|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oil Paintings
Come From United Kingdom
An option that you can own an 100% hand-painted oil painting from our talent artists. |
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
b Caprese 1475 d Rome 1564
Born: March 6, 1475
Caprese, Italy
Died: February 18, 1564
Rome, Italy
Italian artist
Michelangelo was one of the greatest sculptors of the Italian Renaissance and one of its greatest painters and architects.
Early life
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a village where his father, Lodovico Buonarroti, was briefly serving as a Florentine government agent. The family moved back to Florence before Michelangelo was one month old. Michelangelo's mother died when he was six. From his childhood Michelangelo was drawn to the arts, but his father considered this pursuit below the family's social status and tried to discourage him. However, Michelangelo prevailed and was apprenticed (worked to learn a trade) at the age of thirteen to Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449?C1494), the most fashionable painter in Florence at the time.
After a year Michelangelo's apprenticeship was broken off. The boy was given access to the collection of ancient Roman sculpture of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici (1449?C1492). He dined with the family and was looked after by the retired sculptor who was in charge of the collection. This arrangement was quite unusual at the time.
Early works
Michelangelo's earliest sculpture, the Battle of the Centaurs (mythological creatures that are part man and part horse), a stone work created when he was about seventeen, is regarded as remarkable for the simple, solid forms and squarish proportions of the figures, which add intensity to their violent interaction.
Soon after Lorenzo died in 1492, the Medici family fell from power and Michelangelo fled to Bologna. In 1494 he carved three saints for the church of San Domenico. They show dense forms, in contrast to the linear forms which were then dominant in sculpture.
Rome
After returning to Florence briefly, Michelangelo moved to Rome. There he carved a Bacchus for a banker's garden of ancient sculpture. This is Michelangelo's earliest surviving large-scale work, and his only sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides.
In 1498 the same banker commissioned Michelangelo to carve the Piet?? now in St. Peter's. The term piet?? refers to a type of image in which Mary supports the dead Christ across her knees. Larger than life size, the Piet?? contains elements which contrast and reinforce each other: vertical and horizontal, cloth and skin, alive and dead, female and male.
Florence
On Michelangelo's return to Florence in 1501 he was recognized as the most talented sculptor of central Italy. He was commissioned to carve the David for the Florence Cathedral.
Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina was commissioned in 1504; several sketches still exist. The central scene shows a group of muscular soldiers climbing from a river where they had been swimming to answer a military alarm. This fusion of life with colossal grandeur henceforth was the special quality of Michelangelo's art.
From this time on, Michelangelo's work consisted mainly of very large projects that he never finished. He was unable to turn down the vast commissions of his great clients which appealed to his preference for the grand scale.
Pope Julius II (1443?C1513) called Michelangelo to Rome in 1505 to design his tomb, which was to include about forty life-size statues. Michelangelo worked on the project off and on for the next forty years.
Sistine Chapel
In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the chief Vatican chapel, the Sistine. The traditional format of ceiling painting contained only single figures. Michelangelo introduced dramatic scenes and an original framing system, which was his earliest architectural design. The chief elements are twelve male and female prophets (the latter known as sibyls) and nine stories from Genesis.
Michelangelo stopped for some months halfway along. When he returned to the ceiling, his style underwent a shift toward a more forceful grandeur and a richer emotional tension than in any previous work. The images of the Separation of Light and Darkness, and Ezekiel illustrate this greater freedom and mobility.
After the ceiling was completed in 1512, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved a Moses and two Slaves. His models were the same physical types he used for the prophets and their attendants in the Sistine ceiling. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb.
Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, proposed a marble facade for the family parish church of San Lorenzo in Florence to be decorated with statues by Michelangelo. After four years of quarrying and designing the project was canceled.
Medici Chapel
In 1520 Michelangelo was commissioned to execute the Medici Chapel for two young Medici dukes. It contains two tombs, each with an image of the deceased and two allegorical (symbolic) figures: Day and Night on one tomb, and Morning and Evening on the other.
A library, the Biblioteca Laurenziana, was built at the same time on the opposite side of San Lorenzo to house Pope Leo X's books. The entrance hall and staircase are some of Michelangelo's most astonishing architecture, with recessed columns resting on scroll brackets set halfway up the wall and corners stretched open rather than sealed.
