michelangelo life essay

Michelangelo

Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo created the 'David' and 'Pieta' sculptures and the Sistine Chapel and 'Last Judgment' paintings.

(1475-1564)

Who Was Michelangelo?

What followed was a remarkable career as an artist, famed in his own time for his artistic virtuosity. Although he always considered himself a Florentine, Michelangelo lived most of his life in Rome, where he died at age 88.

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, the second of five sons.

When Michelangelo was born, his father, Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni, was briefly serving as a magistrate in the small village of Caprese. The family returned to Florence when Michelangelo was still an infant.

His mother, Francesca Neri, was ill, so Michelangelo was placed with a family of stonecutters, where he later jested, "With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues."

Indeed, Michelangelo was less interested in schooling than watching the painters at nearby churches and drawing what he saw, according to his earliest biographers (Vasari, Condivi and Varchi). It may have been his grammar school friend, Francesco Granacci, six years his senior, who introduced Michelangelo to painter Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Michelangelo's father realized early on that his son had no interest in the family financial business, so he agreed to apprentice him, at the age of 13, to Ghirlandaio and the Florentine painter's fashionable workshop. There, Michelangelo was exposed to the technique of fresco (a mural painting technique where pigment is placed directly on fresh, or wet, lime plaster).

Medici Family

From 1489 to 1492, Michelangelo studied classical sculpture in the palace gardens of Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici of the powerful Medici family. This extraordinary opportunity opened to him after spending only a year at Ghirlandaio’s workshop, at his mentor’s recommendation.

This was a fertile time for Michelangelo; his years with the family permitted him access to the social elite of Florence — allowing him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and exposing him to prominent poets, scholars and learned humanists.

He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study cadavers for insight into anatomy, though exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health.

These combined influences laid the groundwork for what would become Michelangelo's distinctive style: a muscular precision and reality combined with an almost lyrical beauty. Two relief sculptures that survive, "Battle of the Centaurs" and "Madonna Seated on a Step," are testaments to his phenomenal talent at the tender age of 16.

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Move to Rome

Political strife in the aftermath of Lorenzo de' Medici’s death led Michelangelo to flee to Bologna, where he continued his study. He returned to Florence in 1495 to begin work as a sculptor, modeling his style after masterpieces of classical antiquity.

There are several versions of an intriguing story about Michelangelo's famed "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.

Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio bought the "Cupid" sculpture, believing it as such, and demanded his money back when he discovered he'd been duped. Strangely, in the end, Riario was so impressed with Michelangelo's work that he let the artist keep the money. The cardinal even invited the artist to Rome, where Michelangelo would live and work for the rest of his life.

Personality

Though Michelangelo's brilliant mind and copious talents earned him the regard and patronage of the wealthy and powerful men of Italy, he had his share of detractors.

He had a contentious personality and quick temper, which led to fractious relationships, often with his superiors. This not only got Michelangelo into trouble, it created a pervasive dissatisfaction for the painter, who constantly strived for perfection but was unable to compromise.

He sometimes fell into spells of melancholy, which were recorded in many of his literary works: "I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and have no friends of any kind, nor do I want them; and I do not have enough time to eat as much as I need; my joy and my sorrow/my repose are these discomforts," he once wrote.

In his youth, Michelangelo had taunted a fellow student, and received a blow on the nose that disfigured him for life. Over the years, he suffered increasing infirmities from the rigors of his work; in one of his poems, he documented the tremendous physical strain that he endured by painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Political strife in his beloved Florence also gnawed at him, but his most notable enmity was with fellow Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci , who was more than 20 years his senior.

Poetry and Personal Life

Michelangelo's poetic impulse, which had been expressed in his sculptures, paintings and architecture, began taking literary form in his later years.

Although he never married, Michelangelo was devoted to a pious and noble widow named Vittoria Colonna, the subject and recipient of many of his more than 300 poems and sonnets. Their friendship remained a great solace to Michelangelo until Colonna's death in 1547.

Soon after Michelangelo's move to Rome in 1498, the cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, a representative of the French King Charles VIII to the pope, commissioned "Pieta," a sculpture of Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap.

Michelangelo, who was just 25 years old at the time, finished his work in less than one year, and the statue was erected in the church of the cardinal's tomb. At 6 feet wide and nearly as tall, the statue has been moved five times since, to its present place of prominence at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Carved from a single piece of Carrara marble, the fluidity of the fabric, positions of the subjects, and "movement" of the skin of the Piet — meaning "pity" or "compassion" — created awe for its early viewers, as it does even today.

It is the only work to bear Michelangelo’s name: Legend has it that he overheard pilgrims attribute the work to another sculptor, so he boldly carved his signature in the sash across Mary's chest. Today, the "Pieta" remains a universally revered work.

Between 1501 and 1504, Michelangelo took over a commission for a statue of "David," which two prior sculptors had previously attempted and abandoned, and turned the 17-foot piece of marble into a dominating figure.

The strength of the statue's sinews, vulnerability of its nakedness, humanity of expression and overall courage made the "David" a highly prized representative of the city of Florence.

Originally commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, the Florentine government instead installed the statue in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now lives in Florence’s Accademia Gallery .

Sistine Chapel

Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to switch from sculpting to painting to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which the artist revealed on October 31, 1512. The project fueled Michelangelo’s imagination, and the original plan for 12 apostles morphed into more than 300 figures on the ceiling of the sacred space. (The work later had to be completely removed soon after due to an infectious fungus in the plaster, then recreated.)

Michelangelo fired all of his assistants, whom he deemed inept, and completed the 65-foot ceiling alone, spending endless hours on his back and guarding the project jealously until completion.

The resulting masterpiece is a transcendent example of High Renaissance art incorporating the symbology, prophecy and humanist principles of Christianity that Michelangelo had absorbed during his youth.

'Creation of Adam'

The vivid vignettes of Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling produce a kaleidoscope effect, with the most iconic image being the " Creation of Adam," a famous portrayal of God reaching down to touch the finger of man.

Rival Roman painter Raphael evidently altered his style after seeing the work.

'Last Judgment'

Michelangelo unveiled the soaring "Last Judgment" on the far wall of the Sistine Chapel in 1541. There was an immediate outcry that the nude figures were inappropriate for so holy a place, and a letter called for the destruction of the Renaissance's largest fresco.

The painter retaliated by inserting into the work new portrayals: his chief critic as a devil and himself as the flayed St. Bartholomew.

Architecture

Although Michelangelo continued to sculpt and paint throughout his life, following the physical rigor of painting the Sistine Chapel he turned his focus toward architecture.

He continued to work on the tomb of Julius II, which the pope had interrupted for his Sistine Chapel commission, for the next several decades. Michelangelo also designed the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library — located opposite the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence — to house the Medici book collection. These buildings are considered a turning point in architectural history.

But Michelangelo's crowning glory in this field came when he was made chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica in 1546.

Was Michelangelo Gay?

In 1532, Michelangelo developed an attachment to a young nobleman, Tommaso dei Cavalieri, and wrote dozens of romantic sonnets dedicated to Cavalieri.

Despite this, scholars dispute whether this was a platonic or a homosexual relationship.

Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564 — just weeks before his 89th birthday — at his home in Macel de'Corvi, Rome, following a brief illness.

A nephew bore his body back to Florence, where he was revered by the public as the "father and master of all the arts." He was laid to rest at the Basilica di Santa Croce — his chosen place of burial.

Unlike many artists, Michelangelo achieved fame and wealth during his lifetime. He also had the peculiar distinction of living to see the publication of two biographies about his life, written by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi.

Appreciation of Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the finest humanist tradition of the Renaissance.

Watch "Michelangelo: Artist and Man" on HISTORY Vault

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Birth Year: 1475
• Birth date: March 6, 1475
• Birth City: Caprese (Republic of Florence)
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo created the 'David' and 'Pieta' sculptures and the Sistine Chapel and 'Last Judgment' paintings.
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Pisces
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Michelangelo was just 25 years old at the time when he created the 'Pieta' statue.
• For the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo fired all of his assistants and painted the 65-foot ceiling alone.
• Despite his immense talent, Michelangelo had a quick temper and contempt for authority.
• Death Year: 1564
• Death date: February 18, 1564
• Death City: Rome
• Death Country: Italy

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Michelangelo Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/michelangelo
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 4, 2020
• Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.
• I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
• I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and have no friends of any kind, nor do I want them; and I do not have enough time to eat as much as I need; my joy and my sorrow/my repose are these discomforts.
• With my wet-nurse's milk, I sucked in the hammer and chisels I use for my statues.
• A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.
• Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.
• If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
• Critique by creating.
• The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
• With few words I will make thee understand my soul.
• Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.
• Genius is eternal patience.
• If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius.

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World History Edu

• Michelangelo

Michelangelo – Life and Monumental Contributions during the Renaissance Era

by World History Edu · November 11, 2019

Life and Contributions of Michelangelo | ‘Portrait of Michelangelo’ by Daniele da Volterra, ca. 1544

Michelangelo was an immensely skilled sculptor, painter, poet and architect whose works epitomized the High Renaissance period in Italy. Virtually in every genre of art, the talented Michelangelo – an artist who started as an apprentice painter – left an indelible and unsurpassable mark on the world. Allied to the Medici, this Renaissance genius’ works include the David , the Pietà , the Bacchus and the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Early life and Education

In Caprese, Italy, on March 6, 1475, Michelangelo was born to parents – Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni and Francesca Neri. His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. His parents were from Florence and their roots could be traced to Florence’s nobility of renowned bankers.

Due to a slump in the fortunes of the family, Michelangelo’s father Leonardo had to take up a government official position (a magistrate of some sort) in the town of Caprese. This happened around the time of Michelangelo’s birth.

Michelangelo’s Quote from his early life

A few months into Michelangelo’s birth, the family returned to Florence. It was also around this time that his mother Francesca Neri took ill. When he was about 6 years old, his mother passed away . In the absence of any motherly figure, Michelangelo took comfort among a family of stonecutters. It was there that he got his first-hand exposure to stonecutting and sculpting.

Domenico Ghirlandaio – one of Michelangelo’s first tutors

Around the age of 13, Michelangelo started his apprenticeship under the guidance of a fresco painter and renowned tutor of arts, Domenico Ghirlandaio. He got to know Ghirlandaio through Francesco Granacci, also a student of Ghirlandaio. During his time with Ghirlandaio, he was exposed to crucial fresco, portraiture, figure drawing techniques, and panel painting methods.

Post Apprenticeship and Interactions with the Medici

Lorenzo de Medici – an influential patron of Michelangelo’s artworks | Portrait by Agnolo Bronzino at the Uffizi, Florence

Michelangelo was meant to spend three years with Ghirlandaio; however, Michelangelo left a year into his apprenticeship. He believed that there was nothing more that he could learn at Ghirlandaio’s workshop. Another account of the story states that it was actually Ghirlandaio who advised the young Michelangelo to move into a more renowned workshop in Florence.

Young and budding, Michelangelo heeded the advice of his tutor and followed his passion for art by forming alliances and working with Florence’s very wealthy and ruling family, the Medici. It is known that Lorenzo de’ Medici (commonly called Lorenzo, the Magnificent) and Michelangelo built a strong bond, underpinned by their mutual love for the arts and diverse knowledge in general.

Between 1489 and 1492, Michelangelo committed himself to honing his talents in classical sculpture. Due to his connections to such a powerful group as the Medici, Michelangelo had the privilege of studying under and interacting with several esteemed sculptors, learned art professionals and philosophers in the gardens of the Medici family, Florence (also known as the Humanist Academy of Florence). Most notable of these tutors was the classical sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni.

Early Career and Exploits

Michelangelo’s early artworks — from left to right: Michelangelo’s Madonna della Scala (Madonna of Stairs, 1492) and Battle of the Centaurs (1491/1492)

Michelangelo’s career took off at an early age. By age 16, he had produced two very amazing relief sculptures – Battle of the Centaurs (1491/1492) and Madonna Seated on a Step (1490 – 1492).

All throughout Michelangelo’s time, Florence was famed to have some of the best painters, sculptors, and poets. However, there was also immense competition among those artists. With this competition came better artistic works from the artists.

And if one was as good as Michelangelo, the artist could easily find himself a project to commission. However, the commissions were not as big and profitable for some artists. These phenomena forced many famous artists to briefly leave Florence. People like Leonardo da Vinci and his tutor, Andrea del Verrochio all left Florence in pursuit of a place that offered them better commission and projects. So did Michelangelo. He made his way to Bologna when the Medici lost control of Florence. The new rulers were a bit too anti-Renaissance for Michelangelo’s liking.

Time in Bologna

In Bologna, Michelangelo secured a commission to finish the incomplete work of a famous sculptor who had died. The project was the tomb of St. Dominic. Quite different from the original sculptor’s approach, Michelangelo seemed to have breathed life into the marble figures of the tomb. Upon completion, the work oozed out high levels of realism as compared to the fanciful approach of the sculptor that started the work earlier.

Staying in the company of Gianfranco Aldrovandi, Michelangelo had the chance to advance his knowledge in poetry, painting, and sculpting. He took a shine to classical antiquity styles while in Bologna. His stay in Bologna was also a bit elongated due to political strife that briefly engulfed Florence. Some famous members of the Medici family were exiled out of Florence around 1494.

Once the tensions in Florence died down a bit, Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1495. Back in Florence, Michelangelo struggled to get any commissions from the Florence government, who was at that time under Savonarola.

Controversy over Michelangelo’s Cupid sculpture

Around the mid-1490s, Michelangelo got himself into hot waters after his Cupid sculpture (now lost) was allegedly (perhaps deceitfully as well) aged to pass off as an antique. Historians have long maintained that Michelangelo did this with no malice intended. It was simply part of an art style that he tried to communicate.

On the contrary, another account of the story states that Michelangelo connived with the art dealer Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici to carry out this deceitful act. He buried the marble Cupid , hoping to throw the dust into the eyes of prospective buyers and then make it look like it came from antiquities. With such cunning techniques, the sculpture fetched him a very high price from a Catholic cardinal, Raffaele Riario of San Giorgio.

Regardless of this controversy, Cardinal Riario was still taken aback by the sheer beauty of the “Cupid” sculpture. He allowed Michelangelo to keep the money even though he knew the sculpture was not an antique. Rather than go mad over the forgery, the cardinal went on to send an invitation to Michelangelo in the mid-1490s. Over in Rome, Michelangelo’s career effectively got a sharp boost. This was primarily as a result of the stupendous works that Michelangelo commissioned for the cardinal.

