Michelangelo

=//Michelangelo Buonarroti//= Italy is probably one of the most visited Countries in Europe, and not only because of its richness in natural sites as one could suppose. From the early Italic tribes like the Etruscans, thorough the Middle-Age and Charlemagne, from foreign Spanish and French dominations to the process of unification of both Country and national feeling, Italian history has been steadily linked to great art and artist. However, there was a very special moment that gave Italy probably the larger amount of honor and high recognition all over the world in history: the Renaissance. It is said to have begun in 14th century Italy and to have risen from the rediscovery of Ancient Greek and Roman art. Proportions, perspective and use of lighting in art became common instruments in painting and architecture. In addition, although the focus of art remained religious, wealthy families such as the Medics served as patron for many Italian artist, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello or Raphael. Michelangelo Buonarroti, for example, was commissioned by Pope Leo, a Medici, to reconstruct the facade of the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. Painter, sculptor, architect and poet, Michelangelo was undoubtedly one of the key figures of Italian Renaissance, having left masterpieces as the David, La Pietà and the Cappella Sistina.

=1. Early Life= Michelangelo was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. His father, Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni, was the podestà of Chiusi. His mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. Michelangelo was raised in Florence and later, during the prolonged illness and after the death of his mother, lived with a stonecutter and his wife in the town of Settignano where his father owned a marble quarry. Against his father's wishes Michelangelo continued his apprenticeship in painting with Domenico Ghirlandaio and in sculpture with Bertoldo di Giovanni. Impressed, Domenico recommended him to the ruler of the city, Lorenzo de' Medici, and Michelangelo left his workshop. Michelangelo attended Lorenzo's school and was influenced by many prominent people who modified and expanded his ideas on art. In this period Michelangelo finished the "Madonna of the Steps" and the "Battle of Centaurs". After the death of Lorenzo, on 1492, for whom Michelangelo had become a kind of son, Michelangelo quitted the Medici court. He could again enter the court on 1494, with Piero de'Medici. But that year the Medici were expelled from Florence ,and Michelangelo also left the city moving to Venezia and then to Bologna. In 1496 a marble Cupid by Michelangelo was sold to Cardinal Raffaele Riario: the prelate was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome. Subsequently, in november of 1497, the French ambassador commissionde one of his most famous works, the Pietà.

=2. The Pietà=

The Pietà, which depicts the Virgin Mary holding the body of her son Jesus Christ after his death, has been created in many different forms by various painters and sculptors, but Michelangelo presents us with an image of the Madonna with Christ's body never attempted before. Of all the great paintings and sculptures on the Pietà the one by him stands out from all the rest. Michelangelo, relatively unknown to the world as an artist prior to sculpting the Pietà, was only in his early twenties when he was commissioned to do a life-size sculpture of the seated Madonna holding Christ's body in her arms. Their position reflects the nordic Pietà's iconography but his interpretation of the Pietà was far different than ones previously created by other artists. Michelangelo decided to create a youthful, serene and celestial Virgin Mary instead of a broken hearted and somewhat older woman. The Virgin's face is youthful, her head leans only slightly over the lifeless body of her son lying in her lap. The body of the dead Christ exhibits the very perfection of research in every muscle, vein, and nerve. In less than two years Michelangelo carved from a single slab of marble, one of the most magnificent sculptures ever created. This Pietà would be the first of four that he would create and the only one he completely finished. It was to be unveiled in St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee of 1500 and now the sculpture is again in St. Peter's Basilica, in Rome, protected by a crystal wall.

=3. David= = = Along with the Pietà, Michelangelo's David is one of the greatest works of Renaissance sculpture. Sculpted from 1501 to 1504, the 5.17m marble statue portrays the biblical King David who fought against the Giant Goliath. Breaking away from the traditional ways of representing him, Michelangelo doesn't reproduce the King as a winner with the head of his enemy at his feet; on the contrary, he presents us with a man who is gathering power at the moment immediately preceding the battle. Although through his sculpture Michelangelo shows a perfect knowledge of the male human form, proportions are not quite true to it; in effect, the head and the upper body are clearly larger than the lower body. There are two main explanations to this apparent incongruence. Some art historians suggest that at the beginning the statue was probably created to be placed on a pedestal or a facade and therefore David's proportions were meant to appear correct only when the sculpture was viewed from some distance below. However, others believe that a larger upper body and head can convey the idea of thinking with the brain and working with the hands. Moreover the statue is placed in a position called contrapposto which is the traditional way Greeks used to represent heroes. In this position, the sculpture is characterized by one smooth and composed side (in this case the right-hand side) opposed to an active and dynamic one (the left-hand side). A noteworthy emblem of human strength and beauty, David came to symbolize the Florentine Republic, an independent and rich city state threatened on all sides by powerful rival states.

=The Sistine Chapel- The Last Judgment= The Last Judgment is the enormous fresco painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had already painted the ceiling of the Chapel, and twenty five years later he was called again by the Pope to paint the wall. Michelangelo worked on it from 1534 to 1541, and he created an absolute masterpiece. The wall is completely covered by a huge number of figures divided between redemption and damnation, that create a continuous and complex movement. At the bottom of the painting we can see the damned souls, thrown into the mouth of hell by the demons, while moving to the ceiling we find scenes of redemption, starting from the souls saved from hell by the angels to the saints and the angels that surround the figure of Jesus. Among this crowd of bodies one in particular attracts the eye of the visitor and the curiosity of specialists: Saint Bartholomew, whose martyrdom was that of being skinned, that carries in one hand a knife and in the other his empty skin. The interesting point about this figure is that the his deformed face is a portrait of Michelangelo himself, that in this way put himself in a central point between heaven and hell. An outstanding characteristic of the fresco is the strength given to the bodies. They are overshadowing and in Michelangelo’s mind they were perfect to celebrate the majesty of God. But for their forms and for their nudity they created scandals at that time, and years later an Italian painter (later called “Braghettone” for this work) was commissioned to cover them in order to make the painting more convenient to a holy place. Luckily now the original painting has been re-established, and we can admire Michelangelo’s bodies in all their perfection.

=Conclusion= It is clear that Michelangelo Buonarroti, painter, sculptor and architect is surely the main representative of the Italian Renaissance. Works as the David, La Pietà and the Cappella Sistina prove it. Fundamental to Michelangelo's art is his love of male beauty, which attracted him both aesthetically and emotionally. In part, this was an expression of the Renaissance idealization of masculinity. Michelangelo saw art as originating from inner inspiration and from culture. In contrast with Leonardo Da Vinci, the artist saw nature as an enemy that had to be overcome. The figures that he created are forceful and dynamic (the David); each far from the outside world. For Michelangelo, the job of the sculptor consisted in freeing 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 was superfluous. Obviously, Michelangelo is an artist seized by an inspiration that seems more than human.