Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, into an impoverished aristocratic family. In 1481, the future artist lost his mother, and 4 years later he was sent to school in Florence. No particular learning propensity was found. The young man preferred to communicate with artists and redraw church frescoes.
Creative way
When Michelangelo was 13 years old, his father came to terms with the fact that an artist was growing up in the family. Soon he became a student of D. Ghirlandaio. A year later, Michelangelo entered the school of the sculptor B. di Giovanni, which was patronized by Lorenzo di Medici himself.
Michelangelo had another gift - to find influential friends. He became friends with Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni. Over time, Giovanni became Pope Leo X. Michelangelo was also friends with Giulio Medici, who later became Pope Clement VII.
Flourishing and recognition
1494-1495 characterized by the flourishing of the great artist's work. He moved to Bologna, diligently working on sculptures for the Arch of St. Dominica. After six years, returning to Florence, he worked on commission. The sculpture “David” is considered to be his most significant work.
For many centuries it became the ideal of depicting the human body.
In 1505, Michelangelo, at the invitation of Pope Julius II, arrived in Rome. The pontiff ordered a tomb from the remnant.
From 1508 to 1512 Michelangelo was working on the Pope's second order. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which presented biblical history from the very creation of the world to the great flood. The Sistine Chapel includes over three hundred figures.
A short biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti speaks of him as a passionate and complex personality. Their relationship with Pope Julius II was uneasy. But in the end, he received a third order from the pontiff - to create his statue.
The most important role in the life of the great sculptor was played by his appointment as the chief architect of St. Peter's Cathedral. There he worked for free. The artist designed the gigantic dome of the cathedral, which was only completed after his death.
The end of the earthly journey
Michelangelo lived a long life. He died on February 18, 1564. Before leaving for another world, he dictated his will to a few witnesses. According to the dying man, he gave his soul into God's hands, his body to the earth, and all his property to his relatives.
By order of Pope Pius IV, Michelangelo was buried in Rome. A tomb was built for him in St. Peter's Cathedral. On February 20, 1564, the body of the great artist was temporarily placed in the Basilica of Santi Apostoli.
In March, Michelangelo was secretly transported to Florence and buried in the church of Santa Croce, near N. Machiavelli.
By the nature of his powerful talent, Michelangelo was more of a sculptor. But he was able to realize the most daring and daring ideas thanks to painting.
Other biography options
- Michelangelo was a devout man. But he also had ordinary human passions. When he finished work on the first "Pieta", it was displayed in St. Peter's Cathedral. For some reason, rumor has attributed the authorship to another sculptor, K. Solari. Outraged Michelangelo carved the following inscription on the belt of the Virgin: "This was done by the Florentine M. Buonarotti." Later, the great artist did not like to remember this episode. According to those who knew him closely, he was excruciatingly ashamed of his outburst of pride. He never signed his works again.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Litalian, 1475 - 1564) Drawings \ Graphics by MichelangeloMichelangelo Buonarroti is a great Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, thinker. One of the greatest masters of the Renaissance.
Undoubtedly, a genius makes a talented person an invincible combination of qualities - talent and hard work. These qualities were inherent in Michelangelo to the highest degree. Putting aside the brushes and paints, he never parted with a sanguine (reddish crayon) and an Italian pencil until the end of his life.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Study of a head, the Marchioness of Pescara, c.1525-8,
black chalk on paper,
British Museum, London.In the creative activity of Michelangelo, drawing was given a special place: according to some testimonies, Michelangelo considered it "the only art of which all other arts are a part and from which they flow." an independent genre.
Michelangelo,
Count of Canossa (Study for Warrior's Head), 1550-1580Michelangelo buonarroti
"Zenobia" \ Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, c.1520-25,
charcoal on paper,
Uffizi, Florence, Italy.The image of the legendary Queen of Palmyra, defeated in competition with Rome, attracted the attention of many Renaissance artists. A highly educated freedom-loving beauty, she was fluent in Greek, Latin and Ancient Greek. The cultural circle she organized was attended by Greek writers and philosophers. Michelangelo expressed his admiration for the beautiful image of the "Queen of the Desert" in the gift drawing "Zenobia".
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Head of Cleopatra, c.1533-4,
black chalk on paper,
Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy.Sometimes the purpose of his gift drawings was completely unusual - as teaching aids. Among them is the drawing "Cleopatra", according to which Michelangelo's friend Tommaso Cavalieri learned to draw.