Important Works and Contributions to Arts

The following are some key examples of Michelangelo’s famous sculptures and paintings and life works:

‘Bacchus’ (1496-1497)

Michelangelo’s sculpture Bacchus, a Roman god of wine

While in the services of Cardinal Raffaele Riario, around 1496, Michelangelo sculpted a life-size statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Unfortunately, the cardinal did not take any liking to the statue due to its pagan origins; hence, he rejected it. The statue Bacchus ended up being purchased by Jacopo Galli – a very influential banker. Galli placed the statue in his garden. After about half a century, in the 1570s, the Bacchus found a new home in Florence.

Michelangelo’s ‘Pietà’

“The Pietà” by Michelangelo (1498-1499)

In the year 1496/1497, the French ambassador to the pope – Cardinal Jean Bilheres de Lagraulas – tasked Michelangelo to sculpt the Pietà. The sculpture depicted the grieving Virgin Mary carrying the corpse of Jesus Christ across her lap.

Astonishingly, Michelangelo was only 25 at the time that the Pietà was commissioned. The Pietà statue, carved from a carrara marble, took him about a year to complete.

Renowned artist, writer, and historian Giorgio Vasari’s comment

The statue Pietà , which was human sized and about 6 feet wide, was originally placed in the cardinal’s tomb. Today, however, it resides in at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. Up to this day, the Pietà continues to elicit immense veneration from around the world. It is truly one of Michelangelo’s greatest works.

‘David’ (1501 – 1503)

Michelangelo’s David

With the tides shifting against the anti-Renaissance ruler of Florence – Girolamo Savonarola – Michelangelo decided to go back to Florence in 1499. He went straight into working on a statue for the consuls of the Guild of Wool Merchant (Arte della Lana). The guild wanted a statue of David in order to symbolize the wind of freedom that was blowing over Florence.

Michelangelo’s statue of ‘ David ’ needed about 3 years to complete, from 1501 to 1504. Originally, the marble used in sculpting Michelangelo’s ‘David ‘ was used by two sculptors. However, they (Agostino di Duccio) abandoned the project and the marble. Michelangelo took the giant marble and worked tirelessly (in secret as well) to produce a genius work of art. He injected something remarkable into the statue and made it one of the greatest statue ever sculpted in history.

Standing at 17 feet tall and weighing about 12,000 pounds, the statue of ‘David’ captivates the viewer in a manner only a few artworks can do. It is full of human expression, a kind of expression that shows the Biblical David in all his full glory and confidence.

Both the patron and artist meant to use the statue to symbolize Florence’s reputation as the hub of arts and intellectual reasoning. With so many threats surrounding Florence, a relatively small city-state, the muscular and well-toned body of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ in so many ways communicates the strength and influence that Florence had during the High Renaissance Era. Almost like how David in the Bible was able to bring down the Philistine giant Goliath with the brain and the swift movement of his sling.

The statue ‘David’ was destined to go to the Cathedral of Florence ( Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore  – “Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower”) because the cathedral did the commission themselves. However, the city officials in Florence thought otherwise because of the sheer weight of the statue. Michelangelo’s statue of ‘David’ was then placed at the Palazzo della Signoria . It would remain there until in 1873 when the statue of ‘David ‘ was moved to the Galleria dell’Academia di Firenzi ( Gallery of the Academy of Florence ).

Art lovers and enthusiasts typically get awe-struck whenever they catch a view of the ‘ David ’.  Weighing at 6 tons, this masterpiece truly symbolizes every bit of artistry from the High Renaissance era.

Michelangelo’s Frescoes on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo’s paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

The idea to decorate the Sistine Chapel ceiling with magnificent frescoes was the initiative of Pope Julius II . Starting around 1508, Michelangelo used about 4 strenuous years to complete the pope’s task.

Pope Julius II’s original plan for the ceiling was for the depiction of the 12 Disciples of Christ. Being the genius artist that he is, Michelangelo decided to take it to a level only a few artists in history can ever dream off . Completed on October 31, 1512, his painting had more than 300 figures on the 12,000 square-foot ceilings of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo’s Frescoes on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. The Creation of Adam (Right) and the Fall of Man (Left)

Michelangelo’s frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling show several lifelike figures and Biblical scenes from the Old Testament; among them are the creation story, the Story of Noah and the deluge, and the Prophet Jeremiah.

Another very remarkable thing about the painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is that, Michelangelo single-handedly did the entire work. In a single day, he could spend endless hours perched on the scaffold painting those breathtaking frescoes. The strain he had to go through while painting upside down, with his neck perched in unnatural positions, was simply palpable.

 ‘The Last Judgment’

A figure from Michelangelo’s ‘The last judgment’  showing Saint Bartholomew with a flayed skin that has the face of Michelangelo

Michelangelo’s “the Last Judgment” was a task given to him by Pope Clement VII in 1534. The fresco painting was earmarked for the far wall of the Sistine Chapel. It took him about 6-7 years (painted between  1535 and 1541 ) to complete.

The themes in the fresco depict Jesus Christ’s second coming and how he intends judging mankind. Christ is not painted in the typical slender manner. Instead, Michelangelo goes in for a muscular and very youthful Christ. Flanked on both sides of the Savior are Catholic saints. One particular saint, Saint Bartholomew, is shown with a flayed skin that has the face of Michelangelo .

In the lower part of the fresco, the dead can be seen rising from their graves. But why did Michelangelo paint the figures in”the Last Judgement” nude?

By painting many of the figures in ‘ the Last Judgment’ nude, Michelangelo stirred a lot of controversies. Especially with the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary, there was a huge outcry from a large section of Catholics that regarded the fresco as the highest form of sacrilege. The fresco eventually got censored after the death of Michelangelo.

Read More:  12 Most Famous Painters of All Time

Architectural feats of Accomplishments of Michelangelo

In addition to the Tomb of Pope Julius II, which took 40 years to complete, Michelangelo also supervised a number of construction works in Rome. He was made the chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 1546.

The 71- year-old Michelangelo’s statement after he took charge of the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica

Michelangelo also designed the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library – opposite the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. Regarding the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Michelangelo received a commission in the Basilica in 1520. He spent about two decades working on the project. He also helped in building the walls to fortify the city of Florence.

Michelangelo’s Relationships and Love Poems

In 1532, he developed a very close relationship with the 23-year-old nobleman Tommaso dei Cavelieri. As a result of this close friendship, Michelangelo took to writing romantic sonnets to Tommaso. To this day, it remains unclear whether his relationship with Tommaso was platonic or romantic.

Decades after Michelangelo’s death, his descendants and biographers worked tirelessly to change the pronouns of the letters Michelangelo sent to Tommaso. The homoerotic nature of those poems and letters were considered too damaging for the renowned artist’s legacy.

By the mid-1530s, Michelangelo had grown fond of a widow called Vittoria Colonna, the Marquise of Pescara. The two exchanged poems and deeply emotional letters among themselves. In fact, Vittoria was the subject of many of Michelangelo’s 300 plus poems. Her death in 1547 devastated Michelangelo for quite some time.

Some historians have picked on the wording of Michelangelo’s epitaph about a 12-year-old Florentine boy, Cecchino dei Bracci, and concluded that the relationship was a romantic one. Apart from the epitaph, there exists no document or oral account that succinctly proves that Michelangelo indeed had an affair with Cecchino.

How did Michelangelo die?

Michelangelo’s work ethic

Michelangelo worked up until the ripe age of 88 when he passed away on February 18, 1564. He was just a few weeks shy off his 89th birthday.  He died at his home – Macel de’ Corvi – in Rome. The cause of death was from a short illness.

Per his wishes, Michelangelo wished to be buried in Florence. Therefore, his body was sent sent to Florence, bringing the city into a mourning mood. The “father and master of all the arts” had died.

The final resting place of Michelangelo is the Basilica di Santa Croce – a place that he chose the place.

Michelangelo’s unfinished work – Rondanini Pietà

It has been stated that he worked up until he drew his last breath. And six days before he died, in spite of his illness, he still busied himself with the Rondanini Pietà. Today, Michelangelo’s unfinished work can be found at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, Italy.

Legacy of Michelangelo

Life and Monumental Contributions of Michelangelo

Saying that Michelangelo was famous and influential during his lifetime would be an understatement. Many historians and artists unanimously claim that Michelangelo’s sheer success and skills makes him an unmatched type of artist during and after his life. He is part of the select few artists (of any other professional) who epitomized the Italian Renaissance era.

In terms of the artists from the High Renaissance Era, Michelangelo’s name automatically crops up when discussions are made. Michelangelo and colossal figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael are always venerated as the greatest artists of all time.

Aside from having a second-to-none influence on Western arts in general, Michelangelo works directly influenced renowned artists such as Raphael, Pontormo and Francesco Granacci.

Among Western artists, Michelangelo was the first person to have two biographies of his published while still alive. The two biographies were written by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi. So big is his legacy that the famed scientist Galileo, who was born a few days before the death of Michelangelo, claimed that Michelangelo’s genius never died.

FACT CHECK : At worldhistoryedu.com, we strive for utmost accuracy and objectivity. But if you come across something that doesn’t look right, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

Tags: High Renaissance Italian Renaissance Artists Michelangelo Contributions Michelangelo's David Michelangelo's Pieta Sistine Chapel Ceiling

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The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

- Michelangelo

Michelangelo, his Sculptures and Life

Michelangelo was without doubt one of the most inspirational and talented artists in modern history. During his life, the western world underwent what was perhaps the most remarkable period of change since the decline of the Roman Empire. The Renaissance saw changes in all aspects of life and culture, with dramatic reforms sweeping through the worlds of religion, politics, and scientific belief. Michelangelo was one of the most fervent advocates of this exciting new philosophy, working with a remarkable energy that was mirrored by contemporary society. One of the leading lights of the Italian Renaissance, his extraordinary talents emerged in early works such as the Pieta for the Vatican, and the statue of David commissioned for the city of Florence. His paintings and frescoes were largely taken from mythological and classical sources works. He manages to combine his high level of technical competence and his rich artistic imagination to produce the perfect High-Renaissance blend of aesthetic harmony and anatomical accuracy in his works.

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany. He was the first artist who was recognized during his lifetime. He is also the first western artist whose biography was published when he is still alive. Two biographies for him was written, one was by Giorgio Vasari, who praised Michelangelo as the greatest artist since the beginning of the renaissance. He is the best-documented artist in 16th Century and has influenced so many areas of art development in the West. Together with Leonardo da Vinci , the two stood out as strong and mighty-personalities with two irreconcilably opposed attitudes to art, yet with a bond of deep understanding between them.

At the age of 6, Michelangelo was sent to a Florence grammar school but he showed no interest in schooling. He would rather watch the painters at nearby churches, and draw what he saw there. His father realized he had no interest in the family's financial business and agreed to send him to the painter Ghirlandaio to be trained as an apprentice. He was 13 years old at the time. In this fashionable Florentine painter's workshop, Michelangelo learned the technique of Fresco and draftsmanship.

Genius is eternal patience. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo spent only a year at the workshop the moved into the palace of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the powerful Medici family, to study classical sculpture in the Medici gardens. He studied under famous sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni there and exposed himself to many of the great artists of past centuries, Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello , as well as the masterpiece antiquities of ancient Greece and Rome: works that were held in Medici's vast collection. He also met many living artists, philosophers, writers and thinkers of the day, including Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. It was while he was with the Medicis that Michelangelo completed his first two commissions as a sculptor: marble reliefs, Madonna of the Stairs , and Battle of the Centaurs . Both amazingly sophisticated and complex works for a teenager. Michelangelo became, during this time, an expert in portraying the human form, drawing from life and studying anatomy. He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study human corpses to learn anatomy, though exposure to corpses had worsened his health condition.

After the death of Lorenzo de Medici, Michelangelo left the Court and, soon after, the arrival of Savonarola and the expulsion of the Medicis from Florence brought a huge change for the young artist. After a short return to his father's house, Michelangelo left Florence during the political upheaval and, maintaining his links to his patrons, the Medicis, he followed them to Venice, then on to Bologna.

In Bologna, Michelangelo continued his work as a sculptor. He carved three statues for the Shrine of St. Dominic, an angel with a candlestick, and saints, Petronius and Proculus. Continuing to be heavily influenced and inspired by classical antiquities, Michelangelo also became involved in a scheme to pass off one of his sculptures, a marble cupid, as an ancient work. Allegedly, he was told by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici to make it look as though it had been dug up, so he could sell it in Rome. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, who bought the piece, discovered the deception, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome.

Michelangelo arrived in Rome in 1496 when he was 21 years old. It was while in Rome, in his early twenties, that Michelangelo sculpted Pieta , now in St. Peters in the Vatican, in which the Virgin Mary weeps over the body of Jesus. Michelangelo went to the marble quarry and selected the marble for this exquisite piece himself. It was frequently said that Michelangelo could visualise the finished sculpture just be gazing at a block of stone.

He was now a man at the height of his creative powers, and, in 1504, back in Florence, he completed his most famous sculpture, David . David, depicted at the moment he decides to battle Goliath, was a symbol of Florentine freedom. It is said to be a masterpiece of line and form. A committee, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli , was created and decided on its placement, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.

If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo accepted many commissions, sculptures and paintings during his time in Florence, many of which went unfinished when, in 1505, he was called back to Rome to work on a Tomb for Pope Julius II. It was planned to be finished within 5 years but he worked on it (with frequent interruptions) for over forty years, and it seems it was never finished to his satisfaction. Fortunately, Michelangelo also completed some of his best, and most well-known work, during this time, most notably the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , which took him four years to finish.

This grand fresco contains over three hundred figures over five hundred square meters of the ceiling. It took Michelangelo four years, lying on his back, to complete this masterful work, which stands even today as a testament to this one man's dedicated and accomplished artistry. The scenes depicted are from the Book of Genesis, the most famous of which is The Creation of Adam . The outstretched hands of God and Adam are an iconic image, perhaps the most widely known and imitated detail from any renaissance piece. Michelangelo, in this work, demonstrated his deep understanding of the human form, and how to depict it in a huge array of different poses.

The complex, twisting figures and vibrant colors of this work, and the sculptures with their writhing forms, played a huge role in the birthing of an entire artistic movement. Mannerism, largely derived from the work of Michelangelo, is a deliberately stylized form of sophisticated art, in which the human body is idealized. It can be characterized by often complex, and sometimes witty, composition and unnatural use of vibrant colors. Without Michelangelo, the works of later Mannerist artists like, for example, Pontormo and Bronzino, would not exist. Raphael was also strongly influenced by Michelangelo, as were later ceiling painters in the Baroque period, and many others since. His influence on art over the past centuries cannot be estimated. He is rightly viewed as a genius, and as the archetypal Renaissance man.

