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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni said, in French, Michelangelo [mikɛlɑʒ] (born 6 March 1475 at the castle of Caprese Caprese , north of Arezzo in Tuscany – 18 February 1564 in Rome ), is a painter , a sculptor , a poet and an architect Italian of the Renaissance .
Summary

His most famous sculptures are David (1504) that has long adorned the facade of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence before being transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts in the city, La Pietà (1499) exposed in a side chapel the Basilica of St. Peter’s , or Moses (1515) the Tomb of Julius II in Saint Peter in Chains . The ceiling online cash advance of the Sistine Chapel , painted between 1508 and 1512, and the Last Judgment (fresco influenced by Melozzo da Forlì Ascensione di Cristo ) executed between 1536 and 1541 on the altar wall of the chapel, are universally regarded as masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Architect, he designed the dome of St. Peter’s in Rome.
His work has a considerable influence on his contemporaries, so that his “manner” of painting and sculpture is thoroughly taken up by the representatives of what is called the mannerism , which thrives in the Late Renaissance . Proof of the admiration that he devote his contemporaries, two biographies published during his lifetime, the one included in the Quick , a collection of biographies of the artists of the Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari , in 1550, the other by his pupil , Ascanio Condivi in 1553.
Biography

Born March 6, 1475 in Caprese , north of Arezzo in Tuscany Francesca Neri di Miniato del di Siena, his mother, and Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni di Leonardo, his father, a magistrate and Podesta of Caprese and Chiusi . The family returned to his home Settignano near Florence , after the father had finished his office of podesta. In 1481, he lost his mother and then grows at a nurse, wife and daughter of stonemasons. He never returned to his father at the age of ten years.
Going against the wishes of his father and uncles, refractory to art, Michelangelo, after studying with the grammarian Francesco da Urbino , chooses anyway, thanks to his friend Francesco Granacci , to be apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio for three years from 1488.
He studied the frescoes of the church of Santo Spirito in Florence and the church of Santa Maria del Carmine and copying the frescoes of Masaccio , is attracting much jealousy for his skill by his remarks, calling him a recent stroke fist of the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano , causing a broken nose which will mark his face for life.
Impressed by his work, Domenico recommended him to the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de Medici . From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo was raised in Lawrence’s school and is influenced by a free environment that is changing his ideas about art and feelings about sexuality. He admires the collections of ancient Greek statues collected by the Medici, and it promises to become a sculptor. He starts by copying a mask and fauna, at the result, Lorenzo the reward of five ducats a month. On the advice of Poliziano , Michelangelo sculpted a bas-relief of the Battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna and stairs , which reflect his great admiration for Donatello .
He practices the study of the human body and anatomy at the hospital Santo Spirito in Florence around 1490 (and then in Rome around 1540), collaborating in the illustration of a treatise on anatomy with Realdo Colombo doctor and friend. The body of Michelangelo longer subject to art, that strict adherence to human anatomy (lengthening the barrel distortion figures and intended to highlight a moral trait).
After Lawrence’s death in 1492, Pierre II de Medici (youngest son of Lawrence and new leader of the Medici ) refuses to be the patron of Michelangelo. It is then that the ideas of Savonarola became popular in Florence. Under these two pressures, Michelangelo decided to leave Florence and settled for three years at Bologna with his friend Gianfrancesco Aldobrandini . He realized the statues of St. Petronius and St. Procule in the Church of St. Dominic. Soon after, Raffaele Riario, Cardinal reigning San Giorgio al Velabro , asks him to come to Rome in 1496. Under his sponsorship and influenced by the ancient Roman , he made ​​two statues: Bacchus and the Pietà , commissioned by the French cardinal Jean Bilhères of Lagraulas.
Four years later, Michelangelo returned to Florence to create his most famous work, the David carved from a block of marble quarried from Carrara by the sculptor Agostino di Duccio . He also painted the Holy Family in the gallery called Doni Tondo . The Lordship assigned a fresco in the Council Chamber, the Battle of Cascina , known as the Bathers , which he will carry the carton, but never the fresco. Leonardo must also perform the Battle of Anghiari in the same room, no more of success.
Michelangelo was again called to Rome in 1505 by the new pope, Julius II who undertakes to perform his tomb , a grandiose mausoleum in St. Peter’s Basilica . Michelangelo spent a year at Carrara in search of marble blocks of the most perfect. Michelangelo worked for forty years without finishing the tomb, which after an initial draft of forty statues, will end with seven statues, including Moses . In April 1506, after being disgraced by a servant of the pope, he fled and took refuge in Rome, Florence , but must give allegiance to Julius II in Bologna. He apologized and returned by the pope in Rome in September. It makes for one year the bronze statue of Julius front of the cathedral of Bologna. This statue is destroyed and melted after the return of Bentivoglio in Bologna.
Michelangelo took over the project’s tomb, however, under the leadership of Julius II, he must constantly stop work order to perform many other tasks. The most famous of these is the monumental painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which took four years (1508-1512). Bramante , worried about the comeback of Michelangelo, Julius II suggested in this project, it is sure, will result in failure. In May 1508, the artist signs the contract for the production of frescoes representing the twelve apostles in the pendentives and ornamental motifs in the remaining parts. On the request of Michelangelo who judges the topic too poor, and helped by the theologians of the papal court, he made ​​the frescoes of the nine central stories depicting episodes from Genesis, humanity Legem ante , before the law of Moses . In his poems , he describes these four years as extremely stressful. The chapel is open on All Saints Day 1512, in the general enthusiasm.
In 1513, Pope Julius II died. Despite their frequent arguments, he was a great friend of Michelangelo and had a deep respect for him. His successor Leo X , a Medici, asked Michelangelo to finish the exterior of the church of San Lorenzo in Florence and to adorn it with sculptures. He reluctantly agrees, makes plans, but is unable to accede to this request: the facade of church remained naked until now. After the death of Leo X, the austere Pope Adrian VI has no command for him.
Back in Florence, from 1519 to 1531, Michelangelo for the Medici realized the Sacristy (vestry new), one of the Medici Chapels ( Medici Chapels ) 1 , where he sculpted including tombs of dukes and Julien Laurent before leaving completed by all students (including Montorsoli ). During the same visit, the Florentine family Chrome Wire Shelving commissioned the Laurentian Library , designed to accommodate books of Lorenzo the Magnificent : started in 1524, it remained unfinished at the start of the artist and was completed between 1551 and 1571 by Ammanati .
In 1527 , citizens of Florence, encouraged by the sack of Rome , overthrew the Medici and restored the republic . A siege of the city below, where Michelangelo is helping his beloved Florence by working on the fortifications of the city , from 1528 to 1529. The city falls in 1530 and the reign of the Medici is restored.
In 1532, Michelangelo returned to Rome after spending several years in Florence – during which he took part against the Pope in the conflict with the Emperor Charles V – and Clement VII , pardoned him, asked him to paint the two side walls of the Sistine Chapel . There was to represent the Fall of the Rebel Angels and the Last Judgment . Almost immediately he began to study for this project disproportionate. Clement VII died (in 1534), he is considering giving up this work to resume the Tomb of Julius II , when Pope Paul III opposes it and named in 1535 architect, painter and sculptor of the Vatican . The fresco of the Last Judgement on the altar wall was only performed and was not completed until 1541.
In 1535, he met Tommaso de ‘Cavalieri, with whom he had a “loving friendship”. He also met Vittoria Colonna , with whom he has long conversations and that he sees a divine figure.
The project of the tomb of Julius II becomes a mausoleum containing a simple cenotaph in St Peter in Chains in 1545 (or forty years after the initial order).
From 1546 he was appointed architect of St. Peter . He returned to Greek cross plan proposed by Bramante and simplifies the dome, giving it a lighter appearance. In 1561, Pope Pius IV entrusted the construction of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels-and-des Martyrs in the Baths of Diocletian , a work that could lead to an end.
Michelangelo died in Rome on 18 February 1564 at the age of 88. Two days before his death, he still worked at the Pietà Rondanini . He died along with Tommaso de ‘Cavalieri. His life is described in The Quick of Giorgio Vasari and Michelangelo Life of Ascanio Condivi . Santi di Tito participated in the preparation of his funeral. According to his wishes, his body was repatriated to Florence, where he is buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce , with national honors.
Caspar Becerra and Bastiano da Sangallo were his students.
Works

Main article: List of works by Michelangelo .
Paintings
Frescoes

The Last Judgment , fresco of the Sistine Chapel
The Battle of Cascina ( 1504 ) ( Palazzo Vecchio of Florence ) (unfinished and lost)
The Martyrdom of St. Peter (c. 1546 – 1550 ) ( Paolina chapel of the Vatican )
The Conversion of St. Paul (1542-1550) ( Chapel Paolina of the Vatican )
In the Sistine Chapel :
The whole vault ( 1 508 – 1,512 ), structured around nine stories from the Genesis .
The panel is the most famous Creation of Adam (fourth series).
The Last Judgement ( 1536 – one thousand five hundred and forty-one )

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican entirely by Michelangelo.

The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel
Tables
Entombment (c. 1500 – 1501 ) ( National Gallery , London ) (unfinished)
The Holy Family in the gallery called Doni Tondo ( 1504 ) ( Uffizi Gallery of Florence )
Sculptures

David , located in the Galleria dell’Academia in Florence.