Michelangelo buonarroti
Head of Cleopatra, c.1533-4 (detail)
Michelangelo Buonarroti.
"Pieta" tudy for a Pieta, c.1540,
black chalk on paper, Isabella
Stewart Gardener Museum, Boston, MA, USA.Michelangelo was a deeply religious Catholic. Throughout his life, his work was closely associated with the Church. Gradually, the artist developed his own idea of Christianity, as evidenced by some of his drawings. Friendship with the poet Vittoria Colonna, who was interested in religious issues, sharpened his religious feelings. In the 1540s, a series of religious drawings appeared, many of which were dedicated to Vittoria.
Madonna and child
1522-25
Black and red chalk, pen and brown ink on brownish paper, 541 x 396 mm
Casa Buonarroti, FlorenceMichelangelo buonarroti
c. 1532
Black chalk, 317 x 210 mm
Royal Collection, WindsorMichelangelo was an excellent draftsman. His skill was so high that it became the benchmark for many generations of artists. Interested primarily in shape and volume, he often preferred to depict details (torsos, arms, heads) and chose the most complex angles and gestures to convey the struggle between matter and spirit. To create the plastic bulge of the shapes, along with the outline, Michelangelo used cross-hatching.
Michelangelo buonarroti
Estudios para la Sibila de Libia 1511-1512
~ Metropolitan Museum of Art ~ New YorkHead of a Woman (recto)
1540-43
Black chalk, 212 x 142 mm
Royal Collection, WindsorMichelangelo buonarroti
"Perfect head"
Study of an ideal head, p. 1516, r
ed chalk on paper,
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK.Study of an Inclined Head
1529-30
Red chalk, 355 x 270 mm
Casa Buonarroti, FlorenceAn engraving from a lost painting by Michelangelo.
1530, 30x40 cm.
British museum.
16th century copy of a lost painting by Michelangelo Leda and the Swan, 1530.
Madonna and Child with the Infant St John (recto)
1529-30
Red chalk, 290 x 204 mm
Muse du Louvre, ParisThe Holy Family with the Infant St John (verso)
1529-30
Red chalk, 290 x 204 mm
Muse du Louvre, Paris
The High Renaissance, or Cinquecento, which gave humanity such great masters as Donato Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Giorgione, Titian, covers a relatively short period - from the end of the 15th to the end of the second decade of the 16th century.
Fundamental shifts associated with decisive events in world history, the success of advanced scientific thought, infinitely expanded people's ideas about the world - not only about the earth, but also about the Cosmos. The perception of people and the human personality seemed to be enlarged; in artistic creation this was reflected in the majestic scale of architectural structures, monuments, solemn fresco cycles and paintings, but also in their content, expressiveness of images.
The Art of the High Renaissance is characterized through such concepts as synthesis, result. He is characterized by sophisticated maturity, concentration on the general and the main; the pictorial language became generalized and restrained. The Art of the High Renaissance is a lively and complex artistic process with dazzling ups and downs and the ensuing crisis - the Late Renaissance.
In the second half of the sixteenth century. in Italy, the decline of the economy and trade was growing, Catholicism entered into a struggle with humanistic culture, the culture was going through a deep crisis, disillusionment with the ideas of the Renaissance. Under the influence of external circumstances, there was an understanding of the frailty of everything human, the limitations of its capabilities.
The heyday of the High Renaissance and the transition to the Late can be traced to one human life - the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was a sculptor, architect, painter and poet, but most of all a sculptor. He placed sculpture above all other arts and was in this the antagonist of Leonardo. Sculpting is carving by chipping and trimming a stone; With his mind's eye the sculptor sees the desired shape in a block of stone and "cuts" into it deep into the stone, cutting off that which is not an image. This is hard work, not to mention the great physical exertion, it requires from the sculptor the infallibility of the hand: the wrongly chipped off can no longer be put back on, and special vigilance of inner vision. This is how Michelangelo worked. As a preliminary stage, he made drawings and sketches from wax, roughly outlining the image, and then entered into single combat with the marble block. Michelangelo saw the intimate poetry of the sculptor's work in the "release" of the image from the stone block hiding it.