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. ” - Michelangelo

Michelangelo's art has far-reaching historic influence. His world is genetically a two-fold system continually expanding. Measuring his internal development from the Pieta through David to The Last Judgement , we view the path of an experience in which each stage provides the foundation for the next, from sculpture to painting, painting to architecture, architecture to the art of poetry. How can we not be moved by this will, anxious to express the new by using traditional means? At the same time we are aware of the power of his influence. First mannerism, then Johannes Vermeer , Rembrandt , Eugene Delacroix , Rodin, Pollock and De Kooning found in him a model on which they could base their own creations. But the "divine" Michelangelo is more than that. In the western world, he was the first - Picasso the last - to regard himself as an absolute and mythic cultural experience. He managed to combine his high level of technical competence and his rich artistic imagination to produce the perfect High Renaissance blend of aesthetic harmony and anatomical accuracy in his work.

Michelangelo dominated his time, the Renaissance. He is part of its myth. Like all mythic creation, he appears with the same vigor, the same impact, the mystery of origins, the comprehension of the moment and the interpretation of final endings. It is hard to imagine a more attentive and ambitious creation on these three points united by the energy of the most universal expression possible of that fulfillment we call destiny.

Just like William Shakespeare on literature, and Sigmund Freud on psychology, Michelangelo's impact on art is tremendous. Michelangelo not only outshines all his predecessors; he remains the only great sculptor of the Renaissance at its best. What most Late Renaissance artists lacked was not talent but the ability to use their own eyes and share a vision with either their contemporaries or posterity. Michelangelo's extreme genius left little scope for works that escaped his influence, damning all his contemporaries to settle for aping him. Appreciation of Michelangelo's artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the best of the Renaissance Art.

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

The Last Judgment

The Creation of Adam

The Deposition

Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants

Madonna of Bruges

The Battle of Cascina

The Torment of Saint Anthony

Risen Christ

Michelangelo

Italian Painter, Sculptor, Poet, and Architect

Summary of Michelangelo

It is universally accepted that Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in the history of art. His phenomenal virtuosity as a sculptor, and also as a painter and architect, is married to a reputation for being hot-tempered and volatile. He was central to the revival in classical Greek and Roman art , but his contribution to Renaissance art and culture went far beyond the mere imitation of antiquity. Indeed, he conjured figures, both carved and painted, that were infused with such psychological intensity and emotional realism they set a new standard of excellence. Michelangelo's most seminal pieces: the massive painting of the biblical narratives on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the 17-foot-tall and anatomically flawless David, and the heartbreakingly genuine Pietà, are considered some of the greatest achievements in human history. Tourists flock to Rome and Florence to stand before them.

Accomplishments

• Michelangelo's early studies of classical sculpture were coupled with research into human cadavers. Having been granted access to a local hospital, he gained an almost surgical understanding of human anatomy. The resultant musculature of his figures is so naturalistic and precise they have been expected to spring to life at any moment.
• Michelangelo's dexterity with carving an entire sculpture from a single block of marble remains unmatched. He once said, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." He was known as the sculptor who could summon the living from stone.
• The fact that he considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, didn't stop Michelangelo from producing what is perhaps the most famous fresco in the history of world art. Featuring scenes from the Old Testament, his sublime achievement, which adorns the ceiling of the Vatican's holy Sistine Chapel, attracts millions of visitors to Rome each year. The task of painting the ceiling is at the heart of Michelangelo's legend. It is the tale of a disgruntled artist working for four years, in uncomfortable and cramped conditions atop a scaffold structure, on a commission that he never wanted.
• Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists in history and was the first to have had his biography published while still working. The great Renaissance biographer, Giorgio Vasari, confirmed Michelangelo’s genius in his legendary book, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550).
• The artist's feisty and tempestuous personality is legendary. He often abandoned projects midway through or expressed his defiance through controversial means such as painting his own face on figures, or by putting in the faces of his enemies (in mocking fashion). One infamous attack was aimed at a high-ranking Vatican priest, Biagio de Cesena, who had complained about the level nudity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco. In an act of revenge, the artist painted Minos (judge of the dead in Greek mythology) with Cesena's face, giving him donkeys ears, and with his testicles being bitten by a serpent.

The Life of Michelangelo

"The sculptor's hand can only break the spell to free the figures slumbering in the stone," Michelangelo famously said. Carved from a single block of marble, each figure he sculpted came alive with physical and psychological power, making him the most famous sculptor in history.

Important Art by Michelangelo

Bacchus , Michelangelo's first surviving large statue, depicts the Roman god of wine precariously balancing on a rock in a state of intoxication. He wears a wreath of ivy and holds a goblet in one hand, raised up toward his lips. In the other hand, he holds a lion skin, which is a symbol of death as derived from the myth of Hercules. From behind his left leg peeks a satyr, significant to the cult of Bacchus as often representing a drunken, lusty, woodland deity. The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert writes, "The Bacchus relies on ancient Roman nude figures as a point of departure, but it is much more mobile and more complex in outline. The conscious instability evokes the god of wine and Dionysian [relating to the sensuous and the orgiastic] revels with extraordinary virtuosity. Made for a garden, it is also unique among Michelangelo's works in calling for observation from all sides rather than primarily from the front." The work caused considerable controversy when it was unveiled. It was originally commissioned by Cardinal Riario and was inspired by a description of a lost bronze sculpture by the ancient sculptor Praxiteles. But when Riario saw the finished piece he found it inappropriate and rejected it. Michelangelo duly sold it to his banker, Jacopo Galli. Despite its checkered past, the piece is early evidence of Michelangelo's genius. His excellent knowledge of anatomy is seen in the androgynous figure's body which biographer Giorgio Vasari described as having the "the slenderness of a young man and the fleshy roundness of a woman." A high center of gravity lends the figure a sense of captured movement, which Michelangelo would later perfect for David . Although intended to mimic classical Greek sculpture Michelangelo remained true to what it means to be drunk; the unseemly swaying body was unlike any depiction of a god previously. Art historian Claire McCoy said of the sculpture, "Bacchus marked a moment when originality and imitation of the antique came together."

Marble - National Museum of Bargello, Florence

This was the first of a number of Pietàs Michelangelo worked on during his lifetime. It depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother after the Crucifixion. This particular scene is one of the seven sorrows of Mary used in Catholic devotional prayers and depicts a key moment in her life foretold by the prophet, Simeon. Cardinal Jean de Bilhères commissioned the work, stating that he wanted to acquire the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better. The 24-year-old Michelangelo answered his call, carving the work in two years out of a single block of marble. Although the work continued a long tradition of devotional images, stretching back to 14 th century Germany, the depiction was unique to Italian Renaissance art of the time. Many artists were translating traditional religious narratives in a more humanist vein, blurring the boundaries between the divine and man by humanizing biblical figures and by taking liberties with expression. Mary was a popular subject, portrayed in myriad ways, and in this piece Michelangelo presented her, not as a mother in her fifties, but as a figure of youthful beauty. As Michelangelo related to his biographer Ascanio Condivi, "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste?" Not only was Pietà the first interpretation of the scene in marble, but Michelangelo also moved away from the depiction of the Virgin's suffering which was usually portrayed in Pietàs of the time, presenting her instead with a profound sense of maternal tenderness. Christ too, shows little sign of his recent crucifixion with only slightly discernible nail marks in his hands and through the small wound in his side. Rather than a dead man, he looks as if he is sleeping in the arms of his mother while she waits for her son to awaken. A pyramidal structure, signature to the time, was also adopted here: Mary's head at the top and then the gradual widening through her layered garments towards the base. The folds of the draped clothing give credence to Michelangelo's mastery of marble, as they retain a sense of flowing movement, and an incredible standard of polished sheen, that is so difficult to achieve in stone. This is the only sculpture Michelangelo ever signed. In a fiery fit of reaction to rumors circulating that the piece was made by one of his competitors, Cristoforo Solari, he carved his name across Mary's sash right between her breasts. He also split his name in two as Michael Angelus, which can be seen as a reference to the Archangel Michael - an egotistical move and one he would later regret. He swore to never again sign another piece and stayed true to his word. This Pietà became famous immediately following its completion and was pivotal in contributing to Michelangelo's fame. The sculpture was loaned to the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. It was transported there by sea in a 2.5 ton buoyant and waterproof plexiglass case that contained a radio transmitter (so, should the ship sink, the sculpture could still be located and recovered). Despite an attack in 1972 (by a mentally unstable Hungarian-Austrian geologist, who cried out "I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!") which damaged Mary's arm and face, it was restored, placed behind a bulletproof crystal wall, and continues to inspire awe in visitors to this day.

Marble - Vatican City

The sculptor Donatello had revived the classical nude by sculpting a bronze version of David (1440-60). It would become a masterpiece of the Early Renaissance. But Michelangelo's towering marble figure overtook it as the most accomplished and iconic version of the story in the history of Western art. Michelangelo's majestic 17-foot-tall statue depicts the prophet David, with the slingshot he will use to slay Goliath, slung over his left shoulder. Michelangelo took the unusual decision to depict David before battle (in contrast, Donatello's triumphant David stands with his foot on top of his enemy's severed head). In fact, David's great foe (Goliath) is not referenced in the work at all. Michelangelo was commissioned to produce the sculpture for the Opera del Duomo at the Cathedral of Florence. It was to be one of a series of statues to be placed in the niches of the cathedral's tribunes (some 80 meters above ground). He was asked by the consuls of the Board to complete a project, abandoned previously by Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, both of whom had rejected the enormous block of marble due to the presence of too many " taroli " (imperfections). The block of marble had stood idle in the Opera's courtyard for some 25 years. In his oft-cited biography, Ascanio Convidi wrote that it was known (from archive documents) that Michelangelo worked on David "in utmost secrecy, hiding his masterpiece in the making up until January 1504". He added that "since he worked in the open courtyard, when it rained he worked soaked" but, that rather than let the rain disturb him, it inspired Michelangelo's working method in which he created a wax model (of David ) and submerged it in water. As he worked, he would lower the level of the water, revealing the wax figure bit-by-bit. As Convidi explains, "using different chisels [he then] sculpted what he could see emerging". So engrossed was he in the project, Michelangelo is said to have "slept sporadically, and when he did he slept with his clothes and even in his boots still on, and rarely ate". The finished work is an exquisite example of Michelangelo's mastery of anatomy. This is most evident in David's musculature; his strength emphasized through the classical contrapposto (asymmetrical) stance, with weight shifting onto his right leg. The top half of the body was made slightly larger than the legs so that viewers glancing up at David from below, or from afar, would experience a more realistic perspective. Such was the figure's authenticity, Vasari proclaimed: "without any doubt this figure has put in the shade every other statue, ancient or modern, Greek or Roman." While the statue was widely revered, it was also reviled for its sexual explicitness. For instance, during the late nineteenth century, a plaster cast of David was exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. So as not to offend the tastes of noble women, Queen Victoria ordered that a "detachable" plaster fig leaf be added to the figure to protect David's modesty. On another occasion, a replica of David was offered to the municipality of Jerusalem to mark the 3,000th anniversary of King David's conquest of the city. Religious factions in Jerusalem urged that the gift be declined because the naked figure was considered pornographic. A fully clothed replica of David by Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine contemporary of Michelangelo, was accepted in its place.

Marble - Gallery of the Academy of Florence

Doni Tondo (Holy Family)

Holy Family , the only finished panel painting by the artist to survive, was commissioned by Agnolo Doni (which gives it its name) to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The inclusion of the infant St. John further suggests it was intended for mark the news of Maddalena's pregnancy (the couple's first child, Maria, was born in 1507). Moreover, botanists have identified the plant on the left as a clitoria plant that, like Mary's braid, was a symbol of fertility. The painting portrays Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and an infant John the Baptist. The intimate tenderness of the figures governed by the father's loving gaze emphasizes the love of family and divine love, representing the cores of Christian faith. In contrast, the five nude males in the background symbolize pagans awaiting redemption. The round (tondo) form was customary for private commissions and Michelangelo designed the intricate gold carved wooden frame. The work is believed to be entirely by his hand. We find many of the artist's influences in this painting, including Signorelli's Madonna . It is also said to have been influenced by Leonardo's The Virgin and Child with St. Anne , a full scale drawing that Michelangelo saw while working on his David in 1501. The nude figures in the background are thought to have been influenced by the ancient statue of Laocoön and His Sons attributed to the Greek sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus, which was excavated in Rome in 1506 and publicly displayed in the Vatican. Yet these influences aside, the piece is an example of the artist's individualism, which was even considered avant-garde in its time. The painting represented a significant shift from the serene, static rendition of figures depicted in classical Roman and Greek sculpture. Michelangelo's twisting figures signify great energy and movement, and the vibrant colors add to the majesty of the work, which were later used in his frescos in the Sistine Chapel. The soft modeling of the figures in the background with the focused details in the foreground gives this small painting its great depth. This painting might be said to anticipate the Mannerist style which, in contrast to the High Renaissance commitment to proportion and idealized beauty, showed a preference for exaggeration and affectation over naturalism.

Oil and tempera - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Creation of Adam

This legendary image, part of the vast masterpiece that adorns the ceiling of the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel, shows Adam as a muscular classical nude, reclining on the left, as he extends his hand toward God who fills the right half of the painting. God rushes toward him, his haste conveyed by his white flaring robe and the energetic movements of his body. God is surrounded by angels and cherubim, all encased within a red cloud, while a feminine figure, thought to be Eve (first woman) or Sophia (symbol of wisdom), peers out with curious interest from underneath God's arm. Behind Adam, the green ledge upon which he lies, and the mountainous background create a strong diagonal, emphasizing the division between mortal man and heavenly God. As a result the viewer's eye is drawn to the hands of God and Adam, outlined in the central space, almost touching. Some have noted that the shape of the red cloud resembles the shape of the human brain, as if the artist meant to imply God's intent to infuse Adam with not merely animate life, but also the important gift of consciousness. This was an innovative depiction of the creation of Adam. Contrary to traditional artworks, God is not shown as aloof and regal, separate and above mortal man. For Michelangelo, it was important to depict the all-powerful giver of life as one distinctly intimate with man, whom he created in his own image. This reflected the humanist ideals of man's essential place in the world and the connection to the divine. The bodies have a sculptural quality that replicate the mastery of the artist's command of human anatomy. While acknowledging that Michelangelo painted the ceiling alone, laying on scaffolding on his back, and looking upward, the famous art historian E H Gombrich wrote that this feat of physical endurance was "nothing compared to the intellectual and artistic achievement. The wealth of ever-new [Renaissance] inventions, the unfailing mastery of execution in every detail, and, above all, the grandeur of the vision which Michelangelo revealed to those who came after him, have given mankind a quite new idea of the power of genius." The idea that Michelangelo was less than happy about the commission was confirmed through correspondences in 1509 to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia. He wrote, "I've already grown a goiter from this torture, [my] stomach's squashed under my chin, [my] face makes a fine floor for droppings, [my] skin hangs loose below me, [and my] spine's all knotted from folding myself over". He concluded, "I am not in the right place - I am not a painter."