Moses
The Virgin and staircase (circa 1491) ( Casa Buonarroti in Florence )
The Battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths (around 1492) ( Casa Buonarroti in Florence )
Convent of Santo Spirito Crucifix (1492) ( Basilica Santo Spirito in Florence )
Bacchus (Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence ) (1496-1497)
The Pietà (1499) ( St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome )
David (1501) ( Accademia Gallery in Florence )
Four statues of saints for the Piccolomini altar of the Duomo of Siena (1501-1504)
Pitti Tondo (c. 1504-1505) ( Bargello in Florence )
The Madonna of Bruges (1504) (Church of Our Lady of Bruges )
Tomb of Julius II (conducted in six periods: 1505, 1513, 1516, 1525-1526, 1532 and 1542)
Moses (c. 1513-1515) ( Saint Peter in Chains in Rome ) – Moses figure wearing horns and this representation has been debated on a misinterpretation of biblical texts on an aura of rays or two .
The Rebellious Slave (1513-1516) ( Musée du Louvre in Paris )
Dying Slave (1513-1516) ( Musée du Louvre in Paris )
The Genius of Victory (c. 1532-1534) ( Palazzo Vecchio of Florence )
Young Slave , Bearded Slave , Atlas Slave , Awakening Slave , (1513, 1519-1535) ( Accademia Gallery in Florence )
Rachel (1545)
Leah (1545)
Tomb of Lorenzo II de Medici (1492-1519) ( Medici Chapel in Florence )
Tomb of Giuliano de ‘Medici (1478-1516) (Chapel of Medici Florence )
The boy crouched (v 1534) (State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg )
Tomb of Paul III ( St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome )
Bust of Brutus (1539-1540) ( Bargello in Florence )
The Pieta in the four figures (1550) ( Opera del Duomo Museum in Florence )
Saint-Bruno
Aesthetic of the unfinished 3 :
Taddei Tondo (c. 1505-1507) ( Royal Academy of London )
The Pieta Rondanini begun in 1552 ( Castello Sforzesco in Milan )
Four Slaves , (Atlas, waking, bearded young) emerging each block of marble statues unfinished at the Accademia Gallery in Florence .
The Pietà of Palestrina (1553-1555) ( Academy Gallery in Florence ) to Palestrina until 1940,
The Prisoners and the Pieta are examples of the “unfinished” by Michelangelo wished to represent the struggle of the mind to free himself of matter, which implies a completely visual of the viewer. Reference is made ​​to Delacroix’s writings which also addresses the role of disproportions in its aesthetics.
Architecture
In 1505, Michelangelo projects the tomb of Pope Julius II, whose initial project, to be placed in the center of St. Peter’s in Rome, will never be realized (only a cenotaph remains with only a few statues of Michelangelo). In 1521, he produced one of the masterpieces of Renaissance architecture with the new sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence , which houses the tombs of the Medici . Pope Clement VII (a Medici) mandates Michelangelo to decorate the Laurentian Library and the monumental staircase, the hall, lecterns and seats of the hall qu’Ammannati realized with Giovanni Battista del Tasso.
He is responsible for the development of the Place of the Capitol in 1538 by Pope Paul III , whose real name was Alessandro Farnese, but he started in 1536 by the realization of the stairs overlooking the city. He also built the New Palace is located on the Capitol Square. Appointed architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 1546, he led the project and makes plans to build the dome in 1555. Concurrently, he completed the Farnese Palace in 1546. The Porta Pia is its ultimate realization in 1564.
Drawings
His drawings are preserved at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Louvre Museum in Paris at the Musée Condé at Chantilly. Note in particular the abduction of Ganymede , in 1533, when he meets Tomasso de ‘Cavalieri, kept at the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge and The Holy Family acquired by the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
Poems
At the end of his life, Michelangelo was also a poet and is recognized as one of the greatest Italian poets after Petrarch and Dante. He has written over three hundred poems, sonnets and madrigals, dated from 1507 to 1560, often inspired humanist. Many of these sonnets were set to music, including Benjamin Britten ( September sonnets of Michelangelo ) and Dmitri Shostakovich . These poems, unpublished in his lifetime, will be published by his nephew, Michelangelo the Younger, in 1623 .
According to John Addington Symonds , an English poet and literary critic, Michelangelo the Younger had transvestite, for reasons of convenience, some pronouns to hide the love that Michelangelo and was expressed in his sonnets to Tommaso de ‘Cavalieri (c. 1509 -1587), 24 years his junior. “Unfortunately, before the beautiful edition of Mr. Caesar Guasti , published in 1863 , the French translators have never had before him a text disfigured by ornaments that has allowed to add, by the deletions that allowed himself to make the nephew of Michelangelo. ” wrote Alfred Mezieres , in an article in 1873 4 .
It is the poet Vittoria Colonna what long had the honor of being the lover to whom or the flame of Michelangelo. And Mezieres is no exception, which surprised the language of love addressed to a boy, and prefers to see it disguised admiration for a woman of letters: “The obscure Thomas Cavalieri is a likely nominee. One wonders then what is the person to whom Michelangelo felt obliged not to transmit the expression of his thought as intermediary. No man’s name does this in mind, moreover, if it were a man, what’s the mystery? It is not held in such precautions as in correspondence with a woman. Once on this track makes imagination the way. The date of first letter to Thomas Cavalieri ( 1 st January 1533) is precisely the time were able to start the first relations of Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna. ”
Homosexuality

Michelangelo’s drawing representing Zeus and Ganymede , archetypal homosexual couple from classical Greece.
If the homosexuality of the artist is no longer a mystery and today no longer a problem, it has long not been the same. Just as the nudity of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel was chastely covered after the painter’s death, and sexuality of Michelangelo was modestly veiled. Ascanio Condivi 5 , his first biographer, preferring to let the image asexual for a man who will listen as well, but very clear to anyone who has read Plato , wrote: “I have often heard reason and discourse on love and I learned of those present that n ‘talk about it differently from what is read in Plato. I do not know what Plato says, but I know that having practiced long and intimately Michelangelo, as well as I did, I never heard from his lips than words very honest and capable to repress irregular desires and unbridled that might arise in the heart of young people. ” Giorgio Vasari ‘s a little less cryptic in The Quick : “Above all others, without comparison, he loved Tommaso dei Cavalieri, Roman gentleman, young and passionate art. He made ​​her a cardboard life-size portrait – the only picture he had drawn, for he hated to copy a living person, unless it was of incomparable beauty. ”

1 ( Caprese , March 6 of 1475 – Rome , February 18 of 1564 ), known in Spanish as Michelangelo , was an architect , sculptor and painter Italian Renaissance , considered one of the greatest artists of history both his sculptures as paintings and architectural work.
He developed his artistic work over more than seventy years between Florence and Rome, where they lived was his great patron , the family Medici of Florence, and various Roman popes .
It was the first Western artist to be published two biographies during his lifetime:
Le Vite de ‘più eccellenti pittori, Scultori, ed architettori of Giorgio Vasari , published in 1550 in its first edition, which was the only living artist included. 2
Michelangelo Buonarroti Vita , written in 1553 by Ascanio Condivi , painter and pupil of Michelangelo, which collects the data provided by the same Buonarroti. 3
It was much admired by his contemporaries, who called him the Divine . 4 Benedetto Varchi , the February 12 of 1560 , sent a letter on behalf of all the Florentines saying
This city … all want to see and honor you meekly poderos both near and far … Your Excellency, we would make a great favor if you would like to honor with their presence their country. 5
Triumphed in all the arts in which he worked, characterized by perfectionism. 6 The sculpture, as he declared, was his favorite and the first to be dedicated, then painting, almost like an imposition on the part of Julius II , and which culminated in an exceptional work that magnifies the vault of the Sistine Chapel , and now in his later years, made ​​architectural projects.
Content [ hide ]

View of Florence , after an engraving of Chronicarum Liber ( 1493 ), in the early years of Michelangelo.
Family
Born March 6, 1475, in Caprese, a village of Tuscany near Arezzo . July was the second of five sons of Ludovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simone and Francesca Neri di Miniato Siena. 8 His mother died in 1481, when Michelangelo was six years. Simone Buonarroti family lived in Florence for more than three hundred years and had belonged to the party of the Guelphs , many of whom had held public office. The economic decline began with the artist’s grandfather and his father, who had failed in the attempt to maintain the social position of the family, living on occasional government jobs, 2 as the mayor at the time of Caprese Michelangelo was born. They returned to Florence, where they lived on a small income from a marble quarry and a small farm they had in Settignano , 9 town where Michelangelo had lived through the long illness and death of his mother, there was the care of the family a stonecutter. 8
The father made ​​him study grammar in Florence with Master Francesco da Urbino. Michelangelo wanted to be an artist, and when told his father he wanted to go the way of art, had many discussions, as at that time was a trade-recognized. Ludovico di Leonardo believed that this work was not worthy of the prestige of his lineage. Thanks to their determination, and despite his youth, he managed to convince him to let him continue his great artistic inclination, which, according to Michelangelo, came to him and the nurse who had been the wife of a stonecutter. It said: “Along with the milk of my nurse sucked also scarps and hammers with which I carved my figures then.” 10
Maintained good family relationships throughout life. When his older brother Leonardo became Dominican monk in Pisa , took responsibility in the direction of the family. Was responsible for the care of the heritage of Buonarroti and expanded with the purchase of houses and land, and also arranged the marriage of his nieces Francesca and Leonardo good families of Florence. 11
Learning

Portrait of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra , where he appreciates the flat nose.

Portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti in 72 by Giulio Bonasone , 1546
From an early age showed his artistic talent for sculpture, discipline in which he began to excel. In April 1488 , twelve years old and thanks to the advice of Francesco Granacci , another young man who was devoted to painting, he entered the workshop of the famous Ghirlandaio ( Domenico and Davide ), his family and entered into a contract Ghirlandaio studies for three years: 12
1488.Yo, Ludovico di Lionardo Buonarota, on this first day of April, enroll my son Michelangelo apprenticed to Domenico and Davide di Tomaso di Currado over the next three years under the following conditions: that the said Michelangelo must remain during the time agreed with the aforementioned to learn and practice the art of painting and has to obey his instructions, and that the named Domenico and Davide have to pay in these years the sum of twenty-four florins exact weight: six during the first year, eight the second year and ten the third, in a sum total of ninety-six lire. 13
He remained there as an apprentice for a year, after which, under the tutelage of Bertoldo di Giovanni , began to frequent the garden of San Marcos of the Medici , where he studied the ancient sculptures that had gathered. His first works of art aroused the admiration of Lorenzo the Magnificent , who took her to his palace on the Via Longa , where Michelangelo was to find Angelo Poliziano and other humanists of the Medici circle, such as Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino . 14 These relationships brought him into contact with idealistic theories of Plato , ideas that ended up becoming one of the cornerstones of his life and his work embodied both in plastic and in his poetry.
According to Vasari , one day, leaving the garden of the Medicis, or, as Benvenuto Cellini , the Brancacci chapel, where he and other students learned to draw before the frescoes of Masaccio – was when Pietro Torrigiano punched and broke his nose, as a consequence, the nose was flat throughout life, as is apparent in all his portraits. 15 16
Artistic Tour

Portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent , the first patron of Michelangelo, Vasari .
After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, in 1492 , Michelangelo fled Florence and passed through Venice , settling later in Bologna . There sculpted several works under the influence of the work of Jacopo della Quercia . But in 1496 decided to leave for Rome, which was to see him succeed. There began a decade of intensive artistic, after which, thirty years, was credited as a leading artist. At twenty-three carved the Pieta of the Vatican , t shirt design after the Bacchus of the Bargello ( 1496 ), 17 and later performed the Pitti Tondo . In the same time is the master Battle of Cascina , now lost, painted for the Signoria of Florence , and David , a masterpiece of sculpture, of a complex by the narrow width of the piece of marble, which was placed front of the palace of the City of Florence and became the supreme expression of the civic ideals of the Renaissance . 18
In March 1505 , Julius II commissioned him his funeral monument: Michelangelo designed a complex architectural and sculptural monuments in which, more than the prestige of Pope, is he praised the triumph of the Church. The sculptor, excited about this work, remained in Carrara for eight months to deal personally with the choice and direction of the extraction of marble needed. Unfortunately, returning to Rome , the pope had put aside the tomb project, absorbed as he was with the reform of Bramante at St. Peter’s Basilica . Miguel Angel, upset, left Rome and went to Florence, but in late November 1506, after numerous calls from the Pope that came to threaten with excommunication , he met him in Bologna . 19
In May 1508 agreed to direct the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel , whose frescoes completed four years later, after a solitary and stubborn. In this work came up with a grand architectural structure painted, inspired by the actual shape of the dome . In general the biblical theme of the dome, Michelangelo brought an interpretation Neoplatonic of Genesis and shaped a kind of interpretation of the images would get to be a symbol of Renaissance art.

