Michelangelo: biography, facts and famous paintings
Sculptor, painter, architect and poet: the life of Michelangelo, his years with the Medici and ten of his most famous works.
Artblr··12 min read·
In short
Michelangelo (1475–1564) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet who saw himself first and foremost as a sculptor. Trained in Ghirlandaio's workshop and in the Medici gardens, he spent much of his life in Rome, where he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment.
Who Was Michelangelo?
Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese Republic of Florence, Italy, as the second of five sons. He died on February 18, 1564, in Rome. He was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet who had an unrivalled impact on the development of Western art. This Italian artist was considered one of the greatest artists of his time, and he has ever since been held in high esteem when it comes to the creation of art. Many of his paintings, sculptures and buildings rank among the most famous in the world. The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are perhaps the best of his works known today, yet Michelangelo thought of himself fundamentally as a sculptor. His practice of several arts was not unusual in his time, however, because all of them were considered to be based on design, or drawing. He worked on marble sculptures virtually all his life, and minored in other arts during other times. The high regard for the Sistine Chapel ceiling is partly a reflection of the greater attention paid to painting in the 20th century, and partly because many of his works in other media remained incomplete.
Michelangelo: Biography, Facts and Famous Paintings | Artblr
One of the many rub-offs of Michelangelo’s lifetime fame is evident in his career being more fully documented than that of any other artist of his time or earlier. He was the first artist from the West whose biography was published while he was yet alive. As a matter of fact, two rival accounts of his life were written. The first was the last chapter in the series of Lives of the Artists (1550) by Giorgio Vasari, a painter and architect. This was the only chapter about a living artist which explicitly presented the works of Michelangelo as the culmination of art, far surpassing the efforts of those before him. In spite of such praise, he was not entirely pleased and had his assistant, Ascanio Condivi, write a shorter, different book in 1553, probably based on the artist’s own spoken comments, so that the account showed him the way he wished to appear.
The creation of Adam
The Creation of Adam Image via http://www.oeuvres-art.com
After Michelangelo’s death, Vasari published a second edition in 1568 offering a rebuttal. While scholars have most often preferred the authority of Condivi, Vasari’s lively writing, coupled with the importance of his book as a whole and its frequent reprints in many languages, has made it the most common basis of widespread ideas on Michelangelo and other renaissance artists. Michelangelo’s fame also resulted in the preservation of countless mementos, including hundreds of letters, sketches and poems – more than for any other contemporary. Still, despite the enormous benefits of all this, on controversial topics, only Michelangelo’s side of the argument is often known.
At the time of Michelangelo’s birth, his father, Lodovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, was serving for a short time as magistrate in Caprese. The family returned to Florence during Michelangelo’s infancy. His mother, Francesca Neri, was ill, so the baby was put in the care of a family of stonecutters, which later led Michelangelo to joke, “With my wet-nurse’s milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels for my statues”.
Statue of David
The Statue of David Image via https://www.ccbs.edu
Michelangelo indeed didn’t have much interest in schooling. According to his earliest biographers, Vasari, Condivi and Varchi, he preferred watching painters at work in the nearby churches. It could have been his friend from grammar school, Francesco Granacci who was six years his senior, that introduced him to a painter named Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo’s father came to realize earlier on that his son didn’t take any interest in the financial business of the family. This was what led to the decision to apprentice him at the age of 13 in the workshop of this fashionable Florentine painter. That was where Michelangelo gained his main exposure to the technique of fresco.
Michelangelo and the Medicis
Angel by Michelangelo
Battle of the centaurs
Angel by Michelangelo Image via wikimedia.org
Battle of the Centaurs Image via http://www.arttrav.com/
Michelangelo learned the art of classical sculpture in the palace gardens of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent from the influential Medici dynasty. He studied there from 1489 through to 1492. The big opportunity came about for him after a year’s time at Ghirlandaio’s workshop, in line with the recommendation of his mentor. This proved a very productive time for him. His years with the Medici family gave him the avenue to access the Florentine social elite, which in turn allowed him to study under the tutelage of a renowned sculptor – Bertoldo Di Giovanni. He was exposed to prominent poets, scholars and humanists whose ideas broadened his culture. He also obtained a special permission from the Catholic Church to study cadavers to garner insight in anatomy, even though the exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health.
All these collectively contributed to laying the foundation of what was to become the distinctive style of Michelangelo – a muscular precision and reality compounded with a nearly lyrical beauty. Two relief sculptures that survive, "Battle of the Centaurs" and "Madonna Seated on a Step," are testaments to his unique talent at the tender age of 16.
Moving to Rome
The Deluge
The Deluge Image via https://www.michelangelo.org/
Michelangelo fled to Bologna to continue his study because of the political strife that followed the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent. He returned to Florence in 1495 and began to work as a sculptor, modelling his style after masterpieces of classical antiquity.