Fresco - Vatican City

Michelangelo's monumental (eight-feet tall) statue depicts Moses seated regally as he shields the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are written. His expression is stern, reflecting his power and his displeasure at seeing the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (a pagan idol) on his return from Mount Sinai. Not only has Michelangelo rendered the great prophet with a complex emotional expression, strong muscular definition, and a flowing beard, his work on the deep folds of the fabric of Moses's clothes carries exquisite detail that completes its authenticity. Indeed, Michelangelo has imbued his Moses with a sense of energy that is remarkable for a stone figure, let alone one which who is seated. Michelangelo's reputation had reached new heights with his sculpture, David . This led to an invitation from Pope Julius II to come to Rome to work on a planned tomb. The artist initially proposed an (over) ambitious project featuring some 40 figures (the central piece being Moses). Much to the infuriation of the artist, however, Pope Julius II suspended work on the tomb so that he could paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (with the scaled-down tomb only completed in 1545 (32 years after Julius's death) and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli rather than the St. Peter's Basilica as originally planned). The sculpture has been the subject of much analysis, especially with regard to the horns protruding from Moses's head. In medieval art, Moses was often depicted with horns, and this was generally considered a symbol of the "glorification" of his power. This reading stems in fact from a mistranslation of the Hebrew word, karan which means "shining" or "emitting rays". Karan was translated into the Latin Bible as "horn", with the relevant passage reading thus: "And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord." Legend tells that Michelangelo felt that Moses was his most life-like work and upon its completion he struck its knee, commanding "Now, speak!" The artist's pride in his achievement was fully warranted according to Vasari, who said of Moses that it was "a statue unrivaled by any contemporary or ancient achievement," adding that Moses's "long, lustrous beard, the strands of which are so silky and feathery that it appears as if the metal chisel has turned into a brush. The lovely face, like that of a prophet or a strong prince, seemed to require a veil to cover it, so magnificent and radiant is it, and so beautifully has the artist depicted in marble the purity with which he had bestowed that holy visage."

Marble - San Pietro Vincoli, Rome

The Last Judgment

This fresco covers the entire altar wall of the Sistine Chapel and is one of the last pieces to be made in the seminal building, and the first commissioned by Pope Paul III. Painted when Michelangelo was 62, we see the Second Coming of Christ as he delivers the message of salvation (through the Last Judgment). The monumental work took five years to complete and consists of over 300 individual figures. The scene is one of harried action around the central presence of Christ, his hands raised to reveal the wounds of his Crucifixion, as he looks down upon the souls of humans as they rise to their fates. With this arresting tableau, Paul III was seeking to counter the Protestant Reformation by reaffirming the orthodoxies and doctrines of the Catholic Church, and the visual arts were to play a vital role in his plans. To Christ's left, the Virgin Mary glances toward the saved. To either side of Christ are John the Baptist and St Peter holding the keys to heaven. On the right, Charon the ferryman is shown bringing the damned to the gates of Hell. Minos (ruler of Crete in Greek mythology), assuming the role Dante gave him in his Inferno , admits them to Hell. Another noteworthy group are the seven angels blowing trumpets illustrating the Book of Revelation's end of the world. Michelangelo's self-portrait appears twice in the painting, meanwhile, first in the flayed skin which the figure of St. Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and second in the figure in the lower left-hand corner, who is looking at the saved souls rising up from their graves. In typical Michelangelo fashion, the artist courted controversy, chiefly by rendering nude figures with pronounced muscular anatomies. One of the myths surrounding the fresco relates to the priest, and high-ranking Vatican official, Biagio de Cesena, whom Michelangelo portrayed as Minos following his public criticism of the (unfinished) painting. Cesena had complained that the painting contained so much nudity it was "more fitting for a tavern that the Sistine Chapel". Vasari reports that "Michelangelo, angry at the remark, is said to have painted Cesena's face onto Minos, judge of the underworld, with donkey's ears. Cesena complained to the Pope at being so ridiculed, but the Pope is said to have jokingly remarked that his jurisdiction did not extend to Hell." Following a recent cleaning of the fresco, moreover, it has been revealed that Minos's testicles are being attacked by a serpent. Interestingly, theologian John O'Malley, notes that in 1563 the Council of Trent pronounced that "iconoclasm is wrong" and that "images of sacred subjects […] should not contain any - sensual appeal or - seductive charm." Following the Council’s judgement, it was decreed that "The pictures in the Apostolic Chapel are to be covered..." On January 21, 1564, less than a month before Michelangelo's death, the decree was formally applied to The Last Judgment . So, next year, Michelangelo's friend, Daniele da Volterra, was commissioned to add clothing to the nude figures (earning Volterra the nickname "breeches-maker"). (O'Malley observes that "there is no instance of any other painting in Rome being defaced as a result of [the decree].") The Last Judgment was only restored to its original glory in the 1990s.

The Deposition

This piece is not only sculpturally complex, but it carries layers of meaning and has sparked multiple interpretations. In it, we see Christ the moment after the Deposition, or being taken down from the cross of his crucifixion. He is falling into the arms of his mother, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene, whose presence in a work of such importance was highly unusual. Behind the trio is a hooded figure, which is said to be either Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus, both of whom were in attendance at the entombment of Christ (which followed the Deposition). Joseph would give up his tomb for Christ and Nicodemus would speak with Christ about the possibility of obtaining eternal life. Because Christ is seen falling into the arms of his mother, this piece is also often referred to as a Pietà. The three themes alluded to in this one piece - The Deposition, The Pietà, and The Entombment - are further emphasized by the way Michelangelo carved out his narrative. Not only is it intense in its realism, The Deposition was sculpted so that a viewer could walk around the piece and observe each of the three narratives from different visual perspectives and to possibly reflect upon how the stories might be interrelated. The sculpture is also a perfect example of Michelangelo's temperament and perfectionism. The process of making it was arduous. Vasari relates that the artist complained about the quality of the marble. Some suggest he had a problem with the way Christ's left leg originally draped over Nicodemus, worrying that some might interpret it in a sexual way, causing him to remove it. It is also feasible that Michelangelo was so particular with the piece because he intended it for his own future tomb. In 1555, Michelangelo attempted to destroy the piece causing further speculation about its meaning. There is a suggestion that the attempted destruction of the piece was because Nicodemus, by reference to his conversation with Christ about the need to be born again to find everlasting life, is associated with Martin Luther's Reformation. Michelangelo was rumored to be a secret sympathizer, which was dangerous even for someone as influential as he. Perhaps a coincidence, but his Lutheran sympathies are given as one of the reasons why Pope Paul IV cancelled Michelangelo's pension in 1555. Vasari also suggests that the face of Nicodemus is a self-portrait, which may allude to the artist's crisis of faith. Michelangelo gave the unfinished piece to Francesco Bandini, a wealthy merchant, who commissioned Tiberio Calcagni, a friend of Michelangelo's, to finish the work and repair the damage (but stopping short of replacing Christ's left leg).

Marble - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

Pietà Rondanini

Pietà Rondanini is the last sculpture Michelangelo worked on in the weeks leading up to his death, finalizing a story that weaved through his many Pietàs and now reflective of the artist's reckoning with his own mortality. The depiction of Christ has changed from his earlier St. Peter's Pietà in which Christ appeared asleep, through to his Deposition, where Christ's body was more lifeless, to now, where Christ is shown in the pain and suffering of death. His mother Mary is standing in this piece, an unusual rendition, as she struggles to hold up the body of her son while engulfed with grief. What's interesting about this work is that Michelangelo abandoned his usual detail at carving the body, even though he worked on it intermittently for some 12 years. It was a departure that, coming so late in his prolific career, signified the enduring genius of an artist whose confidence would allow him to try new things even when his fame would have allowed him to rest upon his laurels. The detached arm, the subtle sketched features of the face, and the way the figures almost blend into one other provide a more abstracted quality than was his norm, and prefigures a minimalist quality that was yet to come in sculpture. The renowned sculptor Henry Moore later said of this piece, "This is the kind of quality you get in the work of old men who are really great. They can simplify, they can leave out... This Pietà is by someone who knows the whole thing so well he can use a chisel like someone else would use a pen." This sculpture's importance was ignored for centuries, and it almost entirely disappeared from public discourse until it was found in the possession of Marchese Rondanini in 1807. It has since excited many modern artists. The Italian artist Massimo Lippi is quoted as saying that modern and contemporary art began with this Pietà , and the South African painter, Marlene Dumas, based her Homage to Michelangelo (2012) on this work.

Marble - Museo d'arte antica, Sforza Castle, Milan

Biography of Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, was born to Leonardo di Buonarrota and Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, a middle-class family of bankers, living in the small village of Caprese (now known in his honor as Michelangelo Caprese), near Arezzo, Tuscany. His mother's unfortunate and prolonged illness, which led to her death while Michelangelo was just six years old, forced his father to place his son in the primary care of his nanny. The nanny was married to a stonecutter and legend tells it that this (forced) domestic situation would form the foundation for the artist's lifelong love affair with marble.

By the time he was 13 years old, it was clear to his father that Michelangelo had no aptitude for the family vocation. The young boy was sent to apprentice in the well-known Florentine studio of Domenico Ghirlandaio . The art historian E.H. Gombrich writes, "In his workshop the young Michelangelo could certainly learn all the technical tricks of the trade, a solid technique in painting frescoes, and thorough grounding in draftsmanship. But, as far as we know, Michelangelo did not enjoy his days in the painter's firm. His ideas about art were different. Instead of acquiring the facile manner of Ghirlandaio, he went out to study the work of the great masters of the past, Giotto , Masaccio , Donatello , and other Greek and Roman sculptors whose work he could see in the Medici collection".

After only a year in the studio, Lorenzo de' Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and renowned patron of the arts, asked Ghirlandaio to supply his two best students - Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci - to join the Medici's Humanist academy. It was a thriving time in Renaissance Florence when artists were encouraged to study the humanities, complementing their creative endeavors with knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art and philosophy. Progressive artists were moving away from Gothic iconography and devotional work and evolving a Renaissance style that would foreground humanist ideals and celebrate man's primary role in shaping the modern world.

Michelangelo studied under the bronze sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni, bringing him exposure to the great classical sculptures in the palace of Lorenzo. But as Gombrich says, "Like Leonardo, [Michelangelo] was not content with learning the laws of anatomy secondhand, as it were, from antique sculpture. He made his own research into human anatomy, dissected bodies and drew from models, till the human figure did not hold any secrets for him." However, unlike Leonardo, for whom human anatomy was just one of the many "riddles of nature", Michelangelo "strove with an incredible singleness of purpose to master this one problem, but to master it fully."

During this period, Michelangelo obtained permission from the friars at the Church of Santo Spirito to study cadavers in the convent's hospital where he would gain a deep understanding of human anatomy. Michelangelo's uncanny ability to render the muscular tone of the body was evidenced in two surviving sculptures from the period: Madonna of the Stairs (1491), and Battle of the Centaurs (1492). The 17-year-old Michelangelo was given refuge at the convent following the death of his patron, Lorenzo di Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) in 1492. By way of a "thank-you", Michelangelo carved a highly realistic wooden sculpture which hung over the main altar. (After the French occupation in the late 18 th -century, the cross was recorded as lost but it had in fact been moved to another chapel where it was painted to disguise its origins. Once restored, it was on display at the museum of Casa Buonarroti, where it remained until 2000 before being returned to its original home at Santo Spirito.)

Early Training and Work

In 1494, as the Republic of Florence was under the threat of siege from the French. Michelangelo, fearing for his safety, moved, via a brief stop in Venice, to the relative safety of Bologna. In the city he was befriended by the wealthy Bolognese senator, Giovan Francesco Aldrovandi, who was able to secure the 19-year-old Michelangelo the commission to complete the remaining statuettes for the marble sarcophagus lid for the Arca of St. Dominic. The original lid, by Niccolò dell'Arca, was installed in 1473, with Michelangelo sculpting the few remaining figures, including Saint Proculus, Saint Petronio, and an angel with candelabra, in 1496. Still just 19 years old, Michelangelo overshadowed the work of the older sculptor through his fine detail in the folds of the cloth and drapery, and in the figure of Petronio to whom he brought a tangible sense of movement by representing him in mid-step.

Michelangelo returned briefly to Florence after the threat of the French invasion abated. He worked on two statues, one of St. John the Baptist , the other, a small cupid. The Cupid was sold to Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio, who had been duped into believing that it was an antique sculpture. Although angry on learning of the deception, Cardinal Riario was impressed by Michelangelo's skill and invited him to Rome to work on a new project. For this commission, Michelangelo created a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which was, on its completion, rejected by the Cardinal who thought it politically imprudent to be associated with a naked pagan figure. Michelangelo, who had already garnered a reputation for being volatile, was left incensed and many years later instructed his biographer, Condivi, to deny the commission came from the Cardinal at all, and to record it rather as a commission from his banker, Jacopo Galli (who had purchased the finished work).

Michelangelo remained in Rome after completing the Bacchus , and in 1497 the French Ambassador, Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas commissioned his Pietà for the chapel of the King of France in St Peter 's Basilica. Probably its most famous interpretation, Pietà was in fact a generic title applied to devotional works designed to prompt worshippers to engage in repentant prayer. What was unusual (although not unheard of) about Michelangelo's sculpture was that he realized two figures from a single block of marble. Moreover, his treatment of his subjects, which foregrounded the artist's acuity with emotion and realism, garnered Michelangelo much praise and many new admirers. Indeed, his Pietà was to become one of his most famous early carvings; one which the 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari , described as something "nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."

Although his status as one of the period's most divinely gifted artists was now secure, Michelangelo didn't receive any major commissions for some two years. Financially, however, this shortage of work and/or money wasn't of primary concern to the artist. As he would say to Condivi towards the end of his life, "However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man."