Pope Julius II , the other major patron of Michelangelo, Raphael .
After the death of Julius II, in May 1513, the artist made ​​a second attempt to continue the work of the mausoleum of the pontiff. For this purpose he carved the two figures of slaves and Moses , reflecting a troubled energy, terribilitá Michelangelo. But this second attempt was also unsuccessful.
Finally, after the death of Bramante ( 1514 ) and Raphael ( 1520 ), Michelangelo won the confidence of the papacy.
The big delay with Michelangelo in Rome obtained official recognition is to be attributed to the heterodoxy of his style. He lacked what Vitruvius called decorum , ie, respect for tradition.
Ackerman, (1968), p. 7
In 1516 , commissioned by Leo X , started the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, work that in 1520 had to leave with great bitterness. The original project are preserved numerous drawings and a wooden model. From 1520 and until 1530, Michelangelo worked in Florence and built the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo and the Laurentian Library , especially its staircase. After the sack of Rome (1527) and the expulsion of the Medici of Florence, Michelangelo was part, as merely anecdotal fact, the government of the new Florentine Republic, which was appointed “governor and attorney general of the manufacturing and fortification walls, “and participated in the defense of the city besieged by the papal troops. In 1530, after the fall of the Republic, the forgiveness of Clement VII saved him from the vengeance of the partisans of the Medici. 20 From this year resumed the work of the New Sacristy and the tomb of Julius II.
In 1534 , to be unhappy with the new political situation that had begun in Florence, left the city and settled in Rome, where he accepted the brief of Clement VII to work on the altar of the Sistine Chapel , where, between 1536 and 1541 , made ​​the Grand Final Judgment . Until 1550 he was doing work for the tomb of Julius II, and the frescoes of the Cappella Paolina representing the conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter .
Love Life

Dei Bracci Cecchino tomb designed by Michelangelo.
Michelangelo aimed at deepening the neo-Platonic theories of love, making great efforts to achieve emotional balance that is rarely achieved. His natural inclination for art, for the physical forms-was above anything, a sculptor of bodies, coupled with his fascination for all young and vigorous, emblem of classical beauty, 21 led him to opt for beauty human and the most sensual love until late in their life. This enriching conflict with which the artist lived his carnal desire, also emerged in the confrontation with his homosexuality . 22
The artist had sex with many young people as dei Bracci Cecchino , which had great affection. When in 1543, Bracci died, Michelangelo designed the tomb in the church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome and scheduled for the charge that his disciple Urbino. 23 also Giovanni da Pistoia , young and beautiful writer, was for a time close friend, and it is possible to maintain a relationship with Michelangelo in the time that he began to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , this relationship is reflected in a very passionate sonnets dedicated to Giovanni. 22
Tommaso Cavalieri

The Rape of Ganymede , drawing made ​​for Tommaso Cavalieri, preserved in Windsor Castle .
In a trip to Rome in 1532 , met the man who would be the great love of his life, the young Tommaso Cavalieri , a patrician of rare intelligence and lover of the arts. Shortly after meeting him, he sent a letter in which he confessed: “The sky did well preventing a full understanding of your beauty … If at my age I do not even use at all, is because the meeting with you, sir, was very brief. ” 24
We need to remember that the Academy Platonic Florence wanted to imitate the Greek city of Pericles . This cultural association consisting of a male social circle in which the relationship between a man and a teenager was considered a noble and honorable feeling. Within this context that one can understand the psychology , taste and art of Michelangelo. The artist believed that the beauty of men was higher than in women and, therefore, the love for Tommaso was a way I had to surrender to the “Platonic beauty.” 25
Tommaso Cavalieri was a boy of 17 years, of good family, fan art, as painting and sculpting. Varchi said of him that had “a quiet and modest temperament and unparalleled beauty ‘, was therefore very attractive as well as witty. In their first meeting, and made ​​a deep impression on Michelangelo, and over time the relationship became close friends with a passion and loyalty that lasted until death. 26
Michelangelo, by contrast, was a man of 57, who was at the zenith of his fame, had the support of various popes and Tommaso admired him deeply. It seems that friendship took some time to occur, but when it became consolidated very deep to the point that Cavalieri, and married with children, was his disciple and friend as Michelangelo lived and assisted at the time of his death, when the chapter had long love was over. 27
Vittoria Colonna

Portrait of Vittoria Colonna drawn by Michelangelo.
Vittoria Colonna was a descendant of a noble family, and one of the most remarkable women of Renaissance Italy. As a young married Fernando de Avalos , Marquis of Pescara , a powerful man who died in the battle of Pavia when he fought in the Spanish side in the service of Charles I . After the death of her husband retired from court life and devoted himself to practice religion . He joined the group of Erasmian reform of Juan de Valdes , Reginald Pole and Ghiberti , who followed a doctrine which argued for a counter . 28
In Rome , in the year 1536 and the convent of San Silvestro to Montecavallo, the artist met this lady from the beginning there was a mutual empathy, perhaps because they both had the same concerns religious and they were both great lovers of poetry . According to Ascanio Condivi, Miguel Angel “was in love with his divine spirit” and, being a great admirer of Dante , she represented what the character of Beatrice meant for the poet. 29 This is clear from reading the poems to Vittoria as well as drawings and verses given to him, all on religious subjects: a Pieta , a Crucifixion and Holy Family . 30
Vittoria died in 1547, a fact that Michelangelo left mired in the deepest pain. As he himself confessed to Ascanio Condivi, “I had not had deep pain in this world that have left from this life without having kissed the forehead or face, as he kissed her hand when she went to see her on her deathbed . ” 31
Later years

Michelangelo’s tomb designed by Vasari in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence .
During the last twenty years of his life, Michelangelo was devoted mainly to works of architecture: directed the work of the Laurentian Library in Florence and in Rome, the remodeling of the Capitol Square , the Sforza chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore , completion of the Farnese Palace , and above all, the completion of St. Peter ‘s Vatican . From this period are the latest sculptures as Palestrina Pietà or the Pieta Rondanini as well as numerous drawings and poems of religious inspiration. 32
The project of the Vatican Basilica, where he worked during the last years of his life, simplifies project conceived Bramante , while maintaining the structure of a Greek cross and the great dome . Michelangelo created spaces, functions that comprise the main elements, especially the dome, director of the group element.
He died in 1564 in Rome, before seeing his work completed, at the age of eighty-eight, accompanied by his secretary Daniele da Volterra and his faithful friend Tommaso Cavalieri, had written that he wished to be buried in Florence. He will in the presence of your doctor Federigo Donati, “leaving his soul in God’s hands, his body to land and property to the immediate family.” His nephew Leonardo was commissioned to fulfill this last wish of the great artist, and March 10 of 1564 was buried in the sacristy of the church of Santa Croce , the memorial was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1570. On July 14 a solemn funeral was held, was Vasari who described these funeral, attended, in addition to himself, Benvenuto Cellini , Bartolomeo Ammannati and Bronzino . 33
Works sculpture

Crucifix from Santo Spirito , polychromed wood (1492-1494).
See also: Category: Sculptures by Michelangelo
See also Appendix: Works of Michelangelo
Early Work
Between 1490 and 1492 made ​​his first drawings, studies of Gothic frescoes Masaccio and Giotto , among the first believed to sculptures made ​​a copy of a faun’s head , now defunct.
The first reliefs were the Madonna of the Stairs and Battle of the Centaurs , preserved in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence , where there is already a clear definition of his style. Shown as the clear heir to the Florentine art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while establishing a more direct link with classical art . In the relief of marble of The Battle of the Centaurs was inspired by the Book XII of The Metamorphoses of Ovid and show the naked bodies of the battle raging, entangled in the line, with an anticipation of the serpentine rhythms as used by Michael Angel sculpture in their groups. 34 Ascanio Condivi , in his biography of the artist, said her saying:

… That when he saw her, he realized how badly he had behaved with nature by not following his inclination in the art of sculpture, and judge, for that work, all that might have come to do. 17

Another sculpture from the same era (circa 1490) is also an issue raised with Marian, the Madonna of the Stairs , which presents a scheme similar to that of Donatello , but which shows all the energy of the sculpture of Michelangelo both in the way of treatment of the planes of the figure as in outline as vigorous and anatomy of the baby Jesus with the suggestion of contrapposto .
After the death in 1492 of Lorenzo the Magnificent , and his own initiative, made ​​the sculpture of Hercules marble in her family home, chose this topic because Hercules was, from the thirteenth century , one of the patterns of Florence. The statue was bought out by the Strozzi, who sold it to Giovan Battista Palla, who was bought by the king of France Henry III and was placed in a garden of Fontainebleau , where Rubens drew a picture before its demise in 1713. There remains only the outline drawing and preserved in the Buonarroti house. 5
Here he remained for a long stay at the convent of Santo Spirito , where he was studying anatomy with the corpses from the hospital the convent. For the prior Niccolò di Giovanni di Lapo Bichiellini executed a crucifix of wood polychrome , where it met the naked body of Christ , like a teenager, without highlighting the muscles, although the face looks like an adult, measuring disproportionate to the body is painted polychrome colors with some subtle and some sweetest bloodlines, they get a perfect match with the size of the sculpture. It was given up during the French rule until recovered in 1962, in the same monastery, covered with a thick coat of paint showing him almost unrecognizable. 35

Angel of San Domenico in Bologna (1495).
The Florence ruled by Piero de Medici , son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Michelangelo did not satisfy, he traveled to Bologna in October 1494, where he discovered the panels in relief of the door of San Petronio of Jacopo della Quercia , a master sculptor Late Gothic, which includes in its style the ample folds of the garments and the pathos of his characters. He was commissioned from Francesco Aldovrandi, making three sculptures to complete the tomb of the founder of the convent of San Domenico Maggiore, called Ark of Santo Domingo , for which a sculpted angel candle chicago dui attorney holder, kneeling evenly with another by Niccolò dell , also a St. Proculus and St. Petronio , now preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna. After these works, in the space of just over a year, returned to Florence. 36
By this time the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola called for the republic theocratic , and their criticism got the expulsion of the Medici of Florence in 1495. Savonarola demanded the return of sacred art and the destruction of pagan art. These sermons chiropractic marketing caused great doubts Michelangelo, between faith and knowledge, between body and spirit, and caused to be raised if beauty was a sin and if, as the monk said, had to remove the art presence of the human body. In his preaching against papal absolutism, on February 7, 1497 held in the Piazza della Signoria , a huge bonfire ( Bonfire of the Vanities ), where ordered to burn images, jewelry, musical instruments and books of Boccaccio and Petrarch , to Following this action received the excommunication by Pope Alexander VI . The Containers following year Savonarola repeated the action, so that eventually was arrested and burned at the stake on May 23 of 1498 . 37
In Florence, between 1495 and 1496, carved two lost works: a St. John’s Child and a sleeping Cupid . San Juan does not have more news that the powers that have been done in various places: it has been speculated that it might be a sculpture that was in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin or other, that is in the chapel of the Saviour in Ubeda , 38 or, finally, one that is on the door of the sacristy of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome . 39 The Sleeping Cupid , made ​​according to the classic Hellenistic model, explained that he was buried to get old and give a patina selling to the Cardinal of San Giorgio, Raffaele Riario as authentic piece unwittingly Michelangelo. It was later purchased by Cesare Borgia and finally given to Isabella d’Este , later, in 1632 , was sent to England as a present to King Charles I , after which time you lose the trail. 40
First time in Rome