Released from the "shell", his statues keep their stony nature; they are always distinguished by the monolithic volume: Michelangelo Buonarroti's statement is famous that a statue that can be rolled down a mountain is good, and not a single part will break off from it. Therefore, almost nowhere do his statues have freely retracted arms, separated from the body.
Another distinctive feature of Michelangelo's statues is their titanic character, which later passed on to human figures in painting. The bumps of their muscles are exaggerated, the neck is thickened, similar to a mighty trunk that carries the head, the roundness of the hips is heavy and massive, the lumpiness of the figure is emphasized. These are titans, whom the hard stone has endowed with its properties.
Also, Buonarroti is characterized by a growing sense of tragic contradiction, which is also noticeable in his sculpture. The movements of the "titans" are strong, passionate, but at the same time, as it were, constrained.
Michelangelo's favorite technique is the counterpost ("Discobolus" by Miron), which comes from the early classics, reformed into the serpentinato (from Latin snake) technique: screwing the figure into a spring around itself through a sharp turn of the upper torso. But Michelangelo's counterpost is not like the light, undulating movement of Greek statues, rather it resembles a Gothic bend, if not for the mighty corporeality.
Although the Italian Renaissance was a revival of antiquity, we will not find there a direct copy of antiquity. The new spoke with antiquity on an equal footing, like a master with a master. The first impulse was an admiring imitation, the end result - an unprecedented synthesis. Starting with an attempt to revive antiquity, the Renaissance creates something completely different.
Mannerists will also use serpentinata, serpentine turns of figures, but outside of Michelangelo's humanistic pathos, these turns are nothing more than pretentiousness.
Another ancient technique often used by Michelangelo is chiasm, a mobile balance ("Dorifor" by Polycletus), which received a new name: ponderatio - weighing, poise. It consists in the proportional distribution of the strength of the forces along the two crossing diagonals of the figure. For example, the hand with the object corresponds to the opposite supporting leg, and the relaxed leg corresponds to the free hand.
Speaking about the development of sculpture of the High Renaissance, his most important achievement can be called the final emancipation of sculpture from architecture: the statue no longer envies the architectural cell.
Pieta
"Pieta", St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
One of the most famous works of Michelangelo Buonarroti is the sculptural composition Pieta (Lamentation of Christ) (from the Italian pieta - mercy). It was completed in 1498–1501. for the chapel of St. Peter's in Rome and refers to the first Roman period of Michelangelo's work.
The very plot of the image of Mary with the body of the dead Son in her arms came from the northern countries and by that time was widespread in Italy. It originates from the German iconographic tradition Versperbilder ("the image of the supper"), which existed in the form of small wooden church images. Mary's mourning for her Son is an extremely important moment for Catholicism. By her immense suffering (for the suffering of a mother who sees the torment of her son is immeasurable) she is exalted and exalted. Therefore, Catholicism is characterized by the cult of the Mother of God, who acts as the Intercessor of people before God.
Maria is portrayed by Michelangelo as a very young girl, too young for such an adult son. She seems to have no age at all, is out of time. This emphasizes the eternal significance of mourning and suffering. The grief of the mother is light and sublime, only in the gesture of the left hand, mental suffering spills out.
The body of Christ lies lifeless in the hands of the Mother. This sculpture is not at all similar to those of Michelangelo. There is no titanism, strength, muscularity: the body of Christ is depicted as thin, weak, almost muscular, it lacks that stone and massiveness. The unfinished movement of the counterpost was also not used; on the contrary, the composition is full of static, but this static is not one about which one can say that there is no life, no thought in it. It seems that Mary will sit like this forever, and her eternal "static" suffering is more impressive than any dynamics.
Michelangelo expressed deeply human, full of heroic pathos ideals of the High Renaissance, as well as a tragic sense of the crisis of the humanistic world outlook during the Late Renaissance.
Comprehending
Buonarroti's conflicts with the popes, speaking on the side of the beleaguered pope and king of Florence, death and exile of friends and associates, failure with many architectural and sculptural ideas - all this undermined his worldview, faith in people and their capabilities, and contributed to an eschatological mood. Michelangelo felt the decline of a great era. Even in his worship of human beauty, great delight is coupled with fear, with the consciousness of the end, which must inexorably follow the embodiment of the ideal.
