Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475–1564)
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Born Mar. 6, 1475, in Caprese, now Caprese Michelangelo, Tuscany; died Feb. 18, 1564, in Rome. Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet.
Michelangelo’s works in many respects determined the development of European art in the 16th century and later. They powerfully reflected not only the deeply humane and heroic ideals of the High Renaissance but also the tragic sense of crisis in the humanist outlook that characterized the culture of the Late Renaissance.
Michelangelo, the son of a magistrate, trained under the painter Ghirlandaio (1488–89) and the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (1489–90). However, the greatest influence on Michelangelo’s creative development was exerted by the works of Giotto, Donatello, Masaccio, and Jacopo della Quercia, as well as by ancient Greek and Roman works of the plastic arts. Michelangelo’s works are marked by the plastic strength and dramatic quality of images, emphasis on the monumental, and reverence for the beauty of man. These qualities appear even in the artist’s earliest works, such as the marble reliefs Madonna of the Stairs and Battle of Centaurs (c. 1490–92, Casa Buonarroti, Florence).
In Rome, Michelangelo carved the statue Bacchus (1496–97, Bargello, Florence), which reflected his interest in ancient Greek and Roman monuments. He also sculpted the Pietd (1498–1501, St. Peter’s, Rome), in which a traditional Gothic motif is combined with a new, humanist expression of grief by a young, beautiful woman over her lost son. In 1501, Michelangelo returned to Florence, where he produced works symbolizing the valor of the republic’s citizens, who had cast off the yoke of the Medici tyranny. The colossal statue David (1501–04, Accademia, Florence) creates the impressions of awesomeness (Michelangelo’s contemporaries called this distinctive feature of his works terribilitd} and of an impulse to heroic action held in check by a strong effort of will. In the full-size cartoon for a fresco for the Palazzo Vecchio (Battle of Cascina, 1504–06; the composition is known through copies and studies), Michelangelo depicted the readiness of the Florentine citizens to rise in defense of the republic.
In 1505, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo to Rome, where the artist was commissioned to create the pope’s tomb. Work dragged on, plans were often changed, and the project was not completed until 1545. (Only a small part of the final plan for the majestic sculptural-architectural complex was designed by Michelangelo.) For the tomb, Michelangelo carved a number of statues, including Moses (1515–16, Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome), which became the central element of the tomb when it was finally completed. His Moses has titanic grandeur and is endowed with a powerful temperament and equally powerful will. Here, for the first time, Michelangelo introduced into sculpture the temporal aspect: when walking around the statue, the viewer perceives impending movement that is complemented by an increase in tension.
Also intended for the tomb of Julius II were the two statues Bound Slave and Dying Slave (both 1513–16, Louvre, Paris), which were meant to contrast a beautiful, strong youth who is struggling to free himself from his chains with an equally fair captive who hangs powerlessly in them. Four other statues of slaves intended for the tomb, which were never completed (c. 1532–34, Accademia, Florence), reveal the artist’s carving technique. He did not treat the block uniformly from all sides but, as if seeing the end product in the uncut stone, concentrated on some parts of the block while leaving others almost untouched. Such a method excluded the participation of assistants.
Michelangelo’s fresco cycles were painted almost singlehanded. These frescoes included his masterpiece, the painting for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican (1508–12). Among the complex narrative panels the following stand out: scenes from Genesis, beginning with the separation of light from darkness and ending with the drunkenness of Noah; the prophets and sibyls in the triangular shapes between the windows; and the ancestors of Christ and episodes from the Bible depicting miraculous deliverances of the Jews in the pendentives, spandrels, and lunettes. The strongly marked architectural framework of the ceiling expresses not only the visual integrity of each figure and scene individually but also the majestic decorative unity of the gigantic painting as a whole. The frescoes are a hymn to the physical and spiritual beauty of man, an affirmation of man’s boundless creative possibilities.
In the 1520’s, Michelangelo’s thinking acquired a tragic undertone. The artist’s principal works of these years were the new sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, its tomb for the Medici family (1520–34), and statues for its embellishment. The two statues of the deceased dukes are not portraits but idealized figures, one alert and one pensive. At the feet of each of the dukes is a pair of reclining carved figures depicting the times of day and symbolizing the rapid passing of time. The serious meditation of Lorenzo, the aimless movement of Giuliano, the somber emotion and unstable poses of the reclining figures reflect the crisis in Renaissance ideals and the deep pessimism that seized Michelangelo as he faced Italy’s loss of freedom in the Italian Wars of 1494–1559.