The Bacus Museum of Bargello in Florence , (1496-1498).
His departure to Rome took place on June 20th of 1496 . The first work he did was a Bacus of natural measure, much like a classical statue, commissioned by the Cardinal Riario, that with the dismissal, was bought by the banker Jacopo Galli. Later it was bought by Francis I of Medici , and now preserved in the museum of the Bargello in Florence. 41 Condivi Ascanio was the first to compare the statue with the works of classical antiquity :
… This work, by its form and manner, in each of its parts, corresponding to the description of the ancient writers, its festive aspect: the eyes, shifty-eyed and full of lust, such as those who are given over to the pleasures of wine. Holds a cup with his right hand as he is about to drink, and looks lovingly, feeling the pleasure of liquor invented, which is why he is crowned with a twisted vine leaves … With the left hand holding a bunch of grapes, to the delight of a small satyr gay and live there at his feet.
Is this clearly the first great masterpiece of Michelangelo, showing the constant feature of sexuality in his sculpture and which symbolizes the spirit of hedonism classic Savonarola and his followers were willing to remove from Florence. 42
While performing the Bacus , commissioned by Jacopo Galli carved a Cupid standing , which was taken over later to the collection of the Medici and today is gone. 40
Through this collector Galli, in 1497 received the French cardinal Jean Lagraulas Bilhères of the order of Mercy as a monument to his mausoleum in the chapel of St. Petronilla of the old basilica of St. Peter , and was later installed in the new construction of Bramante .
The originality with which he treated this piece Michelangelo note the dramatic break with the hitherto tried this iconography , which always showed the great sorrow of the mother and child died in her arms. Michelangelo, however, made ​​a Virgin, calm, focused and extremely young, and a Christ who seems to be asleep and your body samples have suffered no martyrdom : the artist traveled all kinds of painful vision in order to get that reflexionase the viewer before the great moment of death. 43 is the only work signed by Michelangelo: he did on tape running through the breast of the Virgin:
MICHAEL. ANGELVS. BONAROTVS. Florent [INVS]. FACIEBAT

The Pieta of St. Peter ‘s Vatican , of 1.74 m high x 1.95 m in length at the base (1496).
A crucifix of ivory , dating to the years 1496-1497, has been recently attributed to Michelangelo. This image is in the monastery of Montserrat and is according to the historian Anscari M. World, the last agony of Christ, his head tilted to the right, mouth open, eyes almost closed, is crowned with thorns, young body with open arms, naked, protected with a folded loincloth irregular folds holding a double cord. It has good realistic anatomy and shows the wound to the right of the ribs. Measured 58.5 cm in height. Believed to have been acquired by Abbot Marcet in 1920 during a trip to Rome, thinking it was a work of Ghiberti . Since 1958 is on the altar of the Basilica of Montserrat. 44
Return to Tuscany

Detail of the face of David .

The Taddei Tondo at the Royal Academy of Arts of London .
Returns to Florence in the spring of 1501 , after five years away from Tuscany . With Savonarola died in Florence was declared a new republic governed by a gonfaloniere , Piero Soderini , an admirer of Michelangelo which makes it one of the most important commissions of his life: the David . It offers a large block of marble that had been begun abandoned by Agostino di Duccio in 1464 and was in Santa Maria del Fiore . Vasari says that when he received the commission, the governor thought the block was useless and asked to make every possible shape. Michelangelo created a wax model and began to sculpt in the same place where was located the block without letting anyone see his work for more than two and a half, which was the time it took to finish it. 45
Made the representation of sculpture in the phase before the fight with Goliath , with a look of uncertainty and the symbolic personification of David defending the city of Florence against their enemies. The Florentines saw David as a symbol of victory of democracy . 46 This work demonstrates the knowledge and studies of the human body by Michelangelo achieved to date. The technique used was described well by Benvenuto Cellini :
The best method ever used by Michelangelo, after having drawn the main perspective on the block, began to pull the marble on one side as if he intended to work a relief and in this way, step by step, draw the figure complete. 47

The Bruges Madonna in the church of Our Lady of Bruges .
As soon was ready, on the advice of a commission of artists Granacci Francesco , Filippo Lippi , Sandro Botticelli , Giuliano da Sangallo , Andrea Sansovino , Leonardo da Vinci and Pietro Perugino , among others, decided to place it on the Piazza della Signoria in front the Palazzo Vecchio . 48
From there, in 1873 he moved to better conserve the museum of the Academy Gallery , while the square is placed a copy, also of marble. 49
For the same dates, he worked in the Taddei Tondo , a marble relief of 109 cm ​​in diameter showing the Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist also child, placed on the left holding a bird in his hands. The figure of Jesus and the top of the Virgin are finished, but the rest not. The relief was acquired by Taddeo Taddei, protector of the painter Raffaello Sanzio , and now preserved in the Royal Academy of Arts of London . Another high relief, the Pitti Tondo , also marble, started for Bartolomeo Pitti, shows the Virgin seated with Jesus resting on an open book above the knees of his mother. It is in the Bargello Museum since 1873 , as the former is unfinished. 50
In 1502 , the Signoria of Florence commissioned a David in bronze for Pierre de Rohan, Marshal of Gie, who had passed through Italy in the train of Charles VIII of France and had made ​​a request for an image of David. Michelangelo started to design it, but because of his delay had to resort to the smelter by the sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano to complete the work. Subsequently lost the trail. 48
By 1503 , upon the request of some Flemish merchants, the Mouscron, a Madonna and Child for a chapel in the church of Our Lady of Bruges . Although you can see the movement of clothes and in the Vatican Pieta , the result is different, especially by the verticality of the sculpture. Displayed in a time of abandonment, where the right hand of the Virgin seems to only have the strength to prevent the book from falling and the left is gently holding the infant Jesus, as opposed to the vitality of movement demonstrates the Child. 51
On April 24th of 1503 , the sculptor signed the contract with representatives of the wool guild (Arte della Lana), under which it agreed to make twelve images of the apostles to Santa Maria del Fiore . Only began in San Mateo , a piece of marble 261 cm high, left unfinished and is in the Accademia Gallery in Florence . 48
To the chapel of the Piccolomini of Siena Cathedral , conducted between 1503 and 1504, four images, of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Pius and St. Gregory (the latter of uncertain authorship), Phen375 Reviews with a wealth of folds in the clothes and a good balance between shadows and lights. In the back are only outlined, as were carved to be placed within a few niches of the altar by Andrea Bregno between 1483 and 1485. 48
The tragedy of the grave

Top of the tomb of Julius II in St. Peter in Chains in Rome , with sculptures of Moses , Rachel and Leah .
The year 1505 was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to propose the construction of the papal burial, which would place under the dome of St. Peter of the Vatican . The entire sequence of events during the forty years it took to carry out the tomb was called by Ascanio Condivi “tragedy of the grave,” as will be known from then parade around the misfortunes of this work.
The artist found the tomb of Julius II the great work of his life. The first project presented was an isolated monument rectangular stepped pyramid-shaped and three floors with a wealth of sculpted figures. When the pope gave him the nod, Michelangelo spent about eight months in the quarries of Carrara marble blocks by choosing the work. At the suggestion of Bramante , Julius II, changed his mind and asked the sculptor to stop the execution of the mausoleum and undertake the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel .
On April 17 of 1506 Michelangelo, upset, left Rome and went to Florence, but in late November, after numerous calls the Pope threatened to excommunicate him that met him in Bologna . Pope was assigned a job in this city: a colossal bronze statue of Pope Julius, which was delivered in February 1508 and was installed on the facade of the Basilica of San Petronio . This sculpture was destroyed in December 1511 by rebels Bolognese. 52

The Dying Slave in the Louvre Museum , of 229cm in height.
In 1513 , when he finished painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo believed I could sculpt the marble tomb, Pope Julius II died and the execution was postponed for two more decades.

The rebellious slave of the Louvre Museum , 215 cm tall.
There were six different projects and finally in 1542 the tomb was built as an altarpiece with just seven statues, and settled in the church of St. Peter in Chains and not in the Vatican Basilica. 53
The large sculpture of the tomb is the figure of Moses , the only one of the first designed in the project reached the end of the work. The colossal statue, with the terribilitá of his eyes, demonstrates an extreme dynamism. It is placed in the center of the bottom, so that becomes the focus of the final draft, with statues of Rachel and Leah located on either side. The rest of the monument was made ​​by his assistants. 54
For the first project undertaken during the years 1513-1516 the Dying Slave and Slave rebel (both in the Louvre ), with symbols to represent the pagan in its recognition of the faith true. 55 The Dying Slave recalls images of Saint Sebastian , the trunk of the body makes a twisting, with content moving backwards, which is accentuated by the left arm above the head and is balanced by the right that crosses the body on the chest. There is also an accused contrapposto . 43
In the slave rebel , compared with the initial drawings of Michelangelo (stored in Oxford ) shows the transformation that was forced by the primitive form of the block of marble: the right leg, that drawing was half hidden in the sculpture is fully supported on the block, the arms in the drawing were tied behind the back, while in the statue are shown: the right, vertically up the edge of the block, and left angle back and finally, the head is turned upwards in a clear recollection of the expression of the sculpture of Laocoon and his sons , whose discovery in Rome, he was Michelangelo’s testimony. 43
Since 1520 , he continued sculpting statues of four slaves, with a measurement greater than the couple earlier and less finished in its implementation, looking Atlanteans, known as the Slave Young , Slave Atlantean , waking Slave and Slave bearded . 56 remained in the sculptor’s studio until 1564 , when his nephew Leonardo donated them to Cosimo I de ‘Medici and were placed in the grotto of Buontalenti Boboli garden until they were permanently in 1908 , the Accademia Gallery in Florence . 57
Sculpted the statue of the Genius of Victory , which fell within the fifth project carried out for the tomb of Julius II. This is a group of sculptures placed in the Hall of the Cinquecento of Palazzo Vecchio , although Vasari related to the first project, where the victories he had designed were all dressed and, instead, only from the fifth project is shown naked, in I do agree is that this is a work made ​​for the mausoleum of Pope.
On some letters exchanged between Vasari and the nephew of Michelangelo, Leonardo, was known to the sculptor when his death occurred in 1564, the nephew had been suggested to place it in the tomb of Michelangelo, in the end, was donated Duke Cosimo I de ‘Medici and was placed in the Palazzo Vecchio. It has been said of this sculpture is the representation of victory won, the inevitable victory of youth over old age, according to Tolnay.
The tombs of the Medici
Pope Clement VII , by the year 1520, commissioned the project to the graves of their relatives Lorenzo the Magnificent , father of Leo X , and his brother Julian , (father of Clement VII), and two tombs for other members of the family: Julian II and Lorenzo II , in the sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence . The pope proposed four graves, one on each wall of the square of the vestry , a Virgin with Child and images of saints Cosmas and Damian, who had to be placed in the center of the room on an altar. 58
Once approved the project, did not begin to perform until 1524, when they reached the block of marble Carrara . Applied Michelangelo sculptures next to the architecture of the walls, moldings and cornices all serve the function of shadow and light, and consist of a sarcophagus curvilinear on which there are two statues with the symbols of the time. In Lawrence, the Twilight , with traces of an aging man but still has full possession of his strength, which has a symmetrical approach to the Aurora , which is right and above both, within a niche , the statue of Lorenzo, nephew of Leo X, who has his head covered with the helmet of the Roman generals, his attitude of meditation is immediately made ​​known by the name of “the thinker.” 59
Above the tomb of Julian are the allegories of the Night , which symbolize death despite announcing the supreme peace and the day showing the unfinished head of a man being very unique this representation of an older person. It symbolizes the image of tired to start a day without trying. Above them the statue of Giuliano, brother of Leo X, with a strong resemblance to the sculpture of Moses from the tomb of denver car accident attorney Julius II, in spite of the armor hcg diet with which he dressed, you can see the body of a young athlete. In short, the portraits of these characters in the Medici household are more spiritual than physical, is more the character not their physical appearance. When told the sculptor that bore little resemblance to real persons, replied: “Who will notice in ten years?”. 60
Michelangelo also made ​​sculpture of the Virgin and Child , which is a symbol of eternal life and is Denver Divorce Attorney flanked by statues of St. Cosmas and St. Damian , protectors of the Medici, Michelangelo performed on model, respectively Montorsoli Giovanni Angelo and Raffaello da Montelupo Bankruptcy . Here are buried Lorenzo the Magnificent (first patron of Michelangelo) and his brother Julian. 61 These tombs were incomplete, and the sculptures of the rivers, they had to go in the bottom of the other graves already made, by the final departure of Michelangelo to Rome in 1534 because of the political situation in Florence. 62
For these tombs also carved squatting Young marble depicting a naked young man, bent upon itself, surely wanted to represent the souls of the “unborn.” It was one of the sculptures were in the sacristy the year 1534, when Michelangelo traveled to Rome. This statue is in the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg . 63
Other works of sculpture