In sculpture, this manifested itself in the technique of non finita - incompleteness. It manifests itself in the unfinished stone processing and serves the effect of the inexplicable plasticity of the figure, which has not completely emerged from the stone. This technique by Michelangelo can be interpreted in different ways, and it is unlikely that one of their explanations will become final; rather, all explanations are right, since in their plurality they reflect the versatility of the use of the technique.
On the one hand, the person in the sculpture of late Michelangelo (and hence of the Late Renaissance) seeks to break free from stone, from matter, to become complete; this means his desire to break free from the bonds of his corporeality, human imperfection, sinfulness. We remember that the problem of the impossibility of leaving the framework established for man by nature was central to the crisis of the Renaissance.
On the other hand, the incompleteness of sculpture is the recognition of the author in his inability to fully express his idea. Any completed work loses the original ideality of the concept, idea, therefore it is better not to complete the creation, but only to outline the direction of the aspiration. This problem is not limited to the problem of creativity: transforming, it goes from Plato and Aristotle (from the world of ideas and the world of things, where matter “spoils” ideas), through the crisis of the Renaissance, through Schelling and the romantics to the symbolists and decadents of the late 19th century. The non finita technique gives the effect of a creative impulse, brief, incomplete, but strong and expressive; if the viewer picks up this impulse, he will understand what the figure should become after incarnation.
When they say that Michelangelo is a genius, they not only express a judgment about his art, but also give him a historical assessment. Genius, in the minds of people of the sixteenth century, was a kind of supernatural force affecting the human soul, in the romantic era this force will be called "inspiration."
Divine inspiration requires solitude and contemplation. In the history of art, Michelangelo is the first loner artist, leading an almost continuous struggle with the world around him, in which he feels himself alien and unsettled.
On Monday, March 6, 1475, in the small town of Caprese, a male child was born to the podesta (governor) of Chiusi and Caprese. In the family books of the old Buonarroti family in Florence, there is a detailed record of this event of a happy father, sealed by his signature - di Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarroti Simoni.
The father sent his son to the school of Francesco da Urbino in Florence. The boy had to learn to inflect and conjugate Latin words from this first compiler of Latin grammar. The boy was extremely inquisitive by nature, but Latin depressed him. The teaching went from bad to worse. The distressed father attributed this to laziness and negligence, not believing, of course, in the calling of his son. He dreamed for him of a brilliant career, dreamed of seeing his son someday in higher civilian positions.
But, in the end, the father resigned himself to the artistic inclinations of his son and one day, taking a pen, wrote: “One thousand four hundred and eighty-eight, April 1 day, I, Lodovico, the son of Lionardo di Buonarroti, place my son Michelangelo to Domenico and David Ghirlandaio for three years from now on the following conditions: what Michelangelo said remains with his teachers for these three years as a student to practice painting, and must, in addition, do everything that his masters order him; in reward for his services, Domenico and David pay him 24 florins: six in the first year, eight in the second, and ten in the third; only 86 livres ".
He did not stay long in the workshop of Ghirlandaio, for he wanted to become a sculptor, and became an apprentice to Bertoldo, a follower of Donatello, who directed the art school in the Medici gardens in Piazza San Marco. Biographers say that he was engaged in drawing from old engravings there, as well as copying, having achieved tremendous success in this.
The young artist was immediately noticed by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who provided him with patronage and introduced him to his Neoplatonic circle of philosophers and writers. Already in 1490, they began to talk about the exceptional talent of the still very young Michelangelo Buonarroti. In 1494, with the approach of the troops of Charles VIII, he left Florence, returned to it in 1495. At twenty-one, Michelangelo went to Rome, and then returned to his hometown in 1501.
Unfortunately, there is little information about Michelangelo's early paintings. The only painting he completed and survived is the Holy Family tondo. There is no exact documentary data about the time of creation of this tondo (tondo is an easel painting or sculptural work that has a round shape).
The composition of the picture is dominated by the figure of the Madonna. She is young and beautiful, calm and majestic. Michelangelo did not find it necessary to tell in more detail what caused her complex movement. But it is precisely by this movement that the Madonna, Joseph and the baby are linked into one whole. This is not an ordinary happy family. There is no trace of intimacy here. This is a dignified “holy family”.
V In 1504, the Florentine Signoria commissioned two frescoes from renowned artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to decorate the walls of the Grand Council Hall in Palazzo Vecchio. Leonardo made cardboard with the image of the Battle of Anghiari, and Michelangelo - the Battle of Cachin.