There are several versions of an intriguing story about Michelangelo's "Cupid" sculpture, which was artificially "aged" to resemble a rare antique: One version claims that Michelangelo aged the statue to achieve a certain patina, and another version claims that his art dealer buried the sculpture (an "aging" method) before attempting to pass it off as an antique.
Discovering that he had been defrauded after buying the Cupid sculpture, Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio demanded a refund. Rather bizarrely, he was so impressed with the handiwork of Michelangelo that he let the artist keep the money. The cardinal even invited Michelangelo to Rome, where the artist would spend much of his life and career.
On February 18, 1564, a few weeks before his 89th birthday, Michelangelo breathed his last. He died at his home in Macel de' Corvi, Rome after a brief illness. His nephew took his remains back to Florence where he was honoured by the public and revered as the father and master of all arts. At the Basilica di Santa Croce, his preferred burial ground, Michelangelo was finally laid to rest.
Personal Life
The Drunkenness of Noah
The Drunkenness of Noah Image via https://www.michelangelo.org
Michelangelo was a pious Catholic whose faith grew stronger close to the end of his life. Living an abstemious life, he told his apprentice Ascanio Condivi, “However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man”. This particular apprentice said his master was indifferent towards food and drink. Michelangelo ate more out of necessity than of pleasure, and often slept in his clothes and boots. Paolo Giovio, one of his biographers, says that “Michelangelo’s nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him”. He may not have minded, since he was by nature a solitary and melancholy person.
It remains virtually impossible to know for certain whether he had physical relationships with women, partly because Condivi ascribed to him a monk-like chastity. The nature of his sexuality is made apparent in his poetic works. Michelangelo wrote more than three hundred sonnets and madrigals.
Self-portrait of Michelangelo as Nicodemus
Self-portrait of Michelangelo as Nicodemus Image via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl4OJu2UrqA
The longest sequence displaying a great romantic friendship, was written to Tommaso dei Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587), who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. These make up the first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one man to another; they predate by fifty years Shakespeare's sonnets to the fair youth.
Cavalieri replied: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours." Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until his death. Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci in 1542, but the friend died a year later. His death inspired Michelangelo to write forty-eight funeral epigrams. Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his poetry, got the better of him - the model Febo di Poggio asked for money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini, stole from him shamelessly.
The First day of Creation
The First Day of Creation, Michelangelo Image via http://arthistoryblogger.blogspot.com
The openly homoerotic nature of his poetry has been a source of discomfort to later generations. His grandnephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1632 with the gender of pronouns changed, and it was not until John Addington Symonds translated them into English in 1893 that the original genders were restored. Even in modern times some scholars continue to insist that, despite the restoration of the pronouns, they represent "an emotionless and elegant re-imagining of Platonic dialogue, whereby erotic poetry was seen as an expression of refined sensibilities".
Later in life, he nurtured a deep platonic love for Vittoria Colonna, a poet and noble widow then in her late forties, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538. The two wrote sonnets for each other and remained in contact until her death. The sonnets mostly centred on the spiritual issues that preoccupied them. Condivi recalls Michelangelo's saying that his sole regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her hand.
The List of Most Famous Sculptures and Paintings
1. Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis at the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)
Sistine chapel
Image via http://www.museivaticani.va/
In line with the vision of the impetuous Pope Julius II, Michelangelo was given the responsibility of creating a series of frescoes that would cover the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He painted the frescoes standing on special scaffolding, in an uncomfortable position with his head constantly tilted upward.
2. The Last Judgment (1536-1541)
The Last Judgement
Image via https://www.flickr.com
Twenty-five years after completing the scenes from the Book of Genesis, Michelangelo began work on The Last Judgment. The Last Judgment is located in the Sistine Chapel, on the altar wall. He was chosen by Pope Clement VII to create the painting. The project changed: the original subject was the Resurrection, but after the death of Clement VII, his successor, Pope Paul III, preferred the Last Judgment, which was considered more suitable for the Italy of the 1530s. In his works, Michelangelo always made a concerted effort to break with the conventions of portraying religious scenes.
3. The Crucifixion of St. Peter (c. 1546–1550)
The Crucifixion
Image via https://getcustomart.com
This prominent fresco by Michelangelo can be seen in the Cappella Paolina (Pauline Chapel) of the Vatican Palace, in Vatican City. As a prominent figure in the New Testament and one of the founding fathers of the Catholic Church, St. Peter was portrayed in religious art due to his role in the spread of Christianity. Sadly, the Cappella Paolina is no longer open to the public, and members of the general public cannot view the fresco in person.