In 1497, the puritanical monk Florentine Girolamo Savonarola became famous for his Bonfire of the Vanities, an event in which he and his supporters publicly burned art and books. Their actions caused an interruption to what had been a thriving period of Renaissance culture. Michelangelo would have to wait until Savonarola's ousting a year later before returning to his beloved Florence.

In 1501, his most majestic achievement in sculpture was born through a commission from the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun by Agostino di Duccio some 40 years earlier. This project, completed in 1504, was a 17-foot-tall nude statue of the biblical hero David. The work - its importance to the history of sculpture, comparable, perhaps, to Leonardo's Mona Lisa and its place in the history oil painting - was a testament to the artist's unparalleled excellence at carving breathtakingly real human figures out of inanimate marble.

The art historian Creighton E. Gilbert said of the David , "It has continued to serve as the prime statement of the Renaissance ideal of perfect humanity. Although the sculpture was originally intended for the buttress of the cathedral, the magnificence of the finished work convinced Michelangelo's contemporaries to install it in a more prominent place, to be determined by a commission formed of artists and prominent citizens. They decided that the David would be installed in front of the entrance of the Palazzo dei Priori (now called Palazzo Vecchio) as a symbol of the Florentine Republic".

Several painting commissions followed David's completion. Michelangelo's only known surviving painting is, Doni Tondo ( The Holy Family ) (1504). Gilbert writes that the painting betrays "the artist's fascination with the work of Leonardo". He adds that Michelangelo "regularly denied that anyone influenced him, and his statements have usually been accepted without demur. But Leonardo's return to Florence in 1500 after nearly 20 years was exciting to younger artists there, and later scholars generally agreed that Michelangelo was among those affected."

During this time of the High Renaissance in Florence, rivalry between Michelangelo and his peers was fierce, with artists competing for prime commissions (and the accolades that came with them).

Leonardo was, at 23 years Michelangelo's senior, the most celebrated figure of all within the Florentine fraternity of Renaissance masters. But an unspoken rivalry between the two men was well known. In 1503, Piero Soderini, the lifetime Gonfalonier of Justice (a senior civil servant position akin to the role of Mayor), commissioned both artists to paint opposing walls of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio. As Gombrich writes, "It was a dramatic moment in the history of art where these two giants competed for the palm, and all of Florence watched with excitement the progress of their preparations." Sadly, Soderini abandoned the commission and the paintings (Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari and Michelangelo's The Battle of Cascina ) were never finished. Leonardo returned to Milan, while Michelangelo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II.

Mature Period

In Rome, Michelangelo made preparations for the Pope's tomb; a giant mausoleum that was to be completed within a five-year timeline. Having travelled to the famous quarries at Carrara, he spent some six months painstakingly searching out the perfect blocks of marble from which to conjure his figures. Much to his chagrin, Julius recalled Michelangelo to Rome where he learned that the building earmarked to house the tomb was to be pulled down and the project as a whole put on ice. Michelangelo was incensed and became convinced that there was a conspiracy to destroy him. Indeed, he believed that the architect of the new St. Peter's Basilica, Bramante, was hatching a plot to have him poisoned. In his anger, Michelangelo returned to Florence and wrote a letter to the Pope expressing disgust at his treatment in Rome.

Michelangelo found himself at the center of a tricky diplomatic standoff between Florence and Rome. As Gombrich writes, "The head of the city of Florence therefore persuaded Michelangelo to return to the services of Julius II and gave him a letter of recommendation in which he said that his art was unequalled throughout Italy, perhaps even throughout the world, and that if he met with kindness 'he would achieve things that which would amaze the whole world'."

Having produced a colossal bronze statue of the pope for the newly conquered city of Bologna (unceremoniously pulled down once papal occupiers had been repelled), Michelangelo was commissioned by Julius to complete a project already started by Botticelli , Ghirlandaio , and others. The commission was to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and legend has it that Bramante had convinced the Pope that Michelangelo was the best man for the job, in the knowledge that Michelangelo was better known for his sculptures and was therefore almost certain to fail in this enormous undertaking.

Michelangelo would work on the Sistine Chapel for nearly four years. It was a job of extraordinary endurance in which (according to popular mythology) the artist painted the ceiling laying on his back atop a wooden scaffold structure (a task made even more difficult given that the tempestuous artist had dismissed all of his assistants, save one who helped him mix paint). What resulted, however, was a monumental work of stunning virtuosity illustrating stories from the Old Testament including the Creation of the World and Noah and the Flood. The finished work, which featured several nude figures (a fairly uncommon feature of the time) would become a towering masterpiece of human creation.

A serious rival to Michelangelo was a 26-year-old "upstart" named Raphael. He had burst upon the scene and was chosen in 1508 to paint a fresco in Pope Julius II's private library, a commission vied for by both Michelangelo and Leonardo. When Leonardo's health began to fail him, Raphael assumed the role of Michelangelo's greatest rival. Because of Raphael's acuity in depicting anatomy, and his finesse for painting nudes, Michelangelo would accuse him of copying his own work. Although acknowledging a degree of debt to Michelangelo, Raphael resented such animosity toward him and responded by painting the artist with his sulking face in the guise of Heraclitus in his famous fresco The School of Athens (1509-11).

Once the Sistine ceiling was completed, Michelangelo returned to work on the earlier project for the tomb of Pope Julius. Between 1513-15 he carved Moses , in which many recognize a new level of detail and control in his work that can be traced back to the figures of the prophets he painted on the Sistine ceiling. He also carved two further figures, thought to be slaves or prisoners. These pieces were also intended for the Julius tomb project, but they remained in the artist's possession until old age when he gifted them to a family who had nursed him through an earlier bout of illness (they are now housed in the Louvre).

Following Pope Julius II's death in 1513, funds for his tomb were cut and Michelangelo was commissioned by the new Pope Leo X to work on the façade of the Basilica San Lorenzo, the largest church in Florence (and therefore dedicated to the legacy of the Medici clan rather than the papacy). Michelangelo spent the next three years working on it before the project was cancelled due to lack of funds. Florence was under the rule of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (Pope Leo X's cousin) and the two men formed a close working relationship. Indeed, Michelangelo enjoyed great creative liberties under the Cardinal, and this allowed him to move further into the field of architectural design. A project for a parish church in San Lorenzo was never realized, but Michelangelo did work on a design for The Medici Chapel.

Michelangelo worked on the New Sacristy (complementing the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi that sat on the opposite side of the church) between 1520 and 1534. In its own literature, the Medici Chapels describes how "Michelangelo worked on the sculptures of the sarcophagi, but the only ones actually completed were the statues of the Dukes Lorenzo and Giuliano, the allegories of Dawn and Dusk , Night and Day and the group of Madonna and Child placed above the sarcophagus of the two 'magnifici' and flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian. The latter were executed by Montorsoli and Baccio di Montelupo, pupils of Michelangelo."

The figure of Night ranks for many as one of Michelangelo's finest works. In his entry, "The Life of Michelangelo", in The Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550), Giorgio Vasari quotes an epigram by Giovanni Strozzi who said of the figure: "Night, whom you see sleeping in such sweet attitudes was carved in this stone by an Angel and although she sleeps, she has life: wake her, if you don't believe it, and she will speak to you."

The Laurentian Library ( Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ) was built into a cloister of the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The library contains manuscripts and early printed books donated by Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent. It was built under the patronage of Pope Clement VII, who commissioned Michelangelo to design the architecture in 1524. Although often overlooked in surveys of his work, the stairwell ( ricetto ) features Michelangelo's original wall and floor decorations while the columns in the library's main chamber are concealed behind the walls (rather than in front as was typical of classical architectural design) allowing for the rows of desks to be placed in a rhythmic harmony with the windows. The library is considered an early example of the more decorative Mannerist style of High Renaissance art and architecture.

Following the capture and looting of Rome by the armies of Charles V in 1527, Florence, was declared a republic. However, the city came under siege in October 1529 before it finally fell in August 1530. In a new agreement between Pope Clement VII and Charles V, the Medici family was once more returned to power in the city. Having worked for the defense of the Florence (it is thought that Michelangelo had a profound love of the city rather that a belief in any religious/political cause) by designing fortifications, Michelangelo was re-employed by Pope Clement who gave him a new contract to re-commence work on the tomb of Pope Julius II.

In 1534, Michelangelo headed to Rome where he would live out the rest of his days. He sent many letters from Rome to family members (many relating to the marriage of a nephew and the preservation of the family name). His father and brother had recently passed, and Michelangelo reveals himself as someone becoming increasingly concerned about his own mortality.

At the age of 57, Michelangelo would establish the first of three close friendships. Tommaso dei Cavalieri was a 23-year-old Italian nobleman who is thought to have been the artist's young lover and a lifelong friend. However, some historians (Gilbert included) point out that Michelangelo's sexuality cannot be confirmed, and the fact that he had no heir, suggests that in Tommaso (the "light of our century, paragon of all the world" as the artist once described him) Michelangelo might have been seeking an adopted son. The belief that Michelangelo was homosexual is nevertheless reinforced by the knowledge that he penned over 300 poems and 75 sonnets, some so homoerotic in nature, that his grandnephew, upon publishing these as a collection in 1623, changed the gender pronouns to disguise their original context.

In Rome, Michelangelo turned to fresco panting once more, this time in the services of Pope Paul III. In 1534 he found himself again at the site of one of his greatest triumphs, painting a grand and dynamic salvation narrative for the altar wall in the Sistine Chapel. It would take him seven years to complete. The Last Judgment , with its theme of Jesus's "second coming", was part of the grand narrative of Roman Catholic teaching. Michelangelo's fresco represented an attempt on the part of the Pope to oppose the Protestant Reformation (in what was known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation) which was sweeping Northern Europe and had challenged the authority of the Catholic church. Michelangelo still took subtle liberties with the traditional telling of the biblical story, such as the representation of a beardless Christ, and by omitting altogether his throne and the attendant wingless angels.

During this period, in which Michelangelo became an official Roman citizen in 1537, he found another close companion in the widow, Vittoria Colonna, the Marquise of Pescara. She too, was a poet. Indeed, the majority of Michelangelo's poetry is devoted to Colonna, and his adoration of her continued until her death in 1547. He also gifted her paintings and drawings, and one of the most beautiful to have survived is the black chalk drawing Pietà for Vittoria Colonna (1546). Colonna was the only woman to play a significant part in Michelangelo's life (his mother, we recall, died when he was just a small boy) and their relationship is generally believed to have been platonic. But in 1540, Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci, the 12-year-old son of a wealthy Florentine banker, at the Court of Pope Paul III. The epitaphs Michelangelo wrote following Cecchino's death four years later strongly suggest a sexual relationship. In one, the artist wrote, "Do yet attest for him how gracious I was in bed. When he embraced, and in what the soul doth live."

Late Period

During the late period of his career, Michelangelo worked more and more on architectural designs. These included plans for the plaza at the civic center at Capitoline Hill, (with Luigi Vanvitelli) the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (construction from 1562), and the Sforza Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (1561-64). But it was for his work on the St Peter's Basilica that he is best remembered.

It was Pope Julius II who proposed demolishing the old Basilica and replacing it with what he called the "grandest building in Christendom." Although the design by Donato Bramante had been selected in 1505, and foundations laid the following year, little progress had been made since. By the time Michelangelo reluctantly took over the project from his nemesis (Bramante) in 1546 he was in his seventies, stating, "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honor of the Apostle."

Michelangelo worked continuously throughout the rest of his life as Head Architect on the Basilica. His most important personal contribution to the project was his work on the design of the dome at the eastern point of the Basilica. He dismissed all the ideas of previous architects working on the project except for those of the original designs of Bramante who, like him, had envisioned a structure to outdo even Brunelleschi's famous dome in Florence. Although the dome was not finished until after his death, the base on which the dome was to be placed was completed, which meant the final version of the dome remains true in essence to Michelangelo's majestic vision. Still the largest church in the world, the dome is both a Roman landmark (rather than just a functional covering for the building's interior) and a testament to Michelangelo's eternal connection to the city.

Michelangelo's last paintings, produced between 1542-50, were a series of frescos for the private Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. One of these paintings, The Crucifixion of St. Peter , features a horseman wearing a turban and restorers and historians believe that this was in fact a self-portrait of the artist. He continued to sculpt but did so privately for personal pleasure. He completed a number of Pietàs including the Disposition (which he attempted to destroy), as well as his last, the Rondanini Pietà , on which he worked until the last weeks before his death.

Gilbert has observed that a "side effect of Michelangelo's fame in his lifetime was that his career was more fully documented than that of any artist of the time or earlier" and that he was in fact the subject of two important biographies: a first for a living artist. In the final chapter of his series on artists' lives (1550), Vasari "explicitly presented Michelangelo's works as the culminating perfection of art, surpassing the efforts of all those before him". Yet Gilbert explains that Michelangelo "was not entirely pleased" with Vasari's piece and "arranged for his assistant Ascanio Condivi to write a brief separate book (1553); probably based on the artist's own spoken comments". It is, nevertheless, Vasari's "lively writing" and the influence of the book (which was translated into many languages) that "have made it the most usual basis of popular ideas on Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists".

Gombrich notes that in his final years Michelangelo "seemed to retire more and more into himself [...] The poems he wrote show that he was troubled by doubts as to whether his art had been sinful, while his letters make it clear that the higher he rose in esteem in the world, the more difficult and bitter he became. He was not only admired, but feared for his temper, and he spared neither high nor low." His highly secretive and guarded nature, and an incident where, while working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he threw wooden planks at an approaching Pope who he had mistaken for a spy, seems to suggest he suffered with feelings of paranoia. His great companion Tommaso remained with him until his death at home, in Rome, following a short illness in 1564, aged 88. Per his wishes, his body was returned to his beloved Florence and interred at the Basilica di Santa Croce.

The Legacy of Michelangelo

Michelangelo was the undisputed master of sculpting the human form, which he did with such technical aplomb that his marble seemed to almost transform into living flesh and bone. His dexterity with handling human emotions and psychological insights only enhanced his standing and brought him world-wide fame during his own lifetime. He complemented his Pietas , David , and Moses with what is the most famous ceiling fresco in the world, and has made the Vatican City's Sistine Chapel a site of pilgrimage for those with and without faith. Gombrich said of his cupola for St Peters, "As it rises above the city of Rome, supported, it seems, by a ring of twin columns and soaring up with its clean majestic outline, it serves as a fitting monument to the spirit of this singular artist who his contemporaries called 'divine'."