Unlike Leonardo, Michelangelo wanted to depict in the picture not a battle, but bathing soldiers who, hearing an alarm, rush to get out of the water. Eighteen figures were painted by the artist, all of them in motion.
In 1506, both cartons were on display. However, the frescoes were never painted. Cardboard "Battle of Cashin", appreciated by contemporaries more than any other works of Michelangelo, died: it was cut into pieces and sold in different hands, until its last pieces disappeared without a trace. Vasari, who saw some of its parts, says that "it was rather a creation divine than human", and the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, who had the opportunity to study both cartoons - and Michelangelo and Leonardo - testifies that they were "a school for the whole world."
Vasari notes that Michelangelo used different techniques in his cardboard, trying to show off his perfect mastery of drawing: “There were still many figures, united in groups and sketched in different ways: the outlines of some were outlined with charcoal, others were drawn with strokes, others were filled with shading and colors they are laid with chalk, since he (that is, Michelangelo) wanted to show all his skill in this matter. "
In 1505, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo. He decided to create a worthy tomb for himself during his lifetime. For more than thirty years, countless complications associated with this tomb have constituted the tragedy of Michelangelo's life. The project was repeatedly changed and completely reworked, until a completely exhausted artist, busy in his declining years with other orders, agreed to a reduced version of the tomb installed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli.
Michelangelo reluctantly agreed with the commission given to him in 1508 by Julius II to paint the vault of the Sistine Chapel. According to the original plan, only twelve apostles and the most common ornamental decorations were supposed to be depicted in the corresponding lunettes on the plafond.
“But having already begun work,” wrote Michelangelo, “I saw that it would look poor, and I told the Pope that it would be poor with the apostles alone. Dad asked why? I answered: because they themselves were poor people. Then he agreed and told me to act as I know ... "
IN AND. Surikov wrote to P.P. Chistyakov: “Prophets, sibyls, evangelists and scenes of St. the writings poured out so completely, they are not hushed up anywhere, and the proportions of the paintings to the entire mass of the ceiling are maintained incomparably. "
“Initially, Michelangelo wanted to paint the vault with small compositions, almost decoratively, but then he abandoned this idea. He creates his own painted architecture on the vault: powerful pillars seem to support the cornice and arches, "thrown" across the space of the chapel. All the spaces between these pillars and arches are filled with images of human figures. This "architecture" depicted by Michelangelo organizes the painting, separating one composition from another.
A person entering the chapel immediately sees the entire cycle of murals: before he begins to examine individual figures and scenes, he gets the first general idea of frescoes and how the master tells the history of the world ...
The entire history of the world, extremely tragically and personally read, appears before us in the murals of the Sistine Chapel. On these grandiose frescoes, Michelangelo seems to create a world similar to his great soul - a gigantic, complex world, full of deep feelings and experiences ”(I. Tuchkov).
Those who saw both before and now the Sistine Shade were and will be shocked. There is a mass of evidence of this, one of them by Bernard Bernson, the greatest contemporary art critic: "Michelangelo ... created such an image of a person who can subjugate the earth, and who knows, maybe more than the earth." “As a truly great work of art, this painting is infinitely wide and varied in terms of its ideological concept, so that people of the most diverse mindset ... experience a blessed thrill when contemplating it ... Giant waves of human life, of our entire destiny, seem to roll on this ceiling shaft after shaft ... "(L. Lyubimov).
The creation of this painting was painful and difficult for the artist. Michelangelo has to build the scaffolding himself, work lying on his back. Condivi says that while painting the Sistine Chapel, “Michelangelo taught his eyes to look up at the vault so that later, when the work was finished and he began to keep his head straight, he saw almost nothing; when he had to read letters and papers, he had to hold them high above his head. Little by little, he again began to get used to reading looking down in front of him. "
Michelangelo himself conveys his condition in the forests as follows:
Harpy chest; skull to spite me
Climbed to the hump; and a beard on end;
And from the brush to the face, a burda flows,
Placing me in brocade like a coffin ...
The election of Leo X from the Medici family by the pope in 1513 helped to renew the artist's connection with his hometown. In 1516, the new pope commissioned him to design the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo, built by Brunelleschi. This was the first architectural order. Michelangelo spends a long time in the quarries, selecting marble for the upcoming work. He began work on the chapel, but in 1520 Pope Leo X annulled the contract for the construction of the façade of San Lorenzo. The artist's four-year labors were destroyed by the stroke of the pen.