4. The Entombment (c. 1500)
The Entombment
Image via https://www.flickr.com
This painting was never completed. Its attribution is debated: some argue that Michelangelo painted it, while others believe it is the work of one of his students. It can be viewed at the National Gallery in London, which bought it in 1868 from a Scottish photographer living in Rome.
5. Doni Tondo (The Holy Family) (1506 or 1507)
Doni Tondo
Image via https://en.wikipedia.org/
It is the only finished panel painting of Michelangelo’s maturity to have survived, and it has also kept its original frame to this day. The painting is also referred to as the Doni Madonna; the word “tondo” refers to its circular shape, a format associated with the home and family and popular in the Renaissance. The Doni Tondo depicts the Christian Holy Family with the images of Jesus Christ, Mary, and Saint Joseph in the foreground. There are some enigmatic nude male figures in the background. Since no precise explanation has been given for them, they have prompted several interpretations among art critics.
6. The Battle of Cascina
The Battle of Cascina
Image via https://commons.wikimedia.org
Another exceptional but unfinished work is the Battle of Cascina. The painting was commissioned from Michelangelo by a statesman of the Republic of Florence, Piero Soderini. It was intended for a wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio.
7. Leda and the Swan
leda and the swan
Image via https://www.christies.com
In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, women abducted or seduced by gods were a popular theme. Michelangelo’s original painting no longer exists, but Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of it in 1601, having seen the original in Rome. Rubens maintained the same style by concentrating on the representation of human musculature and proportions.
8. The Conversion of Saul (c. 1542–1545)
The Conversion of Saul
Image via https://www.artbible.info
Michelangelo Buonarroti made this gorgeous fresco in a Biblical theme which can be found in the Cappella Paolina of the Vatican Palace. Most Christians are aware of the story of Saul’s conversion. Saul was a Jewish Pharisee who encountered Christ, became known as Paul and became an apostle who preached the Gospel.
9. The Torment of Saint Anthony
The Torment of Saint Anthony
Image via https://www.wikiart.org
It is one of the first paintings created by Michelangelo. Michelangelo was twelve or thirteen years old when he painted The Torment of Saint Anthony. The work is based on the religious theme of the Temptation of Saint Anthony. It tells the story of a saint faced with several spiritual temptations when he was alive.
10. Madonna and Child with St John and Angels (c. 1497)
Madonna and Child with St John and Angels
Image via https://en.wikipedia.org
It is also referred to as the Manchester Madonna; it can be viewed at the National Gallery in London.
How did Michelangelo Impact the Renaissance?
Michelangelo's tomb
Michelangelo's tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence Image via https://www.walksinsideflorence.it/
Michelangelo had an unparalleled influence on the Renaissance. A master of both painting and sculpting, he was also an architect, engineer and poet. His abilities as a painter and sculptor were unsurpassed in his day. While many artists studied under him and assisted him with the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, none equalled him as an artist.
Although Michelangelo was a staunch Catholic, he rejuvenated ancient Greek and Roman aspects of art and in doing so, motivated other artists to paint more secular art instead of traditional Christian scenes. This had an impact on the humanist movement during the Renaissance. What Michelangelo did differently to his predecessors and peers was that he made a hero out of man instead of God.
His techniques of painting were far more advanced than medieval Christian art during the dark ages. By painting the Sistine chapel, Michelangelo revolutionised European art.
Michelangelo may have been working for the pope but he still influenced humanism during the Renaissance through his incorporation of ancient Greek and Roman themes as well as scientific elements.
Conclusively, Michelangelo exerted a huge amount of impact upon artists of his time and well into modern times, as well as supporting the humanist movement of the Renaissance through his sculpture and art. The Renaissance would have failed to be as revolutionary as it was in Italy and the rest of Europe if he was not a part of the movement. His contributions to the Renaissance influenced art and society for centuries afterwards, well into modern western society today.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Michelangelo?
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet, born in Caprese and died in Rome. Although famous for the Sistine Chapel frescoes, he considered himself fundamentally a sculptor.
What are Michelangelo's most famous works?
His best-known works include the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes depicting Genesis (1508–1512), The Last Judgment (1536–1541), the statue of David, the Doni Tondo and The Crucifixion of St. Peter.
How long did it take Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling?
He painted the nine scenes from the Book of Genesis between 1508 and 1512, on special scaffolding with his head constantly tilted upward. He returned about twenty-five years later to paint The Last Judgment on the altar wall.
Where is Michelangelo buried?
Michelangelo died in Rome on February 18, 1564. His nephew brought his remains back to Florence, where he was buried in the Basilica di Santa Croce, his preferred burial place.
How did Michelangelo influence the Renaissance?
By reviving ancient Greek and Roman art and making a hero of man rather than God, he encouraged more secular art and supported humanism. His Sistine Chapel paintings revolutionized European art.
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