During the siege of Florence by Imperial and Medici troops in 1529, the republic chose Michelangelo to direct the construction of fortifications. After the fall of the city, he remained in Florence to complete the Medici Chapel; in 1534 he moved permanently to Rome.
In the last 30 years of his life, Michelangelo gradually abandoned sculpture and painting and turned primarily to architecture and poetry. In Rome he painted the huge fresco Last Judgment on the wall above the altar of the Sistine Chapel (1536—41). In this work, which is filled with an avalanche of supernaturally powerful nude bodies, the central figure is the young and beautiful Christ, the merciless judge of humanity. Tragic suffering is also expressed in the frescoes of the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican (Martyrdom of St. Peter and Conversion of St. Paul, 1542–50), which in some respects anticipated baroque wall paintings.
Up to the last days of Michelangelo’s life, he engaged in sculpture. However, he destroyed the Pietd that he was carving for his own tomb; it was pieced together and completed by his pupil T. Calcagni (until c. 1550–55 it was in the Florence Cathedral). The Rondanini Pietd (1555–64, Sforza Castle, Milan) was left by the artist in an early stage of execution. In these two pietas the deeply spiritual mood of Michelangelo’s late years was expressed with particular force.
However, in Michelangelo’s final years, he was involved above all in large-scale architectural projects. Strong modeling is characteristic of his structures. Undulating wall surfaces, strongly projecting pilasters, sculpturally expressive platbands, and the colossal order play an important role in creating dynamic contrasts of masses. Michelangelo’s buildings prepared the way for baroque architecture, but they are purely Renaissance in spirit.
Between 1523 and 1534, Michelangelo worked on the Laurendan Library in Florence; around 1568 its vestibule, with a staircase that, owing to the organic dynamics of its composition, creates the impression of a flow of lava, was completed according to Michelangelo’s plans.
From 1546 until his death, Michelangelo’s principal architectural activities were the construction of St. Peter’s Church and the group of buildings of Capitoline Hill in Rome—the spiritual and secular center of the “eternal city.” Both projects were completed according to the artist’s plans after his death. The piazza of Capitoline Hill acquired a trapezoidal plan. In back of the piazza is the Conservatori Palace; two lateral palaces symmetrically face the piazza. The fourth side is open, with a wide staircase leading up to the square. In the center of the piazza is the ancient Roman equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. This piazza, the first square designed to have a view of of the entire city, demonstrates Michelangelo’s deep understanding of the laws of optical perception in architecture. In his design of St. Peter’s Church, he preserved Bramante’s central plan but achieved a greatly unified composition, with the central crossing predominating over the remaining parts. The eastern part of the church, with the drum for the massive dome, was built during Michelangelo’s lifetime, but the dome itself was built after his death by Giacomo della Porta, who increased its proportions somewhat.
In old age Michelangelo turned increasingly to poetry. His lyric poetry is noted for its depth of thought and tragic quality. He writes of love as man’s eternal striving for beauty and harmony, relates the loneliness of artists in a hostile world, and expresses the bitter disappointments of a humanist facing the triumph of force. Michelangelo’s madrigals and sonnets, his most widely acclaimed poetry, were not published during his lifetime, but his contemporaries (B. Varchi, F. Berni) greatly admired them. The first edition of Poems came out in 1623. Michelangelo’s writings were among the influences that gave impetus to the development of mannerism. However, unlike the mannerists, who had a one-sided understanding of his legacy, Michelangelo was able to the end to retain and express in his works love for man and faith in his majesty and beauty.
WORKS
Rime: A cum di E. N. GirardL Ban, 1960.II carteggio … a cura di G. Poggi, P. Barocchi, R. Ristori, vols. 1–2. Florence, 1965–67. (Publication continues.)
REFERENCES
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Libman, M. la. Mikelandzhelo Buonarroti. Moscow, 1964.
Mikelandzhelo. (Collection of articles edited by V. N. Grashchenkov.) Moscow, 1964.
Rotenberg, E. I. Mikelandzhelo. Moscow, 1964.
Lazarev, V. N. “Mikelandzhelo.” In Starye itaVianskie mastera. Moscow, 1972. Pages 447–606.
Tolnay, C. de. Michelangelo, vols. 1–5. Princeton, 1943–60.
Ackermann, J. S. The Architecture of Michelangelo, vols. 1–2. London, 1961.
Binni, W. Michelangelo scrittore. Rome, 1965.
Weinberger, M. Michelangelo the Sculptor, vols. 1–2. London-New York, 1967.
M. IA. LIBMAN and R. I. KHLODOVSKII (literature)