when the sheer volume of correspondence, sketches and reminscences that survive is also taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and the David, were sculpted in his late twenties to early thirties. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential fresco paintings in the history of Western art, on the ceiling and altar wall (The Last Judgement) of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Later in life he designed the dome of St Peter's Basilica in the same city and revolutionised classical architecture as he had done every other discipline he mastered, with invention of the giant order of pilasters.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:22 am

Michelangelo

The enmity between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci is famous. There were over twenty years of difference in age between them and Leonardo, on his return to Florence at the age of fifty, was confident of regaining the position due to him in the artistic world of the city. And he was in fact received with great honors, but had to reckon with the fame of Michelangelo, the rising star whose name was on everyone's lips and who had already received the commission for the David from the Republic.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:23 am

Michelangelo

His Studies of Anatomy
During the years he spent in the Garden of San Marco, Michelangelo began to study human anatomy. In exchange for permission to study corpses (which was strictly forbidden by The Church), the prior of the church of Santo Spirito, Niccolò Bichiellini, received a wooden Crucifix from Michelangelo (detail of Christ's face). But his contact with the dead bodies caused problems with his health, obliging him to interrupt his activities periodically.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:03 am

Michelangelo

In fact all the sources refer to his brusque and rude manners, his difficult character, his touchiness and intransigence, and the difficulties that he often had in his relations with others. He had no pupils, nor constant collaborators, and always used boys from the workshop as his assistants.

Giorgio Vasari to comment:

"It would be impossible for any craftsman or sculptor no matter how brilliant ever to surpass the grace or design of this work, or try to cut and polish the marble with the skill that Michelangelo displayed. For the Pieta was a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture. Among the many beautiful features (including the inspired draperies) this is notably demonstrated by the body of Christ itself. It would be impossible to find a body showing greater mastery of art and possessing more beautiful members, or a nude with more detail in the muscles, veins, and nerves stretched over their framework of bones, or a more deathly corpse. The lovely expression of the head, the harmony in the joints and attachments of the arms, legs, and trunk, and the fine tracery of the veins are all so wonderful that it is hard to believe that the hand of an artist could have executed this inspired and admirable work so perfectly and in so short a time. It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:20 am

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Michel17

Bacchus. 1496-1497. Marble. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:27 am

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Michel18

Pieta, 1499. Marble. St. Peter's, Vatican.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:39 am

Michelangelo

Michelangelo, who was often arrogant with others and constantly dissatisfied with himself, saw art as originating from inner inspiration and from culture. In contradiction to the ideas of his rival, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo saw nature as an enemy that had to be overcome. The figures that he created are forceful and dynamic; each in its own space apart from the outside world. For Michelangelo, the job of the sculptor was to free the forms that were already inside the stone. He believed that every stone had a sculpture within it, and that the work of sculpting was simply a matter of chipping away all that wasn't a part of the statue.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:44 am

Michelangelo

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:57 am

Michelangelo

Michelangelo Miguel12

Along with contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, he is considered one of the great masters of European art.

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:24 am

Michelangelo

I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.
Michelangelo, quoted in Vasari's Lives of the Artists

Subject: Re: Michelangelo Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:24 pm

Michelangelo

David
Gigantic marble, started in 1501 and completed in 1504
Michelangelo began work on the colossal figure of David in 1501, and by 1504 the sculpture (standing at 4.34m/14 ft 3 in tall) was in place outside the Palazzo Vecchio. The choice of David was supposed to reflect the power and determination of Republican Florence and was under constant attack from supporters of the usurped Medicis. In the 19th century the statue was moved to the Accademia.

Michelangelo commented on his David statue: "A civic hero, he was a warning... whoever governed Florence should govern justly and defend it bravely. Eyes watchful... the neck of a bull... hands of a killer... the body, a reservoir of energy. He stands poised to strike."