Historians have tracked Michelangelo's influence through the work of such luminaries as Raphael , Peter Paul Rubens , Gian Lorenzo Bernini , and the last great sculptor to follow in his realist tradition, Auguste Rodin . Yet Gilbert makes the point that Michelangelo belongs to a very select and exalted group of artists, which includes William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven, who were able to capture "the tragic experience of humanity with the greatest depth and universal scope", and as such, their "influence on later art is relatively limited." Gilbert's point is that Michelangelo's works (like those of Shakespeare and Beethoven) carry "an almost cosmic grandeur [that] was inhibiting" for those artists who followed and who might aspire to emulate his achievements.

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, meanwhile, likened his own song writing processes to those of Michelangelo. He said in a recent interview, "There's a Duff McKagan song called 'Chip Away,' that has profound meaning for me. It's a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn't build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It's like my own song writing, I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing."

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Michelangelo

• Michelangelo: His Epic Life By Martin Gayford
• Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times By William E. Wallace
• Michelangelo: A Biography By George Bull
• Michelangelo Our Pick By Howard Hibbard
• Michelangelo: The Achievement of Fame By Michael Hirst
• The Life of Michelangelo By Ascanio Condivi
• The Lives of the Artists By Giorgio Vasari
• Michelangelo, God's Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece By William E. Wallace
• Michelangelo's Mountain: The Quest For Perfection in the Marble Quarries of Carrara By Eric Scigliano
• Michelangelo's Notebooks: The Poetry, Letters, and Art of the Great Master By Carolyn Vaughan
• The Complete Poems of Michelangelo By Michelangelo
• Michelangelo: The Complete Paintings, Sculptures and Architecture By Frank Zöllner
• Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces By Miles J. Unger
• Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling Our Pick By Ross King
• Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer Our Pick By Carmen C. Bambach
• Michelangelo's Tomb for Julius II: Genesis and Genius By Christoph Luitpold Frommel
• Michelangelo and the Reform of Art Our Pick By Alexander Nagel
• From Marble to Flesh. The Biography of Michelangelo's David Our Pick By A. Victor Coonin
• Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master By Hugo Chapman
• Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Biography of Michelangelo
• Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Heavenly art Our Pick By Jonathan Jones / The Guardian / March 6, 2006
• Why Michelangelo Matters By Theodore K. Rabb / Commentary Magazine / September 1, 2006
• Michelangelo - The Poetry and the Man By Kara Ross / Art Renewal Centre / January 1, 2008
• Michelangelo Divine Draftsman and Designer - How a Monument Comes Alive By Renato Miracco / iItaly Magazine / January 25, 2018
• David's assets protected as Italy bans images of Michelangelo's famous sculpture By Nick Squires / November 24, 2017
• Michelangelo and his First Biographers By Michael Hirst / Proceedings of the British Academy / 1997
• Michelangelo as Nicodemus: The Florence Pieta By Jane Kristof / The Sixteenth Century Journal / Summer 1989
• Michelangelo and the Medieval Pietà: The Sculpture of Devotion or the Art of Sculpture? Our Pick By Joanna E. Ziegler / Gesta / 1995
• Michelangelo Matter & Spirit
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, Moses, and the Tomb of Pope Julius II Our Pick
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, Pietà Our Pick
• Smarthistory: Michelangelo, The Slaves
• Smarthistory: Last Judgment (altar wall, Sistine Chapel)
• Smarthistory: Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Our Pick
• Art History Lesson: Michelangelo Biography: Who Was This Guy, Really?
• Biographics - Michelangelo: The Story of a Sculptor
• Mickey, Teenage Mutant Turtles, named after Michelangelo
• The Simpsons, Season 2, episode 9, (December 20, 1990), Michelangelo's David Protest

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Content compiled and written by Zaid S Sethi

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Kimberly Nichols , Antony Todd

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• Digital Commons at Lindenwood University - Michelangelo's Last Judgement: A crisis of conscience
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For posterity Michelangelo always remained one of the small group of the most exalted artists, who were felt to express, like William Shakespeare or Ludwig van Beethoven , the tragic experience of humanity with the greatest depth and universal scope.

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In contrast to the great fame of the artist’s works, their visual influence on later art is relatively limited. This cannot be explained by hesitation to imitate an art simply because it appeared so great, for artists such as Raphael were considered equally great but were used as sources to a much greater degree. It may be instead that the particular type of expression associated with Michelangelo, of an almost cosmic grandeur, was inhibiting . The limited influence of his work includes a few cases of almost total dependence, the most talented artist who worked in this way being Daniele da Volterra . Otherwise, Michelangelo was treated as a model for specific limited aspects of his work. In the 17th century, he was regarded as supreme in anatomical drawing but less praised for broader elements of his art. While the Mannerists utilized the spatial compression seen in a few of his works, and later the serpentine poses of his sculpture of Victory , the 19th-century master Auguste Rodin exploited the effect of unfinished marble blocks. Certain 17th-century masters of the Baroque perhaps show the fullest reference to him, but in ways that have been transformed to exclude any literal similarity. Besides Gian Lorenzo Bernini , the painter Peter Paul Rubens may best show the usability of Michelangelo’s creations for a later great artist.

Michelangelo’s Life and Work Essay (Biography)

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Born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in 1475, Michelangelo remains one of the most influential artists in the 15 th century. In fact, most analysts consider Michelangelo as one of the best artist of his times. His works ranged from poems, sculptures, architecture to drawings (Barenboim, 2006).

His work started when he was in his late teens and early twenties. Michelangelo’s creativity and sensitivity in artistic details contributed to his accomplishment, and among his most popular sculptures are, ‘David and Pieta’ . Domenico Ghirlandaio, a famous painter and friend to his father, was responsible for giving Michelangelo the first painting lessons when Michelangelo was an apprentice in his workshop.

The artist, who revolutionized renaissance art, went to live with Medici family, from where he managed to get most of his artistic works commissioned (Barenboim, 2006). Due to his immense skills and wide collection of artistic works, early museums documented his works and as it turns out, he was the most famous artist of the 16 th century. The existing political, religious and philosophical contents in the 16 th century influenced Michelangelo first works.

Upon the death of Medici, Michelangelo returned to his father’s place, from where he proceeded with his sculpture making works and painting. When political upheavals rocked the town of Florence, Michelangelo shifted his working base to Bologna. One of the historical works he created while at Bologna was making final carvings at the Tomb of St. Dominic.

Michelangelo continued with his artistic works in other areas including Rome, with his most significant architectural design being the Dome of St Peters Basilica, which he designed in 1546 (Barenboim, 2006). His autobiography was written while he was still alive, and he remains the only artist to have achieved this in the 16 th century. In 1564, Michelangelo died at the age of 88.

Michelangelo based most of his drawings on historical and religious events. One of his drawings is the crucifixion , which the artist made for his friend Vittoria in the mid 1530’s. Michelangelo makes extensive use of shading in order to emphasize on the areas exposed to light, as well as elaborate on depth. The Crucifixion has elaborate shading along the edges of the crucified image, bringing out some aspect of depth.

The drawing is in black chalk, and it has its background being darker to emphasize on the lurking death from the crucifixion. The other famous drawing is the Battle of Cascina, which has extensively used contour lines to emphasize on motion (Barenboim, 2006). The artist emphasized on the movements and direction by using contour lines when shading some parts of the painting.

The combination of color and shading makes the drawings to appear in motion and emphasize on depth by creating a three dimensional perspective. The Doni Tondo is another painting completed in 1504. Michelangelo painted a family of three on a piece of wood and elaborated on creating shapes while drawing.

From its name, Tondo represents a circular artistic work and Michelangelo ensured that the family fit proportionally in the circle. Shading and hatching are elaborate in the painting, with Michelangelo artistically manipulating the hands to form triangles.

Brush strokes replace the use of lines to elaborate on depth and perspective. Charon the Boatman is another drawing on the wall of Sistine Chapel, and it combines cool and warm colors to create a sense of space.

Contour lines are also elaborate on the man holding the oar as well as on the floating man above the boat. Using colored shades, Michelangelo creates some depth in the two dimensional drawing. Crucifixion of St Peter is another painting on the ceiling of the Pauline Chapel and it has extensive shading and use of contour lines to elaborate on space, depth and perspective.

Barenboim, P. (2006). Michelangelo Drawings – Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation . Moscow: Letny Sad.

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The many lives of Michelangelo

What can a single sheet of paper reveal about the complex life of an artistic genius like Michelangelo Buonarroti?  William Wallace , an art historian and author of  Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and his Times , reveals how documents - including one extremely rare document in Washington University's own library - provide a window into Michelangelo's life and art. This episode was originally released in April 2016. 

Transcript: Claire Navarro: Hello, and thank you for listening to Hold That Thought. I’m Claire Navarro. To start off this podcast, we have to go back in time a little bit. The year was 1986 here on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. A student named Larysa Beyer was taking an art history seminar on Michelangelo.  While working on a paper for the class, she did what students often do, and went to the library. But instead of looking up one of the many books written about Michelangelo, Larysa decided to check out Special Collections, the section of the library that keeps rare books and original documents. 

Bill Wallace: And at the time, we still had a card catalogue, and they looked at the card catalogue, and under M there was a card that said, “Michelangelo.” They brought out a piece of paper. She looked at it. She couldn’t read a word on it. She couldn’t even tell if it was Italian or Latin. 

CN: Bill Wallace is a professor of art history at Washington University and a scholar of Michelangelo. At the time, he was Larysa’s teacher. After that visit to the library, weeks went by. Larysa assumed that if a piece of paper handwritten by Michelangelo was just sitting in the library, surely her professor already knew about it. So, it wasn’t until near the end of the semester that she mentioned what she had seen.  

BW: I kind of questioned whether she really knew what she was looking at. She said, “Well, it looked like it was on kind of old paper.”

CN: Wallace did not know about the document. Nobody knew about it. So even though he figured it was probably a photocopy or something that she had mistaken, he thought it was worth seeing for himself. 

BW: It was a Friday afternoon. It was about 4 o’clock. The rare book collection was going to close at 5, and I said, “Well, why don’t we walk up and take a look?” So we did. They brought out the document. And I must say my heart kind of stopped, because I have looked at a lot of Michelangelo documents in my life, and as soon as I saw this one—he has very distinctive handwriting (we have a lot of Michelangelo handwriting), and there is no doubt what so ever that we have an authentic Michelangelo document in our Washington University library. And it was completely unknown—or completely unpublished—at that time. 

"It was a Friday afternoon. It was about 4 o’clock. The rare book collection was going to close at 5, and I said, “Well, why don’t we walk up and take a look?” So we did. They brought out the document. And I must say my heart kind of stopped."

CN: This was a truly shocking thing to find. There are only a handful Michelangelo documents anywhere in the United States. Most of them are in private collections. So it was only after Wallace calmed himself a bit that he began to actually read the piece of paper. What unknown glimpse of Michelangelo’s life might be revealed? Was it a letter? A poem? A plan for a sculpture? Well, not exactly. 

BW: The first few lines say, I, Michelangelo Buonarroti, have in my house eight barrels of wine and about two barrels of Fo dig Lioli. And that was a word that kind of threw me at first, because I didn’t recognize what it was. At first, I thought they were beans, but it turned out to be cheap wine, bottom of the barrel type wine. And then he says I have about a half barrel of vinegar and “bocche quattro.” Four mouths. That is he has four people he has to feed in his household; he is responsible for feeding four people.

CN: So, why would a famous artist and sculptor keep detailed records of the wine and vinegar in his house? At first, Wallace didn’t know.  

BW: It took us a little while to figure our what he was talking about. You know, was this an inventory of his basement?

CN: A detail on the reverse side of the paper provided some clues. It turns out that this list of wine and vinegar was written in the year 1529 – and that is important. When Michelangelo died in his late 80s – which by the way, was an extraordinary long time for a person to live during the renaissance – he left behind hundreds of pages of personal documents, financial documents, legal documents, and more. So did his family and patrons. But look for documents from 1529, and you’re not going to find much of anything. That’s because 1529 was an extremely dangerous time in the artist’s life. In 1529, Florence was at war. The conflict had started a couple years earlier. 

BW: In 1527, Florence decided to declare itself independent, and this is the moment a Florentine was elected Pope. Clement VII was really distressed that his own native city declared itself independent of the Papacy. So Michelangelo had to decide: am I going to choose Florence, or am I going to choose the Pope? He was already working for the Pope, but he chose Florence. That is because first and foremost, an Italian is the city they were born in. They are first and foremost a Florentine and only secondarily an Italian. That’s true even today. So Michelangelo chose to side with Florence. For three years of his life, he devoted himself to his city of Florence, and in a sense, he is a rebel against the very power that previously he had been hired by.

CN: And not just any rebel. You probably think of Michelangelo as the person who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or the sculptor who made the David, but in 1529, Michelangelo was Florence’s Governor-General of fortifications, building protections to keep out the enemy. The city was under siege, and food was scarce. The Florentine government required its people to declare how much food and liquid they had. This sort of declaration is what Wallace’s student found in the library. 

BW: This document is a declaration of liquid goods that are left in the house, and it indicates the very dire straights that the citizenry is going through at this time. There are 50 people dying a day from starvation. Michelangelo is responsible not only for his own household but for the protection of this entire city. This was an extremely dangerous moment, and as we all know, war is not a moment when a lot of documentation takes place or when documents are made, they are generally destroyed. This was a moment of a real void in Michelangelo’s life in terms of what we really know what was happening, so our document gives us a tiny glimpse in a very, very dangerous time in his life. 

"Michelangelo is responsible not only for his own household, but for the protection of this entire city. This was an extremely dangerous moment, and as we all know, war is not a moment when a lot of documentation takes place."

CN: Dr. Wallace has been studying the life and works of this one man for close to 40 years, and he’s still constantly fascinated by what he finds. The rare document in the Washington University library helps us understand why. When it comes to Michelangelo, there’s always more to discover. In some ways it seems like this one genius lived many lives all rolled into one. 

BW: I think it is one of the things I have most enjoyed about Michelangelo, is that, yes, we all know he was a sculptor. And then we think, “Oh, yes. He also painted the Sistine Chapel.” And then, “Oh, yes. He built St. Peters. He’s an architect.” And I think very few people know he is a really important poet. We have some 300 poems Michelangelo wrote. He is one of the most important poets of the Renaissance. I also think he is the greatest engineer of the Renaissance. We always think of Leonardo as a great Renaissance engineer, but Leonardo thought of a lot of things that did nothing. Michelangelo actually did it. He carried things out. He accomplished remarkable engineering feats, and one of them is that he built fortifications. These fortifications actually worked. So if you think of a Renaissance man, I mean, really Michelangelo is the Renaissance man in accomplishing these things of surprisingly diverse fields of creativity and accomplishment. 