The Christ of the Minerva of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome .
A new version of the Christ of the Minerva , made ​​for Metello Vari is the result of which began during the year 1514, and was abandoned because of the shortcomings of marble in the contract states that the sculpture will be “a statue marble of Christ, as natural, naked, with a cross in the arms and symbols of the Passion, in the position that Michelangelo deems most appropriate. ” The work was sent to Rome in 1521, which was finished by his assistant Pietro Urbano, which changed the line and gave a very different ending than it used to Michelangelo, who initially treated her as a young teenager and athlete I used to leave their plans voluntarily unfinished sculptures. It was placed in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. 64
By 1530, Baccio Valori, curator of Pope Clement VII and new ruler of Florence, he commissioned a statue of Apollo or David. It is believed that Michelangelo initially leaned toward the execution of a David , because the round shape that can be seen under the right foot is considered an outline for the head of Goliath . The figure is definitely dedicated to Apollo , with body image that evokes the shape of a woman, treated as Narcissus in love with himself, shows a clear contrapposto. Museum is located in the Florentine Bargello .
The bust of Brutus was made ​​around 1539 in Rome and is also in the Bargello. It was commissioned by Cardinal Niccolò Ridolfi, running on an old style, like the Roman busts of the first and second centuries of our era, he completed his pupil Tiberio Calcagni, especially in the part of the garments. It has a height of 74 cm without the stand. Vasari was the first who related his iconography with classical antiquity and Tolnay observed reminiscent of a Roman bust of Caracalla located in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples . 56

The Florentine Pietà to Santa Maria del Fiore , Florence .
The Florentine Pietà , so named because it is in the Duomo in Florence, believed to have been started from 1550. According to Vasari and Condivi, Michelangelo designed this sculptural group with the idea to be buried at his feet, inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Later, he abandoned this hope, by being buried in Florence, and also the chance of a sale, in 1561, to Francesco Bandini, who placed the sculpture in the gardens Montecavallo Romans, where he remained until he moved to the basilica San Lorenzo in Florence by Cosimo III in 1674 and finally in 1722 was placed in Santa Maria del Fiore and since 1960 is in the cathedral museum. 65
The sculpture of the Florentine Pieta has four characters: Christ died that is supported by the Virgin , Mary Magdalene and Nicodemus , the features which are a self-portrait of Michelangelo. The structure is pyramidal, with Nicodemus as vertex, and Christ is shown as a figure serpentinata characteristic of mannerism . 43 year 1555, it is not clear, whether by accident or because the work did not seem right to the author, broke in various pieces. Vasari explains:
Perhaps because the stone was hard and full of grinding and chisel drew sparks, or perhaps because of its severe criticism, was never happy with anything I did … Tiberio Calcagni asked why he had broken his piety and had thus lost all their wonderful efforts. Michelangelo replied that one reason was because his servant had been pestering his sermons for the day ended, and also because a piece had broken the arm of the Madonna. All this said, and other misfortunes, as he had discovered a crack in the marble, having made him hate the work, had lost patience and was broken.

The Palestrina Pietà of Florence .

The Pieta Rondanini of Milan .
Subsequently, the Florentine Pietà , was restored by Tiberio Calcagni, although it can still see some damage in the arm and leg of the Christ. 66
Another work on the same subject and performed during the same period (1556) is the Palestrina Pietà , a sculpture group with the Christ, the Virgin and Mary Magdalene, eight feet high. Michelangelo used for processing a fragment of a Roman building, in the back you can see a piece of an antique decorated architrave Roman. It is unfinished and, after being in the chapel of the Palazzo Barberini in Palestrina , now you can see in the Accademia Gallery in Florence . 67
Michelangelo also began Rondanini Pieta , which was the last sculpture which would work until the eve of his death. The religious sculptures showing the latter is the result of an internal crisis of the author. The images of the Pieta Rondanini are elongated and both Christ and the Virgin are completely united as if it were one body, there is a frontal medieval drama. The left, unfinished, as legate, in 1561, his faithful servant Antonio del Franzese. It remained for centuries in the courtyard of the Palazzo Rondanini and in 1952 was acquired by the City of Milan and placed for exhibition in the Civic Center Castle Sforza . 68

The Pieta Rondanini is, of all his sculptures, the most tragic and mysterious. The inventory of his house in Rome, referred to as “another statue of Christ began with another figure above, taken together, outlined and unfinished.” 69
Work pictorial

See also: Category: Paintings by Michelangelo
The Torment of Saint Anthony
The first paintings attributed to Michelangelo, when it was 12 years old, “The Torment of Saint Anthony”. The painting, said by early biographers of the artist as Giorgio Vasari , is back with a well-known variants recorded by German Martin Schongauer . Auctioned as a work ” workshop Ghirlandaio “was purchased by an American dealer and subjected to various analyzes in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Several experts in the work of Michelangelo definitely identified as the painting that Michelangelo created during his apprenticeship with Ghirlandaio, and eventually was acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum in the United States. 70
Burial

Entombment in the National Gallery in London (1500-1501).
Until the recent discovery of The Temptations of St. Anthony , was the Holy Burial and Manchester Madonna ‘s early paintings attributed to Michelangelo. The Entombment is a table at the temple unfinished, dated to 1500-1501, found in the National Gallery in London . Thanks to documents published in 1980, it is known that during his stay in Rome was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the church of S. Agostino in that city and that the artist returned the payment received on account, and that he could not finish since his return to Florence in 1501.
This table, which for many years has been doubted whether it belonged to Michelangelo, has finally been recognized as his work. 71 The figures of Christ and St. John are showing more strength, and composition is superb, the figure of Joseph of Arimathea , Jesus Christ behind you can see a curious resemblance to that of St. Joseph of Tondo Doni. 72
Doni Tondo

Doni Tondo in the Uffizi in Florence (1504-1505).
Main article: Doni Tondo
The Doni Tondo , also known as La Sagrada Familia (1504-1505), is now in the Uffizi Gallery , Florence. This painting in tempera , was painted for Agnolo Doni, as a wedding gift to his wife Maddalena Strozzi. In the foreground are the Virgin and Child behind St. Joseph, of grand proportions and dynamically articulated; draw attention to the images treated as sculpture in a circular 120 cm diameter and a pyramid-shaped composition of the figures major. The triangular base line is marked by the legs of the Virgin placed on his knees, his head turned to the right, where the Child held by St. Joseph, with the body leaning to the left, the top of the paint along with the line formed by the arms, denotes a spiral movement. 73
Separated by a balustrade , are John the Baptist and a group of ignudi . This painting can be seen as a succession of different periods in human history: the ignudi represent pagan civilization, St. John and St. Joseph was Mosaic and the Virgin and Child the age of redemption through the incarnation of Jesus. This interpretation is supported, even in the carved heads on the original cornice, two Sibyls (representing the old pagan ), two prophets (representing the age of Moses ) and the head of Christ (representing the era of redemption ), with intermediate friezes animal masks of satyrs and the emblem of the Strozzi.
The artist showed that the painting was able to express with the same grandeur in sculpture, the Doni Tondo , in fact, is considered the starting point for the birth of mannerism . 74
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Main article: Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Picture of Adam at the scene of The Creation of Adam from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums .
Between March and April 1508 , the artist received from Julius II commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , in May agreed to and concluded the fresh four years later, after a lonely and tough work. The potato project was the representation of the twelve apostles , Michelangelo changed to a much broader and complex. He devised a grand architectural structure painted, inspired by the actual shape of the dome. The topic biblical vault general, Miguel Angel filed a Neoplatonic interpretation with the representation of nine scenes from Genesis , each surrounded by four young naked ( ignudi ), along with twelve prophets and sibyls . A little further down are the ancestors of Christ . All these scenes are masterfully differentiated through the imitation of architectures. These images became the very symbol of the art of the Renaissance . 41

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel , partial (1512).
to Goethe understood to contemplate what man is capable.
To see the Vault in widescreen format, click with the mouse over the image and repeat them on on the new images that will appear. If he returns and does not increase the image, press again. Used to move the cursor image at the edges of the screen.
Work began on May 10, 1508, rejecting the cooperation of experts in fresh painters; also made ​​to remove the scaffolding that had placed Bramante and put new ones designed for it. While working on his first fresco ( The Flood ), had problems with paint, humidity altered the colors and drawing, had to resort to Giuliano da Sangallo to your solution and start over, Michelangelo learned by suffering the technique the cool, since according to Vasari , it was necessary:
… Performed in a single day the whole scene … The work is performed on the lime still fresh, to conclude the planned … The colors used on the wet wall produces an effect that is modified when dry … What has worked in fresco is forever, but what has been retouched dry can be removed with a damp sponge …
The painted surface in a day is called “day”, the scene suspension lift kits of The Creation of Adam , one of the most spectacular of the vault, was conducted in sixteen days. 75
The artist also was under the stress of continual discussions with the pope, the rush to finish the painting and payments not received. Finally, the great work of painting the dome was publicly presented on 31 October of 1512 . 76
Final Judgment
Main article: The Final Judgment
By order of Pope Clement VII and later confirmed by Paul III , Michelangelo painted on the wall accepted the altar of the Sistine Chapel the Final Judgment , or Judgment , begun in 1536 and completed in 1541.

Detail of the Last Judgment , Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary.

