MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI(1475~1564), almost certainly the most famous artist produced by Western civilization and arguably the greatest, is universally regarded as the supreme Renaissance artist. He created mon umental works of painting, sculpture, and architecture and left an additional legacy of numerous letters and poems. Through this vast and multifaceted body of artistic achievement, Michelangelo made an indelible imprint on the Western imagination. A member of an old and distinguished Florentine family,

Michelangelo was born near Arezzo, Italy, on Mar. 6, 1475, and he died on Feb. 18, 1564, in Rome--a record of longevity that was as unusual as his precocity as an artist. Michelangelo to the end of his life saw himself primarily as a sculptor, once avowing that he drank in with his wet-nurse's milk the love of the stonecutter's tools. Always a Florentine patriot, even after he had expanded his art into a universal language, he exemplified the character of his native city: a passionate, proud, and independent man, he saw art as a sacred calling through which the dignity of human beings should be enhanced and celebrated. His lifelong fascination with the sublime form of the human body arose from this thoroughly Florentine sensitivity to the inherent worth and nobility of individuals. Michelangelo's Florentine education hinged on three salient attitudes that dramatically shaped his own outlook. From the age of 13 he received a firm grounding in the traditional techniques and practices of painting and sculpture under the tutelage of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio and the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (c. 1420-91). While still in his adolescence, he was given equally extensive exposure to the art and thought of the ancient world as a privileged protege of Lorenzo de' Medici, in whose palace he encountered a celebrated collection of classical works of art and conversed with the leading humanist poets and philosophers of the day, notably Marsilio Ficino and Angelo Poliziano. Neoplatonism espoused by Poliziano and Ficino, Michelangelo found his belief in rationalistic humanism tempered by the fiery sermons of the Dominican monk Girolamo Savonarola, whose fundamentalist attacks on pagan culture and corrupt church practices struck a responsive chord in the deeply religious young artist. These early experiences gave Michelangelo a clear sense of the development of Tuscan art from Giotto de Bondone through Masaccio to Donatello, the relationship of that tradition to classical art and thought, and the need to come to grips with the seemingly paradoxical moral and aesthetic views of classical rationalism and Christian faith. His entire artistic output reflects a subtle and complex commingling of these disparate attitudes. A dichotomy is also reflected in his political views. Despite his close association with the Medici family, his independence of mind led him to harbor republican sentiments, which took active form in his defense of the Florentine Republic in 1530.

BIOGRAPHY

1475

6 March, birth of Michelangelo in Caprese, a village in the Apennine Mountains. He was the second son of Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarotti Simoni, p, a Tuscan administrator. Among the ancestors o- f this formerly noble family were moneychangers and soldiers, but no painters, unlike other artists of the period. His four brothers were: Lionardo (1473~1510), Buonarotto (1477~1528), Giovansimone (1479~1548) and Sigismondo (1481~1555). Michelangelo's uncle, Francesco, was a moneychanger. The artist described himself as being "of very noble lineage." He lost his mother, Francesca di Neri, at the age of six, an event that surely accounts for many of his characteristics. At the end of March 1475, he was entrusted to a wet-nurse married to a stonecutter in Settignano, near Florence, while the family returned to Florence.

1481

The family lived in the Via dei Bentaccordi, near the church of Santa Croce; Michelangelo received basic instruction at the school run by Francesco da Urbino.

1485

Michelangelo's father and uncle oppose the child's wish to become an artist, considering this profession unworthy of the family's social standing.

1488

Encouraged by his friend Francesco Granacci, Michelangelo became an apprentice in the Florentine workshop of the famous Ghirlandaio brothers, but stayed only a year. He learned how to draw after the great masters of the past (Giotto, masaccio) and from life.

1489

Thanks to Granacci, Michelangelo is accepted into Lorenzo de' Medici's "art academy." His master is Bertoldo di Giovannni, a student of the great Donatello. Lorenzo treats him like a son. He was able to study the art of classical Antiquity and frequent such Neoplatonic philosophers as Politian, Ficino, Beniveni and Pico della Mirandola. It was during this period that he decided to devote himself to sculpture. Angered by his constant teasing, one of his fellowstudents, the sculptor Torrigiani, struck him in the face and broke his nose, multilating him for the rest of his life.

1492

Upon Lorenzo's death, Michelangelo returned to his family. Although it was forbidden by the Church, he dissected cadavers, with the help of the prior of Santo Spirito, for whom he sculpted a wooden Crucifix (April 1492).

1494

Sensing the imminent fall of the Medici family, Michelangelo fled to
Bologna, where he was received by Gianfranco Aldrovandi. He executed several sculptures for the church of San Domenico, and read the vernacular classics: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio.

1495

Return to Florence.

1496

In late June Michelangelo was in Rome in search of patrons. He lived poorly in the hope of assisting his family. To achieve this he later invested money in land in the hospital of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. One of his acquaintances was Cardinal Riario, a cousin of the future Pope Julius II, and he worked for the wealthy banker Galli. He executed the Vatican p, originally intended for the tomb of the French cardinal de Lagraulas (1499). This was the beginning of a lifelong preoccupation with this subject.

1501

In the spring Michelangelo returned to Florence. On 16th August he was given the commission for a marble statue of David, and began working on a painting of the and Child for Agnolo Doni (The Doni Tondo), on a sculpture of the same subject (The Bruges Madonna) and on the Taddei Tondo. He was by then a well-known artist.