Poetry
Michelangelo wrote many poems in the 1530s and 1540s. Approximately three hundred survive. The earlier poems are on the theme of Neoplatonic love (belief that the soul comes from a single undivided source to which it can unite again) and are full of logical contradictions and intricate images. The later poems are Christian. Their mood is penitent (being sorrow and regretful); and they are written in a simple, direct style.
Last Judgment
In 1534 Michelangelo left Florence for the last time, settling in Rome. The next ten years were mainly given over to painting for Pope Paul III (1468?C1549). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Christ Crucified between the Virgin and Nicodemus
1552-54 Black chalk, brown wash and white lead, 43,3 x 29 cm Musee du Louvre, Paris Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Christ Crucified between the Virgin and Nicodemus Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Crucifix
1556 Black chalk and white lead on paper, 412 x 279 mm British Museum, London The drawings Michelangelo did for his own personal use show us better than any of these other works something of the artist's development during his last years. The last of the six drawings of Crucifixions, depicting Christ on the cross between the Virgin and Saint John, is probably to be dated to 1556. This shows us, once again, those same ideas which had tormented the artist during his work on the PieteRondanini: "Oh! Flesh, Blood and Wood, supreme pain, Through you must I suffer my agony." These lines, which the artist had written at the age of 57, seem to convey the dominant feeling in the Madonna and Saint John, gathered around the Cross. Fear and pain have drawn the Madonna to Christ's body, while St. John turns towards Him in supplication, with one arm around the Cross. In this female figure there is nothing of the Mother of God represented in his 1499 Piete nor does the Evangelist recall anything of the 1505 St. Matthew. Nowhere are the changes of this half century so clearly demonstrated as in the life and work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Crucifix Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Study for a Deposition
1555 Red chalk on paper Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Study for a Deposition Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : study
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Judith and Holofernes
1509 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican In the fresco, almost in the center and nearest to the viewer, the figures of the two women stand out in the bright light against the white wall placed obliquely in the background. Judith is portrayed as she is about to place a cloth over the severed head of Holofernes, which the maidservant is carrying in a tray held on her head. The biblical heroine's face is hidden because she is looking toward the darkened room on the right where, sprawled on the white sheets of the bed, the headless body of the general, depicted with complex foreshortening, appears still to be in a state of frenzied agitation. Judith and the maidservant form a compact group that is given prominence by strong contrasts and passages of very bright colours: the smalt-blue of Judith's bonnet and dress and the yellow of the borders and oversleeve; the delicate green, with rose-white reflections, of the tunic and the crimson of the belt and sash, repeated with darker tones in the maidservant's tunic, which is lined with deep violet that stands out against the yellow with iridescent greenish shadows of the dress. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Judith and Holofernes (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
David and Goliath
1509 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican A sheet of light descends from David's shoulder along the sleeve of his tunic (painted smalt-blue with lime-white reflections) to the head of Goliath, who is sprawled on the ground, stressing his centrality to the composition and highlighting the dramatic violence of the action. The composition was carefully planned in order to neutralize, as far as possible, the irregular shape of the field, dramatically forcing the predominant line of sight by means of the bold foreshortening of the two figures and the luminous convexity of the white tent, modeled with violet shadows. In the foreground, toward the lower vertex of the triangle, David's sling, lying on the ground, constitutes the starting point of the projection of the perspective along the central axis of the composition. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: David and Goliath (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
David and Goliath
1509 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican David's head is boldly foreshortened and modeled with a dense network of soft brushstrokes. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: David and Goliath (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Ancestors of Christ: figures
1509 Fresco, 245 x 340 cm Cappella Sistina, Vatican The figures are in the trianglar spandrel in the second bay between Joel and the Erythraean Sibyl. The spandrel is above the Zerubbabel-Abiud-Eliakim lunette. It is generally believed that Zerubbabel is depicted here, together with his parents and a brother. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Ancestors of Christ: figures Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Ancestors of Christ: figures
1511 Fresco, 240 x 340 cm Cappella Sistina, Vatican The figures are in the triangular spandrel in the eighth bay between the Libyan Sibyl and Daniel. The spandrel is above the Jesse-David-Solomon lunette. The absolute immobility of the enigmatic figure depicted frontally provides a triking contrast to the activity of the woman in the opposite spandrel. Placed precisely on the axis of the triangle, she appears to be deep in meditation and totally extraneous to the two figures - a man and a child - that may be discerned behind her in the darkness. In accordance with the lunette below, it can be assumed that Jesse as a child is depicted here together with his parents. The bronze nudes, with their backs turned toward the viewer, seem to be looking upward, like those above the opposit spandrel. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Ancestors of Christ: figures Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Punishment of Haman