Detail of the Last Judgment , with St. Bartholomew holding his skin with self-portrait of Michelangelo.
The theme is based on the Revelation of St. John . The central part is occupied by a Christ with strong signal that separates the righteous from the sinners, and his hand is his mother Mary, frightened by the violent gesture of his Son. 77 All around are the saints, and easily recognizable that shows the attributes most of his martyrdom, among whom is St. Bartholomew , who in his martyrdom was skinned, this saint has hung in his hand his own skin, which recognizes the self-portrait of Michelangelo. Just below is a group of angels with trumpets, heralds of Judgment. All scenes are surrounded by a multitude of characters, some to the right side of Christ, those who ascend to heaven, and left the damned going down into the darkness, some of which are above the boat of Charon , present in The Divine Comedy of Dante . In the semicircles of the top of the wall are angels with the symbols of the Passion of Christ , on the one hand the cross where he died and the other column where he was flogged. 78
Despite the admiration of this work, also the naked protests and skills of the characters were important because they were considered immoral. The papal master of ceremonies , Biagio da Cesena, said the painting was dishonest, but one of the most critical anti launched against the naked, saying she had to “make a bonfire of the work” was Pietro Aretino . In 1559, it was possible that Daniele da Volterra , by order of Pope Paul IV , would cover the “shame” of the nude figures, it would be known by the nickname of il Braghettone , the painter died after two years, without able to complete their work.
After the restoration begun in 1980, the paintings look back to the place as Michelangelo. 79
Pauline Chapel

The Martyrdom of St. Peter .

The conversion of St. Paul .
After the Last Judgment , the Pope Paul III commissioned for the Pauline Chapel (which had been built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger ), painting of two large frescoes which Michelangelo worked from 1542 to 1550: The Conversion of Saint Paul and The Martyrdom of St. Peter . There were different reasons that lengthened the execution of these works, among them the fire of 1544, a disease of the artist who delayed the second fresco until 1546, and the deaths of his friends Luigi del Riccio in 1546 and later that of Vittoria Colonna in 1549. 80
It seems that the first ending was cool Conversion of St. Paul , which is the most similar in style to the Final Judgment , especially the image of St. Paul, head down with arms pointing one to the ground and the other to clouds, reminiscent of the swirling of the elect and the damned around Jesus at the Judgment. In this fresco also shows the partition between the heavenly and the earthly world, with the contrast between the main subject of the bottom: the horse facing the right, top: Jesus Christ looking towards the opposite side. 81
This very dynamic is much more content in the following cool Martyrdom of St. Peter , where he appreciates the balanced compositional rhythm in front of the disorder in the conversion of St. Paul . The main line, diagonal, represents the cross has not yet lifted, and figures that describe a large arch near the center. Thanks to the movement of the head of Saint Peter, Michelangelo get the major focus of the scene. 82
Crucifixion

The Crucifixion of Logroño , attributed to Michelangelo, a copy of a painting for Vittoria Colonna.
In 1540 Vittoria Colonna requested a small painting of the Crucifixion to help him in his private prayers. After presenting several sketches, which are preserved in the British Museum and Louvre , the artist will gladly painted a small Calvary Vittoria being very pleased with the spirituality of the figures. At that time there were only represented Christ, the Virgin, St. John and some angels. Vasari describes it:
… and Michelangelo drew a Pieta, showing the Virgin with two angels and a Christ nailed to the cross, which stands head and commends his spirit to the Father, which is something divine.
Though he speaks of a drawing, the artist ended up doing a painting. 83 There is also news about this painting by a letter from Vittoria Michelangelo:
I was confident about how God would give you a supernatural grace to this Christ, after seeing him so admirable that exceeds, in all respects, any expectation because, animated by your wonders, I wanted what I now see that it is beautifully done and the sum of perfection, to the point that you could not wish for more, and not even to want both.
In 1547 Vittoria died and such was the affection he professed Michelangelo who recovered the box and included it as Mary Magdalene embracing the Cross of Christ and shoulders a scarf a symbol of her widowhood. 84
Although he missed the original box, we have many drawings and copies made ​​by disciples of Michelangelo. One of those copies, which some historians attribute to Michelangelo, is in Spain in the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Redonda in Logroño . 85
Architectural Work

The facade of San Lorenzo

Reconstruction of a design by Michelangelo on the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence , using a light projection, 2007.
The family Medici had financed the construction of the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence , designed by Brunelleschi . Begun in 1420, during the visit in 1515 of Pope Leo X the facade was still not done with just an enclosure-based view of crushed stone work, and for the occasion, was coated on the unfinished facade of the church building with a ephemeral by Jacopo Sansovino and Andrea del Sarto . The pope decided to make a contest to the facade, always sponsored by the Medici . Michelangelo triumphed in the competition against designs of Raffaello Sanzio , Jacopo Sansovino and Giuliano da Sangallo . Designed to perform a front which represent all the architecture and sculpture of all Italy, devising a facade like a retablo Counter but was actually inspired by models of secular architecture, enhanced with numerous statues of marble, bronze and reliefs. He made ​​a wooden model made ​​by Baccio d’Agnolo , as it was to their liking, there was a second model with twenty-four wax figures, based on which the contract was signed for construction on January 19, 1518. 86

Windows inginocchiate in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in a photograph of 1908.
According to Michelangelo wrote, full of enthusiasm: “I plan to do, this facade of San Lorenzo, a work that is the mirror of architecture and sculpture to all Italy …” Between the Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyer years 1518-1519 Michelangelo Carrara marble reviewed in a work useless, as Pope suggested that the marble out of the Florentine territory, in the quarries of Pietrasanta and Serravezza. On March 10, 1520, the pope concluded the contract, 87 when the artist had complained that the marble facade is designed for being used in other works. The second wooden model made ​​by his assistant and Urban, is preserved in the Casa Buonarroti . 88
Improvements Medici Riccardi Palace
By the year 1517, made ​​some improvement work on the ground floor of Palazzo Medici Riccardi , which closed the arches of the loggia (gallery) that had been built at the corner of Via and Via Longa de’Gori, so architecture that was more closed and more compact building. It also placed windows that Vasari called inginocchiate (kneeling). At the Casa Buonarroti is preserved a picture that should be used for the model of the palace. 89
New Sacristy
Main article: New Sacristy of San Lorenzo
Started by command of Leo X in 1520, was under the command of Clement VII when it gave a new impetus to the construction of the “New Sacristy” in 1523 , located in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence , designed to house the tombs of Captains Julian , duke of Nemours and Lorenzo , Duke of Urbino , died recently, and the Magnificent, Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano de Medici , on the opposite side of the crossing where the old sacristy was built by Brunelleschi and decorated by Donatello . The new building had to conform to the previous plant, consisting of two squares of different width communicated through an arch and a dome, the walls were smooth, framed by pilasters and moldings made ​​in pietra serena , the stone gray region. Michelangelo enlarged the central part, to give more space to the tombs and altar.
Shifted in the vertical design architecture Quattrocento and placed blind on the door windows, the windows together with the dome made ​​trapezoid to obtain an optical ascension larger. The dome is made ​​with handcrafted coffered radio. 90 These caissons are distributed in five rows of decreasing extent, imitating, even in number, to the Pantheon in Rome , just a corona radiata, which starts the flashlight, of delicate beauty and perfect form, is the most important contribution outside the chapel. Seen from the outside, the reform of the sacristy of San Lorenzo by Michelangelo has a large dome with tile roof, a set of moldings and large windows that favor the play of light and shadow on the inside. Discarded the first project where the artist destined for the central space memorials, they ended up in the following designs, displaced to the walls, which were completely integrated into the architecture. 91
Laurentian Library
Also Clement VII was the idea of building in Florence a library to preserve all the codex collection of the Medici family, and was for this project with Buonarroti, the building would become known as the Laurentian Library , and who had a major expansion of their collections by Lorenzo the Magnificent in the late fifteenth century. 92 From 1523, once chosen the location within the convent of San Lorenzo Basilica , Relevant Life Policy on the top floor of the east side of the cloister , the project began would suffer a large number of variations. Organize different spaces needed to separate the Latin books of the Greeks, and also wanted to share the rare books in small rooms, but eventually ended up opting to organize everything in one big room. Focused efforts on solving the support of the new structure on the old walls: at the library level was lowered from the ceiling and windows placed very close to each other, thereby extending the luminosity was achieved, the lobby is designed as a place of movement, with a higher height, windows and lighting were added. 93 In 1533, the Pope gave permission to Michelangelo for his going to Rome, with the condition that leave fixed the completion of the decoration and stairs to the lobby. The coffered ceiling of the library is made ​​elliptical and diamond motif, Michelangelo also designed the large reading desks. Of the ladder made ​​numerous designs, and finally, in 1558, sent from Rome on the project, together with a model, to Bartolomeo Ammannati , which was commissioned by Cosimo I de ‘Medici to build definitely the ladder. Retain more than thirty sheets of drawings of the Laurentian Library, although the correspondence during processing, it is known that should be many more. 94

Reading Room of the Laurentian Library .

Detail of paneling in the reading room .

Vestibule of the Laurentian Library.

Staircase of the Laurentian Library.

Capitol Square

Recorded in the year 1568 by Étienne Duperac according to the project by Michelangelo.
After Florence, Rome also developed an architectural stage during his two decades of life, and in 1546 was charged with the development of the Piazza del Campidoglio or Campidoglio . During the visit of Emperor Charles V , Pope Paul III , among the various embodiments for the ornament of the city on the occasion of this reception, had to move some sculptures to the mountain of Capitol : in 1537 he had placed the bronze statue Marcus Aurelius , symbol of imperial authority and by extension of the continuity between imperial and papal Rome, this sculpture was to be the starting center for the entire development. Michelangelo, so there would be a unitary, ordered the Palace of the Senators (town hall) at the bottom of the square, with a tangent to the front steps, and bounded on the sides of two palaces: the Palazzo dei Conservatory and Palazzo called New built ex-novo, both converging to the stairs to the Capitol. The buildings, currently Capitoline Museums were fitted with a giant order pilasters Corinthian in the facade , cornices and architraves , and projected divergent, not parallel, so that the square was trapezoidal, to achieve the illusion of more depth . 95

Axonometric reconstruction of Michelangelo’s project for the Capitol .
The rationale used in the pavement of the square, was designed with a curvilinear grid inscribed in an ellipse centered at the base of the statue of Marcus Aurelius, and divided into twelve sections, reminiscent of the symbol used in ancient times to the twelve signs of Zodiac , in allusion to the celestial dome. It is also a reference to Christian architecture, the symbol of the twelve apostles. The treatment did Michelangelo seemed the type of schemata medieval lunar cycle to coordinate with other interpretations as the hours and the zodiac, taking as an example to these symbolic keys of the manuscript of the tenth century the De Rerum Natura of St. Isidore of Seville (dealing with astronomy and geography.) 96
Michelangelo gave the place a plastic extraordinary charge of merging all the architectural environment. It is an open space, especially between the two symmetrical palaces, like a living room which is reached via the large central ramp rise, Cordonata Capitolina , with balustrades too divergent to cause the visual effect with the square unit. The total unity was not achieved until much later with the construction of the new Palazzo, designed by Michelangelo to separate the front of the church of Ara Coeli. The facades were built, mostly, once dead artist, and while not a true realization of their projects they provide a magnificent composition. 97