1503

The operai of Florence Cathedral built a workshop for him at the corner of Borgo Pini and the Via della Colonna.

1504

After much deliberation, a committee of thirty artists decided to install the David in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. Michelangelo began work on the cartoon for The Battle of Cascina to be painted opposite Leonardo da Vinci's fresco of the Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio. Neither work was completed.

1505

Michelangelo was in Rome to sign the contract for the tomb of Julius II, the beginning of a long sculptural fiasco for which he executed a number of statues. In the end a smplified version was executed by other artists. The original plan called for forty statues and many bas-reliefs.

1508

Buonarotti was entrusted by Pope Julius II with painting frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican (1508~1512). Raphael worked on the decoration of the Vatican stanze and was influenced by Michelangelo.

1512

The artist bought an estate near Florence.

1513

Michelangelo lived at the Macello dei Corvi (which no longer exists),
near the Trajan Forum. Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was elected to the papacy with the name Leo X (1513~1521). He gave Michelangelo the title of "Palatine Count," although he preferred the clear and harmonious visions of Raphael to the complex nudes of Buonarotti. He also entrusted the artist with designing a facade for San Lorenzo, a project that was never realized.

1516

Michelangelo stayed in the Apennines to quarry mable at Carrara and Petrasanta.

1518

He bought a house in Florence in the Via Mozza (today San Zanobi) and adjoining land for the purpose of restoring the family fortunes.

1519

Pope Leo X decided to build a library next to San Lorenzo and a funerary chapel for the Medici (the New Sacristy). The contract for the facade is cancelled and Michelangelo describes himself as a "poor, ignoble and crazy man." But he accepted the two new commissions.

1520

Death of Raphael Sanzio on 6th April. Michelangelo's supporters in Rome see no more obstacles to his path in the Eternal City.

1521

Death of Pope Leo X; the new pope, Hadrian VI (1522~1523) has no new projects for Michelangelo.

1523

Cardinal Giulio de' Medici elected pope under the name Clement VII. His pontificate lasts until 1534.

1527

The sack of Rome; Pope Clement VII held prisoner in the Castel Saint' Angelo, but managed to escape. Michelangelo remained in Florence.

1529

Buonarotti named governor of the fortifications of Florence, proclaimed a Republic since 1527.
On 21 September, he fled Florence, taking all possessions with him fearing they would be requisitioned for the war. He returned in November.

1530

Florence again in the hands of the Medici. The pontifical governor, Baccio Valori, ordered Michelangelo's assassination because of his political stance. He goes into hiding with the help of Figiovanni, the prior of San Lorenzo. In November work resumed on the Medici chapel in San Lorenzo.

1532

Michelangelo met the young Roman nobleman Tommaso Cavalieri, a humanist and scholar. Their intense "platonic" relationship induced Michelangelo to establish himself in Rome. Their friendship lasted until his death.

1534

Death of Michelangelo's father at the age of 91. Death of Pope Clement VII. The artist makes Rome his permanent residence.

1535

The new pope, Paul III (1534~1549), commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgment for the Sistine Chapel. The pope appoints him "Supreme Architect, Sculptor and Painter of the Apostolic Palace." The artist sixty years old and has health problems in spite of his well-ordered, spartan lifestyle.

1538

Meets Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara and widow of Francesco d'Avalos. Under her influence. Michelangelo adopted the doctrine of justification by faith alone that was close to certain Protestant ideas. He dedicated many religious poems to her and admired her with a melancholy fervour. This remarkable woman enhanced Michelangelo's faith, which grew over the years. His renewed religious beliefs are expressed in a fresco for the Pauline Chapel, The Conversion of Paul (1545).

1541

Inauguration of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel; astonishment and scandal over the nude figures.

1542

Julius II's tomb is still unfinished. Michelangelo says he spent his youth "chained to this tomb." He suffers further from the legal action of the pope's heirs.

1543

In a letter he asks his nephew Lionardo not to call him Michelangelo Simoni or sculptor any more but simply Michelangelo Buonarotti, for, he says, "that is how I am Known."

1546

The ailing Michelangelo is treated by Luigi del Riccio. In a letter he reproaches his nephew Lionardo for spending too much money, concluding: "You have all been living at my expense for the past forty years." In April, he promised the French king Francois I a marble sculpture, one in bronze, and a painting; no trace of these projects remains. In November, Pope Paul III ordered him to continue the construction of the new basilica of St. Peter interrupted by the death of Sangallo the Younger. In December, Michelangelo sent 2000 scudi to his nephew Lionardo to buy a house in Florence. He finished the facade and interior courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese and drew plans for the square at the Capitol. He complained of gallstones that keep him bedridden.

1550

Under Pope Julius III, Michelangelo devoted himself to various new projects.

1555

The Inquisition spreads under Paul IV Carafa and Michelangelo is denounced as a heretical "Lutheran." The offensive parts of the nudes in the Sistine Chapel are "clothed."

1559

Unlike his redecessor, Pope Pius IV (1559~1565) surrounded himself with a splendid court and was a patron of the arts while consolidating the anti-Lutheran CounterReformation. Michelangelo is entrusted with major architectural commissions: the construction of the Pia Gate (1561), the transformation of the Baths of Diocletian, and the design of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

1564

Weakened by fever, Michelangelo worked on the Rondanini p. He died in Rome on 18th February, in the presence of his closest friends. According to his wishes, his body was taken secretly to Florence where he is buried in a tomb built by Vasari in Santa Croce (1572).