1511 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican On the left of the pendentive, Esther reveals Haman's plot to Ahasueras. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Punishment of Haman (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Punishment of Haman
Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican On the right of the pendentive, the king sends Haman to provide royal apparel for Mordecai, who is sitting at the king's door. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Punishment of Haman (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Brazen Serpent
1511 Fresco, 585 x 985 cm Cappella Sistina, Vatican The scenes painted in the pendentives at the sides of prophet Jonah are characterized by the use of pronounced foreshortening. This is the case with the tangled group of Israelites who, in the scene of the Brazen Serpent, writhe in the throes of death, and, above all, with the crucified figure of Haman in the Punishment of Haman. In the Brazen Serpent, the mass of bodies poisoned by the snakes occupies the whole of the right part, spreading toward the center. The survivors are grouped on the left, eyes and arms turned imploringly toward the salvafic image of the brazen serpent. The cruel punishment of the Israelites for having spoken against God and Moses occupies a large part of the pendentive, with bodies intertwined in an indescribable tangle. This presented the artist with an opportunity for virtuosic foreshortening and twisting of the bodies, and also depicting contorted, screaming faces. Much admired by Vasari, the group is a striking forerunner of the spectacular motifs that were, in the following decades, typical of the current of Mannerism comprising Giulio Romano and Vasari himself. The Biblical story (Num. 21 :4-9) The Israelites, discontented with life in the desert, spoke out against God and Moses. They were punished with a plague of poisonous snakes which only increased their hardships. Many died of snakebite. When the people repented, Moses sought God's advice how they should be rid of the snakes. He was told to make an image of one and set it on a pole. Whoever was bitten would be cured when he looked upon the image. Moses accordingly made a serpent of brass on a tau-shaped (T) pole, which proved to have a miraculous curative effect. Representation in Art The Israelites are depicted writhing on the ground, their limbs entwined by snakes. Moses, sometimes with Aaron, stands beside the brazen serpent. John's gospel furnishes the typological parallel: 'This Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness.' Medieval art juxtaposed the subject with the serpent in the Garden of Eden entwining the Tree of Knowledge. Both probably derive from an ancient and widespread fertility image, the 'asherah', associated with the worship of Astarte, which consisted of a snake and a tree representing respectively the male and female elements. King Hezekiah destroyed the asherah, by inference the one made by Moses, at a time when the Israelites were relapsing into idolatry (II Kings 18:4). The presence and the identification of Moses in Michelangelo's fresco is debated. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: The Brazen Serpent Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Brazen Serpent
1511 Fresco Cappella Sistina, Vatican The cruel punishment of the Israelites for having spoken against God and Moses occupies a large part of the pendentive, with bodies intertwined in an indescribable tangle. This presented the artist with an opportunity for virtuosic foreshortening and twisting of the bodies, and also depicting contorted, screaming faces. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: The Brazen Serpent (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Last Judgment
1370 x 1220 cm Cappella Sistina, Vatican This fresco was commissioned by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) shortly before his death. His successor, Paul III Farnese (1534-1549), forced Michelangelo to a rapid execution of this work, the largest single fresco of the century. The first impression we have when faced with the Last Judgment is that of a truly universal event, at the centre of which stands the powerful figure of Christ. His raised right hand compels the figures on the lefthand side, who are trying to ascend, to be plunged down towards Charon and Minos, the Judge of the Underworld; while his left hand is drawing up the chosen people on his right in an irresistible current of strength. Together with the planets and the sun, the saints surround the Judge, confined into vast spacial orbits around Him. For this work Michelangelo did not choose one set point from which it should be viewed. The proportions of the figures and the size of the groups are determined, as in the Middle Ages, by their single absolute importance and not by their relative significance. For this reason, each figure preserves its own individuality and both the single figures arid the groups need their own background. The figures who, in the depths of the scene, are rising from their graves could well be part of the prophet Ezechiel's vision. Naked skeletons are covered with new flesh, men dead for immemorable lengths of time help each other to rise from the earth. For the representation of the place of eternal damnation, Michelangelo was clearly inspired by the lines of the Divine Comedy: Charon the demon, with eyes of glowing coal/Beckoning them, collects them all,/Smites with his