Facade of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome .
Farnese Palace
In the construction of the Palazzo Farnese , Michelangelo replaced Antonio da Sangallo the Younger , who was the one directing the work when his death occurred in 1546. The building under construction at the level of the second floor.
Michelangelo finished the facade before the body sides and rear, and did raise the height of second floor to unify with the same degree as the lower. The cornice of the building which was pay day loans planned closer Sangallo, was replaced by a larger and ornamental items, combining orders Doric , Ionic , and Corinthian . He changed the rhythm of the facade with the revision of the central window, which gave a threshold larger the extension of the entablature , above which a giant shield placed over three meters cheap auto insurance quotes high.
The back of the work was finished years later by Giacomo della Porta . 98
St. Peter’s Basilica
Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter in 1546 at 72 years of age, the death of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger . The construction of the basilica was begun on the previous Early Christian , by order of Pope Julius II and under the direction of the architect Bramante , from the death of the latter, took Raphael Sanzio , who modified the plant and became a Latin cross . When Michelangelo was commissioned the work, introduced the plant again and again, with slight variations, to Bramante’s original idea of a Greek cross , but reduced the four corners of the square for smaller areas may have direct light. It must in particular the modification of the dome on the draft central Bramante : removed the ring with columns and gave him a higher profile. By removing the towers, the dome became the predominant element. Obtained permission from the pope, at the sight of their models, to demolish part of the construction of Sangallo, without changing substantially within, managed to impose his personal style and make a great unity to the whole. Most of the works were carried out between 1549 and 1558. 99

Project Bramante to plant St. Peter’s.

The dome of St. Peter’s , designed by Michelangelo.

Michelangelo Project to plant St. Peter’s.

With slight changes in the project designed by Michelangelo, who left a model for the central dome carried out between 1558 and 1561, was made ​​the completion of works, 24 years after his death, by the architect Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana , with a height of 132 meters and a diameter of 42.5 meters. 100
Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Engraving by Étienne Duperac representing the Baths of Diocletian before transforming into a church.
Concession by a bull of July 27, 1561, Pius IV decided to install the Carthusian in the Baths of Diocletian , after its transformation into a church. 101 already in 1541 a priest Sicilian , Antonio del Duca, asked the pope creation of a church dedicated to the worship of angels, and in 1550 obtained authorization to build temporary fourteen altars, seven dedicated to the angels and the seven other martyrs . 102 On August 5, 1561 he laid the first stone of the church undertook the project and Michelangelo, who, according to Vasari, he proposed:
Design it … in a cross, limit the extent and eliminate lower chapels, whose vaults were to topple, so that the upper parts would be that would form the main part of the church. Its dome would be supported by eight columns, which would be recorded the names of martyrs and angels drew three doors, one to the southwest , another to the northwest and the third to southeast , as today you can see, the altar, placed it toward the northeast . 103
Work began immediately, but had to stop in 1563 for lack of funds. When in 1565 became titular church (parish) with the name of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri , was commissioned a canopy of bronze for the high altar, designed by Michelangelo, who is now in the museum Naples. Over the centuries it has been transformed, with almost imperceptible original design. 104
Porta Pia

Inner side of the Porta Pia , as designed by Michelangelo.
Pope Pius IV commissioned a project for the Porta Pia , the artist presented three, the Pope chose the lowest cost and construction began in 1561.
The gate was built during the urban renewal process by Pope Pius IV. The new road coming from the Quirinale , Via Pia was named in honor of the pope since then continued straight through the Porta Pia, which crosses the walls of the city, Michelangelo made ​​on that stretch in place otherwise there was very close to the place called Nomentana . Was carried out as a great scenery , the highest topographic point of the wall, with the facade into the city, which departed from the ancient tradition of guiding the door to the field, presenting the city as the visitor. The medals were struck to mark the construction of the door by Giovanni Federico Bonzagni show as originally designed. The project to the outside could not carry out the death of Michelangelo in 1565 and the election of a new pope, Pius V , so that the works were paralyzed and the outside was solved with a simple wall and a door. 105
In 1853 Virginio Vespignani attic and restored during the years 1861-1868, was built outside the door. 106
Drawings

Michelangelo’s drawings form a very numerous and important, despite the fires that are known to burn once did, according to Vasari, “designs, notes and cards made ​​from his hand, so that no one could see the fatigue had happened and the various tests that had to spend his wit until you see the perfection. ” The first drawings are attributed to the artist copies made ​​in the basilica of Santa Croce , the Tribute and the Consecration of Masaccio and drawing the Alchemist , the invention itself (now in the British Museum ), and a copy of Giotto preserved in the Louvre , all these time studies in the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the year one thousand four hundred ninety. one hundred and seven
The Battle of Cascina
Main article: Battle of Cascina
Michelangelo’s technique is shown in full terribilitá in order to decorate the room of the Grand Council of the Palazzo Vecchio . The year 1503 , the new republican government, in choosing as gonfaloniere to Piero Soderini , decided to paint the fresco that room, and to this end commissioned Leonardo da Vinci ‘s representation of The Battle of Anghiari , and in the opposite wall, Michelangelo The Storage Bins Battle of Cascina , thus addressing the two greatest artists of the time. Michelangelo began the preparation of the drawing board, as stated in 1504 that he had received two payments. The theme is inspired by the chronic Filippo Villani, who, as he relates, the 1364 , troops attacked from Florence Pisa near Cascina , and because of the intense heat, the soldiers stripped to bathe in the river Arno . Although the Pisans took the time to attack, the victory went to the Florentines. Here Michelangelo showed his strength in the nude, along with dynamic movement and creation, to exhaust all possibilities of expression, with a variety of techniques: some figures are outlined with coal, others with strong lines are hazy and bright with plaster. For example, in the nude back of the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, we can see the profiles with heavy outlines and shadows in grid. 108
As he had to leave for Rome called by Pope Julius II, the artist went from the execution of the cards. The fresco by Leonardo da Vinci in the hall of the Grand Council, The Battle of Anghiari , was destroyed shortly thereafter and only known from a copy of the center by Rubens . Interestingly, there is also a copy of the central part of The Battle of Cascina made ​​by Bastiano da Sangallo .

A copy of Michelangelo’s drawing of the central part of The Battle of Cascina , work Bastiano da Sangallo .

Copy the drawing of Leonardo da Vinci , in the central part of The Battle of Anghiari , made ​​by Rubens .
The year 1515, during a visit to Florence of Pope Leo X , there were decorations throughout the city based on The Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo project, it is likely that the board was broken and given to different artists to the copiasen and so adorn the population for the reception of the pope. In the British Museum and the collection of the Uffizi figures are kept on individual studies of this sketch by Michelangelo. Vasari describes the complete outline:
Michelangelo filled with naked men bathing in the Arno from the heat, at the same time that the camp gave the alarm of an intended attack. And as the soldiers rushed out of the water to dress, the hand inspired by Michelangelo’s represented, some running to arm themselves to help their peers, other tying or adjusting the breastplates of armor pieces, and plunging into a large group the battle over their horses … When they saw this sketch, the other artists were rendered with admiration and astonishment, because it was a revelation of the summit could be accomplished in the art of drawing. Those who have seen these figures inspired declare that they have never been surpassed by any artist, even by Michelangelo himself, and no one, never ever, get to achieve this perfection.
Vasari, one thousand five hundred fifty 109
The fortifications of Florence

Study of fortification for the bastion of the Porta al Prato d’Ognissanti.
After the expulsion of the Medici in 1527 and the establishment of the new republic in Florence on April 6, 1529 Michelangelo was appointed “governor and attorney general of the fortifications,” and, along with a short stay in Venice, he spent all their efforts to improve the fortifications of Florence. All drawings classified in the Casa Buonarroti, are studies for the bastions of the doors and the corners of the wall medieval. It is especially remarkable for its production, corresponding to the angle of the Porta al Prato d’Ognissanti in the western part of Florence. 110
Michelangelo turned his concern on the defensive action and shows his great originality in this kind of drawings are the only military designs, along with some other of Leonardo da Vinci, which sets out the trajectories of the shots of the canyons and radius. The large number of acute salient bodies of his drawings provide a maximum range, as the bastions were more defensive than offensive. The author’s ideas were destined not to be accepted, and some of his drawings of the last period and shows the elimination of blind spots that could not be protected, probably by some criticism received from military experts, the latter design , the closest to those used later in the time of the Baroque , are very similar to those proposed by the engineer military Vauban in his Maniere for Fortier , the year 1 689 . one hundred and eleven
Other pictures

La Piedad , drawing made ​​at the request of Vittoria Colonna .

The Resurrection (1520-1525) from the Royal Collection of Windsor Castle .
For the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the artist created a series of drawings by way of sketches, warning strokes of mannerism and patent Michelangelo within this set include studies of the nude preserved in the British Museum of London , the studies for the Libyan Sibyl , with different versions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , studies of figures, one sanguine of Christ in limbo and a few drawings on the theme of the Resurrection . 112
In the early fifteenth century in Italy arose a type of highly finished drawings, to be donated as a gift: Leonardo da Vinci , in 1500, made ​​a series to be offered to a patron. Michelangelo also made ​​several series, which he gave to young people who felt a special affection, but most were to give to his young Tommaso Cavalieri estimate, 113 Vasari justified as learning exercises:
Learn to draw … because he made ​​many films, penciled black and red, divine head, and then a drawing of a Ganymede snatched up to heaven for the bird of Jupiter , a Titius to the eagle devours the liver, Fall of the chariot of the Sun with Phaeton and a Bacchanal of children , all of a most singular works, drawings never seen such excellent. 114

Epiphany , Michelangelo drawing preserved in the British Museum in London .
In the drawing of the Pieta that he gave Vittoria Colonna about 1540, Michelangelo’s transformation is evident in the style. In this work, the figure of Christ is treated with great delicacy, sought the organic symmetry with Mary his mother looking into the sky, her arms half extended cross up, while her son drops them down, all in a composition symmetric reinforcing the two lateral figures about children and the cross of the fund, which splits into two equal halves cardboard and has an inscription taken from Songs of The Paradise of Dante , “Non vi if thought Quanto costa sangue” (not think how much blood it costs) . 115
Numerous drawings are preserved, especially the chalk red:
Study: Santa Ana , ca. 1505, Louvre , Paris .
Ideal head , red chalk drawing, c. 1533, Ashmolean Museum , Oxford .
Two naked men fighting , h. 1545-50, Louvre, Paris.
Crucifixion , c. 1550-55, Louvre, Paris.
Epiphany , h.1550-53, British Museum , London .
Descent , red chalk drawing, c. 1555, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Study of a nude man , done in pen, Louvre, Paris.
Studies of faces in profile to the left , study right shoulder, chest and upper arm of man and Study of a man’s right arm . All three belong to the Prado Museum , which entered in 1931 thanks to the legacy Fernández-Durán. The last two, preparatory to the Sistine Chapel, were identified as works of Michelangelo in 2,004 . one hundred and sixteen 117
Poetic work