In 1524 Michelangelo began building the Laurenziana library. The fall of the Florentine Republic marked the most troubling period in Michelangelo's life. Despite his firm republican convictions, Michelangelo could not stand the alarm before the upcoming events: he fled to Ferrara and Venice (1529), wanted to take refuge in France. Florence declared him a rebel and deserter, but then forgave him and invited him to return. Hiding and experiencing tremendous torment, he witnessed the fall of his native city and only later timidly turned to the pope, who in 1534 instructed him to complete the painting of the Sistine Chapel.
The artist left Florence for good, which became the capital of the Duchy of Tuscany, and moved to Rome. A year later, Pope Paul III appoints him "a painter, sculptor and architect of the Vatican", and in 1536 Michelangelo began painting the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. He creates his most famous work - the painting "The Last Judgment". He worked on this fresco for six years, all alone.
“The theme of the judgment over the world was close to the old Michelangelo. On earth he saw grief and injustice; and now, in this work of his, he administers judgment over humanity.
In the center of the composition, the saints surround the young and formidable Christ. They crowd around his throne, presenting evidence of their suffering. They demand, they demand, and do not ask, a fair trial. In fright, Mary clings to her son, and Christ, rising from the throne, as if removes people advancing on him. No, this is not a kind and forgiving god, it is, in the words of Michelangelo himself, "the blade of judgment and the weight of anger." Obeying his gesture, the dead rise from the depths of the earth to appear before the court. With an iron inevitability, they rise upward, some of them enter heaven, and some are thrown into hell. Maddened with terror, sinners fall. And below Charon is waiting for them to ferry into the arms of Minos. Starting at the bottom left, the round dance of human bodies, having completed a circle, closes at the bottom right on the threshold of hell.
"The Last Judgment" is conceived as grandly as possible, as the last moment before the disappearance of the Universe in chaos, as the dream of the gods before their sunset ... ”(Bernson).
Paul III visited the chapel every now and then. One day he went there with Biagio da Cesena, his master of ceremonies.
- How do you like these figures? - Dad asked him.
“I apologize to your Holiness, but these naked bodies seem to me just blasphemous and unsuitable for a holy temple.
Dad said nothing. But when the visitors left, Michelangelo, seething with indignation, took a brush and painted the devil Minos, giving him a portrait resemblance to the papal master of ceremonies. Hearing about this, Biagio ran to the Pope with a complaint. To which he replied: "Biagio, my dear, if Michelangelo had placed you in purgatory, I would have made every effort to rescue you from there, but since he has defined you in hell, my intervention is useless, there I no longer have power."
And Minos, with the feisty face of the master of ceremonies, remains in the picture to this day.
During the Catholic reaction, Michelangelo's fresco with an abundance of beautiful and strong naked bodies seemed something blasphemous, especially when you consider its placement behind the altar. A little time will pass, and Pope Paul IV will order to record the nakedness of individual characters with draperies. The draperies were made by the artist's friend Daniele da Volterra. Perhaps by this he saved the great fresco from destruction by the leaders of the Catholic reaction.
After graduating from The Last Judgment, Michelangelo reached the pinnacle of fame among his contemporaries. He forgot to bare his head in front of dad, and dad, in his own words, did not notice this. Dads and kings sat him next to them.
From 1542 to 1550, Michelangelo created his last paintings - two frescoes of the Paolina Chapel in the Vatican. As E. Rotenberg writes: “Both frescoes are multi-figured compositions with the central character depicted at a decisive moment in his life, surrounded by witnesses of this event. Much here looks unusual for Michelangelo. Although the frescoes themselves are quite large (each measuring 6.2x6.61 meters), they are no longer endowed with the extraordinary scale that was previously an integral part of Michelangelo's images. The concentration of the action is very peculiarly combined with the dispersion of the characters, who form separate episodes and isolated motives within the compositions. But this diffuseness is opposed by a single emotional tone, expressed very tangibly and constituting, in fact, the basis of the impact of these works on the viewer - the tone of oppressive, fettering tragedy, inextricably linked with their ideological concept. "
In recent years, Michelangelo has been working on the design of the central plan of the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, sketching the plan for the Sforza Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, building Porta Pia, and giving a prospectively monumental look to the Capitol Square.