CN: It’s a little hard to even wrap your head around how all these diverse areas of creativity and expertise could coexist in one person. Luckily, the immense amount of documentation that Michelangelo left behind provides scholars a window into how all the pieces fit together. When writing a book about Michelangelo’s work designing and building sections of San Lorenzo church in Florence, Wallace came across a piece of paper that revealed Michelangelo the master architect, Michelangelo the  project manager, and Michelangelo the poet – all at the same moment.

BW: So while he was at work drawing and designing moldings and bottoms and bases for columns, he will then start to write poetry on the same sheet of paper where he is designing a column. And at the same time, we know that there are 50 people in the same room as him all carving sculpture and making all kinds of noise. Yet he’s writing Petrarchan poetry on the paper. And we can tell he was doing it at the same time because it is folded and it’s all messed up. It’s very clear it’s all being done in the workshop and not at home where it is nice and quiet and clear. Everybody says when we read Michelangelo’s poetry that it has a rocky, rough quality to it. There is a very evident transference of character between his sculpting and his poetry, which is evident right here on this same piece of paper. 

CN: When I first heard this story, my immediate thought was – okay, lets forget the word genius – this man was some sort of super-human right? I asked Wallace whether he felt the same. After more than 30 years of studying this one life, is he still in awe, or does Michelangelo seem more like a regular person, someone you could really get to know? The answer for Wallace is both. 

BW: I have been working on Michelangelo close to 40 years, and I have come nowhere close to exhausting my interest of him. In fact, he gets more and more interesting. On one hand, I have greater respect for him and more awe of his ability and his accomplishments. On the other hand, I also realize the fallibility and the human quality. 

"I have been working on Michelangelo close to 40 years, and I have come nowhere close to exhausting my interest of him."

CN: These human qualities are revealed, once again, through documents and research. These pieces of paper don’t only tell the story of an artistic genius – they tell the day-to-day details of a man’s life. Even details that in other situations, you probably wouldn’t want to know. 

BW: Michelangelo does tell his nephew every kidney stone he passes and how large it is. And, you know, because you don’t buy clothes at Wal-Mart during the Renaissance; you buy cloth. And he records every piece of cloth that he buys and what size it is and what color it is, so in a sense, we can reconstruct his entire closet. We can get pretty close to getting some pretty amazing detail. In terms of what he ate, he records many times what he ate for the day, that sort of thing, especially when he is having stomach distress and things like that. We have a wonderful sheet of paper where he records the three meals he has had the last three days. 

CN: Over the course of his career, Wallace has used these types of records to piece together a rich picture of Michelangelo’s life – and also his art. Looking at one of Michelangelo’s beautiful sculpture, it’s difficult to imagine how a huge piece of hard rock marble came be transformed into flowing robes or human flesh. By piecing together the clues found in documents, Wallace brings to life a vision of the process and the person.

BW: We tend to celebrate the Sistine Ceiling, the carving of the David, but carving marble is a lot of work. It is just very, very difficult manual labor, and transporting a block of marble that weighs eight tons 90 miles, you have to figure out how to do it. Nobody had done it since the Romans 1000 years before, but Michelangelo was doing it on the scale of the Romans. He was, in a sense, reinventing the logistics of transport, the mechanics, and the making of art in the scale and complexity of the Roman Empire all over again. That is what we call the Renaissance: the rebirth of antiquity. In a sense, Michelangelo is really at the center of helping that happen in certain ways. I think it helps us appreciate it all the more to realize the technical difficulty of carving a sculpture that’s 17 feet high, to imagine setting that block up and having it be noting but raw stone and then imagining a figure in it and realizing that as you carve the head, you can’t even see the feet, because you are on a scaffold. The scaffolding is blocking your view of the middle part of the figure, but then you are at the middle part and you can’t even see the head. Or painting the Sistine Ceiling, some of those prophets are 14 feet tall, and they are on a curved surface. You have to imagine what that figure is going to look like; a figure 14 feet high on a curved surface, seated, has got to look exactly right and perfect from 60 feet down below. It is really just astonishing that he has the capacity and ability to carry these out, and yet we don’t even think about the technical difficulty because we are so overwhelmed by the artistic accomplishment. I like what Johann Goethe said about the Sistine Ceiling: “Until you have seen the Sistine Ceiling, you have no idea what human kind is capable of accomplishing.” That’s a remarkable statement. 

CN: For much more on the life of this inspiring artist, you can check out any of William Wallace’s several books on Michelangelo, including Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and his Times. Or, for many more ideas to explore from the scholars at Washington University in St. Louis, please visit our website, holdthatthought.wustl.edu. You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter or find our weekly podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or PRX. Thanks for listening.

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Michelangelo

Michelangelo was known as il divino , (in English, “the divine one”) and it is easy for us to see why.

Learn about some of the materials and techniques Michelangelo employed.

• Quarrying and carving marble
• Carving marble with traditional tools
• Almost Invisible: The Cartoon Transfer Process

videos + essays

Replicating michelangelo.

Replicas form a vital component of Michelangelo’s legacy, and they have helped transform him into a global cultural icon

Can stone be that soft? Contrast defines this sculpture. Mary is sweet but strong, and Christ, real yet ideal.

Where’s Goliath? David scans for his enemy. This colossal sculpture is itself a giant of 16th-century Renaissance art.

The many meanings of Michelangelo's David

Location, location, location. Meant for the cathedral, David presided over a public square—and now stands inside.

Unfinished business—Michelangelo and the Pope

Michelangelo left many sculptures unfinished, but perhaps none are more beautiful than The Prisoners .

The Hebrew prophet at the center of this tomb exudes energy and power, from his intense gaze to his twisted pose.

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

God created the world in seven days, but it took Michelangelo four years to depict it on this remarkable ceiling.

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl

Michelangelo transforms a male model into a female figure. Discover the artist’s working process.

Slaves for the Tomb of Pope Julius II

Bound to rock, these figures struggle to escape their marble prisons. One closes his eyes; the other looks to God.

Last Judgment , Sistine Chapel

As demons harvest new souls and angels wake the dead, Mary crouches, powerless beside Christ.

Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)

Night and day, rough and polish—this chapel embodies opposition and traps the viewer in a moment of transition.

Laurentian Library

Michelangelo turns book learning on its head. Defying classical grammar, he speaks his own architectural language.

Attributed to Daniele da Volterra, Michelangelo Buonarroti , c. 1545, oil on wood, 88.3 x 64.1 cm ( The Metropolitan Museum of Art )

“Who was Michelangelo?”

Essay by Dr. Tamara Smithers

Michelangelo Buonarotti—the Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, and poet—was called “Il Divino” (The Divine One) by his contemporaries because they perceived his artworks to be otherworldly. His art was in high demand, and thought to have terribilità , poorly translated as “terribleness” and better described as powerfulness. He was mythologized by followers, emulated by artists, celebrated by humanists, and patronized by a total of nine popes. As commemorations, over one hundred portraits of him were created during the sixteenth century alone, far more than any other artist at the time. Despite three biographies written about the artist during his own lifetime, we know the most about the sometimes-generous and often-humorous perfectionist through his letters. Not only do we have more primary sources on Michelangelo than any other historical artist, he is one of the most written-about artists of all time. In today’s terms, Michelangelo was a workaholic homebody whose cats missed him when he was away. He did not like to debate art, waste time, or show his work before he was ready. Despite a few mid-career collaborations, Michelangelo was careful and guarded, never running a typical workshop, locking his studio, and burning drawings. He also complained a lot, and, at times, could be overconfident, curt, and blunt, once resulting in a punch in the nose.

Better late than never

Although he became an artistic superstar, Michelangelo’s start was different from most artists of his time. His initial success can be credited to his family’s connections to the powerful, noble Florentine family, the Medici. In the early 1490s, he learned carving under the tutelage of a student of Donatello , Bertoldo di Giovanni, at the Medici sculpture garden. Upon entering the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio , Michelangelo began his official professional training at the age of thirteen, several years later than usual (and unlike typical apprentices who had to pay to study under a master, Michelangelo was paid, perhaps due to his family’s relations to the Medici or his innate talent). However, he desired to sculpt instead, stating that he drank in his love of stone carving from his wet nurse , who came from a family of simple pastoral stonecutters.[1] To emphasize this aspect of himself for the first few decades of his career, he signed his letters “Michelangelo Sculptor.” Also important to his formative years was the dissection of cadavers to learn anatomy. The challenging conditions—after hours by candlelight and without refrigeration—called to only the most dedicated artists.

Michelangelo, Pietà , marble, 1498–1500 (Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome. Photo: Stanislav Traykov , CC BY 2.5)

At twenty-three years old, Michelangelo accepted his first large-scale public project: to carve two full-scale figures within one piece of stone, a very difficult task. St. Peter’s Pietà , commissioned for the tomb of Cardinal Bilhères de Lagraulas, initiated his rise to fame. The pressure was on: the contract stated that the sculpture was to be the most beautiful work in Rome. After six months at the quarries to find the perfect marble, Michelangelo began carving the Pietà . When the sculpture was put on display in Old St. Peter’s Basilica (before the rebuilding initiated by Pope Julius II), pilgrims questioned who had made such a beautiful work. As the story goes, the sculptor overheard a group incorrectly attribute the work to another sculptor. Michelangelo snuck back in late that night with a lantern, hammer, and chisel to carve his name on the Virgin’s sash. It is the only work he ever signed, and he later regretted this act of excessive pride.

Already famous

Michelangelo, David , marble, 1501–04 (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence)

Soon after, Michelangelo received an important commission in Florence. A figure of David was desired for up high on an outside buttress of the Duomo . He was tasked to re-use a nearly twenty-foot tall piece of marble nicknamed “The White Giant” that another artist had attempted but failed to carve forty years prior. Michelangelo stepped up to the challenge, completing the colossal statue in two years. In the end, the sculpture was placed outside the Palazzo Signoria .

The success of David led to a large-scale civic commission inside the palazzo to paint a battle scene for the Florentine government, the Battle of Cascina . This arrangement placed him in direct competition with Leonardo , who was already at work on the Battle of Anghiari on the opposite wall. While neither painting was ever finished, copies of both survive. Michelangelo’s cartoon (a full-scale preparatory drawing for the fresco), served as a sort of art school for younger artists who came to copy his figures. His drawings from this period are some of his most superbly rendered figures, with a distinct cross-hatching chiaroscuro technique. Disegno , or drawing, was considered both a manual pursuit and an intellectual endeavor and was the most important part of his practice. Sketching from the male nude was central to his art making.

Michelangelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (detail), 1508–12 (Vatican, Rome)

In his next major fresco project, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel commissioned by Pope Julius II , the main narrative represents nine stories of the Book of Genesis, such as the Creation of Adam . Michelangelo’s bulky, muscular figures were inspired by the ancient Laocoön , which he witnessed being unearthed in Rome in 1506. The study for the Libyan Sibyl is an exquisite preparatory drawing from this time, revealing his use of a male model for a female figure.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto), c. 1510–11, red chalk, with small accents of white chalk on the left shoulder of the figure in the main study, 28.9 × 21.4 cm ( The Metropolitan Museum of Art )

Michelangelo began painting the ceiling with the traditional method of using cartoons to transfer the design onto the wet plaster, but he became so proficient towards the end, he worked freehand. He also claimed to work without assistants (despite evidence otherwise), and preferred to keep his work private until finished. One story relays that he threw planks at Pope Julius II from the scaffolding, mistaking him for a spy![2]

Michelangelo, AB XIII, 111 Sonnet and self-portrait, 1509/1512 (Casa Buonarotti, Florence)

The ceiling took Michelangelo over four years to paint. Initially, he did not want the commission, claiming that painting was not his art. He wrote a satirical poem about his personal struggle paired with a caricature of himself standing to paint: “With my beard towards heaven… I am bent like a Syrian bow….”[3]

Michelangelo, Creation of Adam , ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (detail), 1508–12, Vatican, Rome

Mid-Career but not middle of the pack

Michelangelo was initially called to Rome in 1505 to carve the tomb of Julius II intended for the center of New St. Peter’s Basilica , soon to be under construction. If fully realized, the monument would have contained over forty life-size figures, impossible for Michelangelo to ever have finished. The memorial was finally erected, in a reduced form in 1545, as a wall tomb in S. Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Moses , 1513–15, Carrara marble, 254 cm (8 feet, 3 inches) high, Tomb of Pope Julius II (della Rovere), 1505–45, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome (photo: Jörg Bittner Unna , CC BY 3.0)

The monumental Moses , intended for an upper corner, is now featured as the main figure. Two series of figures were never placed in the final arrangement: two bound “ slaves ” in the Louvre Museum in Paris and four struggling “captives” in the Accademia Museum in Florence. The Captives , likely carved in the 1520s, are bulky, block-like, and rough, where one can see the artist’s cross-hatching marks made with the gradina , a multi–toothed chisel . His preferred tool, the cane , a dog-toothed chisel, left distinct groove lines on the surface of the marble. Because of the roughness, these, and other sculptures, have been labeled non-finito , or unfinished, a topic much debated in scholarship.

From left to right: Michelangelo, Slaves (commonly referred to as the  Dying Slave and the  Rebellious Slave ), 1513–15, marble, 2.09 m high (Musée du Louvre, Paris, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); Captives (commonly referred to as the Atlas Captive and the Bearded Captive ), c. 1530–34, marble, 2.77 m and 2.63 m high (Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Michelangelo traveled back and forth from Rome and Florence during the late 1510s and 20s. In Florence, he worked for Julius’ successor, Pope Leo X de’ Medici, on the façade of the family’s church, San Lorenzo, which was never completed. It was here, though, where he honed his entrepreneurial skills, managing hundreds of workers under his direction. Michelangelo continued Medici employment under Pope Clement VII, designing the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy .

Michelangelo, Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici, 1526-33, marble, 630 x 420 cm (New Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In 1527, during a period of political turmoil, the Florentine Republic took back control from the Medici. Two years later, the city came under siege by troops of Holy Roman Empire and the Medici were reinstalled. Despite his longtime connections to the family, Michelangelo, a republican at heart, left Florence forever in 1534.