Drawing on a sonnet addressed to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia (1510).
As a poet , Michelangelo left three hundred compositions feature prominently in the lyrics of the sixteenth century, which highlights its strong and austere tone and continuous tension toward a burning immediacy of expression. Metric forms are most numerous sonnets and madrigals , but also wrote some triplets. According to Ascanio Condivi, to 1503, Michelangelo was devoted to reading “… spent some time doing nothing in the art of sculpture, to be given to the reading of the poets and orators in the vernacular, and doing sonnets for your enjoyment ‘. 118
His training held in the palace of Lorenzo the Magnificent and thought based on Neoplatonic humanists Pico della Mirandola and Ficino makes better understand the poetry of Michelangelo, 119 by the great dissatisfaction denver martial arts that always had of himself and all around you , by the idea of “the presence of spirituality in the material,” for his enthusiasm with the aesthetics and beauty, with poetry, which can be considered quite influenced by Petrarchism , the artist managed to express all your love and affection religious doubts. The first sonnets were on topics related to their artwork, like the one on the statue of the Night in the tombs of the Medici, cheap auto transport which said: “I am happy to sleep, and made ​​of stone – as evil and shame lasts . Not see, feel, is my happiness, do not wake me, no, soft-spoken. ” 120
Instead, it uses a humorous and burlesque in the sonnets written while working on the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel , circa 1510, and addressed to his friend Giovanni da Pistoia, where it appears in the author’s manuscript drawing painting hanging down the face, in the sonnet, had compared her face in a “rich pavement” and described himself as a “corpse paint”. Begging your friend to redeem: “Defend your now, Giovanni, my painting and my honor dead, as neither it is in good place, and I am a painter.” 121
Later and more numerous are those made ​​for Tommaso Cavalieri , inspired by Petrarch , the first is dated dated 1532, which openly about love and can appreciate the extent to which Michelangelo a consuming passion for Tommaso, “to stop this time, this time, and the sun, light on his face, and I can feel your entire gift, my Lord desired since my unworthy body hugs. ” 122 The extravagant praise the young are seen also in the cards addressed to you, dated the first of January 1533, Michelangelo declares:
Your Honor, the only light in the world in our time, never be satisfied with the work of another man because no other man who resembles you, none that will match … It grieves me greatly that it can not recover my past, and so that way any longer be at your service. As it is, I can only offer my future, which is short for I am old … That’s all I have to say. Read my heart and the pen is unable to articulate.
Or this one: “Your name I feed the heart and soul, and fills the one and the other of so great sweetness, I do not feel sadness or fear of death from which I have in my memory.” 123
The poems he dedicated to Vittoria Colonna were the most religious theme, as they both had the same concerns, and focused on sin and eternal salvation, and in a tone of anguish and bitterness. In a madrigal described her friend as “a true messenger between heaven and him, a woman imploring the divine benevolence and condescension so to raise their misery to the height of the tortuous path of bliss.” 124
The most interesting of the poems of this period is the synthesis that makes Michelangelo of Neoplatonic theories and practice of Christianity turned to the spirit. Once dead Vittoria, Buonarroti is in a state, according Condivi, “which long seemed crazy,” goes into a kind of drift and is dragged by his religious obsessions, all this makes him compose a series of pessimistic poems where in a radical way exposes his utter disappointment of the value of art. 125
The first edition of his poetry is the year 1623 and made ​​his nephew, Michelangelo the Younger, was highly edited and censored the gender of masculine pronouns. 126 This misunderstanding lasted until the 1863 edition by Cesare Guasti, where, from the original texts, it was clarified definitively the meaning of poetry addressed to Tommaso Cavalieri. 127 Among others, Michelangelo’s rhymes have been translated by authors as the philosopher American , Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth century .
Rating

Michelangelo’s work, held by his contemporaries as the culmination of Renaissance art, was also its dramatic conclusion. His sculptures, paintings and architecture, were admired beyond all limits, creations considered superior to the old and above nature. But Michelangelo was still alive when the controversy began, among the passionate and enhancers of art critics, who condemned the lack of measurement and naturally, opposing its force to the grace and elegance of the art of Raphael . Lodovico Dolce in 1557, branded as monotonous Michelangelo’s nudes compared to the beauty of the works of Raphael. It was also criticized by the Italian church, during the second half of the hundred, because their works were not related to the new rules of the Council of Trent. Since the mid-eighteenth century, were changing the criticism up to the total adoration for his art. 128
The deeply religious character of Michelangelo, his great head led him to be regarded as a myth which brought him, as previously noted, some critics because her mastery of classical techniques led to a certain extent, play with them and exceeded. His way led him to be impulsive in his youth to devote themselves to sculptural art forms mainly where the artist has a closer relationship with his work, he holds, which is lost with the architecture that accepts papal custom in many mainly chances in the second part of his life. His conception Announces Next Baroque architecture . 129
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel represents the most perfect of his Neoplatonic belief, stating that the beauty of the human has a divine nature, also in this same belief is the meaning of the tombs of the Medici, where the bottom symbolizes the material world as opposed to the architecture of the dome illuminated by the New Sacristy, which represents the spiritual world. 41
As a painter , had profound influence on the generation after Mannerist . Tintoretto is influenced by his drawing, anatomical forms of the bodies and twisted, foreshortening and awkward postures.
His project of the Vatican Basilica in which he worked for nearly twenty years of his life that simplifies project devised for the same Bramante , while maintaining the structure in a Greek cross and the great dome. Michelangelo created spaces surround functions of the main elements especially the dome, director of the group element.
As regards the sculpture , the David represents not only a return to models of the Greco-Roman antiquity but, for the first time, performed a work that was over. Many of his works are unfinished ( non finito , in Italian ), but must be differentiated from those in which the author intentionally left without parts, as tondi Taddei and Pitti , from those that did not end because of external factors.
In other arts

The figure of Michelangelo has been filmed several times, most famously, the film The Agony and the Ecstasy (The Agony and the Ecstasy, 1965), directed by Carol Reed on a novel of Irving Stone and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II.
In 1982 he gave the name of Michelangelo 3001 an asteroid discovered by Edward Bowell . 130 There is also a crater on the planet Mercury by the name of Michelangelo . 131
In 1984 he created a comic by Kavin Eastman and Peter Laird , on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , in which each of the four turtles players were named in honor of Renaissance artists: Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, more later went to several animated cartoon series, for display on TV. 132
The RAI Radiotelevisione Italian, made ​​in 1990, a series-documentary on the life of Michelangelo with the title of Michelangelo’s Spring , inspired by the book A Season of Giants of Vincenzo Labella, this author with Julian Bond took charge of the script the documentary which was directed by and starring Jerry Londo actor Mark Frankel. 133
Many of his poems to music have been shaped lied , the best known being those of Dmitri Shostakovich , recorded by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau . 134

Holiday rentals in Florence are as diverse as the many different situations in which they can be found throughout this large region nestling on the Mediterranean coast of Italy.

The historic city centre is most representative of Florence. The layout of the district follows a road system created by the Romans. Florence is divided into five districts and the centre is divided into four sections namely San Giovanni, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and Santo Spirito Oltrarno.

You will see the enormous, imposing structure of the Duomo, with its Brunelleschian cupola, a beautiful dome that adds splendour to the city skyline. The city has also preserved its medieval network of streets, lined with regular, geometric Renaissance palaces such as Palazzo Strozzo and Palazzo Medici Riccardi, which once belonged to Florences powerful, oligarchic families.

Enjoy a vacation at any time of the year, with opportunities for recreation and relaxation that could include anything from shopping, sightseeing and wine tours to outdoor activities ranging from hiking, mountain biking and horse riding to snowboarding and skiing.

Find history and culture in every corner, tucked among the cities many piazzas, beautiful churches and fascinating museums. The spectacular Uffizi Gallery houses the works of such masters as Titian, Botticelli, Michelangelo and da Vinci. Dont miss the Duomo, the symbol of Florence, or the sunset over the Arno River and be sure to visit the Chianti region just south of the city for a taste of its famous wines.

It is famous amongst tourists and scholars for her glorious artwork, her cultural heritage, and the major role she played in the Renaissance and Humanist movements. All these facets combine to make this one of the most glorious cities in the world. It may be a small city, but she is extremely beautiful and a favourite meeting place for visitors and ex pats of all ages and nationalities.

Florence is a difficult city for neophytes. The sheer volume of people crammed into this centre of this Renaissance city can be overwhelming. But visiting out of season, when its cooler and queues are shorter, is a little more restful.

Holiday apartments and villas in Florence, cottage and farmhouse rentals are available to suit whatever your vacation rental requirements may be, so if youre seeking the ideal destination for a truly memorable Italian holiday, villa or apartment rental accommodation in Florence promises an experience that will appeal to people of all ages and interests.

Douglas Scott
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/mediterranean-coast-of-italy-florence-118920.html

The Uffizi Gallery was built in 1581 and is home to some of the world’s greatest pieces of artwork known to man. From the moment you walk in, there is a sense of beauty and wonder. From the paintings in the ceiling of the main corridor to the Doni Tondo by Michelangelo, there is no end to the masterpieces you will find in this museum.

Originally built as the offices of the Florentine magistrates, the Uffizi museum is one of the first modern galleries. It has been open for public viewing since the 1765. The Uffizi gallery holds much more than just paintings. There are sculptures, scientific instruments, and statues which adorn two floors of the building.

The building in it’s self is a masterpiece of architecture. Designed by Giorgio Vasari, the Uffizi gallery is built next to the Medici palace. It over looks the Arno River. Great care was taken to enhance the beauty of the city when the gallery was built.

The art collection is vast and varies from time to time. Many pieces of the artwork have suffered damage throughout the years. They need to be restored with great care. As the restoration process becomes complete, the rejuvenated pieces are added to the collection where they belong. Each section of the Uffizi gallery is dedicated to certain pieces of artwork.

There are plans to expand the Uffizi gallery to show more of the great artwork that is in the collection. Many pieces are being stored in the warehouse at present because of a lack of display rooms. With the expansion, each piece will have a permanent home in the museum.

You will be able to see many of the magnificent pieces from Leonardo da Vinci and Hugo van der Goes when you tour the Uffizi museum. The infamous statue of David is also located in the gallery. Much of the artwork comes from the private collection of the Medici family. When the last heiress, Anna Maria Lodovica, went to France to wed the king of Lorena she signed an agreement that any of the artwork on display to the public would never leave Florence. The collection was quite extensive. Over the years it has grown even more. Many of the paintings have been donated by individuals and organizations.

The Uffizi gallery is open to the public from Tuesday through Sunday. The museum is closed every Monday. It is also closed on January 1st, May 1st, and December 25th. The hours of operation are from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased either on line or at the entrance. It is recommended to purchase them on line to avoid any waiting in lines. During the busy season, it has been as long as a five hour wait to tour the Uffizi gallery. The price of a ticket is 6.50 € or about $10. People over 65 and those under 18 get in for free. There is a discount for European citizens who are between the ages of 18 and 25. When you make your reservations, you can ask for one of the many tours being offered on the day of your visit.

Andrea Cardelli
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/a-guide-through-the-uffizi-gallery-of-florence-731891.html