Michelangelo. Eugene Muntz

Spirito, Florence

      From there it spread throughout Europe. The powerful creativity, expressiveness and intensity of Michelangelo’s works beautifully illustrate the humanist conception of the world. To best understand the artist, we must begin with a look at his life.

      Battle of the Centaurs

      1490–1492

      Marble, 80.5 × 88 cm

      Casa Buonarroti, Florence

      Childhood

      The close of the 15th century marked the start of a new era. Decades of plague, war and famine had thrown Europe into a period of radical change. Mindsets were changing. Medieval values were rejected as people with a deep need for social change looked to their flourishing economies and a range of new technologies.

      Angel Holding a Candelabra

      1495

      Marble, h: 51.5 cm

      Church of San Domenico, Bologna

      Lorenzo de Medici, François I and other great Europeans maintained that the arts were as important as war. Moreover, the printing press made culture more accessible to greater numbers of people. It was in these revolutionary times that a minor civil servant from the petty nobility of Florence was appointed local governor (podestà) of the diocese of Arezzo.

      St Proculus

      1495

      Marble, h: 58.5 cm (with base)

      Church of San Domenico, Bologna

      His name was Lodovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni and he settled in the town of Caprese. His second child, Michelangelo, was born on Sunday, March 6, 1475. After two terms as local governor, he moved the family back to their homestead in Settignano just outside Florence.

      The Virgin and Child with St John and Angels (The Manchester Madonna)

      c. 1495–1497

      Egg tempera on wood, 104.5 × 77 cm

      The National Gallery, London

      When his wife died in 1492, he was left with five children to raise alone. Michelangelo was only six at the time. Left motherless, he became a tight-lipped, insolent and stubborn child.

      Bacchus

      1496–1497

      Marble, h: 203 cm

      Museo del Bargello, Florence

      Packed off to board with a stonecutter’s family, he soon channelled his frustration into extracting stone from the nearby quarry alongside his foster family’s own children. Alongside them, Michelangelo learned the tools and skills that he would later apply to his masterpieces.

      Pietà

      1498–1499

      Marble, h: 174 cm

      St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican

      “If there’s anything good in me”, he told his friend Giorgio Vasari one day, “it comes from being born in the subtle atmosphere of our Arezzo countryside, and, from my wet nurse’s milk, I drew forth the hammer and chisel I use to make my statues”, according to Robert Coughlan.

      Nude Woman Kneeling

      1500–1501

      Study for the Entombment

      Musée du Louvre, Paris

      Later in life, Michelangelo would see this experience as the true source of his art. Michelangelo was to travel a path that diverged sharply from that of his brothers, who went into the silk business. He stood out because of his fine intelligence and sensitivity.

      Sketch for a David with Catapult

      1501

      Musée du Louvre, Paris

      His father sent him to study under Francesco d’Urbino, a top grammarian who opened Michelangelo’s eyes to the beauties of Renaissance art. But Michelangelo was always more inclined toward drawing than classical studies, and he quickly made friends with an older co-student, Francesco Granacci, who was also a student of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio.

      David

      1501–1504

      Marble, h: 410 cm

      Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence

      Struck by Michelangelo’s ambition and drive, Granacci persuaded him to take up art too and even helped convince his father, who thought “manual labour” was unbecoming to the son of a Florentine civil servant.

      Study for the Statue of David

      c. 1501–1502

      Drawn with quill, with annotated manuscript by Michelangelo

      Musée du Louvre, Paris

      Michelangelo stood his ground and his father eventually relented, exploiting a distant kinship to the Medici to enroll him in Ghirlandaio’s workshop (bottega) as an “apprentice or valet”.

      Study of a Figure in Movement Inspired from Apollo from the Belvedere

      1503–1504

      British Museum, London

      Though he seethed at the thought of being anyone’s valet, he kept silent. In any event, Michelangelo joined Ghirlandaio’s workshop at the age of 13 on April 1, 1488. It was his first formal step toward becoming the greatest painter the Renaissance ever produced.

      Madonna and Child

      1503–1506

      Marble, h: 120.9 cm

      Notre Dame, Bruges

      The Medici Factor

      Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop catered strictly to affluent Florentines. He had a flair for frescos and his paintings are among the earliest to show a Renaissance influence. He worked on the Sistine Chapel alongside Botticelli, Rosselli and Pinturicchio under the direction of Perugi and served as personal decorator to Lorenzo de Medici.

      The Holy Family (Tondo Doni)

      c. 1504

      Circular wooden panel painted with tempera (watered down), diameter: 120 cm

      Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

      In drawing and painting classes at the workshop, Michelangelo’s talent soon set him apart from his Peers. On his own initiative, he did a colour version of a work of Schoen’s. Ghirlandaio soon realized he had a genius on his hands and made