oar whoever lingers. According to Vasari, the artist gave Minos, the Judge of the Souls, the semblance of the Pope's Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, who had often complained to the Pope about the nudity of the painted figures. We know that many other figures, as well, are portraits of Michelangelo's contemporaries. The artist's self-portrait appears twice: in the flayed skin which Saint Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and in the figure in the lower left hand corner, who is looking encouragingly at those rising from their graves. The artist could not have left us clearer evidence of his feeling towards life and of his highest ideals. The painting is a turning point in the history of art. Vasari predicted the phenomenal impact of the work: "This sublime painting", he wrote, "should serve as a model for our art. Divine Providence has bestowed it upon the world to show how much intelligence she can deal out to certain men on earth. The most expert draftsman trembles as he contemplates these bold outlines and marvellous foreshortenings. In the presence of this celestial work, the senses are paralysed, and one can only wonder at the works that came before and the works that shall come after". Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Last Judgment Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Entombment
1510 Tempera on wood, 159 x 149 cm National Gallery, London Both the attribution and the datation is doubtful. It is probable that the painting was executed by a pupil of Michelangelo with the active participation of the master. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Entombment Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Study
1525 Ink Casa Buonarroti, Florence The picture shows a study for the fortifications of Porta del Prato in Florence. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Study Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : study
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Study of a Head
1530 Red chalk, 33,5 x 26,9 cm Casa Buonarroti, Florence Michelangelo seems to have conceived only one erotic painting involving a woman, the Leda and the Swan. The painting is lost, only this very fine read chalk study of a head has survived. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Study of a Head Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : study
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
The Fall of Phaeton
1533 Chalk British Museum, London In Greek mythology Phaeton was the son of Helios, the sun-god. Helios drove his golden chariot, a 'quadriga' yoked to a team of four horses abreast, daily across the sky. Phaeton persuaded his unwilling father to allow him for one day to drive his chariot across the skies. Because he had no skill he was soon in trouble, and the climax came when he met the fearful Scorpion of the zodiac. He dropped the reins, the horses bolted and caused the earth itself to catch fire. In the nick of time Jupiter, father of the goods, put a stop to his escapade with a thunderbolt which wrecked the chariot and sent Phaeton hurtling down in flames into the River Eridanus (according to some, the Po). He was buried by nymphs. Phaetons's reckless attempt to drive his father's chariot made him the symbol of all who aspire to that which lies beyond their capabilities. The fall of Phaeton was a popular theme, common in Renaissance and Baroque painting, especially on ceilings in the later period. Phaeton, the chariot, and four horses, reins flying, all tumble headlong out of the sky. Above, Jupiter throws a thunderbolt. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: The Fall of Phaeton Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
View of the Chapel
Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican Between 1537 and 1540, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger built the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican, as Pope's (Paul III) private chapel. In 1541 Michelangelo was asked to decorate the central parts of the two longer walls with two frescoes. The first, The Conversion of Saint Paul, was begun in 1542; the second, the Martyrdom of St Peter, was painted between 1546 and 1550. Before this, no one had ever attempted to place these two themes next to each other. Michelangelo portrays what is by this time his plan of life: death for the faith must follow conversion and be its confirmation. To Paul, who has fallen and has been forced to shut his eyes because of the brilliance of divine light, he gives his own face and makes Peter, nailed to the cross, in the supreme tension of the last moment of life, forcefully look at the spectator. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: View of the Chapel Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : other
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Plan for a Church
. 1560 Ink Casa Buonarroti, Florence During the last ten years of his life Michelangelo mainly drew plans for new buildings and perhaps for further sculpture. After his reconciliation with Cosimo de' Medici, he designed new plans for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Florence. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Plan for a Church Date: 1501-1550 Italian , graphics : study
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Martyrdom of St Peter
1546-50 Fresco, width of detail 108 cm Cappella Paolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican The detail shows figures from the right side of the fresco. Artist: MICHELANGELO Buonarroti Title: Martyrdom of St Peter (detail) Date: 1501-1550 Italian , painting : religious
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| Michelangelo Buonarroti
|
b Caprese 1475 d Rome 1564
Born: March 6, 1475
Caprese, Italy
Died: February 18, 1564
Rome, Italy
Italian artist
Michelangelo was one of the greatest sculptors of the Italian Renaissance and one of its greatest painters and architects.