In life, Michelangelo did not know tender affection and sympathy, and this, in turn, was reflected in his character. "Art is jealous," he says, "and requires the whole person." "I have a spouse, to whom everything belongs, and my children are my works." A woman who understood Michelangelo should have had a great mind and innate tact.
He met such a woman - Vittoria Colonna, the granddaughter of the Duke of Urban and the widow of the famous military leader, the Marquis of Pescaro, but too late: he was then already sixty years old. Vittoria was interested in science, philosophy, issues of religion, was a famous poetess of the Renaissance.
Until her death, 10 years old, they constantly communicated, exchanged poems. Her death was a heavy loss for Michelangelo.
The friendship of Vittoria Colonna softened the heavy losses for him - first the loss of his father, then the brothers, of whom only Lionard remained, with whom Michelangelo maintained a cordial relationship until his death. In all actions and words, always homogeneous, consistent, clear, in Michelangelo is seen a strict thinker and a man of honor and justice, as well as in his works.
Dying, Michelangelo left a short will, as in life, he did not like verbosity. “I give my soul to God, my body to the earth, my property to my relatives,” he dictated to his friends.
Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. His body was buried in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.
The peculiarity of the "creator of the Vatican" was that he participated in the creation of his sculptural masterpieces at all stages, from the selection of a marble block and its transportation to the workshop. The master did not trust anyone, even the simplest transportation and loading works. It was as if he had already seen his work in a huge block and already treated it as a repository of a future masterpiece.
Among the early works of the sculptor, only a few have been reliably attributed to him. Among them is the figure of "Bacchus". The god of wine and fun is depicted as peacefully drunk. The satyr accompanying the hero chuckles softly behind the back of the riotous deity. In the work one can feel a certain timidity of the author, not too good knowledge of anatomy, convention of proportions. Despite obvious formal errors, the young man managed to create a harmonious image, very plastic and impressive.
The next work of the great master also belongs to his early masterpieces, however, it is considered a work of art that ends the Early Renaissance period and ushers in the magnificent High Renaissance era. It is about the composition "Pieta", located in. The dead body of the son of Jesus is held in her arms by the Virgin Mary. A young, fragile woman grieves bitterly. Her face exudes endless sadness and grief. The sculpture is striking in the precision of its details. The folds of Maria's clothes cannot but arouse admiration for the delicate and scrupulous work of the author. It is known that the impression made by the composition is so strong that people with an unstable psyche have attempted it several times. The last incident took place in the early 70s, when the madman Laszlo Toth threw himself on a statue with a hammer, imagining himself to be Christ himself, having risen from the dead. Since then, the sculpture has been protected by a special transparent dome.
It has become a symbol of the entire Renaissance. In this work, the master glorified the beauty of the human spirit and body. The harmony inherent in this sculpture is striking. The author was barely 26 years old when he received an order for "David". The result already at that time made a vivid impression not only on the Florentines, but also on the colleagues of the master.
The statue of the prophet Moses, intended for one of the papal tombstones of the Vatican Cathedral, is one of the most beloved works of the sculptor himself. It is known that the author constantly returned to it and completed it for 30 years. The figure of the prophet has a secret, in order to fully understand the author's idea, you need to see the figure from all sides. In this case, the viewer feels a certain tension and energy emanating from the inside of the sculpture.
The great Buonarroti created several works that bear clear signs of incompleteness. Moreover, the author deliberately left these works unfinished in order to enhance the impression. This is the sculpture "Madonna de Medici", which is considered the most beautiful image of the Mother of God. The incompleteness of the work creates the feeling that you are present at the time of the miraculous appearance of the sculpture from a marble block.
Michelangelo did not like to create sculptures that have a portrait resemblance to anyone else. Even the tombstones ordered to him, he created, enveloped in inspiration. The most famous of all his sculptural tombstones is the monument to Lorenzo Medici. By idealizing the image of the deceased duke, the master creates a contemplative image of a wise man, esthete and patron of the arts.
Michelangelo's works adorn the best cathedrals,. Art critics constantly "find" all the new works of the sculptor, who never considered it necessary to sign his works (he signed only one). To date, it is known about 57 sculptures by Michelangelo, of which about 10 are irretrievably lost.