Master-a-Month: Michelangelo

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MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
(1475 - 1564)

Painter, sculptor, architect and poet, Michelangelo was one of the greatest creative individuals of the Renaissance. A cantankerous man given to wild mood swings, his work was nonetheless very spiritual. Few artists before or since have been better able to express their spirituality through the human form.

Michelangelo from The Web Gallery of Art
Michelangelo from The Web Museum, Paris

The Sistine Chapel website

A FEW WELL-KNOWN WORKS BY MICHELANGELO &
SOME STORIES ABOUT THEM

• • • Most of the images whose links appear below can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

David
The block of marble from which this piece was sculpted had been blocked out by another artist, Simone da Fiestole, who bungled the job so badly that the project was abandoned, and the 19 foot high piece of marble was thrown aside for many years. A young Michelangelo convinced the wardens of the block that since they couldn't use it for either sculpture or architecture, they had nothing to lose by letting him have a go at it. The attitude of the statue, the way David puts all of his weight on one foot while twisting his body, was largely determined by the bungled job of the previous artist.

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The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)
The Sistine ceiling took Michelangelo 4 years to complete, most of the which he was on his back on a scaffolding over 60 feet above the ground.

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"The Last Judgment" (1534-1541)
In this fresco, Michelangelo portrays himself as the flayed skin of a sinner being held by St. Bartholomew.

When Michelangelo was more than three quarters finished painting "The Last Judgment" Pope Paul went to see it. Accompanying him was Biagio da Cesna, an opinionated man who we are led to believe was more than a little prudish. When the pope asked Cesna what he though of Michelangelo's work, he began to rail about how it was disgraceful that such a holy place was filled with nude figures, exposing themselves so shamelessly. This work, he concluded, was appropriate only for public baths and brothels. Michelangelo heard these criticisms and when the pope and Cesna left the chapel, he drew Cesna's portrait from memory as the figure Minos, judge of Hades, his serpent tail wrapped around his body, among a group of demons. Despite the pope's pleas, Michelangelo refused to change the painting, and to this day Cesna's image languishes on the altar wall in damnation.

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There is a story about when Michelangelo sculpted his first pieta. He was not very well known, and when the statue was shown to the public, he mingled among the crowd in order to hear their reaction. The crowd looked upon the work with great awe, which pleased the young master. But his contentment didn't last long when the crowd began speculating on who the sculptor was. Later that evening, Michelangelo is said to have sneeked back to the sculpture and carved his name on the band on the front of Mary's robe so prominently that everyone would know that he was the artist.

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Moses (with horns) -- The horns on Moses' head are the result of a mistranslation in the Latin Bible (the Vulgate). It was written that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, "he shone brightly". The Vulgate's translator, St. Jerome, confused the Hebrew word for "shine" with the similar word for "horned".

Information about Michelangelo's time

  • HISTORICAL EVENTS:

    1431 - Joan of Arc was burned at stake
    1446 - Gutenberg invents printing with movable type
    1475-1564 Michelangelo Buonarroti
    1492 - Columbus discovers the "New World" for Europe
    1517 - Martin Luther nails 95 theses on the church door
    1543 - Copernicus refutes the theory of earth as the center of the universe
    1564-1616 William Shakespeare

  • The Art Historian's Guide to the Movies
    • THE RENAISSANCE

  • The Artist's View of World History and Western Civilization
     • THE RENAISSANCE  • THE AGE OF EXPLORATION
    • (comprehensive links pages for all of the arts and history)

A SAMPLING GREAT RENAISSANCE
PAINTERS & SCULPTORS from Italy:

• • • Most of the images whose links appear below can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

SEVERAL GREAT RENAISSANCE
PAINTERS & SCULPTORS from outside of Italy:

• • • Most of the images whose links appear below can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

A SMATTERING OF GREAT RENAISSANCE
COMPOSERS:

• • • click on the linked title to hear the music.

A FEW GREAT RENAISSANCE
WRITERS & DRAMATISTS:

RENAISSANCE
DANCE:

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