Early life
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a village where his father, Lodovico Buonarroti, was briefly serving as a Florentine government agent. The family moved back to Florence before Michelangelo was one month old. Michelangelo's mother died when he was six. From his childhood Michelangelo was drawn to the arts, but his father considered this pursuit below the family's social status and tried to discourage him. However, Michelangelo prevailed and was apprenticed (worked to learn a trade) at the age of thirteen to Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449?C1494), the most fashionable painter in Florence at the time.
After a year Michelangelo's apprenticeship was broken off. The boy was given access to the collection of ancient Roman sculpture of the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici (1449?C1492). He dined with the family and was looked after by the retired sculptor who was in charge of the collection. This arrangement was quite unusual at the time.
Early works
Michelangelo's earliest sculpture, the Battle of the Centaurs (mythological creatures that are part man and part horse), a stone work created when he was about seventeen, is regarded as remarkable for the simple, solid forms and squarish proportions of the figures, which add intensity to their violent interaction.
Soon after Lorenzo died in 1492, the Medici family fell from power and Michelangelo fled to Bologna. In 1494 he carved three saints for the church of San Domenico. They show dense forms, in contrast to the linear forms which were then dominant in sculpture.
Rome
After returning to Florence briefly, Michelangelo moved to Rome. There he carved a Bacchus for a banker's garden of ancient sculpture. This is Michelangelo's earliest surviving large-scale work, and his only sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides.
In 1498 the same banker commissioned Michelangelo to carve the Piet?? now in St. Peter's. The term piet?? refers to a type of image in which Mary supports the dead Christ across her knees. Larger than life size, the Piet?? contains elements which contrast and reinforce each other: vertical and horizontal, cloth and skin, alive and dead, female and male.
Florence
On Michelangelo's return to Florence in 1501 he was recognized as the most talented sculptor of central Italy. He was commissioned to carve the David for the Florence Cathedral.
Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina was commissioned in 1504; several sketches still exist. The central scene shows a group of muscular soldiers climbing from a river where they had been swimming to answer a military alarm. This fusion of life with colossal grandeur henceforth was the special quality of Michelangelo's art.
From this time on, Michelangelo's work consisted mainly of very large projects that he never finished. He was unable to turn down the vast commissions of his great clients which appealed to his preference for the grand scale.
Pope Julius II (1443?C1513) called Michelangelo to Rome in 1505 to design his tomb, which was to include about forty life-size statues. Michelangelo worked on the project off and on for the next forty years.
Sistine Chapel
In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the chief Vatican chapel, the Sistine. The traditional format of ceiling painting contained only single figures. Michelangelo introduced dramatic scenes and an original framing system, which was his earliest architectural design. The chief elements are twelve male and female prophets (the latter known as sibyls) and nine stories from Genesis.
Michelangelo stopped for some months halfway along. When he returned to the ceiling, his style underwent a shift toward a more forceful grandeur and a richer emotional tension than in any previous work. The images of the Separation of Light and Darkness, and Ezekiel illustrate this greater freedom and mobility.
After the ceiling was completed in 1512, Michelangelo returned to the tomb of Julius and carved a Moses and two Slaves. His models were the same physical types he used for the prophets and their attendants in the Sistine ceiling. Julius's death in 1513 halted the work on his tomb.
Pope Leo X, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, proposed a marble facade for the family parish church of San Lorenzo in Florence to be decorated with statues by Michelangelo. After four years of quarrying and designing the project was canceled.
Medici Chapel
In 1520 Michelangelo was commissioned to execute the Medici Chapel for two young Medici dukes. It contains two tombs, each with an image of the deceased and two allegorical (symbolic) figures: Day and Night on one tomb, and Morning and Evening on the other.
A library, the Biblioteca Laurenziana, was built at the same time on the opposite side of San Lorenzo to house Pope Leo X's books. The entrance hall and staircase are some of Michelangelo's most astonishing architecture, with recessed columns resting on scroll brackets set halfway up the wall and corners stretched open rather than sealed.
Poetry
Michelangelo wrote many poems in the 1530s and 1540s. Approximately three hundred survive. The earlier poems are on the theme of Neoplatonic love (belief that the soul comes from a single undivided source to which it can unite again) and are full of logical contradictions and intricate images. The later poems are Christian. Their mood is penitent (being sorrow and regretful); and they are written in a simple, direct style.
Last Judgment
In 1534 Michelangelo left Florence for the last time, settling in Rome. The next ten years were mainly given over to painting for Pope Paul III (1468?C1549).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
