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MICHELANGELO IN ROME: THE LIFE OF A GENIOUS OF THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD |
We know Michelangelo's life essentially through the two biographies written when the artist was still alive: the one by Giorgio Vasari from 1550 and the one from Ascanio Condivi from 1553.
Some more informations on the artist's life can be gathered from the letters to the relatives with whom he always kept a strong relashionship.
Michelangelo was born on 6th march 1475 in Caprese, near Arezzo, 40 miles south Florence.
His father Ludovico was the magistrate of his town, but his mandate was about to expire and very soon the family moved back to the town of the origin, Florence. Michelangelo started his artistic career against his father's will, even there are no documents on his training in the sculptor's art and strangely Buonarroti is not shown to be signed into a sculptor's workshop or to some corporations, whic was the custom at that time.
The only sure information that can be linked to sculpture is that between 1489 and 1492 the young master was admitted to the garden of the Monastery of san Marco in Florence where was kept the precious collection of ancient roman statues owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent. In 1488 Michelangelo was 13 years old and entered the workshop of Ghirlandaio, famous florentine painter: from him Michelangelo learned mostly about drawing, copying the works of the florentine painters from the recent past like Giotto and Masaccio.
When in 1489 Michelangelo met Lorenzo the Magnificent, he discovered his vocation for sculpture.
In 1499 Michelangelo sculpted his first work in Rome: the Pieta'. The famous marble group contains the signature of the artist in latin " Michelangelus Buonarroti Florentinus faciebat " ( Michelangelo from Florence did it ) and this means that the artist wanted to show that this was a work coming entirely from his hands and not from the restoration of the fragments coming from the ancient Rome. And,as another proof of his mastery, Michelangelo made the Pieta' in one year and half from a unique block of Carrara marble and he went personally to the Carrara quarries to pick up the block he needed.
After this work, Michelangelo was called to Florence to explain through his art the new republican power ruling after the Medici's expulsion: in 1502 he carved the David and it took two years to do this work.The David statue was ehibited in the city center of Florence for around 350 years and since the end of 19th century the statue is preserved in the Accademia museum. In 1506 Michelangelo made his second trip to Rome when the Pope Julius II wanted to fresco the Sistine Chapel and in 5 years Michelangelo covered the ceiling of the sistine with the biggest fresco ever painted by human hands.
He laid down on his back and when he finished, at the age of 35, the artist had a terrible neck sickness for 6 months.
The second work that took all the energies of Michelangelo was the front wall fresco inside the Chapel called " The last Judgement ": this masterpiece was completed in 5 years and the artist removed the scaffoldings in the sistine chapel when he was 65 years old, in 1541.
Michelangelo frescoed the Sistine Chapel in 10 years and this famous hall of the Vatican is the most visited place in Rome with 10.000 visitors every day.