Michelangelo, Last Judgment , Sistine Chapel, altar wall, fresco, 1534–1541 (Vatican City, Rome) (photo: Richard Mortel, CC BY 2.0)

Late life in the Eternal City

Michelangelo’s second fresco in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the Last Judgment , was commissioned by Pope Paul III and was painted between 1535 and 1541. It also functioned as a study tool for artists. Giorgio Vasari, the sixteenth-century artist and biographer, claimed that artists no longer needed to study live models from nature since every conceivable human position was represented in Michelangelo’s fresco. To accomplish this, Michelangelo positioned tiny wax models to help develop the complex, large-scale composition. Reliance on Michelangelo’s contorted figures by later artists resulted in a sense of artificiality, a prized characteristic of Mannerism . The artist was constantly developing new working practices. For example, in order to extend working hours, Michelangelo made a headlamp with a special wax candle so he could paint into the late hours of the night, often forgetting to eat. Long days proved dangerous though, and he took a bad fall off the scaffolding, nearly breaking his leg.

Left: Michelangelo, Piazza and palazzi of the Capitoline Hill, Rome, 1536–1546 (photo: Lawrence OP , CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); Right: Michelangelo, Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, 1546–1564 (photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Michelangelo became a Roman citizen in 1537, and it was here that he established his legacy as an architect. During the last two decades of his long life, Michelangelo focused on architectural commissions, sculpting only for himself. His major projects included renovating the Capitoline Hill and overseeing the construction of St. Peter’s (without pay for not only the salvation of his soul but also to retain complete creative control). As a devout Christian, Michelangelo made pilgrimage to all of Rome’s seven martyr churches during his old age. As he aged, he became more and more stubborn, riding his horse in the rain, for example. Owning horses was seen as an aristocratic endeavor, a status the artist became increasingly concerned with over the years. In his 1553 biography by Ascanio Condivi written with the artist’s consultation, Michelangelo emphasized his family’s nobility as a descendent of the counts of Canossa.

Michelangelo, Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, c. 1538–44, black chalk on paper, 28.9 x 18.9 cm ( Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Boston)

The artist never had children (he claimed his artworks were his children), or even proper students. Instead, he sought to groom his nephew Lionardo as the sole Buonarotti heir. Michelangelo also established many great friendships such as that with Vittoria Colonna, whom he gifted a devotional Pietà drawing. He turned to this theme for his own tomb memorial, now known as the Florentine Pietà . Michelangelo attempted to carve four figures out of one marble block, a nearly impossible task. This act was in direct competition with the famed ancient Laocoön , which, despite legend, was discovered by the artist to have been made of several pieces of stone. Here, Mary holds the dead Christ with Mary Magdalene on the left and Nicodemus behind them, figures who each witnessed the death of Christ. Michelangelo carved his self-portrait in the face of Nicodemus, placing himself over Christ in a last wish for salvation. In the end, this image did not adorn his tomb. However, he continued to carve almost daily up until his death in 1564; an onlooker described the eighty-something year old’s blows with a hammer as incredible.

Michelangelo, Deposition (The Florentine Pietà ), c. 1547–55, marble, 2.26 m high (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen , CC-BY 2.5)

The Florentine Art Academy, founded under the leadership of Vasari a year before Michelangelo died, erected the largest funerary memorial for an artist to date, naming him the father of the arts. Artists throughout the ages—from Caravaggio to Bernini, to Reynolds to Rodin , to Picasso to Hockney—looked to the art of Michelangelo as the founder of a forceful, new figural style. Michelangelo elevated the status of the artist more than any other artist of his time. He valued artistic freedom and personal expression, making art his way. Only with this in mind, can his creative vision and legend truly be appreciated.

Michelangelo’s tomb, Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence (photo: Walwyn , CC BY-NC 2.0)

• Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects , vol. IX, translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1912, p. 4–5).
• Ibid, p. 25.
• James Saslow, trans. The Poetry of Michelangelo (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), p. 70.

Additional resources:

Vasari’s Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects in English translation at Project Gutenberg

Second edition of Vasari’s Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects in Italian at Archive.org

Virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s design for the Tomb of Pope Julius II della Rovere at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

See more pictures of the Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)

James Ackerman, The Architecture of Michelangelo (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 1986) 

Francis Ames-Lewis and Paul Joannides, eds. Reactions to the Master: Michelangelo’s Effect on Art and Artists in the Sixteenth Century (Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2003)

Umberto Baldini and Perugi Liberto, The Complete Sculpture of Michelangelo (London. Thames and Hudson, 1982) 

Carmen C Bambach, et. al, eds., Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017)

Leonard Barkan, Michelangelo: A Life on Paper (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011) 

Bernadine Barnes, Michelangelo and the Viewer in his Time (London: Reaction Books, 2017)

Paul Barolsky, Michelangelo’s Nose: A Myth and its Maker (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997)

______ , The Faun in the Garden: Michelangelo and the Poetic Origins of Italian Renaissance Art (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994)

Anscanio Condivi, The Life of Michelangelo . Edited by Hellmut Wohl. Translated by Alice Sedgwick Wohl. 2nd ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999)

Robert J. Clements, Michelangelo: A Self-Portrait (New York: New York University Press, 1968)

Charles De Tolnay, Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975)

Rona Goffen. Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004) 

Marcia B. Hall, ed.  Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgment’  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Howard Hibbard, Michelangelo . 2nd ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1974)

Deborah Parker, Michelangelo and the Art of Letter Writing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 

Lisa Pon, “Michelangelo’s Lives : Sixteenth-Century Books by Vasari, Condivi, and Others.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 27 (1997): 1015–1037.

Pina Ragionieri and Gary M. Radke, Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth , exhibition catalogue. Translated by Christian and Silvia DuPont (Syracuse, NY: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)

James M. Saslow, The Poetry of Michelangelo: An Annotated Translation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991)

Tamara Smithers, ed., Michelangelo in the New Millennium (Boston: Brill, 2016)

______ , The Cults of Raphael and Michelangelo: Artistic Sainthood and Memorials as a Second Life  (New York and London: Routledge, 2023)

David Summers, Michelangelo and the Language of Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981)

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects . 10 vols. Translated by Gaston du C. De Vere ( New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1912)

______ , Lives of the Artists . 2. vols. Translated by George Bull (London: Penguin, 1965)

William E. Wallace, Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of his Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece . Princeton: Princeton University, 2019. 

______ , Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and His Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) 

______ , Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture, Painting, Architecture (New York: Universe, 2009)

______ , ed. Michelangelo, Selected Scholarship in English : Life and Early Works . 5 vols. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995)

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Michelangelo’s Life

How it works

‘’Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step toward sculpting your masterpiece, Your Life.’’- Michelangelo (1475–1564). Through these words, Michelangelo let us understand that is not easy to understand what you want to do in your life which mean that we have to work hard to discover our desires and passions, so we can create our art in life. Known as one of the uppermost Italian artists permanently and all over the world, Michelangelo gave birth to an era in the world of art and he reflected that perfectly the future world genius, Italian sculptor, artist and legislator of an era in world art and painting, one of the main masters of the Renaissance.

Moreover Michelangelo’s excellent mind and abundant talents earned him the regard and patronage of the rich and influential men of Italy. A gladiatorial personality and fast temper, which led to irritable relationships, often with his superiors. Michelangelo’s life is reflected therefore in his power of Medici Family, his art work in Fresco Painting and Marble Statues, and his platonic association with Vittoria Colonna.

First of all, Michelangelo was someone who born to a family in banking business. Later on, he become part of “Medici family” where he studied classical sculpture. He was less fascinated in schooling than watching the artistes at nearby churches and drawing what he saw, rendering to his earliest biographers. The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici, first reached treasure and political power in Florence in the 13th century through its success in commerce and banking. With the rise to power, they backed the arts and humanities. More astonishing opportunity opened to Michelangelo after spending only a year at Ghirlandaio’s workshop. After that Michelangelo had access to the social elite of Florence which permitting him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and divulging him to prominent poets, scholars and learned humanists. These joint impacts laid the groundwork for what would become Michelangelo’s unique style: a muscular precision and reality combined with an almost lyrical beauty. “Battle of the Centaurs” and “Madonna Seated on a Step,” are proofs to his unrepeatable talent at the tender age of 16.

Secondly, Michelangelo’s artwork be made up in fresco painting, marble statues, and architecture that showed humanity in its natural state. By the time when Michelangelo was 30, he already had two marble statues “David” and “Pieta”. The two masterpiece which made him one of the greater artists of all the times. “Pieta” (1499) is a sculpture which signify Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap. Just 25-years old at that time Michelangelo finished his work in less than one year and in nowadays “Pieta” (1499) leftovers an amazingly admired work. In 1504 another masterwork came out from Michelangelo which was “David” sculpture (1501-1504). A sculpture that took a lot of disapprovals from people because of the nakedness. However, the strength of the statue and courage made the “David” (1501-1504) a prized representative of the city of Florence. On the other hand, Michelangelo was very brilliant in fresco painting. The most famous one is: “Last Judgment” (1541) and “Sistine Chapel”. Practically all this fame comes from the spectacular paintings of its ceiling. Besides sculpting and painting he was amazing in architecture as well. Here we can mention “St. Peter’s Basilica” (1626) which is the most famous work of Renaissance architecture, is reckon as the greatest building of its age and remains one of the two giant churches in the world. He also created the “Medici Chapel” and the “Laurentian Library”. These structures are considered a crossroads in architectural history.

Thirdly, the last but not least Michelangelo has experienced platonic association with noble widow Vittoria Colonna whom he met in Rome in 1538. They exchanged about 300 letters and deep-thinking sonnets with each-other. Even though he was devoted to her, Michelangelo never married. When Vittoria died, Michelangelo was at her bedside. In his pitiful memorial sonnet, wrote that on her death “Nature that never made so fair a face, remained ashamed, and tears were in all eyes.” From that moment Michelangelo’s poetic impulse began taking literary form in his later years. Vittoria had a big influence on him regarding to the poetry. Occasionally he fell hooked on magic charm of melancholy, which were documented in many of his literary works. Once he wrote: “I am here in great distress and with great physical strain, and have no friends of any kind, nor do I want them; and I do not have enough time to eat as much as I need; my joy and my sorrow/my repose are these discomforts”.

In conclusion, Michelangelo (1475-1564), the most potent force in the Italian High Renaissance, was possibly one of the most encouraged creators in the history of art. As a sculptor, architect, painter, and poet, he exerted a prodigious inspiration on today’s art. Michelangelo was revered by the public as the “father and master of all the arts.”

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The Fall of Phaeton ( c 1531-33) by Michelangelo. Courtesy the British Museum, London

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What Michelangelo’s late-in-life works reveal about his genius – and his humanness

Michelangelo’s two most famous works, David ( 1501-04 ) and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel ( 1508-12 ), were completed when the exalted Italian Renaissance master was in his 20s and 30s. However, as this video from the British Museum explores, he lived to the ripe old age of 88, and continued to create until his very last days. Made to accompany the British Museum exhibition ‘Michelangelo: The Last Decades’, which covers works from 1534-64 , this short video explores three of his drawings across his final 30 years . Bringing the context of Michelangelo’s life and times to the works, the exhibition curator Sarah Vowles details how he was ceaselessly inspired by a desire to please friends and himself, and to make sense of his world through creativity. In doing so, Vowles helps to humanise this near-mythical figure, and perhaps even provide viewers some inspiration for navigating the challenges of old age .

Video by the British Museum

Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America

The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance

Watch as Japan’s surplus trees are transformed into forest-tinted crayons

Meaning and the good life

‘Everydayness is the enemy’ – excerpts from the existentialist novel ‘The Moviegoer’

Pleasure and pain

The volunteer musicians who perform in the aftermath of violence and tragedy

Food and drink

Local tensions simmer amid a potato salad contest at the Czech-Polish border

Technology and the self

A filmmaker finds a tactile beauty in the creation of her prosthetic leg

An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place

How the magic of photography brought Victorian England closer to the spirit realm

Home — Essay Samples — Arts & Culture — Michelangelo — How Michelangelo Revolutionized Art From The 15th Century

How Michelangelo Revolutionized Art from The 15th Century

• Categories: Italian Renaissance Michelangelo

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Published: Aug 6, 2021

Words: 1288 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

The early life, michelangelo's career in art, michelangelo's legacy.

• Condivi, A. (2005). The Life of Michelangelo. Penguin Classics.
• Vasari, G. (2008). Lives of the Artists. Oxford University Press.
• Wallace, W. E. (2011). Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man, and His Times. Cambridge University Press.
• Michelangelo Buonarroti. (n.d.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mbuon/hd_mbuon.htm
• Michelangelo. (n.d.). The Vatican. http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html
• Frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. (n.d.). Vatican Museums. http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tour-virtuali/scheda.html
• Janson, H. W., & Janson, A. F. (2011). History of Art: The Western Tradition (8th ed.). Pearson

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Peggy Moffitt, 86, Dies; Defined ’60s Fashion With a Bathing Suit and a Bob

She became famous for posing in the fashion designer Rudi Gernreich’s topless swimsuit. But she saw herself more as a performer than as a model.

The model Peggy Moffitt was photographed in 1964 by her husband, William Claxton, wearing a topless bathing suit designed by Rudi Gernreich. The world took notice. Credit... William Claxton, via Demont Photo Management

Supported by

By Marisa Meltzer

• Aug. 13, 2024

Peggy Moffitt, a model and muse who famously posed in the designer Rudi Gernreich’s topless bathing suit, and whose bob and heavy eye makeup helped define the look of the 1960s, died on Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 86.

Her son, Christopher Claxton, said the cause was complications of dementia.

Ms. Moffitt started working with Mr. Gernreich as a fitting and show model in 1962. “I entertained myself and the audience by regarding the collection as a play, with each outfit a new act or a new character,” she wrote in “The Rudi Gernreich Book” (1991), a collaboration with her husband, the photographer William Claxton , who took the topless photo. “In fact, I didn’t really model the clothes so much as perform them.”

She met Mr. Gernreich when she was working at a small boutique in Beverly Hills that was known for its unusual and avant-garde clothes. Ms. Moffitt was drawn to the humor in his designs.

She was initially hesitant about posing for a photo in his topless suit, but she decided to do it as long as some conditions were met: that she never wear it in public and that Mr. Claxton, who was best known for his portraits of jazz musicians, shoot it.

The suit, made famous by Mr. Claxton’s 1964 picture, made international news when it was banned in some countries and denounced by the Soviet newspaper Izvestia; it said in its criticism that the American way of life “is on the side of everything that gives the possibility of trampling on morals and interests of society for the sake of ego.”

The photo continued to follow her for decades, and in the process became somewhat of a nuisance. “Think of something in your life that took one-sixtieth of a second to do,” she said in 2012. “Now, imagine having to spend the rest of your life talking about it. I think it’s a beautiful photograph, but, oh, am I tired of talking about it.”

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